sek69 Posted March 30, 2017 Report Share Posted March 30, 2017 So in the latest Observer, Dave talks about Mauro's absence from TV and states it's due to his bipolar issues as most people figured it was. He also seemed to make it pretty clear the trigger for this episode was constant belittling from JBL that more or less wore him down. I was thinking about this when reading it, do you think WWE has any culpability here putting someone who has been open and honest about previous mental health issues with a known bully week in and week out? It seemed like it was just a bad situation waiting to happen, and eventually it did. Especially in the current environment where they want to have a million announcers per show, it doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to not pair those two together. They cynical, jaded, asshole smart fan side of me wonders if it was intentional since that's the kind of thing Vince seems to get a kick out of, but the reasonable side of me hopes that he would realize how bad that would look PR wise (I know PR shouldn't be the primary concern but we all realize it is with big companies). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted March 30, 2017 Report Share Posted March 30, 2017 yes it's a sad story. Apparently Mauro got heat for mentioning he won the WON award for best announcer. I guess it all sorta started there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted March 30, 2017 Report Share Posted March 30, 2017 It seems JBL had a rant about Mauro acknowleding his WON Best Announcer award at an episode of Bring it to the Table, too. However, as much as I don't really appreciate Mauro's work as a play-by-play guy (he's got a nice voice to me, but his relentless pop culture referencing are really annoying) and enjoy JBL's work since the brand split, both guys just have clashing personalities and Mauro's personal issues sure aggravate the matter, and I hope for Ranallo's sake that this doesn't mean the end for him in WWE. He has his performance issues but he's clearly enjoying a lot being there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted March 30, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2017 The WON stuff seemed like the straw that broke the camel's back. JBL's been belittling him for weeks, and him winning a best announcer award seemed to send JBL to another level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted March 30, 2017 Report Share Posted March 30, 2017 When do heel color commentators and babyface announcers not bicker? It's not like Corey Graves & Byron Saxton are buddy buddy on Raw. None of the stuff that JBL has said about Mauro on Smackdown has seemed out of line from what those kinds of normal interactions would be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted March 30, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2017 Mauro and Lawler were a good pairing, Lawler was clearly the heel and there was never a sense of personal animosity between them. Sadly Jerry was deemed an Old by Vince and is no longer fit for public viewing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stro Posted March 30, 2017 Report Share Posted March 30, 2017 Jerry Lawler has been terrible for many, many years and should have been removed from the booth at LEAST a decade ago. I can't believe anyone would have an issue with that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
...TG Posted March 30, 2017 Report Share Posted March 30, 2017 Is Meltzer referring to things that are happening backstage/off-air? Or just the on-air razzing like the Raw team gives Saxton? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted March 30, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2017 Jerry Lawler has been terrible for many, many years and should have been removed from the booth at LEAST a decade ago. I can't believe anyone would have an issue with that. His time with Mauro was much improved though. He was more of an full heel and nothing like the guy who had been mailing it in for a decade. Plus it seemed they had the best chemistry of any of the teams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted March 30, 2017 Report Share Posted March 30, 2017 I've never been a big fan of Mauro. Like KawadaSmile said, too many pop culture references. Plus, his constant referral to Japanese wrestling to me, comes off as him trying to sound "smart" like Matt Striker used to do. Drives me bonkers. That being said, it's terrible that he's going through this stuff. I, personally, can not sympathize with him because I'm ignorant to it all. Of course, I grew up as poor white trash in Indiana where if you had a problem you got told to "suck it the fuck up" - and no one should live like that. A lot of times the pro-wrestling industry, especially in WWE (even if they want to act like they're P.C. now) still seems to live in that dated mindset. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve T Posted March 30, 2017 Report Share Posted March 30, 2017 He also seemed to make it pretty clear the trigger for this episode was constant belittling from JBL that more or less wore him down. Dave has zero idea what the 'triggers' were for this 'episode' of Mauro's bi-polar disorder. If he is honestly reporting that he should be ashamed. More likely he is speculating and dumb internet people are spreading 'MLETZERS SAID' nonsense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted March 30, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2017 or......and I'm just spitballin' here.... MAYBE he actually talked to the guy and is reporting what he said in a way that conveys the gist of the story without going to deep in the guy's personal matters. You know, that reporting stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve T Posted March 30, 2017 Report Share Posted March 30, 2017 or......and I'm just spitballin' here.... MAYBE he actually talked to the guy and is reporting what he said in a way that conveys the gist of the story without going to deep in the guy's personal matters. You know, that reporting stuff. Yeah, there is a definite possibility that Dave doubles as Mauro's therapist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted March 30, 2017 Report Share Posted March 30, 2017 WWE makes too many pop culture references in general. There was that segment on SD like 3 weeks ago with all the women that was non stop pop culture references for like 15 minutes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted