Weight: 290 lbs.
Finishing Move: The Clothesline from Hell
Titles Held: 1x WWE Champ, 3x WWE Tag Team Champ, 1x WWE United States Champ, 1x WWE European Champ, 16x WWE Hardcore Champ
Other Aliases: Justin Hawk Bradshaw, Blackjack Bradshaw
Bradshaw came to the WWF as Justin Hawk Bradshaw in 1996. He had a feud with "The Real Double J" Jesse James, but otherwise had little impact. At the beginning of 1997, he was paired with Barry Windham. They called themselves Blackjack Windham and Blackjack Bradshaw and took the team name the New Blackjacks. They competed in a four corners match at WrestleMania XIII against the Headbangers, Doug Furnas and Phillip LaFon and the Godwinns. The Blackjacks lost, and didn't have much more success for the rest of 1997.
In early 1998, Windham turned on Bradshaw, but Windham left the WWF before the feud could be kicked into high gear. Bradshaw teamed with Taka Michinoku in his feud against Kaientai, but did little until the Fall, when the Jackyl paired him with Faarooq, calling them the Acolytes. The Jackyl left the WWF shortly thereafter, and the Acolytes joined the Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness, serving as the muscle and helping to initiate new members like Mideon and Viscera. They won the tag team titles in May of 1999 from Kane and X-pac. They lost them to the Hardy Boyz a few weeks later, but regained them at Fully Loaded. After a few weeks, they lost them again to Kane and X-pac. As the Fall approached, the Ministry was disbanded and the Acolytes gained a reputation as beer-drinking, cigar-smoking, poker-playing bar room brawlers. They feuded with incoming team the Dudley Boyz around the end of the year.
In 2000, the Acolytes started their own little business, calling it the Acolyte Protection Agency, or APA, and offered their services to protect anyone in exchange for cash. They lost to Bull Buchanan and the Big Bossman at Backlash and appeared to lose focus. The team of T & A attacked the APA and injured Faarooq. They took over the office, calling it the T & APA but the real APA came back at Armageddon 2000 and took back their business.
They became the target of the RTC, who disliked the APA's beer and cigars. They teamed with Tazz to beat Buchanan, Val Venis and the Goodfather at WrestleMania X-Seven. When the summer came around, the Shane McMahon-led WCW started to invade WWF programming. The APA rallied the WWF Superstars and got them to fight back against the outsiders. The APA won the tag team titles from the Dudleys, but later in the night, the Dudleys joined former ECW wrestlers who eventually merged with WCW to create the Alliance. The APA beat WCW tag champs Chuck Palumbo & Sean O'Haire at Invasion, but lost the belts to Diamond Dallas Page and Kanyon a few weeks later. The Alliance was eventually driven out of the WWF, and the APA was still going strong.
However, after WrestleMania X-8, the WWF roster split as Vince McMahon and Ric Flair held a draft to determine which wrestlers would go to Raw and which would go to Smackdown. Bradshaw was drafted to Raw, while Faarooq went to Smackdown, and the APA held one last celebration on the last show with the full roster, closing the APA Office. On the first Flair Raw, the nWo took over the abandoned APA Office, which angered Bradshaw. The nWo beat him down, but he got revenge by saving Kane from an nWo beating later on. He beat Scott Hall at Backlash, and teamed with Steve Austin over the next few weeks in an attempt to bring down the nWo. When Ric Flair betrayed them and the Big Show joined the nWo, the team split and Bradshaw lost to the Big Show. He won the Hardcore Title from Steven Richards, and lost and regained it many times over the next few months. When the UnAmericans jumped to Raw, Bradshaw stood up for the United States, but was injured shortly before the big tag match at Unforgiven, and had to be replaced.