Mauro Ranallo, who will be the new voice of WWE SmackDown in 2016, recently spoke with Bleacher Report and revealed that he is already on the road with WWE.
For the next few weeks, I’m actually going to be at every Raw and every SmackDown taping. I’m in Philadelphia right now watching the broadcast and taking notes and taking advice. And then for SmackDown, I’ll actually be sitting next to Michael Cole as he runs the broadcast with Jerry Lawler and Booker T.
For the next few weeks, I’m going to be a shadow and doing my best to get up to speed on everything. Then beginning on January 7, I’ll be on Thursday nights on USA as the voice of SmackDown.
When asked if SmackDown will be different in 2016, Ranolla explained that is the impression he is getting it will be.
I’m getting that feeling. It’s a brand-new platform, and it’s great to have both programs under one umbrella at the USA Network.
I 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’s happening in NXT. That’s really been a phenomenon, and I’m a huge proponent of that style of storytelling.
I think if SmackDown can become a hybrid of the two, we’ll have a winning formula regardless of who’s on the microphone. But since it’s going to be me, I love that it’s playing to my strengths. I think they want to set us all up to succeed.
You can read the entire interview here.
