• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

WWE announcer John Bradshaw Layfield met with bullying accusations

Status
Not open for further replies.

FDC1

Member
Hasn't JBL been pretty notorious for doing this kind of crap for decades?

Is it just finally at the point where WWE can't sweep it under the rug anymore?

It has been known by everyone close of the Wrestling business, includind fans, since at least 15 years. The Mauro thing is not even in the top 10 of JBL bullying stories but this time it gained traction because a few influencial persons like Meltzer took a strong stance against it.
 

Kusagari

Member
It's been reported that Vince basically endorses JBL to do this to see who can survive in the business and who can't.

He's not going anywhere.
 
Ok. Stealing a passport while someone is in a different country is a shitty joke but whatever.

Not giving it back and having them go to the embassy to get a new one? Fuck anyone that does that. Fire their ass ASAP.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Yeah, I heard JBL wouldn't hold back on his closelines. He sucks. I wonder if his APA gimmick went to his head or Vince knew he was an asshole and made the APA as a result.

JBL legitimately beat the shit out of the Blue Meanie for no apparent reason in a kayfabe brawl.

It's WWE, so the wake of this was giving Bradshaw a fucking angle against Blue Meanie, although in the match Stevie Richards legitimately clocked JBL over the head with a chair (not in the safe way that you normally try to do headshots) as hard as he fucking could because fuck JBL that's why.
 
It's been reported that Vince basically endorses JBL to do this to see who can survive in the business and who can't.

He's not going anywhere.

Yeah well messing with someone that had bipolar issues, and I imagine anxiety/depression, is basically trying to infect someone's open wound.
 

Shanlei91

Sonic handles my blue balls
Hasn't JBL been pretty notorious for doing this kind of crap for decades?

Is it just finally at the point where WWE can't sweep it under the rug anymore?

Is there anyone there who doesn't do it? They all pull pranks on each other, including the legends. Even hearing straight from the source in a casual setting there's always an air of "that sounds so messed up".
 
It's been reported that Vince basically endorses JBL to do this to see who can survive in the business and who can't.

He's not going anywhere.

There's a difference between doing this to other talent, and people working in other sectors though.

That, combined with Mauro's public battle with depression does not bode well for JBL.

I'd think so anyway.
 
The best JBL story:

What would posses you to fuck with this guy....
latest
 
I hope JBL faces some consequences here. He has a history of this shit, and according to Meltzer, Vince lets it fly. Even laughs at it(see latest episode of LAW). But, Vince will always do what is best for the company, so hopefully this bad PR will break the camel's back.
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
For every "Vince McMahon, what do you expect?" post, it is worth noting how much better the locker room is today than it was in the past. In the late 90's early 00's, JBL's actions would be the norm. Seems like today, JBL is more of the exception to the rule. Not saying it's not still carny and shit to some degree. Just saying that I'll take a locker room filled with good guys like Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins over JBL and his crew.

Hope they sack JBL as well, but it doesn't really seem likely.


Wrestlers back then were jocks. A lot of the guys who fell in love with wrestling and are now wrestlers themselves were/are dorks. It's almost like it started out as a form of escapism I think.
 

Hex

Banned
#FuckJBL

Good ol' boy network horse shit.
There is tale after tale of him being a shitbag, but it is ignored and buried.
Nobody wants to burn their bridge with the E.
 
Yes Micheal Cole is an asshole. There are these tapes of backstage recordings of him straight up bullying/being an ass to Tony Chimell an ex ring announcer for the company.

That really disappoints me as I actually like Michael Cole.

Probably because he was the voice of Smackdown in my youth but still.

I'd like to think the culture in WWE (JBL excluded) has improved somewhat with the newer crop.
 

Couleurs

Member
Blackman always seemed like the wrong guy to fuck with.

And who the hell would bully Mark Henry? A guy who everyone says is one of the coolest guys in wrestling, who could easily break a motherfucker in half without breaking a sweat

Sucks to see that Mauro is gone; I only watched a few shows in the last year and he was a really good announcer.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
It's good that this is being brought up. JBL is a notorious bully. I'm honestly surprised he's been with the company as long as he has.
 
JBL is a piece of shit and it's sad that Mauro is now essentially gone because of this. JBL should have been removed from this company fucking ages ago, not only for his shit announcing, but his shitty attitude and bullying.
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
Imagine fucking with Shamrock during his WWE days. Dude was completely in his prime. No wonder he felt comfortable ribbing Blackman about the situation during that car ride.

I'll never forget what he did to Vader in the ring that one time when Vader stiffed him.
That was hilarious. Shamrock was being stiff with those knees and elbows, and Vader's just shoving him back, clearly trying to signal him to back off for a moment and/or let up a bit. Shamrock doesn't get the hint, so vader just stands up straight, takes two steps from the corner, and lays shamrock out with a haymaker, live in front of the world.
 
