Backstage Update On WWE's Mauro Ranallo/Corey Graves Situation

Will the NXT announcer return to the booth on Wednesday?

by Andy H Murray
Mauro Ranallo
WWE

Corey Graves kicked up a storm of controversy when he publicly criticised NXT play-by-play man Mauro Ranallo over the weekend, seemingly leading to Ranallo pulling out of Survivor Series 2019 and deleting his Twitter account.

The situation kept escalating throughout Monday. On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer reported that Michael Cole's Survivor Series cover story about Ranallo "blowing out his voice" at TakeOver: WarGames III was totally false and noted that WWE weren't happy about Graves' critical tweets, but there is no rift between Mauro and WWE and the popular announcer is expected to return to the booth for Wednesday's NXT.

This, unfortunately, led to an ugly exchange of tweets between Graves and Meltzer, starting with this one:-

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Meltzer replied with the following:-

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A further tweet saw the Observer man insist people don't compare this to his recent disagreement with Seth Rollins, saying: "Seth had a very valid point and I was wrong."

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This completed a bad, bad Twitter day for Graves, who worked himself into a shoot with former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Frank Shamrock at one point.

Twitter drama aside, Mauro returning on Wednesday is great news. Here's hoping this is the last we hear of this drama.

Channel Manager
Channel Manager

Andy has been with WhatCulture for eight years and is currently WhatCulture's Wrestling Channel Manager. A writer, presenter, and editor with 10+ years of experience in online media, he has been a sponge for all wrestling knowledge since playing an old Royal Rumble 1992 VHS to ruin in his childhood. Having previously worked for Bleacher Report, Andy specialises in short and long-form writing, video presenting, voiceover acting, and editing, all characterised by expert wrestling knowledge and commentary. Andy is as much a fan of 1985 Jim Crockett Promotions as he is present-day AEW and WWE - just don't make him choose between the two.