Bipolar Rock 'N Roller

Well, what do you think? Am I great or am I great?

The most unbiased announcer in professional wrestling,

Mauro "The Mouth" Ranallo.

All the shows have dealt with me

in one aspect or another, because I'm so good looking,

and I am so great.

I am only 18, and I'm a superstar already.

Thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of the show.

Oh, my God, what a fucking journey.

What an incredible fucking journey.

Christ. He was just in the zone.

You can feel it.

Yeah, buddy.

I get very angry at this.

Hello, I'm Mauro Ranallo. Judo hip toss by Rousey!

Down goes Klitschko!

I just want to sleep.

I have to show everybody what I'm about,

because if I don't now, it's done.

Tornado DDT by John Cena!

I just want to sleep.

I want to sleep, just sleep a long time.

Wow, I'm a fucking prisoner of my own fucking mind.

- You didn't record that, eh? - No.

You're just holding it like that?

Coming up, the Bipolar Rock and Roller.

Maybe you'll get a glimpse into what makes me...

me.

Um, my husband, we know each other

already from Italy.

We got married in 1967.

And then in 1969, Mauro born.

And then it was the first child,

and we were very happy.

Yeah, I was born on a six-acre farm

in a place just outside of Vancouver, British Columbia

called Mount Lehman.

And it was a very interesting childhood.

Growing up on a farm,

but not really wanting to be a farmer.

The road I grew up on, the road was a dead end.

There was no through street.

He was really smart. Very, very smart.

When he was three years old, he never interested in toys.

Always, I see him reading a lot of books.

Steady, reading, reading.

Always with the comics books all over his bed.

For me, my first true memories

of talking were actually reading out loud.

He liked to talk, liked to read.

Read like crazy.

I was able to discover at a very young age

that my voice was an instrument.

I emptied the toilet paper,

Mauro go picks it up.

He used the tubes for his microphone,

and talked to himself in bed.

I knew when I was four or five

what I was put on Earth to do.

And so, I would immerse myself in my own little world

in my room.

Truly in my own world.

The moon would cast a light on the wall,

and my hands would be the shadows.

I'd give them characters, I'd give them names.

I'd give them storylines.

And it was always conflict.

He was watching TV very close.

He was interested in so much, like.

I would always be attracted to voices,

of the radio, of TV,

the news anchors, play-by-play announcers.

Escaping what, again, was a farm life.

I lived on a dead-end road.

Lots of times, I say Mauro,

you got to cut the grass outside.

Eh, he don't want to do that.

He say, "Dad, I like to read a book.

You know, I like that."

Always, always, he doesn't like to do,

like, this kind of work, you know?

Dad had a chicken farm.

And after school, we'd have to go and feed.

He really didn't have any interest

in any of the manual stuff. I didn't mind it.

My creativity was never nurtured.

If anything, it was stifled, and it was, you know.

Go and feed the chickens. Go outside and mow the lawn.

Go and be a man.

Then, in 1977, I open a pizza place.

Mauro, he says,

"Well, Dad, I'm going to get the caller for the pizza."

And I say, "Come on, how you going to deal

with the customer?"

He just, "No, no, no, let me do."

Soon he started to answer the phone.

"Hey, Ranallo's Pizza."

So that'll be two medium, one pepperoni and mushroom,

one ham and pineapple. May I get your address, please?

As great as it was to grow up on that chicken farm...

...you know, there's that metaphor there,

where that's a dead-end street.

And I knew at a very young age that I wanted to be more.

Growing up, we used to watch wrestling religiously.

We'd go down in our basement there,

and introduce ourselves, and pretend we were wrestlers.

My best friend, Michael and I,

go to each other's houses on the weekend

and put on our own wrestling matches,

either on his trampoline,

or in my basement with my brothers.

It didn't cost a lot to go see pro wrestling,

and you didn't even have to know the language

to be able to see the morality play.

My parents, without a lot of money,

that was their form of entertainment.

We would go to every wrestling match

that there was.

There, I would see Mauro and his family,

sitting not far away from us.

My mom is going crazy yelling at the ref

and my dad, you see the energy coursing.

And it dawned on me, wow. My dad likes this.

I have to be involved in this.

Al Tomko, the promoter of All Star Wrestling

was looking for an announcer.

Mauro was there at the right place, the right time...

And he goes, "Hey, have you been on a mic before?

Can you do some announcing?

I got to take care of some business in the locker room."

Mike Janzen starts laughing.

He goes, "Um, this guy's got the biggest mouth

in the school, he's our announcer.

He does all the sports games, he's our PA announcer."

"Well, then, can you handle the mic?"

And in that moment, I just went, wow.

This is, this is...

Like, I get goosebumps now, and the smallest thing.

There was maybe 100 people in that gym watching the show.

I end up calling the rest of the show.

Everybody comes rushing.

"Ah, man, that was amazing. That was wild."

He walks over to me out of the thing,

he's got a smile on his face.

"What's your name, kid?" I gave him my name, he goes,

"I think-I think I got some work for you.

That was-that was pretty good tonight."

Time for the voice box...

You want to mess with the junior heavyweight champion?

I am the greatest wrestling match...

It was fantastic to see Mauro in action.

We might just go out and--

He was big mouth.

I'm Italian, I like Italian food, okay?

Anyways...

I always marveled at Mauro.

When it came to a microphone, he had like a switch

that he put on, and he was a different person.

Let's do it, then. Let's do it right now.

He was just a natural.

But forget that for now.

Guess who's back in town?

You want truth, take a look in the mirror.

So much energy.

So much incredible energy.

You're at the bottom of the ladder.

I'm not scared to wrestle anybody.

You have to prove yourself to me, because--

Have another match right here.

Wait, come on.

I'm going to become a major star.

I'm going to make it.

And I started at 16? Wow.

I'm on top of the world, ma.

Keep writing into the .

Write in to Mauro "The Mouth" Ranallo,

right here on the Universal Wrestling Alliance.

Hi, I'm Mauro Ranallo.

From the Soviet Union, to Czechoslovakia, to Scotland.

Good evening, everyone, I'm Mauro Ranallo.

Great day for soccer, the Air BC Cup, and...

I've called every sport in the book

from when I was a kid.

I did basketball, football, basketball, baseball,

hockey, lacrosse.

I mean, he's pretty well announced

everything under the sun.

And I was not prepared

to have that kind of attention.

I was not prepared to deal

with the changes that were happening.

I am sick and tired of what is going on...

And I noticed that there's change in the mood,

there's change in the biology, as it were.

And I'm going to tell you something else,

you midget bunny, wait,