Anyone who watched last night’s Survivor Series show will have noticed a certain voice was missing from commentary, that of NXT lead play-by-play commentator Mauro Ranallo.
Ranallo is widely seen as the best commentator WWE has, and possibly in the world, but his colleague and current SmackDown commentator Corey Graves took to Twitter yesterday to say this about the commentary on NXT TakeOver: WarGames.
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.
— Corey Graves (@WWEGraves) November 24, 2019
The majority of fans have taken this as Graves calling out Ranallo for talking too much or not letting Nigel McGuinness or Beth Phoenix get a word in, and have labelled Graves a bully in the comments.
Following the critical tweet, Ranallo has deleted his Twitter account, something Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer is a direct consequence of Graves’ tweet.
Ranallo has been very open in the past regarding his struggles with mental health and bi-polar, so we sincerely hope that he hasn’t been too badly affected by Graves’ words.
It could be that everyone is reading too much into what Graves said, and that he wasn’t trying to be openly critical, but it appears that it has taken a toll on his former NXT colleague.
Just on a personal note, I think Ranallo is a fantastic commentator who makes matches more exciting on his own, and I’d rather listen to him than a Michael Cole lead commentary team any day.
