Quotes from Mauro Ranallo

I wouldn't be in WWE without Michael Cole.

I'm going to call WWE like I call everything. Yes, I'm going to be passionate. Yes, I'm going to be excited, but at the same time, I'm hoping to get better as a storyteller, and I'm hoping to complement the people I work with who have been doing this a lot longer than I have.

I'm a fan first and foremost. I get caught up in the drama, the emotion of what is happening, whether it's a boxing match, an MMA fight, a kickboxing contest, or a WWE matchup. I want to tell the story and paint more pictures.

People can say what they want about WWE. Paul Levesque, Vince McMahon, Michael Cole - they all gave me another life by bringing me back to call NXT. That's where I should have been in the beginning.

I will always be thankful to WWE for letting me be the voice of SmackDown Live and bring it to the USA Network.

I love working with Byron Saxton and Jerry Lawler, and I hope I continue to do so.

For me, at a very young age, I knew I wanted to be in the entertainment industry; I wanted to be an announcer. I was very smitten at an early age with the voice I heard coming from a radio.

I knew at five years old what I wanted to do for a living. I started reading newspapers and books out loud at a very young age. I was very focused on English and building my vocabulary.

We need to treat people with mental illness like people.

I need to stay busy. Otherwise, I am like so many people, alone with my thoughts, and I can be my own worst enemy.

I've always loved kickboxing.

No matter what job I've undertaken, whether it was Glory Kickboxing or Strikeforce or Pride Fighting Championships or Showtime Championship Boxing, you have to play by the rules of the company you work for.

UFC is UFC, and God bless them, they have the largest roster and some amazing fighters, but there's amazing fighters everywhere. That's why I am impressed with what Bellator has attempted to do with the tournament or with Aaron Pico and some of the younger talent.

I've always been an advocate for mental health.

Mental illness affects everyone.

I don't think it's been healthy what I've done in my life to get to where I am mentally and otherwise, but it is the path I've chose. I'm not married, no family, and my hobbies are my loves.

It's a daily struggle for me to stay alive. I don't mean to be melodramatic, hyperbolic, or go into my broadcast mode. But even that, my career is bipolar.

There is a beauty and a special quality in being what I am. I know it, and I've learned how to use it.

I am bipolar, and I am a full manifestation of it in terms of my speech, in terms of my energy.

Mental illness, unfortunately, is an invisible disease: it's not seen or heard. For whatever reason, because of that, society has decided that if we can't see it, maybe it doesn't exist, so they want to just sweep it under the carpet or say, 'Snap out of it,' or that you're looking for attention.

All combat sports are connected.

We all know the difference between sports entertainment and the combat sports that I call, but at the end of the day, they are all spawned from the same source, and there's a lot of mutual respect between the two bodies.

I'm a huge sports fan, and I'm a huge entertainment fan.

I gave myself the nickname 'Bipolar Rock N' Roller' way back in the 1990s, when - as much as we don't talk about mental health now - back then it was almost nonexistent. And if it was broached, it was done in a very pejorative way.