Mauro Ranallo is leaving WWE. Ranallo had worked with WWE since early 2016, first as a play-by-play announcer on SmackDown from January 2016 through March 2017, then as a NXT commentator from June 2017 to the present. (That intermission between his SmackDown and NXT stints came amidst talk of bullying from colleague John “Bradshaw” Layfield, and talk of Ranallo leaving the company entirely, but it ended with him finding a new role on NXT.) Now, though, Ranallo and WWE are supposedly parting on good terms. After Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reported Ranallo’s departure Monday evening, Ranallo put out a statement on Facebook:
And here’s the official WWE statement on Ranallo’s departure:
WWE and Mauro Ranallo have mutually and amicably agreed to part ways.
Mauro’s passion and enthusiasm left an indelible and exciting mark with WWE and its fans, and we wish him the best in his future endeavors.
As per Meltzer, this does seem to be an actual mutual and amicable parting of the ways:
Unlike in the past, this departure was not on any negative terms. Ranallo has missed the last few NXT broadcasts due to going back to British Columbia where his mother has been hospitalized. He was looking for a less stressful schedule even though WWE did accommodate him as best they could as he had been doing the shows from a home studio in Santa Monica, California, where he lives, as opposed to flying into Orlando each week since the start of the pandemic.
Ranallo is an interesting broadcasting figure, as he’s one of the very few play-by-play announcers to receive a full feature documentary treatment (Bipolar Rock N’Roller, which aired on Showtime in 2018 and covered both his broadcasting career and his battles with bipolar affective disorder). He’s also found success across all branches of combat sports, including recent MMA work with Bellator and recent boxing work with Showtime. And he still holds those latter two positions, so viewers will see lots of him in the days ahead. But it’s certainly notable to see him exiting WWE.
