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WWE News: Big Talent Still Absent From WWE Television, Misses ‘WrestleMania 33’

By Danny Cox
Published on: 11:27 PST, Apr 2, 2017

For weeks, one of the top talents from SmackDown Live has been absent from television and all things WWE, and he will end up missing WrestleMania 33 as well. For almost a month, the top announcer on Tuesday nights has been missing from the company and he will not be taking part in the largest pay-per-view of the year either. Mauro Ranallo has confirmed he will miss tonight’s big event and some interesting new info has come forward regarding his time away.

Mauro Ranallo first missed an episode of SmackDown Live a few weeks ago due to a massive snowstorm. The next week, Ranallo was absent from Team Blue’s show once again and this time, the excuse was that he was “sick,” but nothing more was said about it.

Over the past week, more information has come about and it has been revealed that he may be deeply struggling with depression and bipolar disorder which have plagued him in the past. Ranallo has taken time off to deal with what is bothering him and it was actually bad enough for him to miss WrestleMania 33.

[Image by WWE]

A lot of fans were hoping that he would be back for Sunday night’s big event, but PW Mania noticed that the announcer revealed he would not make it.

Ranallo saying he was “extremely happy” for his friend is aimed at WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross who has recently signed a new contract with the company. As recently reported by the Inquisitr, Ross is also rumored to call one of the big matches on the WrestleMania 33 card, but it isn’t known which one that would be.

For a while, Ranallo had fallen silent on social media which is rare for him as he tweets often and responds to fans all the time. After confirming he wouldn’t be at the PPV, he did tweet again with a quote of inspiration.

At this time, it isn’t known when Ranallo will return to WWE and SmackDown Live, but fans have been hoping that it will be soon. When he missed an episode the first night due to the “snow,” wrestling announcers such as Taz and Josh Mathews ripped him on social media while negative comments came from his one of Ranallo’s colleagues as well.

[Image by WWE]

According to What Culture, it is believed that some of the issues with Ranallo’s condition may have been elevated due to problems with John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL). The verbal shots that JBL takes at the lead announcer on SmackDown Live may be thought to be scripted but are believed to be real.

JBL has taken shots at Ranallo on Twitter and even on the WWE Network show called “Bring It To The Table.” It will be interesting to see if WWE forces the two to squash the issues upon Ranallo’s return or does a bit of a shake-up with the announce teams.

As for WrestleMania 33, Tom Phillips is taking the lead for the SmackDown Live announce team with David Otunga and JBL at his sides. In an odd turn of events, Philips becomes only the fifth man ever to call “lead” at a WrestleMania event.

It is obvious that there is something going on with Mauro Ranallo which has had him miss all WWE events in the last few weeks, and it is quite serious. Having to sit out WrestleMania 33 goes to show you just how big of a deal this is, and the company appears to be understanding of it. If there are issues with JBL, something will need to be done about it because WWE is not planning on having a new play-by-play man on SmackDown Live anytime soon.

[Featured Image by WWE]

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