JBL On Controversial WWE Incident: “This Was Always A Fireable Offense”

JBL agrees with WWE’s decision to fine a current superstar for doing something that is not allowed.

Tama Tonga is a member of the MFT (My Family Tree) stable led by Solo Sikoa on the WWE SmackDown brand. The former WWE Tag Team Champion Tonga recently got himself in trouble, which led to a heavy fine.

Due to filming and sharing WWE rehearsal footage on social media, Tama Tonga was fined a significant amount of money in the “five-figure” territory.

While Tonga’s original TikTok video was taken down, fans retrieved it, and it clearly showed Cody Rhodes, Solo Sikoa, and other superstars hanging out around the ring, along with officials, as they worked on segments that would air on SmackDown.

John Bradshaw Layfield (aka JBL) is a WWE Hall of Famer who was a wrestler for decades and also worked in commentary. JBL is still involved in WWE as an announcer on the AAA brand that WWE owns.

On the Something to Wrestle podcast, JBL said he agreed with WWE’s decision to fine Tama for sharing rehearsal footage, and would even agree if WWE fired Tama.

“This was always a fireable offense. You release something like that, you release secrets of your company.

I completely agree with WWE for the fine, for whatever the amount was, and if they’d have fired him, I’d have agreed with it.”

JBL Explains Why Showing Backstage Footage Is Not The Same As WWE Unreal On Netflix

After the news about Tama Tonga getting fined by WWE for sharing backstage footage on TikTok, critics noted that WWE openly shows backstage footage on the “WWE Unreal” show on Netflix, which features content from months before its official release.

JBL pointed out that WWE Unreal is different than somebody like Tama sharing something on TikTok for fans to see.

“The company chooses to release that in a way that is canned in their WWE Unreal, which is the prerogative that they have to be able to look at that, edit that, figure out what they want to put out, what they don’t.”

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