For years, John Layfield was longtime WWE champion “JBL.” Now he’s a respected financial expert, Wall Street investor and nutritional innovator. In this interview, the big Texan tells us how he’s mastered multiple careers.
Whether in the WWE ring as “JBL” or working the stock market on Wall Street, John Layfield is money.
If self-invention is an art, then John Layfield is an American Picasso. Born in Sweetwater, Texas, home of the yearly Rattlesnake Roundup, Layfield was an All-American football star at Abilene Christian University and played briefly in the NFL with the Los Angeles Raiders before finding a home in the World Wrestling Entertainment. In the WWE, the 6’6” Layfield became the boisterous Hank Bradshaw, a beer-drinking mountain man who branded his opponents after vanquishing them. He later settled into a persona known as “John Bradshaw Layfield,” or JBL for short. JBL was fashioned after J.R. Ewing, the fictional oil-industry executive from the “Dallas” television show. As JBL, Layfield went on to become one of the WWE’s top stars, battling everybody from John Cena to Vince McMahon himself, while earning the distinction as the WWE’s longest-reigning world champion on “Smackdown.” Later, Layfield found himself behind the microphone as a WWE commentator and general mischief-maker at big events before retiring from the WWE earlier this year.
Out of the ring, Layfield reinvented himself as a Wall Street financial expert, taking a job at an investment firm in Manhattan and becoming a fixture on cable TV business programs. His book, “Have More Money Now: A Common Sense Approach to Financial Management,” became a bestseller, and he hosts a popular radio program on Webtalkradio.net, where he shares his fiscal and political views. On February 12, 2005, Layfield married Fox News financial analyst Meredith Whitney. Whitney was named one of the “100 most influential people in the world” by Time magazine earlier this year, an honor her husband is both proud of and humbled by. Now, his main business concern is Layfield Energy, the supplement nutrition company that he founded.
We recently caught up with Layfield, who was looking fit and energized as he spoke about his time in the WWE, and his real-world battles with bear markets and one actual live brown bear.
“It was kind of like Jed Clampett comes to town,” says Layfield of his Wall Street debut. “I’m proud of who I am, where I worked and the WWE.”
M&B: How does it feel to be retired from the WWE?
JL: I wrestled too long. My body told me I should have quit maybe year ago. I was glad that I got out before most of the fans realized that I was past my prime.
M&B: How grueling is it in the WWE?
JL: It’s the equivalent of pro football except that you don’t have an off-season. It’s a lot of wear and tear on the body. It was 300 days a year on the road, and I did it for years and years.
M&B: How did you stay fit?
JL: It’s just a matter of being accustomed to being beat up. Anytime you get an injury, you just go to work. You’re always working around something.
M&B: Is it true you wrestled a bear?
JL: Absolutely. Wrestled a bear in college in Abilene, Texas.
M&B: And what brought that on? Did the bear look at you funny?
JL: [Laughs] Well, the bear was coming to town, and a bunch of guys had talked to me and goaded me into it. I finally said, “Yes, I’ll wrestle the bear,” and I honestly forgot about it. They signed me up and had it booked, me against the brown bear. It almost killed me. The thing went ballistic: they had to pull me out from under it; they had to hit it over the head with a rod; the trainer was shaking. It was like something out of “National Geographic.” I wish I had a video of it. It was an absolute mauling.
M&B: How big was the bear?
JL: It was 8 1/2 feet tall and 800 lb. I was expecting a bear that was 300 lb, and I was at about 300 lb myself, so that didn’t bother me. Then I saw the pictures and realized that I was getting into the ring with a zoo animal.
M&B: How did you come up with your WWE character?
JL: It was based off of J.R. Ewing of “Dallas,” the legendary fictional oilman. I grew up watching that show and idolizing those characters. I wanted to turn that J.R. Ewing, who was such a great bad guy, into a stock market J.R. Ewing.
