Mauro Ranallo, JBL und das Mobbing bei WWE

JME

Grumpy Professor
Teammitglied
Dave Meltzer hat im aktuellen Wrestling Observer Newsletter einen super Artikel über die Situation geschrieben. Das Ganze nochmal zusammengefasst und erklärt. Wirklich sehr sehr lesenswert....

The situation with Mauro Ranallo and WWE hasn’t changed as representatives from both sides were working out a settlement regarding the remainder of his contract.

It is expected that a non-disclosure agreement regarding everything that happened would be part of the settlement.

The story is tough because many people will openly talk about it, but few will go on the record because most are either in the company and aren’t allowed nor would want to publicly talk about it, and those who will mostly talk about the period of a decade or longer ago, where there is no debate about what was going on, since person-after-person has gone on record about it and enough stories have been told confirming things.

Ranallo’s return to broadcasting came a week earlier than expected. He was to start back on 4.22 doing the Shawn Porter vs. Andre Berto boxing match on Showtime, but instead returned on 4/16 doing the iPPV of the Rizin Fighting Federation show with Frank Shamrock.

The two were last minute replacements. Earlier in the week, there was a falling out between Rizin head Nobuyuki Sakakibara and Jerry Millen. Millen had gotten rid of Ranallo as the lead announcer for Pride after he had taken over more than a decade ago, and also had problems with Bas Rutten, who quit. After Millen was gone, meaning his announcing team was out, Sakakibara at the last minute contacted Ranallo and Shamrock, which led to Ranallo tweeting “Karma is real. Just ask the dude who wasn’t in Japan this weekend.”

Layfield returned to the company in 2012 as a color commentator after Jerry Lawler suffered a heart attack. He moved to Smackdown in the summer of 2016, replacing Jerry Lawler in working with Ranallo.

Lawler and Ranallo had made a good pairing, in the sense that Lawler been revitalized on Smackdown and was doing his best work in many years. But the plan had always been to phase Lawler out, since Vince McMahon has always had a thing about announcers being old. Lawler’s move to Smackdown was step one, and then from there, he was to be replaced a few months later, no matter how well the team worked.

There was an issue early. Lawler, used to calling Jim Ross “J.R.,” started calling Ranallo “M.R.,” likely an inside rib since decades earlier, when Lawler and McMahon were growing up, the term “M.R.” was considered one of the worst playground slurs, similar to gay slurs in their generation, as it was short for “mental retard.” Of course few would know that since the term went away probably by the 70s. But after a few weeks, it was dropped.

Ranallo started with Smackdown at the start of 2016, as a change for the show moving to the USA Network from Syfy. When he was first contacted by Michael Cole and Paul Levesque, he had come off announcing the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight for Showtime and was getting strong reviews as the lead announcer of New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS.

He was told at the time that they wanted him to be himself, because they wanted Smackdown to have a different feel from Raw and come across more like a sport. Of course, there was the usual stuff of banned words and phrases. For a few months, everything seemed fine, until Vince McMahon wanted him to be more like Michael Cole, essentially the exact opposite thing he was hired to be.

At that point, things started to go sour. The description from those there was that Ranallo, being different, made him the butt of jokes. One person described it as the smart guys being intimidated because they usually could get away with being the smartest in the room, but Ranallo had this insane memory of knowledge of certain subjects that either left people in awe or threatened. He was tabbed as weird and the production room was filled with a lot of people who were emotionally still in high school. Ranallo was in the position of being the weird kid in school. Plus, Ranallo was outwardly bipolar, so that environment in the long-term was going to be trouble.

The way he interacted with people on social media so heavily was almost inherently going to be an issue, but it’s unknown whether it was ever discussed with him. Layfield brought it up on the air during Smackdown a few times, but that came across as acting in character but it being fiction with elements of reality.

Later during the “Bring It To The Table,” episode on the WWE Network that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was noted to us that the subject matter of burying Ranallo was part of that episode and not Layfield going off on his own, and discussed ahead of time as to what should and shouldn’t be said. Even though that was all talked about ahead of time, Layfield’s limited response to everything was to claim everything he said about Ranallo was because he was playing the role of heel on television, which was not the case in that segment. And even if Vince McMahon wouldn’t have been part of those discussions, Kevin Dunn was. More importantly, even after the realization of what happened and how it caused a breakdown, Vince McMahon by this point should have either edited the segment off the replays of the show or just taken the show out of its rotation of the network, rather than continued to promote it.

Another person noted to us that there would be the jibes about appearance and such, very much like a high school situation, and it was far more than just Layfield. Others said that the cool kids were always doing that with the ring announcers and some of the other commentators who weren’t wrestlers first and weren’t seen as real tough guys, or even Byron Saxton, who started as a wrestler but was never a star. It was noted that if Saxton had been Ranallo, that the feeling is by holding it in for so long, he’d probably explode in a bad way, but Saxton was taught early on to no sell everything no matter what. It didn’t make it go away, but he just understood the game and how to survive, as did others. The descriptions of Justin Roberts in his book about Layfield always telling him things like “I hope you kill yourself” from years back, continued with Tony Chimel, who one person recounted Layfield said to him constantly. There was the description that Layfield before the shows, holds court berating people instead of working with his broadcast partners to make the show better.

There was also an incident involving another non-wrestler who was well known to have a close family member dying, and had missed two weeks due to a minor operation. Layfield went off on missing the shows, harassing the person and saying how he didn’t miss any shows after hernia surgery. The person noted that this wasn’t the week to do this, and he didn’t stop until the person was in tears.

There are different interpretations of this. Most point the finger at the people in charge of the company, who they felt encouraged it, and that over the past few weeks, Layfield was the scapegoat for people like Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn.

One wrestler noted, “He (Layfield) F***ed with lots of new guys simply because he could. I don’t know if JBL is tough, but all these guys were scared to stand up to him in fear of getting fired.”

Don Callis, who managed Layfield at one point, noted that he never had problems with Layfield to his face, as they spoke on the phone several times and purported to be friends. He has said he confronted Layfield once because there were stories that Layfield was burying him and Layfield denied all. He said after he was fired, that they talked again and Layfield acted sympathetically to him. Later Al Snow told him that after Callis was gone, Layfield was bragging about how he got Callis fired.

Callis also noted on his podcast this week that he had never previously heard the story about Layfield having the pet nickname “Monkey Boy” for him behind his back, or telling the Hardys to use toothpicks and break them off into the keyhole of his rental car, to keep him from unlocking the doors and being able to drive it. He said that it never actually happened so either the Hardys decided not to do it, or if they did, as many would do to fit in, they would have done it to the wrong car.

Callis also was unhappy about one aspect of the coverage here saying it was too sympathetic to Layfield to dismiss his role as being just carrying out orders from above, because most others would have never done it, and that Layfield took great delight in doing it.

While the story of Joey Styles punching Layfield on an overseas tour has been told to death, it was noted about how bad it must have been for Styles to finally retaliate, noting that whatever people think of Styles personally, he hardly has a history of losing his cool in public or punching people. Nobody at the time was negative about Styles, noting that Layfield had insulted his family members and that was considered a no-no.

“Everything (he) did, he would drink and just terrorize people,” said Mike Bucci (Simon Dean) in an interview regarding that trip. “It was horrible. I was just like, `What does he get out of this?’ There were overseas trips, just all night on the bus, yelling at people and treating them like shit because he would sleep all afternoon. In the daytime, he could sleep on the bus because nobody could say anything. They were all afraid. But at night time, he’s yelling at ‘em.”

Justin Roberts, whose book that coincidentally came out right after Ranallo’s situation started to go public, noted that while he had stories about Layfield, he didn’t want him fired, and made it clear it’s the people above him, McMahon and Paul Levesque, who fostered the culture and Layfield was not the root of the problem. However, he also brought up the treatment of Saxton and Chimel, which others have noted to us.

Booker T, on his podcast, discussed the subject and blew it off saying that once you are out of high school, you’re a grown up and there’s no such thing as bullying.

Others, in a weird twist, felt that it was the fans who were bullying the company, with at one point 500 Tweets per hour with Fire JBL hashtags. But anyone who has been around bullying will tell you that the bullies are often the first ones to complain that they are the ones being bullied.

