Backstage News On Vince McMahon’s Frustrations With Mauro Ranallo

– According to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter (via wrestlinginc.com), here is the latest on the Mauro Ranallo situation. When Mauro Ranallo was hired last year, it was done so because WWE wanted him to be himself to give Smackdown a distinctive and different voice. After a few months, Vince McMahon reportedly became frustrated by Ranallo’s style and decided that he wanted him to be more like Michael Cole. The WON adds that Tom Phillips being added to the Smackdown announce team was the first public sign of McMahon’s frustration.

From there, Ranallo was made the butt of jokes and seen as “weird” backstage, adding that “the production room was filled with a lot of people who were emotionally still in high school.” JBL lashing out at Ranallo on Bring It To The Table was reportedly the straw that broke the camel’s back. The subject of Mauro being buried on the show was planned ahead of time

The WON relays another story involving JBL and a non-wrestler whose name was not mentioned. The person had a close family member dying and had to miss a couple of weeks of work due to a minor operation. This led to JBL going off on the person for taking time off and he harassed the person, adding that he didn’t miss shows after he had hernia surgery. He kept going on until the person was in tears, even though the person noted that it wasn’t the week to do this.

Ranallo remains under WWE contract until August 12th, he will be allowed to do commentary for combat sports, but not pro wrestling during that time.