M&B: How did you become interested in finance?
JL: When I was Bradshaw with the long goatee drinking beer, that was me, that was what I did. And the JBL character was me to a degree also. I moved to New York, I got my hair cut, and I did wear suits all the time because I wanted to work on Wall Street. So that character is pretty much based on my life.
M&B: So how did a nice boy from Texas end up on Wall Street.
JL: My daddy was the CEO of a community bank for many years, so I always idolized guys who were in finance and always wanted to be a part of that. I had the opportunity when I first got hurt in wrestling and had to take two years off and just be a commentator. That’s when I had the time to go to work as an investment banker on Wall Street, and I really enjoyed it.
M&B: Were you able to use the “clothesline from hell” move on Wall Street?
JL: [Laughs] I would have liked to. It was kind of like Jed Clampett comes to town. I think they took the fact that I was this big tall wrestler and this Southern guy wearing cowboy boots and figured that I was probably pretty ignorant. So I had low expectations, which are pretty easy to exceed.
M&B: How did being new to Wall Street work out?
JL: I loved every minute of it. I’d much rather go in there with diminished expectations than have people be overprepared for me. I wouldn’t change one single thing about all that. I’m proud of who I am, where I worked and the WWE.
M&B: When you were at your most athletic, you were heavier. What kind of training did you do to put on weight?
JL: Real heavy training. I grew up playing football, so most of the training I did was real heavy compound training — squats, power cleans, anything with a straight bar was pretty much how football players trained, and that’s how I started. As heavy as possible for 4 reps, sometimes even getting down to as low as 2 reps. Working out pretty consistently, eating a ton of protein. I could carry the weight better back then. I’m 42 now, so I really don’t need to be carrying that much weight.
M&B: What was your weight then, and now?
JL: I ballooned up pretty fast after I broke my back, to about 330 lb, and I’ve just gotten down to about 240, so I’ve lost about 90 lb. I feel pretty good at that. Sometimes I miss the big arms, but I don’t miss the big belly.
M&B: How did you break your back?
JL: Broke it in a match in London, England, on live TV. It happened in
the ring — a vertebrae snapped right in half. I got a jolt of electricity through my whole body, fingers and toes, and for a while I couldn’t move. I wondered if I’d been paralyzed, and then it slowly came back to me. I’ve had a lot of problems with it since, but nothing on a paralysis level, so I was pretty lucky.
M&B: How did you lose the weight?
JL: I just started being consistent. So every morning, I’d go do a little cardio, work out with weights a little, and over a period of a year, that’s how I lost the weight. I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. I just went to the gym three to five days a week, quit eating late at night and changed my diet a little bit, but not dramatically. I changed my lifestyle.
M&B: How have your supplements helped?
JL: When I hurt my back and ballooned up in weight, I wasn’t able to work out, wasn’t able to do much of anything I wanted to do. I was trying to play golf in California with some guys who were taking an energy shot with a bunch of Advil, and I thought it would be neat to combine the two. So that’s what I did. The product I developed, Energy Plus, has helped me out a lot, and it allowed me to work out, because once you get
rid of the pain and inflammation,
it also gives you energy.
M&B: What advice would you give to people who want to get into better shape?
JL: Don’t overdo it. Be consistent. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. A lot of people say, “I’m going to lose 30 lb by the end of the month.” There’s no sense in doing that. You want to be healthy and you want to have a long life, but you don’t want to crash diet. If it took you 15 years to get out of shape, you’re not going to get into shape in 15 days. What I preach to people is consistency: Establish a consistent pattern where it becomes part of your lifestyle.
M&B: Both your book and your radio show on Webtalkradio.net really help educate others on money matters. Does that make you the Suze Orman of “good old boys”?
JL: Absolutely.
“I ballooned up to about 330 lb. I’ve lost about 90 lb. I feel pretty good. Sometimes I miss the big arms, but I don’t miss the big belly.”
