10 Live Observations From WWE SmackDown In St. Paul

10. No Love For Mauro

Mauro Ranallo
WWE

When we got to the arena, the entrants for the dark match were already being announced. The Ascension and Breezango took on American Alpha and Heath Slater and Rhyno. Chad Gable got a lot of love as he’s from Minnesota, and Rhyno picked up some fairly loud “ECW” chants, a mere 16 years after the promotion shut down. It was a bit of a shame that the tag champs weren’t on the actual show, and that The Usos didn’t get a follow-up from their great promo last week. Still, the dark match got things off to a pretty good start.

After the match, David Otunga and Tom Phillips walked out together right before SmackDown began. Their names were announced to a very mild pop. JBL’s music then played and he received an entire full entrance. Mauro Ranallo...was already seated at his chair at the commentary table. Perhaps he showed up before the match, but he didn’t come out when everyone else did and didn’t have his name announced.

It seemed a bit strange. Lead announcer Michael Cole received full introductions to past events I’d been to. Mauro just doesn’t get much respect!

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