JBL has cleared the air regarding the alleged issues between himself and former WWE announcer Mauro Ranallo.
Announcing SmackDown in January 2016, many praised Ranallo for breathing life into the product when interest was not as hot as in recent times. Having previously called wrestling prior to joining WWE, Ranallo did not have the same teething problems as other announcers have in recent years.
From March 17, Ranallo was notably absent from the commentary desk and missed WrestleMania 33. With no official explanation provided from WWE or Ranallo himself, allegations surfaced that claimed that Ranallo was a victim of bullying by John Bradshaw Layfield. Shortly afterwards, clips from the WWE Network show Bring It To The Table would circulate online, where JBL ranted at a poll that named Ranallo as the top commentator, believing he should take the top spot.
Many believed that this was what would be the deciding factor in Ranallo taking time away and was also at a time when JBL was accused of bullying from multiple sources. To make matters worse for JBL, AEW announcer Justin Roberts released his autobiography a few days later, which also included alleged accounts of more bullying from the former World Champion.
Josh Barnett was a recent guest on Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw. Barnett, who is a friend of Ranallo, messaged JBL ahead of time so the topic could be discussed:
“I just remember at the time it was a thing and the distress it was causing Mauro. He’s my old broadcast partner, he was calling my matches in Pride, he has been a part of Josh Barnett for a good portion of it. There’s no way I couldn’t come on here and ask about it.”
JBL discussed his time on Bring It To The Table and how he would take part in a rant on each episode. Needing a topic to rant about, he was pitched the poll:
“I’ve certainly never told my side of the story because when you tell your side, whether it makes sense or not, it escalates the story. I just wanted the thing to go away.”
“They used to do this poll and towards the end I would do this rant about something like Stephan A. Smith does on ESPN. They said hey, we need a rant for you to do. I said what have you got?
“They said, ‘Mauro just retweeted a poll that he was in, that he was the number one announcer.’ And I said, ‘Okay, I’ll do a rant on that.’ So I did the rant on the poll.”
Later in the show, JBL revealed that he was then informed that Dave Meltzer commented on JBL as it was Meltzer’s poll that Ranallo retweeted. Bradshaw believed that Ranallo would have known that it was a work and would be used on a future episode of SmackDown and he meant no ill will. Ranallo was not told ahead of time:
“Well, that was his poll, that’s how little I knew about it. Mauro saw it, I just assumed that Mauro knew it was a working rant about this whole thing. In hindsight, someone should have smartened Mauro up to it because it sounds much worse than it is. There was zero malice behind it. It was something fun to talk about on commentary. I’m not going to speak for him, I think he took it the wrong way, because that was a point of contention later.”
JBL continued, stating that he had no idea why Ranallo left and it was meant to be a part of the show and there is no ill will:
“The last time I saw him he was with NXT and we were in New Orleans. I saw him, walked across the street and shook his hand. I hadn’t seen him since all this I said how are you, good to see you. He said good to see you and walked off. There is zero animosity to me towards Mauro.
“To me, it was a working situation, same as me being a heel commentator with him. As far as I knew, I didn’t have a bad relationship with him.”
Ranallo would return to NXT in 2017 before departing the company in August 2020.
WWE Star Unhappy With JBL Pairing
Now retired from commentary, JBL still makes sporadic appearances on weekly TV. In 2023, the Hall of Famer would briefly partner up with Baron Corbin, hoping to turn around the fortunes of the former Money in the Bank winner. Looking back on the partnership, Baron Corbin admitted that he felt like has drowning in the partnership with JBL.
On January 25th, SmackDown announcer Kevin Patrick was released from WWE. With a spot being open on Friday nights, many fans are hoping that Mauro Ranallo could return once again.
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