A drastic character change saw a regular WWE Tag Team competitor propelled into the main event scene. As a former multi-time WWE Tag Team Champion as one half of the APA, Bradshaw split from his partner and transformed himself into John Bradshaw Layfield, a character more in tune with himself outside of the ring.

As a self-made millionaire through the stock market, Bradshaw's new character was just that, a millionaire. Coming to the ring in a stretched limo with bull horns, Bradshaw set his sights straight away on Eddie Guerrero and his WWE Championship. Segments included stopping immigrants on the U.S and Mexico border, calling Guerrero's ancestors illegal immigrants and causing Guerrero's grandmother to suffer a heart attack. The JBL-Guerrero feud became very personal, very quickly and at Judgment Day 2004, JBL defeated Guerrero by disqualification in a match that turned into a wild brawl. Guerrero lost loads of blood due to a chair shot from JBL which stained the ring canvas red.

Their rematch transpired a month later at The Great American Bash in a Texas Bullrope Match where JBL defeated Eddie Guerrero to become the new WWE Champion. JBL also defeated Guerrero one more time in their rematch thanks to Kurt Angle causing interference in a Steel Cage Match on SmackDown. With JBL at the top of SmackDown as the new champion, The Undertaker made a challenge to the new champion to defend his championship against him at Summerslam.

On the road to Summerslam, JBL began to build his Cabinet. Orlando Jordan made his return to WWE television to assist JBL in his attack against The Undertaker, which led to JBL announcing Orlando Jordan as his Chief of Staff. Before the biggest show of the summer, Jordan faced The Undertaker in the main event of SmackDown where the deadman won by disqualification after JBL got involved. At Summerslam, JBL retained the WWE Championship by disqualification after his Chief of Staff interfered. An irate Undertaker delivered a chokeslam to JBL through the roof of the limo.

In the weeks afterwards, JBL, accompanied by Jordan moaned and called for action against The Undertaker for his actions at Summerslam. Wearing a neck brace, JBL announced that he couldn’t defend the WWE Championship. SmackDown General Manager made Orlando Jordan face The Undertaker instead and that the cabinet member would be defending the WWE Championship on behalf of JBL. Bradshaw once again got involved and attacked The Undertaker leaving Teddy Long to announce that at No Mercy, JBL would defend the WWE Championship against The Undertaker in a Last Rites Match.

No Mercy saw JBL get destroyed by the Undertaker throughout the duration of match, with JBL receiving a chockslam through the announce table and a Tombstone on the steel steps. The self-made millionaire retained his WWE Championship thanks in part to interference from Jon Heidenreich at the last moment in their Last Rites Match. 

On SmackDown, Booker T pinned JBL in a 6-man tag and with the win, declared himself deserving of a WWE Championship shot. To receive his championship opportunity, Booker T had to face Orlando Jordan and win to face JBL at Survivor Series. Booker T pinned Jordan and headed to the traditional November event. At Survivor Series, JBL pinned Booker T to retain the championship

Eddie Guerrero, Booker T and The Undertaker were each granted a WWE Championship match at Armageddon in a fatal four-way match. In the lead-up, The Basham Brothers would become the newest additions to JBL’s cabinet, interfering in a tag team match on SmackDown. With relentless interference from the cabinet in JBL matches, Teddy Long announced they were banned from ringside in the WWE Championship match. 

As JBL went on to retain his championship pinning Booker T, JBL announced that Orlando Jordan was now his ‘Chief of Staff’ and The Basham Brothers were his ‘Co-Securities of defence’. As JBL headed to the Royal Rumble to defend his WWE Championship against Big Show and Kurt Angle, his Co-Securities of defence captured the WWE Tag Team Championships. With more gold in The Cabinet, JBL headed to the Royal Rumble full of confidence as The Basham Brothers and Orlando Jordan collectively helped Bradshaw retain his championship. 

SmackDown General Manager Teddy Long quickly announced that the main event of No Way Out would see JBL defend his WWE Championship against The Big Show in a barbed wire steel cage match. This match was purposely designed to keep The Cabinet out of the action. JBL managed to retain his championship in the main event of the pay-per-view, with The Cabinet all attempting to enter the cage to help their leader but were unable to as Teddy long ejected them from ringside. Whilst on the top rope, The Big Show chockslammed JBL through the ring. The Big Show then broke the cage door and exited the ring, but unbeknown to him, JBL had crawled from under the ring, therefore winning by escaping the cage first. 

The Basham Brothers lost their WWE Tag Team Championships at No Way Out to Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero. The brothers would also lose their rematch a week later at SmackDown. On the Smackdown following No Way Out, John Bradshaw Leyfield held a championship celebration. Not surprisingly, his celebration was cut short when John Cena, the new number one contender for the WWE Championship and the man Bradshaw was going to face at Wrestlemania, came to ringside. The Cabinet attacked John Cena for interfering in their celebration, but Kurt Angle and The Big Show made the save. The Cabinet continued to try and soften up Cena before their match in Los Angeles. Orlando Jordan pinned John Cena with the help of JBL and the Bashams to win the WWE United States Championship. Once again adding more gold to the Cabinet’s reign. 

At Wrestlemania, John Cena defeated JBL to win the WWE Championship ending his reign of 9 months. A rematch was made for Judgement Day where John Cena defeated JBL in an ‘I Quit’ Match. After Cena was drafted to Raw along with the WWE Championship, Batista was drafted to Smackdown with the World Heavyweight Championship. JBL set his sights on capturing Batista’s World Championship. JBL was unsuccessful in both attempts at Great American Bash and Summerslam. 

Orlando Jordan continued to hold the WWE United States championship up until Summerslam when he would lose the championship to Chris Benoit. As 2005 went on, Jordan left his role with JBL to concentrate on his own career. The Basham Brothers also quit the Cabinet in June, leaving JBL claiming they are not ‘test crash dummies’ and sick of helping JBL for no reward.

Danny Basham spoke about working with JBL and being part of the Cabinet

“He was a genius. He generated so much heat with the crowd, he was a champion for so long, and people would come to the arenas, and watch the pay per views, just to see JBL get his butt kicked. Even though wrestling is predetermined, you could feel the hatred and the anger when you walked out there with JBL because he was so good at taunting the crowd. He was so good at what he did, he was so good at cutting promos, and he was so good on the fly. I learned a lot from that man.”

With everyone leaving the JBL Cabinet, JBL decided to hire Jillian Hall to his Cabinet as his ‘PR’. She would accompany JBL to the ring for the remainder of the year before being fired in the spring of 2006. Her only memorable moments came in the JBL feud with the Boogeyman. Another member of the cabinet was Amy Webber who had a short stint in the middle of the JBL title reign, but she ultimately resigned from WWE for personal reasons before making any significant impact on the group. 

JBL championship reign is an often overlooked yet memorable one that saw a tag team wrestler elevated to WWE Champion seemingly overnight, along with a drastic new direction in his character. The role of the Cabinet was to act as henchmen and protection for JBL, as they were the ones who continued to take the pinfalls while allowing JBL to act out his coward heel persona. As time progresses, memory serves that the Cabinet acted as a major influencer in the success of John Bradshaw Layfield’s WWE Championship run.