Smackdown’s lead announcer, Mauro Ranallo, has been absent from the WWE for over a month. While reports surfaced that he was dealing with a “crippling bout of depression,” many expected to see Ranallo back on Smackdown once he felt healthy enough to do so.
Adding to that hope was a recent Tweet from Ranallo where he wished all his WWE colleagues a successful WrestleMania weekend. Today on Twitter we noticed that all mentions of WWE have been removed from Ranallo’s Twitter bio.
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Ranallo now only lists himself as “SHOWTIME Boxing/ COMBAT SPORTS CAROUSEL/ Mental Health Advocate.” Furthermore, Ranallo has deleted his most recent Tweets about the WWE, including the one about WrestleMania. His last WWE related post is the one where he said snow might keep him from a Smackdown broadcast on March 13th.
The commentator has a long history dealing with mental illness, dating all the way back to his teenage years, and it once caused him to miss commentating on an Invicta Fighting Championships event prior to joining WWE.
Mauro has never been shy of hiding his depression, and nothing had been heard from the WWE’s lead voice for two weeks before two of his closest friends stated that Mauro was fine, and resting at home.
We certainly hope this isn’t the end of Ranallo’s run with the company, as his enthusiasm and realism has been a breath of fresh air in the mostly bland WWE style of announcing that has been dominant since Jim Ross left the announce table.
Ross was brought in for the Undertaker’s final match at WrestleMania 33 and subsequently signed a two year deal with WWE. Some thought that he may be temporarily taking Ranallo’s place on Smackdown, but it appears WWE is content to move forward with Tom Phillips, JBL and David Otunga as a three man team.
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