This week Behind the Line isn’t going to be offering any industry insight, or even talking about video games. Instead, we’re talking about bullies and Pro Wrestling.

The Story

It shouldn’t be too surprising that there can be practical jokes among pro wrestlers. They travel constantly and put their bodies through a grinder, so they play around to let off steam. Also not surprising that sometimes it can go pretty far. One name that keeps coming up in THAT light is this guy:

Lesser known fact, he is a successful investor, but got taken off of FOX Business for throwing out a Nazi salute in Germany. Clearly a mental colossus and a paragon of good judgement.

While there are plenty of stories about JBL, recently it hit a new level. Recent WWE acquisition, well known announcer Mauro Renallo, who has been open about having bipolar disorder, was apparently pushed over the edge by JBL. JBL derided Mauro for tweeting that he had won an award, dismissing it with “We get it Mauro, the internet likes you.”

Mauro hasn’t been on WWE TV since then. Barring some miracle, it looks like he’s gone from the WWE forever, even though it was a dream job of his. The scale of that makes me think that it’s unlikely that this call out is the limit of what JBL did. Especially when you consider that in the wake of this, many WWE superstars have come out to say that JBL has bullied them too. This all built up to the point where #fireJBL has some significant traffic on twitter. Apparently he’s been blocking people who are confronting him on twitter about this, too. Seems kinda like some stereo-typically cowardly bully behavior to me…

Victim Blaming

There is a wide range of opinions out there on JBL, but I have noticed a common theme among those who would defend him. Often they say “You have to know him”, as though words and deeds are have no value or weight without considering the nature of the source. That means it’s the responsibility of Mauro to get to know JBL. Yeah, Mauro has to know JBL on a deeper personal level to understand a “joke”. Remember, when someone’s giving you a hard time, they have no moral responsibility. YOU have to get to know THEM. Only then can you put what they’re doing into context.

THAT IS VICTIM BLAMING

I’m not sure if I can come up with a better example of the concept that isn’t comically obvious. So, no, that argument is garbage. Here’s how that should work:

YOU SHOULD GET TO KNOW PEOPLE BEFORE PRANKING THEM

If he did that, he might not have driven Mauro away from the company. He also might not be making the WWE look like a gaggle of backwards hicks who condone this type of garbage behavior.

Old School Mentality

This behavior from JBL clearly comes from an old mentality, where you prank people fairly hard to make sure they’ll fit. What that actually does, in effect, is force out anyone who can’t conform to this homogeneous mindset. This is something that we as a society are starting to grow past, realizing that “diversity” goes beyond ethnicity or religion, but character type and other points of view. We are now in a world where a man with bipolar disorder can be one of the most respected announcers in the world. Sure, it would be pretty easy to just give him some space, but he’s just a bit too different, and that little allowance is just too much for JBL to respect. So instead, JBL acts like a jackass and forces him out.

I need to point out another example, but it’s a bit unsavory, so the details are behind the spoiler tag…

I can honestly see how that can be a completely harmless prank.  Gross, but harmless. However to the wrong person, that could be really bad.

The Future

I’m glad that we’re finally getting to a point in society where we can accept people with different character traits. A small example: introverted person. I’ve noticed that I’m treated as a defective extrovert less often than I was as a child. For other people, this is far more pronounced, and a significant improvement to their lives. It really only takes the smallest level of recognition and understanding from everyone else. Everyone else should be doing that anyway, because it’s also called BEING A DECENT HUMAN BEING!

There’s plenty of work still to go. WWE is probably not far enough along yet, so it probably won’t happen. Still though… #FireJBL

Kynetyk is a veteran of the games industry.  Behind the Line is written to help improve understanding of what goes on in the game development process and the business behind it.  From “What’s taking this game so long to release”, to “why are there bugs”, to “Why is this free to play” or anything else, if there is a topic that you would like to see covered, please write in to kynetyk@enthusiacs.com