Taz, JR, Josh Matthews Criticize Mauro for Missing SmackDown

Mauro Ranallo missed last night’s SmackDown in Pittsburgh because of travel issues from the blizzard that hit the northeast yesterday, which caused a lot of flights to be canceled.

Former WWE announcers Taz and Josh Matthews took to Twitter to bash Mauro for missing the show, insisting that they’ve driven themselves in extremely dangerous weather in order to make it to shows. Jim Ross then retweeted Taz’s comments. Seems like an arguable and possibly irrational “old school” mentality to me.

With @OfficialTAZ in the car, I once drove us 2 days to Indianapolis to make a TAPED Smackdown show from NYC. #JustSayin'

— Josh Mathews 🐐 (@realjoshmathews) March 15, 2017

Very dangerous driving conditions, @MichaelCole & myself. U drove the whole way. Gotta make the SHOT! Thats how it use to be… I guess. https://t.co/tFKeBXqwAe

— TAZ (@OfficialTAZ) March 15, 2017

Taz then posted this clip of him ranting about Mauro on his podcast. Jim Ross retweeted this video.

Gotta make the shot. #TheTazShow #RTG #WeOver #SDLive pic.twitter.com/RgOZKrkxi4

— TAZ (@OfficialTAZ) March 15, 2017

You cannot miss a show. You can’t. You can’t miss a show. When you miss a show, in no order of preference, you get heat with the locker room, you get heat with your boss, you get heat with your broadcast colleagues. This is not a regular job. You are there once a week and you are making a lot of money with a massive, massive platform. You’ve got to be there. You’ve got to make the shot. You’ve got to be there no matter what happens. Mauro is from Canada, so he’s well-versed when it comes to weather and snow. People knew this storm was coming for days. You have to prepare yourself to get to that town early. WrestleMania is two freakin’ weeks away. You can’t miss the show.

And how about this part… you know the young guy is up your ass. Phillips. He’s right behind you. They put him at the desk because they’re not exactly doing backflips over your performance. I’m being frank. It’s not a personal attack on Mauro. Mauro’s been on my show. I gotta call it like I see it and I just don’t think that’s cool.

Taz also said he had no problem with David Otunga missing the show in order to shoot a movie.

I have no problem with that, he had a opportunity to expand his brand in entertainment. Helps him & WWE https://t.co/MC2YuRHNQU

— TAZ (@OfficialTAZ) March 15, 2017