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Over the last week, there has been a lot of attention placed on WWE announcer Justin Bradshaw Layfield (JBL) regarding past behavior in the wake of allegations that Layfield's comments and behavior towards Mauro Ranallo led to the WWE announcer dealing with a bout of depression and according to one report, not returning to the company before his deal expires this August. The allegations originated with MMA personality Bas Rutten, who is one of Ranallo's best friends, as Rutten specifically pointed the finger at JBL for sparking Ranallo's recent health issues.
As we wrote about last week, stories of JBL making former WWE ring announcer Justin Roberts' life miserable on WWE international tours also began to make the rounds as Roberts' book Best Seat in the House was officially released. Those stories, as well as JBL's physical assault of The Blue Meanie at the 2005 One Night Stand PPV, were pointed to by angry fans online as a pattern of behavior.
On Twitter, JBL wished Ranallo well and pointed out that he played a heel on television, using that as his explanation for any antagonistic comments that had aired on television - which, to be fair, he is correct in that would be his role. If Ranallo was upset about material that aired on WWE TV, that really is not understanding that all WWE programming has some form of antagonist on the broadcast team. If something happened behind the scenes, that is a different story.
JBL also took to Twitter to specifically deny a story in Roberts' book about his passport being stolen, stranding him in Great Britain. JBL wrote, "I won't answer Net rumors-but I didn't take Justin Roberts passport. Could have been anyone/he was hated by the whole crew. He's an idiot. "
In the book, however, Roberts never claimed JBL personally stole the passport. That said, former WWE star John Morrison would later state that on that tour, JBL attempted to get him and Joey Mercury to steal the passport and they considered it because of bullying they had dealt with from JBL, but finally decided not to.
Roberts, noting the role of his book in the attention on JBL in recent days, wrote the following on his Instagram account, stating that the firing of one person (obviously in response to a movement by fans online calling for JBL's firing) would not solve underlying issues that he wrote about in his book in terms of culture within WWE:
WWE has not publicly commented on the JBL situation.
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