Still others questioned why this was such a big story now, given it’s been well-known for two decades and there wasn’t a similar outcry when the lawsuit filed by former WCW referee Billy Silverman came out or when Amy Weber and Brian Mailhot (Palmer Cannon) quit the company over similar harassment. The reality is the incidents with Silverman and the 2005 incident where Brian Heffron were significant stories at the time. And a key to the Silverman story is he did complain to management and was told to just get along by doing what they say. He later filed a suit.
Heffron (Blue Meanie) was legitimately punched out, and needed 12 stitches and was left bloody, by Layfield during an ECW vs. WWE televised brawl, before people like Al Snow and Tracy Smothers were able to maneuver Layfield away from him. This was reportedly because Heffron had previously said that Layfield was a backstage bully who preys on younger talent with ribs and outright abuse because he can.
Because that incident led to a significant amount of coverage, Layfield was punished for it. It was turned into an angle on the July 5, 2005, Smackdown show, because it was public and everyone saw what happened. The punishment was that Layfield would have to take a ridiculously hard chair shot to the head in retaliation. Layfield was legitimately busted open by the chair shot. Meanie was given a win over Layfield as well, but it was largely meaningless as he kicked out of the chair shot and the moonsault and it was Batista giving him a spinebuster that led to Meanie getting the win. This was before WWE had any protocol about protecting the head from damage.

When it came to Ranallo, McMahon was said to be frustrated at him for his announcing style and adding Tom Phillips to the Smackdown announce team as the fourth member was the first public sign of it. Those following the show who had worked there or knew the situation noted that his hip-hop references, or using names of moves like ushigoroshi or referencing Kazuchika Okada when somebody would do a great dropkick, were clearly not going to earn him any favors. Still, it’s doubtful anyone actually told him that because if they had, he’d have likely changed given what he was told, like using the WWE lingo, he did change.

Because of the nature of the negotiations right now, neither WWE nor anyone close to Ranallo has discussed the issue, past Ranallo’s former broadcast partners Bas Rutten and Pat Miletich saying they’d like to meet up with Layfield. Rutten, when asked on Twitter to elaborate, said that due to non-disclosure clauses, he can’t do so right now.

Privately, several people from the company, including wrestlers, had contacted Ranallo. Some wrestlers noted that like with Jim Ross, they always wanted him to call their matches because he would get the match itself and the performers over better than the other announcers.

Another announcer noted that Cole had put together a list of rules for announcers and that the heel color guy can do a lot of things, but you are not allowed to publicly emasculate the lead announcer, with the idea that the credibility of the lead announcer is important in selling the product. He noted that the rules never applied to Layfield.

On Under the Mat radio, Rich Bocchini, better known as Rich Brennan, noted “JBL was difficult to work with as a broadcast partner. It’s nothing you can do about it because that’s Vince’s guy. With this whole thing going on, I don’t know, but it seems like he’s entranced there. He basically violates all rules when it comes to broadcast announcers in how we are trained to be announcers, because he can. Difficult to work with. Part of this is his heel personal and some of that is if he doesn’t like you or respect, you, then it’s dialed up a little bit. At times I felt like he really didn’t work to make the product better. He was just there to get himself over. Backstage he was okay to me. Can I see him giving Mauro a hard time? Absolutely, I can.”

While there was a lot of fan unrest regarding Layfield and chants for Ranallo at the 4/11 Smackdown tapings in Boston, by the 4/18 show in Louisville, it had blown over. Layfield’s character flipped into a babyface persona starting on 4/11.
 
Booker T, on his podcast, discussed the subject and blew it off saying that once you are out of high school, you’re a grown up and there’s no such thing as bullying.

:macepalm:

Others, in a weird twist, felt that it was the fans who were bullying the company, with at one point 500 Tweets per hour with Fire JBL hashtags. But anyone who has been around bullying will tell you that the bullies are often the first ones to complain that they are the ones being bullied.

True
 
But anyone who has been around bullying will tell you that the bullies are often the first ones to complain that they are the ones being bullied.
True
Warte. Zum Verständnis für mich: Das heißt, diejenigen, die sich als erstes über Mobbing beschweren, sind die, die eigentlich mobben?
Also wird in Wahrheit JBL vom kompletten Locker Room gemobbt? Das ergibt doch keinen Sinn
 
Warte. Zum Verständnis für mich: Das heißt, diejenigen, die sich als erstes über Mobbing beschweren, sind die, die eigentlich mobben?
Also wird in Wahrheit JBL vom kompletten Locker Room gemobbt? Das ergibt doch keinen Sinn
Ich denke, es ist eher so gemeint, dass diejenigen, die mobben auch die sind, die zuerst heulen wenn man sich über sie lustig macht. Ihnen schmeckt also die eigene Medizin nicht
 
