JBL Responds To Accusations Of Bullying Mauro Ranallo

JBL has responded to accusations that he bullied former WWE commentator Mauro Ranallo prior to Ranallo’s departure from the company back in 2017.

Ranallo himself said his departure had nothing to do with JBL, but the rumours of bullying within WWE’s commentary team have lingered.

Speaking on Hannibal TV, JBL addressed the accusations. He said:

“Maybe I could have deserved [the accusations]. I don’t know, you know, we were younger, we broke balls. I’m a loud guy from the south and a lot of people, I think, took that wrong. I can tell you, with Mauro, there was never any malicious intent ever toward anything I said toward Mauro. Anything I said on camera, that was all in character. You know, some of it could be deserved. I’m not trying to re-write my history. I wasn’t a saint; we drank a lot back then, we ran the roads, and we would always love to crack on each other. It was just part of what we did and I think a lot of people took that wrong, and some of it could have gone too far. I’m not trying to excuse anything I’ve done.”

JBL continued by making clear anything that fans saw on camera was purely him playing the JBL heel character, and not a reflection of his true self or his attitude towards Ranallo.

“When we started, we protected the business 24/7. So when I wrestled in Europe for Otta Wanz… you had to be in character 24/7. We lived on the parking lots outside of the carnival tents, and had to wrestle so they wanted us in character all the time, not just in the ring. You walk around town and somebody tries to get an autograph from you, you bark at them. And that kind of carried forward, and I’m one of the last groups to have done that. So yeah, I don’t think there’s any doubt that some of that went too far, and some of that was me being in character. And again, I’m not trying to excuse myself. I’m just explaining from my perspective kind of how it happened.

“Well there was a show we did called Bring it to the Table, and that was one of the big contentious points. As far as, you know, anything I said on camera, that was 100% in character. Anything I said backstage, I don’t think there was anything but I can’t speak for Mauro. So there was no malicious intent on anything backstage,” JBL stated. “I thought I got along with Mauro fairly well, but the show Bring it to the Table, Mauro had a travel problem. There was a snow storm across the country and he didn’t make a show, and I’m not sure what all happened but there was a snow storm and he couldn’t make travel. You know, those things happen. During that same time we did [the show], and everybody points to that show as the point of me taking a shot at Mauro.

“Well on that show, right before we did it, there were about 3 – 5 minutes that we needed for the show. They said, ‘What can we do?’ and said, ‘Hey, there’s this internet poll that makes Mauro the #1 announcer. Can you do something on that?’ I said, ‘Yeah, of course.’ So when he went on the show, I did a rant on the show about, ‘Oh, they made Mauro the #1 announcer, he’s re-tweeted it, blah, blah, blah,’ 100% in character,” he continued. “And people talk about that poll, that I was so jealous of that poll that I went on TV and talked about it. I didn’t know the poll existed until right before we went on the show. And that was me, I had just assumed Mauro would know that was something I did in character. In fact, when the show aired, Meltzer, the online guy who does all the backstage news, they said, “Meltzer’s mad at you.’ And I hadn’t heard that name in quite a while because it’s behind a paywall, his stuff, so I didn’t read it, I didn’t keep up with it. And I said, ‘Why’s he mad?’ They said, ‘Well, that was his poll.’ I had no idea.”

JBL finished by saying he did regret the way things went down between himself and Ranallo prior to the latter’s departure from WWE.

“That was me just being JBL on camera, and I think Mauro took that the wrong way. I hope he didn’t; I hope now he realizes that it was something that I did that was 100% in character. I saw Mauro, I think, a few weeks later. Everything fell out and I became the bad guy with everything… Anyway, I walked across the parking lot and he was on his phone, so I couldn’t talk to him. So I shook his hand, walked across and shook his hand. He said, ‘How you doing, man?’ And I said (puts hand up), ‘It’s good, brother,’ and left, just to let him know that there was no ill intent, at least from me toward him. I regret the whole situation.”

Credit to WrestlingInc for the transcription.

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• bullying
• jbl
• mauro ranallo
• wwe

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