10 Things We Learned From Attending NXT TakeOver: New York Live
2. TakeOver Without Mauro
This will not be a popular entry.
Your writer appreciates that he is in the minority when it comes to Mauro Ranallo's NXT commentary. The 49-year-old is a great professional, a student of the game, and, by all accounts, is an outstanding human being. Regardless - and this is a highly subjective take - the guy, at his worst, is absolutely excruciating.
This opinion comes from a couple of different things:-
1. The endless stream of cringe-worthy pop culture references and daft metaphors.
2. His insistence on operation at 100mph all of the time, rather than building up to his big explosions of enthusiasm. He is Metallica's "Kill 'Em All" album: all go, all of the time, with little variety. For him, "Ride The Lightning" should be the goal. Ranallo needs to slow things down so that his peaks stand out, rather than losing his mind every time someone hits a snapmare.
Having read that, you can probably understand how refreshing this scribe found it to enjoy a TakeOver event without listening to his immersion-shattering commentary. Mauro is beloved, and his appeal is well understood, but his flavour isn't to this critic's tastes.