10 INSANE WWE International Incidents
3. Backstage Pass
Justin Roberts, as several junior employees beneath his size had before him, fell victim to JBL and his euphemistic practise of “hazing”.
JBL, on a European tour, convinced somebody—not John Morrison, who refused to carry out the order—but somebody to make off with Roberts’ passport. That somebody did; Roberts was forced to request an emergency passport at the US embassy in London, necessitating a panicked long way ‘round trip.
When does a rib become an act of bullying?
Losing a passport is one of life’s more stressful first world problems, but Roberts was still reorganising his life—while his employer likely deemed him irresponsible, given that any revelation of the truth would come with it more troubling consequences—long after JBL stopped laughing. This scandal only came to light years later, upon the publication of Roberts’ autobiography. Sadly, that is likely because this wasn’t scandalous at the time. It was the norm.
This story offered a depressing and timely insight into WWE’s toxic undercurrent. Happily, one backstage power player, infamous for his alcoholism-enabling, racist bullsh*t behaviour, received his comeuppance in the years prior.