WWE Hall Of Famer JBL has discussed the kindness shown to him by Vader before the two men tussled in Vader’s final WWE pay-per-view match.
Vader came to the then-World Wrestling Federation off the back of a stellar career in WCW and in Japan where he had won the WCW World Championship and the IWGP Heavyweight Championship three times apiece.
Vader’s stay in WWE didn’t reach those same heady heights and by the autumn of 1998 The Mastodon was winding down his time with the company. In his final pay-per-view match, Vader wrestled Bradshaw with the Texan coming out on top.
Speaking on the After The Bell podcast, John ‘Bradshaw’ Layfield discussed the conversation he had with Vader before the match and the kindness that the 2022 WWE Hall Of Famer showed him:
“To tell you how much respect I have for Vader, his last PPV he asked to work with me. He loved Ron, he loved APA, he rode with me some, he liked me, he kind of considered me to be an understudy, or whatever it was. He told me that day, he goes, ‘I asked to work with you. Today you’re going to get the old Vader, today I am going to come out smoking.’”
“He was as stiff as he possibly could be. He told me, ‘when you beat somebody today, you’re going to beat somebody important. I am going to have you beat the old Vader. I am going to have you kick out of my finish. That’s the last thing people are going to see, you’re going to kick out of my finish, and hit me with yours and go over.’ He did that for me on the way out, and that was really cool of Leon to do that.”
That Falls Count Anywhere match between Vader and JBL took place at In Your House: Breakdown in September 1998. This was the event headlined by Kane and The Undertaker both pinning Stone Cold Steve Austin to cause chaos in the WWE Championship picture that was ultimately resolved with the Deadly Game tournament at Survivor Series 1998.