The story of Mauro Ranallo‘s string of absences and ultimate departure from WWE in 2017 drew plenty of scrutiny. Ranging from snowstorms to bullying, the reasons for Ranallo missing work were abundant.
But Ranallo himself just revealed the truth.
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Ranallo appeared on the MMA Show and revealed what triggered his untimely exit from Vince McMahon’s company.
“I was on the road every week. You add MMA and boxing and kickboxing to it. The road travel destroyed me. So, rumors and all this other stuff, what happened, honestly — and Ariel, you know how honest I’ve been in this thing — I had a breakdown in the Chicago O’Hare airport on my way to Pittsburgh to do SmackDown Live…But, I had to phone them and I said ‘I’m done. I cannot do this anymore. It’s going to kill me.’ And I thought I was done with the entire company,” revealed Ranallo.
Ranallo has been battling Bipolar disorder his entire life, something recently covered in his critically acclaimed Showtime documentary “Bipolar Rock ‘N’ Roller.”
“As much as there’s two sides to every story, the actual truth from me was my mental health wasn’t going to allow me to maintain that schedule much longer,” he said.
Ranallo has since returned to WWE, but only to make cameos as NXT’s lead announcer. Given his undeniable talent as commentator fans are clamoring for him to return to WWE, but it appears that’s something Mauro is in no rush to do.
Ranallo’s clarification comes as news because it effectively kills the fabricated subplots that emerged during his string missed dates. The most prominent theory was that JBL, Ranallo’s SmackDown cohort, routinely ridiculed and bullied Ranallo. Fans took their theory and ran—even starting a petition for WWE to fire JBL.
In an episode of his podcast, Heated Conversations, Booker T went to bat for JBL and lampooned fans for their reckless disregard of the truth.
“Mauro Ranallo, absent, what three weeks before Wrestlemania and then missed Wrestlemania due to certain reasons and whatnot, but right now on social media, the backlash toward a friend of mine, a colleague, JBL, John Bradshaw Layfield, a guy that I have been knowing for more than 25 years,” Booker T said. “Man, it’s crazy. I don’t know if you saw Smackdown last week. The chants were ‘Fire JBL.’ That right there is a flash mob takeover. The fans are sometimes getting into the business side because of social media and everybody knows everything.”
But the WWE Hall of Famer didn’t stop there. Not only did he put the kibosh on JBL’s bullying, but bullying all together.
“We’ve got guys coming out right now talking JBL and JBL bullying,” Booker T explained. “You know, this is the way I look at this right here. I’m gonna be straight up as far as this bullying term. Let’s take that bullying term and put it back in pre school, in our junior high schools, in our high schools. When you get out of high school, I think the bullying rule stops. I think the bullying rule pretty much goes away when you’re a grown man and you’re able to take up for yourself and throw hands, go and talk to someone and say, hey, I don’t feel like I’m being treated right with this commentator here. Maybe you need to move me somewhere else or there might be problems or ramifications. But I don’t think the bullying rule should fall under grown men having an issue with each other. I don’t know. You tell me.”
[H/T Ringside News]
