Mauro Ranallo did not take part in Survivor Series on Sunday night. During the broadcast, Michael Cole announced that Mauro wore out his voice at NXT Takeover: WarGames and that is why he wasn’t involved at the event.
On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer says that Mauro’s absence actually had to with a Tweet that Corey Graves sent out, criticizing Mauro’s commentary at WarGames. For those who missed it, Graves wrote:
“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.
Meltzer also provided an update on what happened backstage at Survivor Series. Here is what he said (h/t to Sportskeeda for the quote below):
“Mauro Ranallo and Frank Shamrock went to the building, I guess, I mean I guess the gist of everything is that they left and they were very, very upset. And Corey Graves, I believe, he did take down the tweet at some point and Frank Shamrock wrote, ‘Social media has made too many of you comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the mouth for it and he sent that to Corey Graves. This is not some random thing where you are trying to, ‘oh you’re connecting the dots’, I mean that’s exactly what it is.
“And it was the tweet and that’s why he didn’t do the show. He did not quit, obviously, everything is fine, everything seems to be fine between Mauro Ranallo and WWE, I was told tonight that he absolutely is expected to be there Wednesday commentating on NXT and that, from his side, he absolutely expects to be there, and that, I think they were not happy with Graves although Graves did do the show tonight.
“I guess we are going to watch this thing play out or maybe it’s just over, again, it didn’t feel like, umm, you know I was hearing about it, and it’s not like this was a blowup, It’s not anything bad but he did leave and you’re not supoosed to do that and they understood and they are going to have sympathy or, I don’t even know if sympathy is the right word, but there is going to be leeway. They don’t want him leaving for a number of different reasons.”
It is also worth noting that Mauro deleted his Twitter account after Takeover: WarGames.
On a related note, check out my early match card predictions for NXT Takeover: Portland.