March 31, 2017 Report Share Posted March 31, 2017 I think this is fairly irresponsible behavior in Dave's part. Mental illness is a nasty place to be and it could easily be irrelevant what JBL did or didn't do. Sometimes your brain just gets the better of you and it's no one's fault it happened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted March 31, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2017 Without copying and pasting the entire story, Dave isn't speculating he's clearly reporting from info he's received from Mauro directly and also from people in the company confirming JBL's behavior. He's not entirely blaming it as the cause but it was clearly a factor contributing to the latest episode. Anyone with mental illness is familiar with the concept of new stressors causing a return or re-occurrence of problems and by all accounts that seems to be what happened here. tl;dr basically no one should have to deal with bullying assholes at work, let alone someone with previous mental issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted March 31, 2017 Report Share Posted March 31, 2017 God damn that bullying asshole JBL for doing what every heel color commentator does and razzing the babyface announcer he's working with. If you're gonna go on this crusade please cite specific examples with exact quotes of what you think JBL said that crossed the line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted March 31, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2017 Now I know why Dave does the "reading is your friend" gimmick on Twitter. Here's the portion from the actual story, apologies in advance if this is posting too much of the newsletter: Those close to the situation said things had been building. On the air, JBL had always made fun of Ranallo being so active on Twitter and re-tweeting to many comments, and JBL talked about how he blocked Ranallo. While it appeared in fun on television, JBL evidently got mad especially when Ranallo tweeted the results of the Wrestling Observer Announcer of the Year awards, where Ranallo won, and later wrote, “Honored to Have won the award two years in a row.” Within wrestling, the general rule on any awards unless they are given by your promotion and you are promoting those awards, is that you don’t acknowledge them. But Layfield was legitimately very upset, and must have said something in response. Ranallo sent out a tweet on 3/13 saying, “Jealousy is one hell of a drug.” There was no saying it was aimed at Layfield, or even a hint, but it was clear people took it as a response to that. So no, it wasn't just him being mean heel announcer on TV, he got butthurt at Mauro being proud of winning an award and went crazy about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted March 31, 2017 Report Share Posted March 31, 2017 You're reading a WHOLE LOT into the words "evidently" and "must have" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted March 31, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2017 That's Dave's writing style though. He wouldn't put anything in the newsletter, especially about someone he considers a friend, unless he was sure it was 100% correct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stro Posted March 31, 2017 Report Share Posted March 31, 2017 If I didn't know better, I'd say this JBL fella is a bit of a jerk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted March 31, 2017 Report Share Posted March 31, 2017 So we're just going to ignore that Mauro putting over the Observer awards directly shits on his broadcast partners who were voted #1 and #5 on the worst announcers list? I guess that wouldn't be a valid thing for JBL or Otunga to get hot about though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted March 31, 2017 Report Share Posted March 31, 2017 When normal people are annoyed by such behavior, they roll their eyes or vent to a co-worker about it for a minute, then forget about it and move on with their day. I can't stand Mauro's announcing style and I can see the acknowledgment as condescending or aloof for the exact reasons goc mentioned, but this is the kind of thing that I don't understand people moving on from after two or three minutes. JBL strikes me as the co-worker who is constantly obsessed with what people put in the fridge in the breakroom and whether or not they washed their coffee cups when everyone else is just TRYING TO WORK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianB Posted March 31, 2017 Report Share Posted March 31, 2017 When normal people are annoyed by such behavior, they roll their eyes or vent to a co-worker about it for a minute, then forget about it and move on with their day. I can't stand Mauro's announcing style and I can see the acknowledgment as condescending or aloof for the exact reasons goc mentioned, but this is the kind of thing that I don't understand people moving on from after two or three minutes. JBL strikes me as the co-worker who is constantly obsessed with what people put in the fridge in the breakroom and whether or not they washed their coffee cups when everyone else is just TRYING TO WORK. I doubt JBL likes to work as an announcer much anymore. He probably misses being the wrestlers court prosecutor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fakeplastictrees Posted March 31, 2017 Report Share Posted March 31, 2017 I don't know anyone with bi-polar, but reading it about it--it sounds like hell. This is what is so tricky about wrestling, we don't know what the hell is a work and what is a shoot and because of this people work themselves into a shoot and in even bizarre cases shoot themselves into a work. JBL can always fall back on the Hulk Hogan/Terry Bollea gimmick that was used during the trial. Is the JBL asshole we see/hear on TV the real deal or just a guy playing a character? When/if he is backstage talking shit is he just working or is it a shoot? Does he take the work and realize there is some money and fakes a shoot and somehow (through his own will indirectly) it becomes a full blown shoot? It would be really fucked up if Mauro was worked into another attack as that means he is one of the biggest marks in the company and JBL is the biggest carny without a cause since Hogan. What is the end game here? How should mental disorders be treated in pro wrestling? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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