JBL has recalled a young Brock Lesnar offering to lose to him in his home state of Texas as he knew he had friends in the audience.
Shortly after WrestleMania 18 John Layfield, known as Bradshaw, embarked on a run as a singles star on Raw after being split from tag team partner Faarooq in the first ever WWE Draft. Meanwhile, a young Brock Lesnar had debuted on the red brand flanked by Paul Heyman in destructive fashion on March 18th attacking Spike Dudley, Maven and Spike Dudley.
With both men appearing on the same brand, they also featured on the same house shows.
Before embarking on a wrestling career in 1992, Bradshaw had played football for Abilene Christian University in Texas. This meant that whenever WWE rolled into the town, JBL was treated like a returning hero.
Speaking on a special YouTube Q&A, JBL revealed that ahead of a house show in the city, Brock Lesnar offered to lose to him as he knew his friends would be attending the show. Despite his protestations, Bradshaw wound up winning the match. It was a particularly notable win as it was Lesnar’s first defeat since being called up to the main roster, while he wouldn’t lose again either on house shows, or television for a number of months.
“I was working with Brock in Abilene and I said, ‘Hey, Brock, I wanna talk to you,’ and he goes, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, your college buddies are here. I’m gonna put you over.’ I said, ‘Brock, they don’t care who goes over. I couldn’t care less. You win, I win, it doesn’t matter.’ I said, ‘We’re going to a place afterwards,’ and so that’s what I was telling him,”
Recalling being in the ring with Lesnar, Layfield explained what it was like to be on the receiving end of one of The Beast’s legendary suplexes. JBL detailed how some Superstars were hesitant about suplexing tall opponents as there was an increased risk they would land on their head. Not that Lesnar was too worried.
“Brock caught me, throws me into a suplex,” JBL recalled. “And I asked him before, I said, ‘Brock, are you sure you wanna do this?’ Not strength-wise, it’s just the logistics of throwing a guy really tall. And Brock said, ‘I’ve been suplexing people since I was five years old.’ I said, ‘Alright.’”
While JBL has long since retired, Brock Lesnar currently has his sights set on Universal Champion Roman Reigns. The pair are set to meet at Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia with Reigns’ title on the line. The bout will be Lesnar’s first since being defeated by Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 36.
No matter the result it has been reported that the rivalry between Lesar and Reigns will last well beyond October 21st. It has been suggested that all roads could lead to a huge rematch between the pair at WrestleMania 38.
H/t to Sportskeeda for the transcription.