JBL is a WWE Hall of Famer with credentials that include a long WWE Championship reign and a great deal of tag team success paired with Ron Simmons as The APA. He was a big man who could be known to work stiff and was known for his gift for gab.
Related: Eddie Guerrero Vs JBL: The Story Behind One Of The Most Violent WWE Matches EverHowever, in 2008, something unlikely occurred when the former world champ got punched out by an unlikely figure. It wasn’t a fellow heavyweight, or even a fellow wrestler at all who got the better of JBL, but rather play-by-play man Joey Styles who’d made his name in ECW and worked for WWE at the time.
JBL’s Reputation As A Backstage Bully
JBL’s imposing size and big, booming voice made him a natural heel. Indeed, once WWE let him show his personality more in his rebranded Texas millionaire persona in 2004, it turned out to be a legacy-redefining move. He went from being a career tag team and mid-card wrestler to getting thrust into world title contention. In a perfect storm of factors, Eddie Guerrero asked to have the WWE Championship taken off him and JBL was in the right place at the right time to take up the mantle reign from summer 2004 up to WrestleMania 21.
The same factors that made JBL such a compelling heel—and, indeed, that seem to have contributed to WWE bringing him back recently as a manager and mouthpiece for Baron Corbin—bespoke how poorly he carried himself backstage and sometimes even in front of the camera on occasion. Bradshaw infamously took liberties with Public Enemy, The Dudley Boyz, and The Blue Meanie at different points on air and developed a reputation as a locker room bully.
Ric Flair spoke to the matter on a recent edition of his podcast, To Be The Man (h/t Wrestling News). The Nature Boy said, “wrestling is a fraternity. It should be a brotherhood, respect for everybody, and there’s no time for anybody to cause anybody personal embarrassment or hardship in this business.” He went on to discuss how JBL’s picking on talented caused some of his colleagues to “melt down and cry. They were so humiliated.” Flair went on to clarify that JBL had never given him a hard time personally, perhaps out of respect for The Dirtiest Player in the Game, and perhaps because he knew Flair wouldn’t have taken it.
The Incident Between Joey Styles And JBL
In 2008, JBL returned to the ring after his first stint at the broadcast table. As reported by The Bleacher Report at the time, when WWE traveled to Iraq, the former world champion spent much of the trip pestering non-wrestling talent. His antics included dumping a bucket of ice on ring announcer Lillian Garcia, as well as persistently picking on Joey Styles. Though Styles is best remembered as a play-by-play announcer, at that point he’d moved off-screen, to a role as Director of Digital Media Content.
Accounts vary as to whether it was the volume of JBL’s bullying or a specific comment that pushed Styles over the edge. Regardless, the consensus was that the big Texan, who was drinking at the time, said too much, and finally the much smaller Styles threw a punch. Reporting is inconsistent on whether Styles knocked out JBL, but it did seem clear he gave JBL a black eye and shut him up from the rest of the trip.
The Aftermath Of Joey Styles Punching Out JBL
There wasn’t a great deal of obvious fallout from the altercation between Joey Styles and JBL. Neither side was formally punished, and in commenting on the incident on his Something to Wrestle podcast, Bruce Prichard suggested that, though he was not there, he thought the exchange was actually more friendly than outside sources reported to be. Prichard recalled JBL punching him personally, and him punching JBL more than once, and that that kind of physicality is simply a part of life behind scenes in pro wrestling. He suggested that even if there were hard feelings in the moment, both parties moved on amicably.
Related: 10 Surprising Things We've Learned On The Bruce Prichard PodcastStyles remained a part of the WWE organization until 2016, including recording content for WWE’s ECW Unreleased video series, whereas JBL has been in and out of different roles, right up to the present day. Neither man appeared to have the course of his life or career much altered by this incident, despite what a life of its own the punch has taken among wrestling fans.
In the end, wrestling fans may well latch on to the story of Joey Styles punching out JBL because of just how unlikely it seems and all the more so the David vs. Goliath subtext of a much smaller non-wrestler asserting himself effectively against a backstage bully. While it’s no surprise JBL wouldn’t be too eager to discuss this story publicly, it’s interesting that Styles hasn’t either. The degree to which he has stayed quiet seems to support Bruce Prichard’s premise that they aren’t among those wrestling talents with long-standing heat, but rather that their issue wasn’t actually all that serious, or at least lasting.
