John Bradshaw Layfield discusses John Cena switching the WWE Championship belt in 2005 over to the Spinner WWE Championship design.
When John Cena defeated JBL at WWE WrestleMania 21, it didn't take him long to make the WWE Championship belt his own, by creating the iconic Spinner WWE Championship design. At the time, the belt was replacing the Undisputed WWE Championship design that was created in 2002 for Triple H and held by the likes of Hulk Hogan, The Rock, The Undertaker, Brock Lesnar, and more.
JBL held that particular championship belt the longest during his run, which began in 2004 at the WWE Great American Bash and ended in 2005 at WrestleMania. During a recent AMA episode of Something to Wrestle, Bradshaw discussed how he felt about John Cena changing the design of the WWE Championship. During the discussion, he also revealed that he believes he is in possession of the official championship belt that he carried during his time as the longest-reigning WWE Champion in SmackDown history up to that point.
"I had no problem with it, storyline-wise. Of course, my character had massive problems with it, being the traditional guy now, the good thing about it is, as you can see up here, I've got the original title up there. I actually think that actually may be the title. I'm not sure. I think I ended up with it. I'm not sure they know I have it. So, they do now. They might ask for it back.
"I had no problem with it. Everything changes, and Cena was so popular and he was going to a different crowd. We're trying to get out of the Attitude Era and go into this G-rated era. I thought it was perfectly fine. I thought it was great. I had no issue with it. Now, my character obviously had huge issues with it, because JBL is JBL."
The Spinner WWE Championship belt design would be the official championship belt for nearly a decade until The Rock introduced the first form of the present-day WWE Championship in 2013 after he defeated CM Punk for the title at the WWE Royal Rumble.
John Bradshaw Layfield also recently discussed who he would like to see John Cena face in his last match. Read more here.
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