WWE NXT News: Mauro Ranallo Contract Extension, Donovan Dijakovic Knee Surgery, Triple H Comments on Takeover
Here are some NXT related news items this evening.
First of all, the voice of NXT is Mauro Ranallo and the good news is he is going to be staying with WWE NXT as their lead announcer because he signed a new contract according to PWInsider. The report notes that while they can confirm the new deal this week, it was likely agreed upon last month perhaps around WrestleMania time. Ranallo has been the voice of NXT since June 2017. Ranallo worked on Smackdown in late 2015 into 2016 as well. The PWInsider story did not say how long Ranallo’s new deal is, but it’s likely two years ago or perhaps even three years.
In addition to his NXT duties, Ranallo will still be able to work outside of WWE doing combat sports work such as boxing and MMA announcing.
TJR Thoughts: That’s great news. I’m a huge fan of Mauro and I think he’s the best play by play guy that WWE has right now. I think his enthusiasm would help on Raw and Smackdown, but if he’s happy at NXT then that’s fine with me too.
I highly recommend the Mauro reaction video above if you’ve never seen it because it’s tremendous. WWE has posted a few of them on their Youtube channel in the last couple of years.
* Donovan Dijakovic is going to be out of action for a few months because he underwent surgery for a torn meniscus in his right knee yesterday in Orlando. He posted a video on Twitter where he did a promo talking about the surgery, how his family is there for him and they will help him get the North American Championship.
https://twitter.com/DijakovicWWE/status/1126230636744859651
Best of luck to Dominik in his recovery. A torn meniscus usually means two or three months on the shelf. He was starting to be used more regularly in NXT, so this is a setback for him, but he should be able to finish the year strong and perhaps get that NXT North American Championship that he covets.
* Lastly, here’s a video where Triple H talked about why WWE chose the Webster Arena in Bridgeport, CT for NXT Takeover XXV on June 1. Tickets go on sale for the event this Friday. We wrote about the NXT Takeover XXV event here.
In the video, Triple H talked about how they wanted to bring an event to the Connecticut area since it is WWE’s home state (WWE headquarters are in Stamford, CT), so that helped them decide on that venue for Takeover XXV. It was originally going to be one week later in San Jose, but that was changed due to the WWE schedule. Triple H didn’t mention it in the venue, but it’s because the Saudi Arabia show was moved from early May to June 7, which meant that Takeover had to be moved and the June 23 PPV Stomping Grounds was pushed back one week as well.
Anyway, here’s Triple H talking about the next Takeover.
No matches are official for NXT Takeover XXV yet, but we should know more about the card in the coming weeks.