It’s clearly been a difficult month for Mauro Ranallo but on the surface, it seems that the long-time commentator is now ready to get back to work ... but not for WWE.
Recently suffering through a difficult time with his bi-polar disorder, Ranallo was uncharacteristically silent on social media for weeks before returning and even announcing that he’ll be covering the Andre Berto Shawn Porter boxing match on April 22nd. What hasn’t been announced yet is Ranallo’s return to the SmackDown commentary desk with signs making it seem questionable whether or not he’ll return at all.
Ranallo’s return to social media came with the removal of any WWE mention on his account which obviously led to a great deal of speculation surrounding his status with the company. A tweet wishing his “WWE family another AMAZING #WrestleMania” was even deleted.
Then Ranallo sent out this cryptic Tweet:
Many felt this was in reference to the speculation around the treatment of Ranallo by his co-commentator, JBL, who has found himself mired in an entirely separate bullying controversy.
This all led to WWE releasing a statement confirming that Ranallo was still under contract “until August 12, 2017”.
However, CBS Sports has since reported that Ranallo isn’t expected to return to WWE for the remainder of his contract, citing a source “close to the situation”. Regardless of whether or not Ranallo returns to WWE, it’s clearly a positive sign that he is returning to his role as the play by play announcer for Showtime Boxing and hopefully this situation becomes clearer in the very near future.
