Michael Cole Cuts WWE Role As Replacement Named

Michael Cole remains the voice of WWE in many ways while some behind-the-scenes changes have also taken place involving the veteran announcer.

When WWE hired Michael Cole as an announcer in 1997, he came from the world of news reporting where he spent time covering wars and real-life events. For the past 27 years, Cole has risen to an incredible position as the lead announcer in World Wrestling Entertainment.

Throughout his WWE career, Cole has spent many years on both Smackdown and Raw as the lead announcer. Cole is also the main announcer on all WWE Premium Live Events as well.

In present-day WWE, Michael Cole is the main announcer on the Raw brand along with Pat McAfee. Smackdown’s commentary team is Corey Graves and Wade Barrett. Most WWE PLE events have Cole & Graves on commentary although McAfee was a part of both nights of WrestleMania 40 as well.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson has reported that WWE has made some internal changes when it comes to who is managing their announcers behind the scenes. It used to be Michael Cole’s job, but the report states that “Cole has pulled back from those responsibilities in order to concentrate fully on his work on camera as the lead voice of WWE.”

Meanwhile, PWInsider reports that it was a Cole decision and the company didn’t have an issue with it.

As for who is taking Cole’s spot in managing the announcers in WWE, that job will go to Sue Cundaro. According to PWInsider, Cundaro has been with WWE for a long time and worked with Cole to manage the announcers. She will be overseeing the commentary team moving forward.

Michael Cole Thinks WWE Is A Different World In The Triple H Era

For most of his WWE career, Michael Cole worked under Vince McMahon, who was known for yelling at his announcers a lot and micromanaging a lot. Over the last year, Vince McMahon has been out of that position and it’s the Triple H Era, which Cole has mentioned many times. Recently, Cole said that things are a lot looser now.

“Under the new regime now, things are looser. The direction’s different. There’s a lot more trust in commentators now than there was before. We are having the opportunity to be ourselves. Open up, develop character, call pro wrestling, sports entertainment, the way we want to.”

The next major show that Michael Cole will call is WWE Backlash France this Saturday, May 4th featuring Cody Rhodes defending the Undisputed WWE Championship against AJ Styles in the main event.