Justin Roberts On Being Blindsided By WWE’s Bullying Culture, The Amount Of Attention JBL-Mauro Ranallo Story Has Received

Former WWE ring announcer Justin Roberts talked to PressBox about his newly released book, WWE’s culture of bullying and more.

Blindsided by potential pitfalls of working for WWE:

“I was completely blindsided. I knew about the reputations of a couple guys — I had heard that they were bullies, but I didn’t realize what the culture was like. When it started happening, I figured the company would handle it once they were aware, but then I clearly found out that the company wasn’t trying to stop it; the company more so encouraged it and stood behind it and laughed at it. They enjoyed hearing the stories of what went on. At that point, I knew that’s just how it is; there’s nothing I can do about it. So do I want to leave and be away from it, or since I worked so hard to get here, do I want to make the most of it and hope that eventually, it’ll stop? It took a lot longer than I expected for it to stop.”

How much attention JBL and Mauro Ranallo’s bullying situation has received:

“There’s speculation about what happened, and then at the same time, this book — which covers a lot of positive things, as well — has the story about JBL from 2003, which is a long time ago, but it had never been told. Everybody has heard JBL bullying stories, but now that this book has come out and people read about the type of stuff that went on, I think it gives them more of an idea that this could be a real thing.”

Roberts also talked about backlash toward his book and what he’s doing these days. You can read the full interview by clicking here.