Michael Cole On WWE After Vince McMahon: “Everything Has Been Great”
Michael Cole has revealed how he feels about working in WWE without Vince McMahon running the show.
One of the biggest news stories of 2022 came in the summer when there were reports that former WWE Chairman (for 40 years!) Vince McMahon paid a former employee “hush money” to keep a sexual relationship private. Vince made it seem like everything was okay after initial reports, but then a few weeks later on July 22nd, Vince announced that he was retired.
With Vince out of WWE, Stephanie McMahon-Levesque took over as WWE Chairwoman and Co-CEO along with Nick Khan while Paul “Triple H” Levesque took over as the Chief Content Officer meaning he was in charge of WWE’s creative team.
It was a big change for WWE as a whole and for Michael Cole, it meant that he didn’t get to work for Vince anymore. Cole started in WWE in 1997, and he became the voice of Smackdown a few years after that. Cole remained on Smackdown for many years through the 2000s, then he was moved to Raw in the early 2010s and in 2019 when Smackdown moved to Fox, Cole was back on the blue brand.
During an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show on Youtube, Cole talked about what things have been like after Vince McMahon’s retirement in July.
“Everything has been great. It’s been a great change of scenery the past couple of months. Things are going wonderfully. Ratings have been good, stories have been great, it’s a different world. I worked under Vince for 25 years and I knew nothing else. He’s a second dad in many ways, I grew up in the company. It was a shock when it first happened and we’ve all settled in and realized the show must go on. The show is going on and we’re doing well.”
Cole remains the voice of WWE on Smackdown with Wade Barrett as the other announcer on the show. Pat McAfee is expected to return to Smackdown likely in early 2022 after his duties on ESPN College GameDay end.
In addition to his Smackdown duties, Cole is also the Vice President of Announcing, which is a role he has had since 2020. Cole recently called the WWE Crown Jewel event in Saudia Arabia with Barrett.