Mauro Ranallo was not at WrestleMania this week or at television, making four weeks he’s been absent due to battles with depression.
Ranallo, based on reports from friends, has gotten healthier over the past week. He did make one statement on Twitter, saying, “While it breaks my heart that I won’t be at WrestleMania, I’m extremely happy for my friend Jim Ross,” and hashtagged it “Keep Up The Good Fight.”
The basic timeline was talked about last week, but my opinion has changed greatly in the past week on it from talking with many current and former WWE people and the coincidence of deciding to read former ring announcer Justin Roberts’ book “Best Seat in the House,” which was just released, on my flight to Orlando. The book talks extensively about being bullied by John Layfield for no apparent reason. While stories from former employees about Layfield’s bullying during the same time frame as Roberts were fairly consistent and frequent, the timing of reading that and the Ranallo situation really drummed in how screwed up that aspect of WWE culture is, and has been for a long time. While in Orlando, it was a subject that kept coming up with people who had worked in the company, the strongest from people who had either moved on from the company and worked in other sports or entertainment fields and noted how WWE is like no other company to work for.
Last week when I wrote about this situation, my thoughts were that JBL is kind of known for that stuff and burying one’s broadcast partner when it’s not an angle in the manner he did was totally unprofessional. There are uniquenesses in wrestling. Ranallo’s publicly putting over winning the Observer award was something that is one of those unique things that you aren’t supposed to do, or at least when working in WWE. A number of people with decades in the profession viewed it similarly to me, but people who had been in the profession and worked elsewhere in sports or entertainment noted how completely silly that is. Because this has to do with this publication, I feel I’m the wrong person in a sense to be writing this, but because of the uniqueness of pro wrestling journalism, nobody else has and there’s no indication anybody else will.
Since this subject came up to so many, including the coincidence of Roberts being at WaleMania and seeing him just after I was reading the book, and the Ranallo subject being what we talked about and a major subject all weekend, has made me feel I was far too lenient in last week’s issue.
Now, I would like to think Layfield at this point regrets what happened greatly. I don’t know that, but I’d like to think that because if I didn’t think that, I’d think he was a terrible human being.
But still, there was one story after another told to me by a number of different people all weekend long. It’s well-known some of the older stuff were like the in-ring roughing people up many years ago were sometimes hits ordered by management and the industry is very different today than 10 to 15 years ago. The out-of-the-ring bullying of referees, ring announcers, television announcers or others that traveled with the wrestlers were also closer to that time period at the time. So much has changed since then.
This is a company that is part of the Be a Star Alliance and whose talents go to schools and talk against bullying. And I believe most of the talents who do that are very concerned and real about the subject. But this is still a subject that is strong within the company and this incident really showed that. What’s notable is the industry has really evolved. In talking with a few people who spent a few years in WWE, but then went on to work in entertainment television, we noted how the WWE mindset is like nothing else. For those who cover pro wrestling somewhat closely, nor just do stories on it rarely and also do other sports, the reaction I’ve always gotten is they’ve never seen anything like it. To me, it’s just the uniqueness of the business, but that’s really a terrible defense of accepting it.
The catalyst of the situation was the awards poll from this publication, and if a few votes went differently, and Ranallo placed second for announcer of the year to Corey Graves, the incident would not have happened, at least at that time. Whether it would have happened for another reason or at another time is something that can only be speculated on. Layfield had claimed to have blocked Ranallo on Twitter long before the awards came out, and had complained on the air about his re-tweeting of people having nothing to do with the awards. While some of that was in character, he’s the heel announcer, Ranallo is the face play-by-play guy, it was obvious there was a tinge of realism to it. But so what, that’s part of the role is to make the tension seem real and not contrived. As long as it’s clear people are playing roles, the old ribbing on the square whether it’s John Cena and Miz going back-and-forth in promos or Corey Graves and Byron Saxton at the announcers’ desk, that is pro wrestling.
My own warpedness of standards from understanding the uniqueness of what pro wrestling was, in the sense a relationship and view of media completely different from any other profession, made me actually think Ranallo tweeting the awards standings and being publicly happy over winning was a mistake. I mean, politically, when I saw it, that’s the conclusion that hit me immediately and really until the past few days was still my view.
Don’t get me wrong, even last week I noted that in no other profession would this be the case. If an NFL announcer got an award and thanked people on Twitter, nobody would say a thing. If an actor got a fan or media voted award and brought it up, nobody would say a thing. In UFC, it would be the same thing. Honestly, I think in pro wrestling, in any company other than WWE, at this point in 2017 it would be the same thing, although ten years ago that wouldn’t be the case.
Unfortunately these last graphs will be viewed as self-serving and allow people to dismiss the actual real subject, which is why I hated that I have to be the one to write it.
Now, Ranallo was known for re-tweeting positive comments, perhaps to the extreme, but many people do the same with Twitter. I try not to a lot, but if you work your ass off and mentally spend yourself to do an issue or a big story, and people thank you, you really do like it and you really do want to say “Thank you.” Many do it because of the idea it promotes your brand and such, but if you’ve watched Ranallo do any sport, whether it be pro wrestling, boxing, kickboxing or MMA, you can tell, like his style or not, that he works extremely hard in preparation.
The actual subject is the company hired somebody well known to have a mental health issue, and has worked for years to educate people on that subject and be almost a public spokesperson for it. It’s a company that has a strong public stance against bullying, yet people who have worked and do work for the company one after the other will tell you internally it’s very different. This won’t turn into a subject like the bullying of women based on being overweight (and the company’s version of overweight when it comes to women is quite unique as many who have worked there have noted) or appearance that the company would never do today because what did get people upset were essentially non-real life portrayals in television angles. This isn’t a television angle. There are many people in pro wrestling who privately battle similar issues, perhaps not as bad, but very few go public, and none would to the extent Ranallo has to essentially try and be a spokesperson and an advocate for it. Most people know someone, and many know a lot of people in the same situation. And everyone knows how tight Layfield is with Vince McMahon. The belief across-the-board is Layfield’s weeding out those who can’t take it comes from above. I think the other aspect is knowing people who have known Ranallo for years and essentially being told exactly how this would probably play out right before it did also makes this situation so upsetting. There was a terrible lapse of judgment here, and the fact WWE continued to replay the show indicated a lack of remorse and understanding of the issue.
The company is in a very weird position right now because Ranallo not being there makes this a public issue. But it’s a story that will probably not get them any negative publicity even though it’s real. So corporately, they don’t have to react and haven’t. Hopefully, this is the wake-up call to change and realize the old days are over. In most modern wrestling companies, they are over. There really may only be one left. As much as that one company despises the old days of carny rasslin, in reality, behind-the-scenes, they may be the last major one left with the same mentality.
