JBL’s Legend Born Out Of Eddie’s Blood

There are years in professional wrestling when you know a company is in transition. You may later reflect back and realize that things weren’t the same as they were five years before, for better or worse.

In 2004, WWE was beginning to show that it wasn’t so much about star power as much as it was about the work in the ring and stealing the show every night. Almost gone was the idea that the company’s box office draw had to be the champion. Now the workhorse, the most dedicated performer, was world champion. This was the case on both Raw and SmackDown in May 2004, with Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero as their respective brands’ titleholders. While there was a fresh crop of talent within the company ready to take their spot, there was still untapped potential in some of the veterans.

One of which, if given the opportunity, could become the “longest reigning champion in SmackDown history.”

In March of 2004, just shortly after WrestleMania XX, Ron Simmons (Faarooq) would be released from WWE, citing that he was ready to step away from the ring and retire. The Acolyte Protection Agency (APA) was dead, but the question remained about where this left Simmons’ tag team partner Bradshaw. Well, in short time, he would morph from the beer-drinking brawler into a money market tycoon. John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL), for the most part, was a racist, arrogant asshole (maybe JBL should run for office). His first act of business was to rid WWE of its immigration problem by targeting WWE Champion Eddie Guerrero.

Latino Heat was living off the high of life, turning back the challenge of Kurt Angle at WrestleMania XX after defeating Brock Lesnar at No Way Out to win the WWE Championship. As time drew near for the SmackDown-exclusive pay-per-view Judgment Day, Eddie needed a new challenger to step up. WWE’s talent pool had taken a hit since WrestleMania with the departures of Goldberg (contract expired) and Brock Lesnar (NFL), coupled with injuries to both Kurt Angle and Big Show. The SmackDown talent pool wasn’t large to automatically pick a new #1 contender, but a recent draft brought over Booker T, the Dudleyz and Rob Van Dam to beef things up again. Already established stars like a rising John Cena and returning Undertaker were still there, but you can’t have your top babyfaces fighting each other, unless it’s a major PPV payoff. The only option was to find a new challenger and create an intense storyline that the fans would get emotionally invested in.

Thus, JBL and Guerrero began an emotionally charged storyline that was very polarizing by today’s standards and would likely not be found in today’s PG Era of WWE. JBL unveiled video of him beating up a bunch of masked men, portrayed to be illegal Mexican immigrants at the border, yelling for them to get out of “his country.” Because of these actions, Acting General Manager Kurt Angle would name JBL the first and only recipient of the “Kurt Angle Real American Award.” He was also named the #1 contender to Guerrero’s title. JBL would lead a celebration the following week to brag about his win, but there was one problem, he was dealing with someone who lived by the moniker of “lie, cheat and steal.” Eddie would steal Bradshaw’s trophy and destroy it. JBL had to respond – sadly, however, real life would interfere and a tragic incident would occur.

During a house show on Mother’s Day, Eddie invited his family into the ring. Held in his hometown of El Paso, Texas, it was only natural for his wife Vickie, his three children and his mother to be in the crowd. Eddie presented flowers to both his wife and mother, which was interrupted by JBL. Eddie would rush his family out of the ring, only to turn around into a Clothesline from Hell. Bradshaw would turn his attention to Eddie’s mother, talking down to her before putting his hands upon her shoulder. Eddie’s mother immediately clutched her chest and fell to the mat as a shocked JBL looked on. Eddie’s mother suffered a heart attack, in storyline as well as in real life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebsv4T08830

On a recent episode of Something To Wrestle With, Bruce Prichard would reveal that Eddie was not too keen on the idea of the angle. His mother would get herself so worked up over her involvement that she really did suffer a minor heart attack. She was to act like she was having one, but once the EMTs hit the ring, they quickly realized it was legitimate. Mother Guerrero would be hospitalized for a few days, but by the time of Judgment Day the following Sunday, she would be at home resting comfortably.

The following week on SmackDown, the footage from the house show would be played while Bradshaw gave a statement, via satellite for his safety, claiming that Eddie “has to take responsibility for what happened.” Furthermore, he stated that he didn’t care about his mother and “if she dies, she dies.” At this point, JBL was becoming the most hated character in the company. The WWE Champion, who was reportedly not at the show that night, appeared during a Dudley Boyz match, viciously attacking them and the referee with a steel chair. The build for this was something that nobody expected, but much credit to WWE for putting together a very personal feud to build to a championship match that wasn’t even on the books two months prior. Doing it with an unproven main event wrestler was impressive as well.

On May 16, 2004, from the site of the following year’s WrestleMania 21 – The Staples Center in Los Angeles – WWE presented Judgment Day. The show would begin with a Sunday Night Heat preview show that featured Mark Jindrak defeating Funaki. I always felt that Jindrak was a lost asset to the company and that WWE creative dropped the ball on giving him a chance. Just look up anything online that involves “Mark Jindrak, Evolution” in your search engine and let me know.

