Pro wrestling, at its core, is built on storytelling. Yes, we know, it's not real; we get it. The allure comes from seeking to find the depths of what you're actually looking at. There's a lot more happening then just two guys staging a choreographed exhibition.
The best of them tell their stories in the ring with amazing matches that further the program or angle they're involved in at any given time. But the most compelling stories in pro wrestling will always involve taking a peek behind the curtain. There's a reason "shoot" interviews are so popular. When the entire structure of the business is built upon a series of fabrications and half-truths, it's easy to get sucked into what's real and what isn't.
That's all just a puffed up way to lead into John Bradshaw Layfield taking to his Facebook page today to tell an entertaining tale of his adventure at SummerSlam 2004.
I'll let him take it from here.
I was fortunate to be at Summerslam in 2004 against the Undertaker for the WWE Championship which I held at the time. Undertaker, the ULTIMATE professional, offered to put me over clean-1, 2, 3 right in the middle. I disagreed.
I felt that if I won anything that I would start to lose my ability to be a heel, people would see that I could win matches and some would start to cheer for me. This is why I never had any merch of my own-I never wanted anyone to buy something and other fans see that I had fans. I had a shirt come out once and quickly had it killed.
BTW, this is also why I always kept up KayFabe everywhere-airports, bars, hotels, etc. I always played the heel. When I broke in you had to do that, and that was left over from my early days-nowadays that seems stupid, but when I started we all played our role 24/7 and I still had that in me when I was with WWE. The thinking being-if someone sees you and you are nice (though a nasty heel on TV), then they won't boo you as loud as if they really believed you were a heel in real life.
I objected to winning and came up with the idea to be chokeslammed through my own limo, after the match. Vince and Undertaker agreed once they realized why I didn't want to win anything, but rather cheat and get DQ'd repeatedly to win and, hopefully, keep the heat I had.
Here's where the fun starts. A limo was built with a crash pad and breakaway roof for me. However, at the building were two limos.
To read the rest (it's worth it), be sure to hit up JBL's Facebook page.