WWE Hall of Famer Booker T believes that, when it comes to the dispute between JBL and Mauro Ranallo, it would have been better off for all parties involved if the issue never had gone public.
Ranallo is not expected to appear on WWE programming again, and reportedly exited as the lead broadcaster on Smackdown due to an issue with Smackdown color commentator JBL, whose bullying behavior has received widespread scrutiny and media attention since news of the issue with Ranallo.
Booker expounded on the issue between the two commentators during the latest episode of his Heated Conversations podcast.
"If it’s something that’s done in the back, if I’m being disrespected there, I feel like it should be handled a little bit different as opposed to going on social media and talking about it. That’s first and foremost to me,” Booker said. “Is it something that should be public to the public? I mean, if you worked at McDonald's and you mad because you on the fries and you wanted to be doing the burgers, are you going to go on social media and say, ‘Boss ain’t letting me go over and do the patties, man. I want to advance now. I want to do patties.’ Are you going to go on social media and talk about that?”
Booker, who noted he felt like bullying "goes away when you're a grown man" in the same episode, went on to question whether anyone knew the "true facts" in the issue between JBL and Ranallo.
"I mean, who’s right and who’s wrong in a situation like this?" he said, noting there were "two sides to every story and we’ve got to look at it that way. I think it is locker room talk and that’s where it should end. As far as social media, as far as JBL/Mauro Ranallo, who was wrong? I don’t know if anybody was wrong or right in this situation, but I hope it gets resolved and I hope that it gets resolved very, very soon.”
Short term, Booker remains part of the commentary team on Raw, while David Otunga is filming a movie.
