What’s the story?
SmackDown LIVE Commentator Mauro Ranallo appears to be distancing himself from the WWE as his Twitter bio no longer list any information about his role with the company.
However, Ranallo is still listed on the SmackDown section of the WWE Superstars page, which indicates that he has not been terminated officially.
In case you didn’t know...
Ranallo has been the lead play-by-play commentator since the first episode of SmackDown in 2016. Many fans would begin to notice his work as a commentator through SmackDown and his commentary with Daniel Bryan throughout the Cruiserweight Classic.
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When the Brand Split was revived in 2016, Ranallo would remain a SmackDown commentator and was joined by JBL and Tom Phillips for the majority of the year until David Otunga joined the team to make it a 4-man booth.
Ranallo has been absent from SmackDown LIVE for the past few weeks and even missed his commentary debut at WrestleMania 33. Rumours have surfaced that his bout with mental illness, which didn’t seem to affect him in 2016, was a result of JBL’s bullying.
The heart of the matter
A screenshot of Mauro Ranallo’s Twitter can be seen as follows:
Since the WWE have yet to announce anything official about Ranallo’s absence, removing WWE related information from his Twitter page indicates that Ranallo is either taking time off to deal with his issues or that he has quit and the WWE is possibly waiting for this to die down before officially announcing it.
JBL said the following when he was asked about any allegations of hazing or bullying Ranallo.
WWE haven’t taken any official action on JBL yet, either.
What’s next?
It’s typically after WrestleMania that the WWE fires some of their employees.
Simon Gotch of The Vaudevillians was the first wrestler to be released and there will likely be more to come following the Superstar Shake-up that will take place on next week’s editions of Raw and SmackDown.
Also read: WWE Rumors: JBL's comments about Mauro Ranallo are the likely cause of his current absence
Hopefully, Ranallo’s mental illness is not what leads to his departure from WWE; especially if it was triggered by someone else’s comments.
Author’s take
Hopefully, Ranallo returns to the WWE as soon as possible because he is one of the WWE’s best commentators. Many fans have placed him in high regard and enjoy the energy and passion he brings when attempting to elevate matches for the listeners at home.
If he departs after having been with the company for just a year, then it will be truly unfortunate.
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