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John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL) says Vader asked to face him in his last pay-per-view match before leaving WWE in 1998.
Vader, who passed away in 2018, was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame last week. His final WWE pay-per-view match came at Breakdown: In Your House when he lost a Falls Count Anywhere encounter against Layfield, then known as Bradshaw.
Speaking on Corey Graves’ After The Bell podcast, Layfield revealed that Vader requested that they face each other:
“His last pay-per-view, he asked to work with me," said Layfield. "He loved Ron [Simmons], he loved APA, he rode with me some. He always liked me, he kind of considered me an understudy or whatever it was. He told me that day, he said, ‘I asked to work with you.’ He said, ‘Today you’re gonna get the old Vader. I’m gonna come out smoking.’”
Vader is widely regarded as one of the greatest big men in wrestling history. Weighing in at more than 400 pounds, the former WWE Superstar used to perform athletic moves such as the moonsault.
Why Vader allowed JBL to kick out of his finisher
The finish to the match saw JBL kick out of the Vader Bomb – a middle-rope reverse splash – before hitting his opponent with the Clothesline From Hell. After Vader kicked out, the former APA member followed up with another Clothesline From Hell and a modified neckbreaker to pick up the win.
Reflecting on the match, Layfield said Vader came up with the idea for him to kick out of the Vader Bomb:
“He was as stiff as you can possibly [imagine]! He said, ‘When you beat somebody today, you’re gonna beat somebody important. I’m gonna have you beat the old Vader. I’m gonna have you kick out of my finish.’ He said, ‘That’s the last thing people will see: you’re gonna kick out of my finish, you’re gonna hit me with yours, and you go over,'" Layfield recalled.
Although Vader left WWE in 1998, his final match for the company came in 2012 when he defeated Heath Slater on RAW. The one-off match took place in the build-up to the 1,000th episode of WWE’s flagship show.
Please credit After The Bell and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.