The main card would start with a good tag team match between The Dudley Boyz and RVD and Rey Mysterio. “Mr. Pay-Per-View” and the “Master of the 619” would win, continuing their ascent to the top of the tag team division. The show would hit a severe dull period with matches like Torrie Wilson defeating Dawn Marie, a debuting Mordecai (Kevin Thorn) winning over Scotty 2 Hotty, Charlie Haas and Rico retaining the Tag Team Titles against Billy Gunn and Hardcore Holly and Chavo Guerrero regaining the Cruiserweight Championship from Jacqueline (no, you don’t need to put your glasses on…I did just write that).

The show would pick up again with two rising stars clashing in a decent match for the United States Championship as Rene Dupree challenged John Cena. Keep in mind that we are still 10 months away from Cena winning his first WWE Championship. Rene was brought over to SmackDown in the draft with hopes of a singles career. He had the look and the character, but it didn’t seem to work for most fans and Rene wasn’t around too much longer after this. Cena would retain, but his best opponent during his United States Title reign would come much later in the year. Speaking of Booker T…

The co-main event of the show would see The Undertaker, back to his Deadman gimmick with Paul Bearer, defeat Booker T in an interesting match to say the least. Booker would come over from Raw and claim to be the biggest superstar on SmackDown, challenging anyone to say otherwise. When Undertaker stepped up, Booker realized that no matter what you do to a Deadman, he would always come back for more. (Something most of us are realizing about PCO today.) Booker would seek help from a voodoo palm reader, who advised him to put together a potion that can be found from the dirt of a grave from the man with no name. (Damn Pritchard and Heyman writing.) Booker would actually throw the dirt in Undertaker’s eyes during the match, but Undertaker would no sell it and still kick Booker’s ass.

It is time for the main event.

To begin, the show for this is rated TV-MA because of what happens during the main event. If you are squeamish or just not comfortable with the sight of another man’s blood, I’d recommend skipping this one. Trust me, there’s a lot of blood here.

JBL would defeat Guerrero by DQ, allowing Eddie to retain the title in a bloody, violent match. JBL proved that he belonged in the main event with his performance. The big Texan would battle Guerrero for over 20 minutes and the bout never lost steam. It would begin early with several fists flying like you would expect from someone whose mother was just given a heart attack by the man standing 10 feet away from him. There are also a lot of hard hits and stiff shots like you would expect from a Bradshaw match.

If you go to watch this on WWE Network, the match begins at the timestamp 1:58:48. The following bits of this match can be found at about 2:23:00. With the referee knocked out after a collision with Eddie, “Latino Heat” threw JBL over the announce table. Eddie approached Bradshaw, only to be met with one of the loudest chair shots you’ll ever hear. Eddie had bladed himself under the table, but according to Pritchard, Eddie hit an artery in his head when cutting himself and the blood began to squirt out.

“The ring looks like an art canvas, except that not’s paint…that’s blood,” said Michael Cole during the closing moments of the match. Eddie would continue for another 15 minutes. With every JBL near fall, the crowd would only get louder, anticipating that Eddie would pull out a miracle. The champ would show just how much of a man he was this night, but in reality the match should had been stopped and Eddie should have been taken to the nearest hospital.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=hmGxDakJZUY

The finish would finally come when Eddie would hit JBL with the WWE Championship in front of the referee. Eddie didn’t care that the bell rand and would eventually get even with Bradshaw by giving him a chair shot of his own that would cut JBL open as well. The show would go off the air with JBL victorious, but certainly not looking like a winner, being helped to the locker room while a bloody Guerrero would stand in the ring with the title over head, eventually collapsing in the ring as the show faded to black.

In the aftermath of the show, Pritchard told the story that Vince McMahon was shaken backstage, but was also extremely furious about what had happened and how out of hand it got. In a DVD extra, Eddie would be shown lying down on a table refusing to go to the hospital, as trainers told him that he risks going into shock due to excessive blood loss. Bruce would say that it took a long talk from him and a ride to the hospital with Chavo for Eddie to finally agree to go to the hospital that night.

It’s very easy to forget that the men and women in the ring performing for our entertainment are just like us – flesh, blood and bone. They are presented as superheroes and villains, but those same villains are the nicest people around to meet and those superheroes sometimes have their own demons that they fight on a regular basis. On this night, I was entertained by, yet scared for Eddie Guerrero. He would live to fight another day, but he wouldn’t be so lucky just over a year later. Judgment Day 2004 reminds us of what he contributed to the business and how much love he had entertaining us.

Thank you, Eddie!