Stories of JBL’s backstage bullying in WWE have popped up before making him synonymous with the practice in some respects. This was amplified by the situation surrounding Mauro Ranallo’s exit and eventual reunion with WWE. However, it would appear that JBL’s bullying ways stretch back even further than 2016 when Ranallo left only to return as an announcer for NXT.
Tony Atlas’s third return to WWE was from 2008-2014 where he was an on-screen personality. During that time, he also assisted in backstage responsibilities, but apparently, JBL and his nasty ways made it difficult for Atlas to perform his duties.
The WWE Hall Of Famer recently sat down with Boston Wrestling where JBL was brought up in the conversation. What followed was a rather lengthy tirade on JBL’s backstage bullying where Atlas wasn’t shy at all about revealing his true feelings for John Bradshaw Layfield.

“One of the worst people didn’t like, if I had half a chance I would have whooped his ass going and coming and that is Bradshaw. What a prick, cause he’s a prick a first-f*cking class prick. The worst individual anybody would ever want to meet in their life.”
“He would take guys who were not on his standard and he would always try and put people down. He’s the type of guy who likes to belittle people, you know? One time he got his ass whooped by an office personnel (Joey Styles) beat his butt.”

Atlas said he wasn’t there to witness Joey Styles punching JBL out, but he noted Mark Henry saw it and Henry doesn’t lie about anything. He continued to explain how he never had a personal issue with JBL, but he saw the way that the former Acolyte treated everyone around him and that was enough.
Then Tony Atlas elaborated on what JBL would say as he would bring up Tony’s history with drug abuse to belittle him backstage as he was trying to advise younger talent backstage.

“I just watched the way he acted around other people. He always thought that he was better than all the guys in the dressing room. He’s very arrogant and sarcastic. He’s not a likable person if you worked the territory with him. That’s why when he got beat up by Joey Styles that everybody loved that. Everybody was cheering about it. I was hearing about it before the fight was over people was texting me. They said, ‘He got what was coming to him.’ He just liked to belittle people, it’s his nature. He’s a nasty person, he can be very nasty. There’s nobody that I knew who liked him while I was there. He was not liked by anybody.”
“If he was sitting here right now, I’d tell him that he’s a prick. I’d tell him now because I can’t get fired. I put up with his sh*t while I was there but… there was a lot of times I just wanted to get up and punch him in the face. I mean just about every time he came into the dressing room I’d go, ‘Oh sh*t here he comes.'”
“He would make stuff like during my drug days, he would bring it up everytime he saw me. ‘Tony like Hoover, Hoover’ he would always bring up cocaine, always bring up sh*t like that. I was trying to keep that under wraps because my job was to teach all the young kids like Sheamus, all the young kids who came in. Vince said, ‘Talk to them Tony, tell them where you made your mistake, so they don’t make the same mistakes.’ So that was primarily my job was to tell other kids and everytime I try to help some young kid, here comes Bradshaw putting me down in front of them.”
“So he puts me down in front of kids, the kid would start laughing at you so now all the seriousness where maybe you could have reached this young man and guide him in the right direction, Bradshaw would just come in and destroy all that saying, ‘Ah you listening to that Tony, he’s all burnted out he’s all f*cking coked out.’ He was a nasty son of a gun. I got no respect for him.”

Tony Atlas said he wasn’t the only one who JBL tormented on the roster and the only reason nobody says anything is due to Bradshaw’s relationship with Vince McMahon.
JBL’s friendship with McMahon caused other people to keep their feelings to themselves. Therefore, many of the stories to corroborate tales of JBL’s backstage bullying might forever remain unspoken.
At this point, JBL isn’t on television every week, but he does still show up for special occasions. WWE Tribute To The Troops is something he holds very close to his heart and he was in attendance during the tapings for the 16th annual event which WWE filmed yesterday at Fort Hood.
Only time will tell if WWE Network will be able to eventually book JBL and Tony Atlas for an episode of Table For 3 so they can hash out their differences.

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H Jenkins

I love pro wrestling and hate BS. These two things drive me. Years of experience in writing, journalism, and digging exclusive insider info for Ringside News. Worked in finance before realizing pro wrestling journalism made much less sense. Pro beachballs at pro wrestling shows, pro dives if someone catches, anti bullies, olives, and pineapples on pizza.

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