Rumor: WWE Working on Settlement With Mauro Ranallo to Not Bash WWE

Mauro Ranallo’s WWE contract, which expires on August 12, 2017, doesn’t allow him to give unauthorized interviews about WWE, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. There is a belief that WWE is “working hard” to reach a settlement with Mauro that would include a clause where he cannot talk publicly about his situation in WWE or disparage them.

The JBL bullying situation has not really picked up too much steam yet in mainstream outlets, and WWE obviously does not want something like that to blow up.

Jonathan Coachman

In a related story, Jonathan Coachman recently quit talking about WWE on ESPN after he had a spat with Dave Meltzer where Meltzer called him out for not covering the Mauro Ranallo story.

In an interesting twist, after Coachman denied that he had ever witnessed any bullying in his 10 years in WWE, Dave Meltzer claimed that several people reached out to him to let him know that Coachman was a “favorite target” of JBL during his time in WWE.

Quote me–My 10 years IN the business (not covering it) No bullying. There is no "culture" anyone who knows me knows what I am about. https://t.co/xuLAjNFlKP

— Jonathan Coachman (@TheCoachESPN) April 8, 2017

It was also pointed out by Deadspin that Coachman recently told a story about a prank where Vince McMahon and others had him think that he was getting arrested, which left Coachman crying. This story does seem more like “just a prank” than “bullying” to me, though.

Q: I’ve heard a rumor about Vince McMahon playing a prank on you that involved cops. It was published in one of the WWE publications, any truth to it?

A: What you read and heard was 100% true. The thing about WWE is you have to be accepted on many different levels. From 2003 on, I was one of the boys. If you were willing to put your neck on the line and get in the ring, that separates you from everybody else. Up until that point, I had to be accepted into the crew, so to speak. Basically, Jerry Brisco came up to me in 2001 in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and he said he wanted me to run a football pool. $10 to pick all the games, and everybody did it. And I started on a Tuesday, it was a Smackdown taping, I’ll never forget it. I had my own room I did interviews in, and all the sudden two cops show up. They were very serious, and said I understand you’re running a gambling pool. You sold one to one of our undercover cops here. It’s a felony in North Carolina and we’re going to have to take you in. So we’re walking down the hallway, and we stop in front of Vince’s office, and they said we should probably let him know because you’re not going to be here for a while. We walk in and it’s Vince, Triple H, Stephanie, The Rock, Kevin Dunn and Jerry Brisco. I should have known that, with Jerry in the room, something was going on, but I was so terrified because I was 26 years old. The real cops proceeded to tell Vince they’ve caught me in a gambling pool and we need to take him downtown. Vince got in my face, and he was an inch away from my nose. He was cursing, telling me my priorities were bad, and spending company time to run a gambling pool. This entire riff lasted 45 minutes. At the end of the office bit, the officer said it was $1,500 to get me out, and Vince said F-no, he’s on his own. They handcuffed me, and I asked if there was anything I could put over my face. Vince threw me a pair of sweaty gym shorts that got stuck on my face. I walked out of the office and the first person I see is The Undertaker. He looks at me with shock, and it was so real because no one else was in on it except those people in the office. They walked me out, and all the fans could see me and they drove me about a mile down the road, and got a call on the radio that they had to come back to pick up something. They turn around, come back, and everyone’s there with Vince in front of everybody laughing their asses off. Greatest rip in the history of the business, and for about 10 minutes I literally walked to a place in the building and started crying. I thought my career was over. I thought how can I tell my dad I got fired over a $10 football pool.