Mauro Ranallo to miss this week's NXT

[BestSportsEntertainer]

Seems like WWE can't get away from the controversy the last few months with Crown Jewel, the Jordan Myles situation, and now this.

During Takeover: War Games, Corey Graves tweeted this:

"Just for the record guys, I know you wouldn't know it, but there's actually a WWE Hall of Famer AND a former Ring of Honor Champion on commentary.

I'd imagine they have a lot to offer."

Since then, Mauro has deleted his Twitter and missed Survivor Series. He will miss tonight's NXT.

Corey apologized on his podcast:

"I sent out a tweet. It was an unpopular opinion, as I often do with the intention of just stirring up a little controversy, maybe have something fun to talk about on TV or here on the show. It was maybe not the most professional way to go about things and it was not meant to offend, disrespect or disparage anybody, that was never my intention. If it was taken as such, I apologize deeply, that was not my intention. I would never intentionally cause anybody any undue stress, especially a co-worker."

Hopefully Mauro is ok and gets well and back to announcing.

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

Cory Graves should know his co worker better than that. Even people who aren't behind the scenes know he was bothered with JBL and has mental issues.

[#AbsoluteUnit]

Corey Graves ruining it for everyone.

[smarkmouth]

A lot to unravel here.

First, you can't solely put the blame on Corey here. What followed Corey's criticism was Twitter doing what Twitter does, and that's unleash a wave of anonymous douche bags to pile on.

As for Graves's tweet itself, it's a criticism of Mauro that I sometimes share and I didn't find it crass or abusive. This is obviously not about me, though. Whether it was Corey's remarks that pushed Mauro too far or not can't be addressed unless Mauro himself speaks up.

Have I sounded like a Corey apologist so far? Don't worry.

All that said, Corey Graves demonstrated irresponsible use of social media. Anyone on the wrong side of a snide Corey tweet is going to be attacked by said trolls, and that's something a public figure needs be cognizant of. Before tweeting, Corey should have said to himself, "hey, I have almost 500K followers. Many will echo a disgusting mutation of what I said. Given my colleague's known battles with mental health, Twitter isn't the platform to voice this criticism." A wordy thought, but by no means a leap.

As for the apology, fuck him. "I'm sorry someone felt that way" is not accepting responsibility for your actions, and if you're going to drop a half-assed apology, use the fucking NAME of the person you wronged.

[Jack-Hammer]

Here's the thing: I'm a fan of Mauro Ranallo. I love the guy's passion, I love his energy, I love the guy's wordplay. Can he be a bit much at times? Sure, I grant that but, for me, I'd rather have someone go over the top than someone who doesn't do enough or doesn't even try to do enough.

As to this thing with Corey Graves, this is a different situation than what happened with JBL. From what I understand, JBL got in Mauro's face, said some genuinely and extremely nasty things, bullied the crap out of him and sent the guy into a near breakdown. This...this was Graves making a mildly snide remark that isn't even in the same universe as the crap JBL pulled. If the comment by Graves is enough to almost mentally cripple Mauro, then I think he really, really, really needs a lot of help dealing with his issues tha he's not getting for one reason or another. If he's not doing some sort of therapy and/or isn't on any medication for his condition, then maybe it's high time he started getting some therapy and/or medication. Honestly, this wasn't that bad and I think is a sign that Mauro needs to make some real changes in how he treats his condition.

Now that's not to say I'm taking up for Graves as Graves is someone that's come down a whole lot in my eyes. He's good at his job, and ultimately that's what matters to me as a fan first and foremost but, in real life, the guy's exposed himself too many times as a brown nosing, two-faced hypocritical douchebag. His "apology" to Mauro was what I view as a Rick Sanchez apology "I'm sorry if you misunderstood what I mean" or "I'm sorry that you thought this is what was going on."

[Fallout]

Blown entirely out of proportion. I like both Mauro and Graves, and I totally get and empathise with Mauro's mental health struggles, but the people acting as if Graves is an irredeemable asshole are the biggest assholes in this entire situation; if they were in the same position as Graves in being socially shamed online to such an extent, they wouldn't handle it with half the gravitas as he has.

Graves is a heel commentator, and as such, will play that up somewhat on his own feed. It's his character. I'm pretty sure Graves has no animosity towards Mauro, and this is not remotely comparable to the hazing JBL was responsible for.

I also find it ironic that Dave Meltzer is leading this crusade when he insinuated a lot of shit towards Nia Jax earlier this year, and got shut down rightfully for it.

If anything, I think this reaction towards Graves probably made things much worse with regards to Mauro. Twitter is stage 4 cancer, and a blight on any kind of productive conversation nowadays.

[OYDK]

Yeesh. Just have a conversation. Why are you walking out on your job because of a tweet that wasn't even aggressive? Corey's not in the wrong. He might be a douchebag that loves to shout his opinion on absolutely everything, but that's part of his gimmick. The WWE bubble clearly isn't the most healthy environment for Ranallo so maybe he should just take a leave or something.

[A11]

Geez if thats enough to call in sick to work I'd never work a day again...

Someone called me squeaky yesterday because my shoes were squeaky, thats 100x worse than Graves' tweet

[BestSportsEntertainer]

I wouldn't be so quick to judge Mauro. None of us know what he goes through.

[mrluck_07]

Also, Graves stated his opinion on such a public platform and you know how people like to pile on.