As the 2019 iteration of WWE Survivor Series features wrestlers from Raw, Smackdown, and NXT, it also includes commentators from all three brands. However, the most prominent voice on the NXT announce team, Mauro Ranallo, has been noticeably absent from the PPV. Survivor Series announcers explained this by saying he’ll be on NXT this Wednesday, but he “blew his voice out” calling last night’s NXT TakeOver: War Games. However, that statement reportedly isn’t true.
https://twitter.com/WWEGraves/status/1198414519556562944
During War Games, Smackdown commentator Corey Graves was openly critical of Ranallo. He tweeted first that “Just for the record guys, I know you wouldn’t know it, but there’s actually a WWE Hall of Famer AND a former Ring of Honor Champion on commentary. I’d imagine they have a lot to offer.” with an emoji of a shrugging man. About an hour later, he responded to a tweet asking “how many Chicago rap references” Ranallo had made on the show by saying, “Far, far too many.”
Today, Frank Shamrock, a former UFC champion and a current friend of Ranallo, responded to Graves’ initial tweet with a screencap of a tweet by Ice-T reading, “Social media has made too many of you comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the mouth for it.” Graves had tweeted the same image about two hours before his initial criticism of Ranallo with the captain, “The gospel according to the OG.”
Ranallo has yet to comment on the situation and has deleted all of his social media. The Wrestling Observer’s Bryan Alvarez, meanwhile, tweeted that “If you somehow haven’t heard, Mauro Ranallo won’t be doing the show tonight as a result of Corey Graves’ tweet.”
