WWE Hall Of Famer JBL Recalls Wrestling 850-Pound Bear: 'Just Freaking Annihilated Me'
John Bradshaw Layfield has wrestled many unique opponents in his career, but the former WWE Champion says his toughest opponent wasn't human. It was a bear.
"I wrestled a bear in college," Layfield said on "Something To Wrestle." Layfield tangled with the bear before he'd ever entered the wrestling business. "I had gone out with [my roommates]...Had a few drinks, came back in and got busted [by] the athletic director, who I mean hated me. I can't tell you how much that man disliked me...He busted me and so I'm in trouble."
His college "threw the book" at the young football player. Layfield found himself doing "Bull In The Ring" football drills and talking tough to the Freshman players. The WWE Hall of Famer said, without thinking, that he could wrestle a bear. Some of the students took Layfield at his word and signed him up to wrestle a bear at a bar across town.
"Thank god it wasn't brown bear mating season," JBL chuckled. Layfield noted that the bear's lack of front teeth likely saved his life. "I've got a scar on my hand...the bear had bit my hand. Blood's coming down. It was a disaster. That bear annihilated me. It was like National Geographic...The bear was wrestling as hard as I was. I get $1500 if I can get this bear on it's back and to a college kid that's the equivalent $4 billion."
Layfield says that he realized that the bear was mirroring his energy, so he slowed down and calmed down, making the bear easier to deal with.
"Now it's kinda like dancing...I grabbed him and I threw him and I got him on his side but I didn't get him on his back," JBL said, which angered the bear. "That bear exploded...It knocked me across the dance floor...This bear's beating me to death and it throws me under the table...this is like something out of a zoo [or] 'When animals attack.' This damn bear just freaking annihilated me."
The display outraged his athletic director, who was given photographic evidence of Layfield's antics.