A WWE name has opened up about their commentary role in the company and comparisons to a past voice of NXT, Mauro Ranallo.
Mauro Ranallo joined WWE in December 2015 and remained with the company until his departure in August 2020.
A familiar voice on WWE SmackDown commentary until their mutual parting of ways, he is perhaps better remembered as the voice of NXT.
Ranallo joined WWE NXT in June 2017 following his return to the company to which he was still under contract, separating him from the John “Bradshaw” Layfield.
Previously, it had been reported that Ranallo had suffered bullying at the hands of JBL, although the WWE Hall of Famer would claim that there was no malicious intent towards Ranallo.
In August 2020, Vic Joseph would join the NXT commentary table alongside Ranallo and Beth Phoenix, with the pair working together for the month.
In a recent episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Joseph discussed the subject of Ranallo and his own objectives in his role, saying:
“I didn’t try to be Mauro, I didn’t try to give you a ‘mamma mia,’ I didn’t try to do his style.
“I have my own authentic way of doing things, and so me being me, I think drew the attention away from that, ‘Oh man, there’s a new announcer.’
“People respected the fact of, ‘Oh, this guy actually, he’s not half bad, halfway decent, he’s pretty good.’
“Early on you’d see your tweets, and you’d see your mentions, you go into your Instagram, and you’d see, ‘We miss Mauro.'”
Joseph would note that nobody “criticized” him for not being Ranallo on the NXT commentary table.
He had joined the company in 2017 and became part of the WWE Raw announcement team in September 2019.
In additional to Raw and NXT, Joseph has also given his commentary skills to NXT UK, 205 Live and Main Event.
Ranallo has gone on to be a play-by-play announcer for Bellator and boxing on Showtime.
He also appeared on wrestling commentary for Kenny Omega vs Rich Swann at Impact Wrestling Rebellion in 2021.
Transcript from Wrestling Inc.
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