Mauro Ranallo

Mauro Domenico Ranallo (born December 21, 1969) is a Canadian sports announcer, commentator and mental health advocate.

He has experience in Canadian football, ice hockey, professional wrestling, boxing, kickboxing, and mixed martial arts events.

He signed with WWE as the lead SmackDown announcer in January 2016, making his debut on the brand's premier on the USA Network.

In 2015, Ranallo became the first sports broadcaster in history to call boxing, kickboxing, MMA and professional wrestling on U.S. national television.

After that program ended production and the promotion folded in 1989, Ranallo became a disc jockey for Abbotsford, British Columbia radio station CFVR (now CKQC-FM).

[4][5][6] Ranallo has had many commentary partners while calling SmackDown: Jerry Lawler, Byron Saxton, Michael Cole, Tom Phillips, David Otunga, and John "Bradshaw" Layfield.

[21] WWE first claimed that Ranallo had missed a show due to travel issues associated with the March 2017 North American blizzard.

[24][25] On WWE's Bring It To The Table show, JBL had mocked Ranallo for tweeting about winning the "Best Announcer" award from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

[27] Ranallo's alleged treatment by Layfield as well as revelations from ring announcer Justin Roberts's autobiography resulted in a scandal for WWE because of their refusal to stop backstage harassment.

"[30] On June 22, 2017, Ranallo announced that he would join NXT as their lead commentator after mutually coming to new terms on a new contract agreement with WWE.

[35] In addition to wrestling, Ranallo provided commentary announcing duties for Muay Thai/Kickboxing events and King of the Cage mixed martial arts shows on TSN.

[36] He later became most prominently known among MMA fans as the voice of Pride Fighting Championships PPV broadcasts in North America from 2003 until October 2006.

Ranallo continued to be the voice of MMA on Showtime by becoming the mainstay of the commentary team for Strikeforce until that organisation's acquisition and eventual merger with the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2013.