You can't be a sports (entertainment) fan and have a conscience, Part Four: A Republican blowhard runs off a respected commentator...

It's about to boil over in the WWE.

And, no, I'm not talking about Roman Reigns and the eventual plans to have him end what might well be a year-long reign of Brock Lesnar holding a championship effectively in absentia.

(Though, if the fans keep getting pissed off about this, it may boil over into their distaste of the over-pushing of The Rock's cousin, but I digress.)

The WWE scored a coup last year when it acquired the services of respected play-by-play man Mauro Ranallo to perform on their Smackdown program.  Ranallo has been one of the most widely-respected voices in MMA and boxing for the last several years, and having him on the microphone would bring credibility to the WWE product.

That's all gone now.  Mauro Ranallo has performed his last for the WWE (the separation was made official late last week -- and, although Ranallo says it was NOT precipitated by the below, rumors of a large payoff to silence Ranallo on the subject make that statement hardly believable), and we have the elder McMahons' ties to Donald Trump and a commentator openly supported by him to probably blame for this.

It all started about three weeks before WrestleMania, the main WWE card of the year.  Mauro Ranallo was missing from the Smackdown telecast.  There was a large-scale blizzard in the area, and it was stated and believed (to some criticism in the wrestling community) that Ranallo could not get to the venue.

Unfortunately, when it became the last three Smackdowns before WrestleMania that he was gone, word began to surface that Ranallo, who has publicly disclosed issues with bipolar affective disorder, had suffered a relapse.

And then, almost immediately thereafter, word came out that perennial backstage bully John Bradshaw Layfield (a fellow Smackdown commentator after his in-ring retirement) precipitated this.

Anyone who knows of the podcast or shoot-interview world of former professional wrestlers knows of the occasional practice of "ribbing" -- jokes played between the wrestlers, well off-camera, to supposedly promote camaraderie among the traveling groups.

Many of these "ribs", though, can be taken quite too far, and "JBL", as Mr. Layfield has been known, is one of the worst offenders.

Two famous examples of his shenanigans led to concussions suffered by JBL which might've precipitated his retirement.

• It was no secret JBL didn't care for ECW, the former "hardcore" promotion out of Philadelphia.  So, when announcer Joey Styles joined WWE, JBL saw a target in the scrawny announcer.  On one of the WWE's formerly-annual trips to the Middle East to visit the troops, the bullying didn't stop...  until Styles knocked him out!
• JBL also took his distaste for ECW on camera, when he probably "shot" (made the fakeness of professional wrestling into reality!) on The Blue Meanie, one of ECW's character-driven motifs (which was actually created as a bit of a rib for the ECW talents to entertain themselves).  JBL was a part of a bunch of "invaders" from the main WWE brands to ECW's first "One Night Stand" pay-per-view (ECW was bought by WWE about the same time their main competition, WCW, was), and the spot was for a "mass brawl" that the ECW guys were to win.  During this brawl, JBL took liberties with said Blue Meanie, bloodying him.  As punishment, JBL was supposed to lose to Meanie in a succeeding Smackdown match.  Meanie's legitimate friend (and one of the partners in the aforementioned rib of the "BWO") Stevie Richards returned the favor with a shoot chairshot to the head!!!

One of the largest repositories of information on the subject is a new book from former WWE broadcaster Justin Roberts, called Best Seat in the House.

Roberts would say that he wrote the book to aid in improving the culture in professional wrestling and the WWE, and did not want anyone directly fired.

However, fans of both wrestling and MMA respect Ranallo so much that the (CORRECT!) demand to fire Layfield from the company has been echoed.  Unfortunately, because of Vince's iron hand over the product and his ties to the Bully in Chief, the Oompa-Loompa Piece of the Ultimate Shit in the White House (same POTUS who has tweeted during the controversy in support of Layfield!!!), it's probably not going to happen.

Well, Mr. McMahon, let me tell you something else not going to happen:  You're bringing NXT back to my hometown in early May.  My seat will be filled by someone else, if at all.

Why?

• From an Ask Me Anything on the professional wrestling subreddit "SquaredCircle", Roberts gave this image of the WWE's stance on bullying ribs within the company:  "The higher-ups don't see it as bullying, they laugh it off and encourage it because they just find it funny. Obviously the locker room has changed, but Vince, Kevin, and Hunter like to entertain themselves and it still happens."
• One of the ribs in question is a pretty hardcore bullying of referee Charles "Li'l Naitch" Robinson, where he was stripped and paraded.
• It's clear that, in Donald Trump America, this is accepted and encouraged.

So, you #FireJBL, or this fan is going to close his wallet.  Mauro Ranallo is a respected man in the fight game, and should've been treated as such!