That was hilarious. Shamrock was being stiff with those knees and elbows, and Vader's just shoving him back, clearly trying to signal him to back off for a moment and/or let up a bit. Shamrock doesn't get the hint, so vader just stands up straight, takes two steps from the corner, and lays shamrock out with a haymaker, live in front of the world.

Trying to find a video of this, which show was it?

NM found it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMUpdsrgW4U
 
That really disappoints me as I actually like Michael Cole.

Probably because he was the voice of Smackdown in my youth but still.

I'd like to think the culture in WWE (JBL excluded) has improved somewhat with the newer crop.

There's still some shit that goes on backstage. Alex Riley had an incident with John Cena that he tries not to talk about. But he did say that there was an instance where John Cena was rummaging through Riley's stuff in the locker room (not sure if it was to Riley personally or to other wrestlers as well)
 

zelas

Member
I'll be surprised if this results in anything significant. The business and the audience if full of the types that are willing to brush this aside for various reasons.
 

jmdajr

Member
Next step will be a sponsor or two giving WWE an ultimatum. That's when JBL will be wished the best in his future endeavours. If that doesn't happen then he won't be in any major trouble. WWE can be fickle in these situations no matter who is involved. One person can get sacked immediately while another wouldn't even get a slap on the wrist.

For sure. When revenue gets hit, you will be wished good luck on your future endeavors.

Really, perhaps start emailing sponsors.
 

Hex

Banned
The problem is, if they do anything to him he probably has so much dirt to air out on so many people.
 
For every "Vince McMahon, what do you expect?" post, it is worth noting how much better the locker room is today than it was in the past. In the late 90's early 00's, JBL's actions would be the norm. Seems like today, JBL is more of the exception to the rule. Not saying it's not still carny and shit to some degree. Just saying that I'll take a locker room filled with good guys like Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins over JBL and his crew.

Hope they sack JBL as well, but it doesn't really seem likely.

Most of it has changed, sure, but the rot is still there at the core and I doubt it'd change that much even if Vince retired. Triple H loves that shit too. WWE is really the only carny promotion left (aside from some shitty indies), you never hear of this kind of shit happening at NJPW, RoH, Lucha Underground or even TNA.

Glad to hear this story got picked up by some mainstream media. Ideally JBL would be sent packing and it'd force the WWE to fix its fucked up culture but in reality, while JBL may end up deservedly fired if the pressure keeps up (though they'd probably rehire him a year or so later anyway), there's zero chance the latter would happen. They've had plenty of wakeup calls before (notably Bill DeMott and the racist who got Del Rio suspended) and nothing changed, why would it now?
 

maxiell

Member
"Accusations." Everyone knows JBL is a piece of shit. What's worse is the head of the company endorsed and supported this disgusting behavior. I really hope Ranallo looks to legal remedies.
 

tim1138

Member
I haven't watched wrestling in about 15 years, but JBL being a bully is the most unsurprising news that could come out of the WWE,
 

NYR

Member
JBL is one of Vince's boys. He acts just like him. He isn't going anywhere.

Also, can we stop normalizing JBL as a star? The guy was a repackaged hack who only had any type of "success" because Cena had fuck-all to wrestle against and this lame gimmick was the best they could come up with. Shameful he held the title for almost a year.
 

KissVibes

Banned
"First and foremost, I don’t think anyone is qualified to speak about what is going on unless you have a first-hand, eye-witness account,” said Striker. “Number two, is hazing a thing in the wrestling locker room? First, you have to define hazing. I played organized sports my entire life, and I understand the stigma surrounding wrestling.

“People also have to understand, in a time forgotten, wrestling was a bastion for the ‘real tough man,’ the alpha man. Now, and it’s happening in society everywhere, the betas are trying to declaw the alphas to level the playing field.”

TL;DR: PLEASE GIVE ME MY JOB BACK. LUCHA UNDERGROUND AIN'T PAYING THE BILLS, BRO.

Fuck Striker and fuck JBL.
 

Zabka

Member
Meltzer saying that Vince was tired of Mauro fits in with this. Adding Tom Phillips to the announce team was a blatant middle finger to Mauro.
 

Ithil

Member
They try to brush this bullying off as "ribs".

Owen Hart wrestling in a clown nose trying to make his opponent break character and laugh, or putting sardines under the ring to annoy his brother with the smell, that's a rib.

The sort of shit people like Mr. Fuji (a "ribber") used to do, or the crap that JBL does, that's not a rib, it's just bullying poorly disguised.
 

Ithil

Member
What did JBL do blue meanie ?

He disliked him for some reason from years prior, and so at ECW One Night Stand in 2005 in the midst of a planned big brawl between ECW wrestlers and main roster wrestlers JBL took advantage and beat the crap out of him for real, left him a bloody mess. You can see it happening on the show if you look.

JBL did pay for it on a later show however when Stevie Richards used a planned weapon spot to crack a chair over his head as hard as he could in retaliation.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom