Is John Bradshaw Layfield's 280 day reign the worst long-term reign for a world champion ever?

Furious George

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Yes there's much worse, David Arquette springs to mind but never has there ever been a reign as bad as this that was a serious reign.

Bradshaw has never ever put a single ass in a seat. He can't work worth shit and he's awful on the mic. I remember right around this time as soon as his music played or they put a mic infront of him I took the opportunity to go drop the kids off at the pool.

Critics will point to him being booed as him being a "killer heel" but to be honest, I think most were just booing because they were watching the same exact boring match yet again. I'm rewatching 04 at the moment on The Network and every single match he's in involves Orlando Jordan screwing somebody for the finish. I'm familiar with the Heel cheating to win but every single match Orlando has to get involved multiple times and JBL looks like complete shit, practically did the job to Josh Matthews interference at Survivor Series 04.

Did they literally just have no idea who else to put the belt on? Did the fault lie with the fact Trips didn't want to work Tuesdays?
 
I wasn't watching WWE back then.
 
Took a break during that era and more specific the 04-09 years, but from what I've caught up on over time (WWE Network), Batista's invincibility was far more annoying to watch every PPV.
 
The JBL/Eddie Guerrero feud was a pretty solid feud.
 
Him or Jinder Mahal
Jinder's is worse. At least the Clothesline from Hell was a great finisher and JBL could brawl like a hoss.
Jinder is boring in the ring and has an even worse finisher.
 
Avoided WWE during that time period.
 
280 days is long term now?
Fuckin kids ruin everything
 
HHH was pretty awful as well. Had the title for an absurd amount of time from late 2002 to late 2003. Lost it against Goldberg just to win it back a few months later.
 
HHH was pretty awful as well. Had the title for an absurd amount of time from late 2002 to late 2003. Lost it against Goldberg just to win it back a few months later.

Booked everyone to look weak against him, terrible
 
Does it count as a world title since it was on Smackdown at the time?
 
The JBL/Eddie Guerrero feud was a pretty solid feud.

Which has to be put down to Eddie being one of the best workers ever. Also keep in mind Eddie had a 133 day reign. JBL's was 280 days, when he was FAR LESS WORTHY of a title run and ended at The Eddie feud didn't last long either, with the bulk of it being before he won the world title. By SummerSlam he was onto a program with 'taker and Eddie came back for a fatal four way match at Armageddon but that was about it. His reign went on until Wrestlemania 21.

I didn't even remember the Armageddon four way angle so I looked it up. Dude also did something with Heidenreich and Booker T which I had no recollection of. That's how bad his run was.
 
I can only remember his feud with Cena. I was a kid then and tbh JBL would get me heated lol. He was such a cunt. So I guess he was at least entertaining? At least maybe to the kids or dumber people of the audience lol idk.
 
Which has to be put down to Eddie being one of the best workers ever. Also keep in mind Eddie had a 133 day reign. JBL's was 280 days, when he was FAR LESS WORTHY of a title run and ended at The Eddie feud didn't last long either, with the bulk of it being before he won the world title. By SummerSlam he was onto a program with 'taker and Eddie came back for a fatal four way match at Armageddon but that was about it. His reign went on until Wrestlemania 21.

I didn't even remember the Armageddon four way angle so I looked it up. Dude also did something with Heidenreich and Booker T which I had no recollection of. That's how bad his run was.

Your Eddie carrying JBL point is a fair one imo. If it were up to me I would never let a legitimate talent job for a 250 pound amateur. If the big guy's want to catch up with the likes of Ric Flair or Shawn Michaels then first catch up with the likes of the Undertaker.
 
JBL had the perfect heel look for the bush era. Getting flabby made him somehow more detestable. I was ready for both him and HHH to disappear by the time Cena/Batista got their runs though. It seemed like scraping the bottom of the barrel of the attitude era, even if both guys were better performers than I gave them credit for.
 
Yes there's much worse, David Arquette springs to mind but never has there ever been a reign as bad as this that was a serious reign.

Bradshaw has never ever put a single ass in a seat. He can't work worth shit and he's awful on the mic. I remember right around this time as soon as his music played or they put a mic infront of him I took the opportunity to go drop the kids off at the pool.

Critics will point to him being booed as him being a "killer heel" but to be honest, I think most were just booing because they were watching the same exact boring match yet again. I'm rewatching 04 at the moment on The Network and every single match he's in involves Orlando Jordan screwing somebody for the finish. I'm familiar with the Heel cheating to win but every single match Orlando has to get involved multiple times and JBL looks like complete shit, practically did the job to Josh Matthews interference at Survivor Series 04.

Did they literally just have no idea who else to put the belt on? Did the fault lie with the fact Trips didn't want to work Tuesdays?

It's sort of interesting that JBL and Triple H were long(ish) term champions around the same time. WWF/WWE typically has a face hold the title long-term, beating off heel challengers, as opposed to the long-term heel champion for a face to chase. But around that time both shows had the heel champion. I think, to an extent, both worked as Batista and Cena were both pretty darn over when they won their respective titles, weren't they? I wasn't watching as much at that time, but I remember Batista getting over huge during his initial face run. And Cena as majorly over at that time too, right? Certainly moreso than a year later when heel Trips got cheered over him.

As far as whether it was the worst long-term reign ever, I guess that depends on your definition of "long-term." Sgt. Slaughter's reign as an Iraqi sympathizer was dog shit, but it was only a couple months.
 
I loved the Guerrero matches and feud. For the most part I liked jbl as a character and on the mic. But a lot of his matches were dog shit unfortunately
 
Yes there's much worse, David Arquette springs to mind but never has there ever been a reign as bad as this that was a serious reign.

Bradshaw has never ever put a single ass in a seat. He can't work worth shit and he's awful on the mic. I remember right around this time as soon as his music played or they put a mic infront of him I took the opportunity to go drop the kids off at the pool.

Critics will point to him being booed as him being a "killer heel" but to be honest, I think most were just booing because they were watching the same exact boring match yet again. I'm rewatching 04 at the moment on The Network and every single match he's in involves Orlando Jordan screwing somebody for the finish. I'm familiar with the Heel cheating to win but every single match Orlando has to get involved multiple times and JBL looks like complete shit, practically did the job to Josh Matthews interference at Survivor Series 04.

Did they literally just have no idea who else to put the belt on? Did the fault lie with the fact Trips didn't want to work Tuesdays?

Jinder Mahal.
 
Jbl was one of the best champions in the last 15 years in my books. I would have been a lot happier with him getting a couple of more reigns instead of Edge and Orton getting a million short forgettable ones.

As much as I'd like to say styles. It's Del Rio or Seamus in my opinion.
 

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