{"id":5906,"date":"2015-12-15T05:32:22","date_gmt":"2015-12-15T11:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=5906"},"modified":"2015-12-15T05:41:07","modified_gmt":"2015-12-15T11:41:07","slug":"ranallo-says-wwe-to-introduce-new-smackdown-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2015\/12\/15\/ranallo-says-wwe-to-introduce-new-smackdown-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranallo says WWE to introduce new Smackdown identity"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-4046772354\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>When long-time TV announcer Mauro Ranallo takes over the Smackdown lead position on January 7, the idea is to usher in a new\u00a0presentation\u00a0to\u00a0the blue brand, differentiating it from Raw.<\/p>\n<p>According to Ranallo in media interviews promoting his hiring, the idea is for him to be a cross between Michael Cole and Jim Ross; and for Smackdown to be a mix of Raw and NXT.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m getting that feeling. It&#8217;s a brand new platform and it&#8217;s great to have both programs under one umbrella at the USA Network.\u00a0I get the sense they want to make it kind of a hybrid between Raw, the flagship show with all the storylines and great performances from our Superstars in the ring, and what&#8217;s happening in NXT. That&#8217;s really been a phenomenon and I&#8217;m a huge proponent of that style of storytelling,&#8221; Ranallo told <a href=\"http:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/2599206-exclusive-new-wwe-announcer-mauro-ranallo-on-the-future-of-smackdown\" target=\"_blank\">Jonathan Snowden of Bleacher Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think if Smackdown can become a hybrid of the two, we&#8217;ll have a winning formula regardless of who&#8217;s on the microphone. But since it&#8217;s going to be me, \u00a0I love that it&#8217;s playing to my strengths. I think they want to set us all up to succeed. It&#8217;s going to be a new look and a new sound with the move to USA on Thursday, January 7.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ranallo, who was at Monday&#8217;s Raw TV in Philadelphia to begin shadowing the announce team, said he&#8217;s being allowed to use his real name, unlike other new WWE announcers who are often-times given a new stage name. Along with Ranallo being allowed to continue calling boxing and kickboxing, he believes it&#8217;s part of trying to make Smackdown seem more sports-like by having a credible, recognizable voice on the air.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think it begins with the fact that I will be known as Mauro Ranallo on &#8216;Smackdown.&#8217; I understand why they want to change people&#8217;s names and want to give them their own identity, but the fact that they respect my breadth of work and respect what I&#8217;ve done over the last 30 years as a broadcaster already puts me in a proper mindset,&#8221; Ranallo told <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/sport-news\/4688020-mauro-ranallo-wwe-smackdown-announcer-showtime-boxing-glory-kickboxing\" target=\"_blank\">Brian Fritz for Sporting News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m going to call WWE like I call everything. Yes, I&#8217;m going to be passionate. Yes, I&#8217;m going to be excited, but at the same time I&#8217;m hoping to get better as a storyteller and I&#8217;m hoping to complement the people I work with who have been doing this a lot longer than I have.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ranallo added to Bleacher Report: &#8220;I think WWE knows what they get in me as far as my passion and my storytelling ability. They want me to call sports entertainment the way I&#8217;ve called it over the past three decades. There&#8217;s a lexicon and certain things I&#8217;ll have to get used to, but that&#8217;s been true of any job I&#8217;ve been involved in. WWE wants the Mauro Ranallo everyone either loves&#8230;or doesn&#8217;t.&#8221;<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-3499027808\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Vocally, the\u00a0key to pulling off a &#8220;new identity&#8221; for Smackdown might be the announcers he is working with. Ranallo said he&#8217;s not sure who will be part of the team, but he &#8220;feels good&#8221; working with any of the four main voices of Jerry Lawler, Booker T, JBL, or Byron Saxton.<\/p>\n<p>As for his personal schedule,\u00a0Ranallo says he understands this will be a tough task pulling off the weekly WWE TV schedule, traveling to Raw and PPVs, and handling boxing and kickboxing broadcasts. But, he&#8217;s excited about the journey ahead.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m just glad that I&#8217;m able to do all of it, and who knows what the future holds?\u00a0It&#8217;s going to be a hectic schedule and I have to wait and see how all of us react to this. But I can guarantee everyone that I will be fully committed to each and every event and each and every task just like I was 20 years ago, 10 years ago, five\u00a0years ago. I&#8217;m taking better care of myself,&#8221; Ranallo said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-1734285594\"><div id=\"pwtor-3308214327\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>When long-time TV announcer Mauro Ranallo takes over the Smackdown lead position on January 7, the idea is to usher in a new\u00a0presentation\u00a0to\u00a0the blue brand, differentiating it from Raw. According to Ranallo in media interviews <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2015\/12\/15\/ranallo-says-wwe-to-introduce-new-smackdown-identity\/\" title=\"Ranallo says WWE to introduce new Smackdown identity\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[334,1327,355,72,71,117],"class_list":["post-5906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news_wwe","tag-jim-ross","tag-mauro-ranallo","tag-michael-cole","tag-smackdown","tag-wwe","tag-wwe-smackdown"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Logo-SmackdownArena-3x2_600.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5906"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5909,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5906\/revisions\/5909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}