JBL mostly played the role of a villainous heel throughout his career, and his character blurred the lines between kayfabe and reality. Since 2017, there have been allegations against JBL that he was responsible for commentator Mauro Ranallo’s WWE exit.
In a recent episode of “Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw,” the veteran told his side of the story, stating that he has largely kept quiet because he didn’t want to escalate things. He recalled how things began when he was asked to rant about a poll that included Ranallo during an episode of “Bring it to the Table.”
“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.”
He revealed that he was later told that Dave Meltzer had found an issue with his rant, but stated that he wasn’t even aware it was Meltzer’s poll. “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.”
JBL maintained there’s no animosity between him and Ranallo and that the last time he saw him, he walked across the street to shake his hand. Additionally, he claimed he had no idea why Ranello left WWE and maintained that he wasn’t involved with it.
“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.” JBL also recalled how Ranello once got him tickets for a UFC fight between Connor McGregor and Nate Diaz in Las Vegas, suggesting that the two were on very good terms at one stage.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.