First, the opinions in this article are mine and not PMN’s.
WWE is getting heat from all sides for attention drawn to bully John Bradshaw Layfield – ring name JBL. Matt Hardy, Justin Roberts, recently Mauro Ranallo, John Morrison, and so many more have spoken about hazing and bullying in WWE. Legendary insider Dave Meltzer received praise privately from wrestlers who didn’t want to attract attention to themselves and from the fans. The immediate problem is JBL, but the big puzzle is the culture of bullying that has existed in pro wrestling and WWE for decades.
WWE is attached to the “Be a Star” anti-bullying campaign and for them to allow this to continue to occur is baffling. Their next move is not to fix the culture, but it will be to discredit Mauro Ranallo. Mauro very recently left WWE because of hazing and bullying by JBL and instead of fixing the problem with JBL they let one of the best commentators in the world go.
JBL recently started attacking former bullying victim Justin Roberts as an “idiot” and blocked what had to be a record number of people who tried to respond. He then blocked everyone who follows him that tweeted best wishes to Ranallo. Imagine the amount of time it took to sift through those people. He had to go through every person in his followers, look at their tweets, and then block them. Gutless is an understatement and those are the actions of a bully according to guys like Bas Rutten, Meltzer, Bryan Alvarez, and so many, many, many, many more.
At Smackdown in Boston last night a fan was removed for having a sign that said “JBL Bullied Me”. Instead of confiscating the sign they ejected the person?
There is no indication that Layfield will ever receive any sort of reprimand for his actions. JBL is said to be tight with Vince McMahon and some wrestlers claim Vinny Mac actually gets a laugh out of Bradshaw’s actions.
The only saving grace is this video that shows the bully getting KTFO’d.
UPDATED: Four fans held signs that spelled out “We love you Mauro” and they remained on TV miraculously. The chants of “Fire Bradshaw” and “We love Mauro” were muted on TV. WhatCulture is also supporting the #FireJBL movement and we hope the support continues.