Ich denke, es ist eher so gemeint, dass diejenigen, die mobben auch die sind, die zuerst heulen wenn man sich über sie lustig macht. Ihnen schmeckt also die eigene Medizin nicht
Ja okay, dann find ich es nur merkwürdig, dass es absolut keinen (veröffentlichten) Fall gibt, wo JBL der jenige ist, der gemobbt wird. Stattdessen gibt es zigtausend Fälle, die das Gegenteil aussagen. Und ganz ehrlich, Taschen klauen und Zahnstocher in Schlüssellöcher stecken, meinetwegen. Aber jemanden so fertig machen, dass er komplett abstürzt und nicht mehr arbeiten kann. Irgendwo ist auch mal Schluss. Und wäre es so gewesen, dass die anderen anfangen und JBL sich "verteidigt", dann wär das ja wohl schon längst rausgekommen. So find ich das nen ziemlich lächerlichen Versuch, von JBL abzulenken
 
Ja okay, dann find ich es nur merkwürdig, dass es absolut keinen (veröffentlichten) Fall gibt, wo JBL der jenige ist, der gemobbt wird.
Es geht nicht darum, dass JBL gemobbt wird. Die fühlen sich jetzt nur ''gemobbt'' weil die IWC es wagt ihre Methoden und ''Traditionen'' zu hinterfragen.
 
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Es geht nicht darum, dass JBL gemobbt wird. Die fühlen sich jetzt nur ''gemobbt'' weil die IWC es wagt ihre Methoden und ''Traditionen'' zu hinterfragen.
Die Tradition, backstage systematisch Leuten zu schaden, teilweise an der Weiterreise hindern (Stichwort Reisepass) oder in Depressionen zu zwingen? Ganz tolle Tradition. Armes Wrestling.
 
Ich habe ja eine Vermutung bei SD aufgestellt. Owens hat die ganze Zeit gesagt, wie toll JBL ist usw usw. Ob man nicht irgendwie versucht Sympathien für den zu generieren á la "Owens findet den toll, dann muss ich den ja auch mögen und das mit Ranallo ist doch alles halb so wild. Der kommt mit dem Kommentatorstil einfach nicht klar."

JBL gehört einfach gefeuert, da die ja auch mit Make a wish arbeiten.
 
Ich habe ja eine Vermutung bei SD aufgestellt. Owens hat die ganze Zeit gesagt, wie toll JBL ist usw usw. Ob man nicht irgendwie versucht Sympathien für den zu generieren á la "Owens findet den toll, dann muss ich den ja auch mögen und das mit Ranallo ist doch alles halb so wild. Der kommt mit dem Kommentatorstil einfach nicht klar."

JBL gehört einfach gefeuert, da die ja auch mit Make a wish arbeiten.

Um genau zu sein soll JBL fortan wohl als Babyface kommentieren....eben genau deswegen.
 
Schade, dass der Name geschützt ist, sonst könnte TNA jetzt eine "Don´t be JBL, be a Star"-Kampagne starten. ^^
 
Ich habe JBL nie gemocht und brauche ihn auch nicht als dümmlich daher labernden Kommentator. Ohne die Kommemtatoren, Refs und die anderen "not tough guys" würde JBL jetzt nicht dort sein, wo er ist.

Booker hat wohl ein paar Mal zu oft etwas auf die Rübe bekommen. Wenn man aus der High School raus ist, dann sei man erwachsen?
 
Ich habe ja eine Vermutung bei SD aufgestellt. Owens hat die ganze Zeit gesagt, wie toll JBL ist usw usw. Ob man nicht irgendwie versucht Sympathien für den zu generieren á la "Owens findet den toll, dann muss ich den ja auch mögen und das mit Ranallo ist doch alles halb so wild. Der kommt mit dem Kommentatorstil einfach nicht klar."

JBL gehört einfach gefeuert, da die ja auch mit Make a wish arbeiten.

Owens hatte doch schon immer was mit JBL am laufen. Vorm Rostersplit ging es doch schon immer "JBL ist der Größte, Michael Cole ist Scheiße und hat keine Ahnung..." Owens ist Heel, JBL ist Heel (glaube ich) und sie ziehen Heat indem sie sich gegenseitig voll schleimen. Mehr sehe ich da nicht.
 
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