WWE Makes Change To Commentary Teams
The WWE commentary teams have changed again for the main television shows.
Anybody who follows WWE regularly knows that the company’s commentary teams for Raw, SmackDown, and sometimes even NXT change multiple times in a year.
When WWE Monday Night Raw debuted on Netflix in January of 2025, the commentary team was 28-year veteran Michael Cole and former NFL punter and ESPN personality Pat McAfee. For six months, they called the action until McAfee decided to step away from the role in June, while citing “mental exhaustion,” and it’s unknown if he’ll ever return to WWE as a regular announcer.
Considering Pat McAfee is paid an enormous salary by ESPN to host a popular weekday sports show, and he appears on the popular College Gameday show on ESPN in the fall, he certainly doesn’t need a WWE job. Triple H announced that Pat McAfee will be appearing at WWE Wrestlepalooza on September 20th in Indianapolis, which is where Pat lives.
Corey Graves filled in on Raw while McAfee was away for the last three months, but that has ended, too.
On WWE SmackDown in Chicago, Michael Cole was on commentary with Corey Graves, as Cole noted they will be the SmackDown team for the next couple of months.
The likely reason for the change is that Joe Tessitore, who called SmackDown all year with Wade Barrett from January through August, is a college football announcer for ESPN, who does games every Saturday from September through December. Since Joe is on the road doing college football
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As for Corey Graves, he was moved to the NXT commentary team back in January and wasn’t happy about the perceived demotion, but he settled in as a three-man team with Vic Joseph and
It appears that the commentary teams for the rest of this year will look like this:
Raw – Joe Tessitore and Wade Barrett
SmackDown – Michael Cole and Corey Graves
NXT – Vic Joseph and Booker T
For PLE events, Michael Cole has been calling those shows with Wade Barrett, but Corey Graves was Cole’s partner on those for many years as well.
The teams will likely change again in the new year when Joe Tessitore doesn’t have college football responsibilities, and WWE will likely want Cole calling Raw action on Netflix again.