On a recent episode of ESPN’s Peter Rosenberg’s Cheap Heat podcast, he stuck up for his “Bring It To The Table” co-host JBL who has been in the news heavily over his backstage antics. Rosenberg also had words for The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer for pushing the story with once Smackdown Live announcer Mauro Ranallo & JBL.
Here are the highlights from the podcast:
Rosenberg Defending JBL:
“I am going to defend JBL because he is the first person that I’ve worked with since I got to WWE. JBL has also given me a hard time during ‘Bring It To The Table’ and at no point did I take any of that seriously and when he does it on-air and off-air, I laugh and I smile back and he starts laughing. That is the kind of guy he is. Do I know everything he has ever done? No, I don’t. I’m just telling you that my experience has been nothing but positive. I came into it as an outsider expecting a bit of ball-busting. Bullying is a real issue, especially when it comes to children. Children being bullied is a real issue and nothing to joke about. I am not going to live in a world where a grown man making jokes to another grown man at his workplace, if it was simply jokes, is enough reason for someone to leave his workplace. I can’t subscribe to that.”
Rosenberg On Mauro Ranallo & JBL’s Situation:
“Do I know everything that has ever transpired between JBL and Mauro Ranallo? Absolutely not. The idea that Mauro Ranallo is leaving WWE because of a joke on ‘Bring It To The Table’ is crazy and there are a lot of people on Twitter that believe that is it. Are you a fan of professional wrestling and you think that would be a valid reason to leave? Being teased on a show? You know what it used to be like back in the day, in the Blackjack Mulligan era, and you think someone making a joke leads to someone missing WrestleMania? Let’s just assume that can’t be a reasonable reason to leave WWE.”
Rosenberg On Dave Meltzer:
“It was not that he teased Mauro, it was that he didn’t even recognize The Observer at all. JBL utterly buried Meltzer and The Observer. That has to be noted because who has been the number one person pushing this story? Dave Meltzer and The Observer. So are you going to tell me, Dave, because you think people like me and everyone else that speaks on this is a cooperate shill and Jonathan Coachman who you said falsely was the target of JBL’s bullying which just isn’t true. You are going to call everyone else a shill and say that they have an agenda, but you don’t have an agenda? Even after JBL buried you? JBL called it a random Internet list and gave no credit to it. I’m sure that bothered Meltzer.”
