WWE SmackDown Commentary Team Changes Again

The commentary team on WWE SmackDown keeps changing.

There were familiar voices on WWE SmackDown in Norfolk, Virginia, but they weren’t familiar on SmackDown.

The NXT commentary team of Vic Joseph and WWE Hall of Famer Booker T were on commentary on SmackDown this week. It was interesting considering Michael Cole said last week that he and Corey Graves would be there for the next couple of months.

Corey Graves had a busy night on September 12th because he was the lead play-by-play announcer on the WWE-AAA Worlds Collide: Las Vegas event, with John Bradshaw Layfield and Konnan joining him on commentary.

For most of 2025, the SmackDown commentary team was Joe Tessitore and Wade Barrett. Since Joe Tessitore does ESPN College Football commentary on Saturdays from September through December, it makes working on SmackDown difficult for him. Joe Tessitore was on commentary for the September 8th edition of Raw with Corey Graves.

The SmackDown commentary team over the last four weeks has looked like this:

• August 22 in Dublin, Ireland – Joe Tessitore & Wade Barrett
• August 29 in Lyon, France – Michael Cole & Wade Barrett
• September 5 in Chicago – Michael Cole & Corey Graves
• September 12 in Norfolk, VA – Vic Joseph and Booker T

Wade Barrett is currently off for some planned time off that was booked months ago, but is likely going to return to commentary within a few weeks.

WWE’s Michael Cole Praised As Best Announcer In The Business Today

The longevity of Michael Cole has been impressive since he’s been part of WWE for 28 years and has become the lead announcer on PLE shows for most of the last 15 years.

Matt Hardy has wrestled for multiple wrestling companies like WWE, AEW, and TNA, and when he spoke about the best announcer in wrestling right now, Matt explained why Cole stood out the most.

“This is almost judging him over his whole body of work. I mean, I would almost say the most consistent guy, which I really like a lot now, and I think he’s grown and he’s learned, and he has really embraced it, I would almost go with Michael Cole.

He came from the news. I remember him being there, and he would always come to guys. He would ask them about things we were doing in the match. He would look for insight. Then once the more he got a grasp of pro wrestling, the better he became at it. He’s the head guy now that kind of runs things there when it comes to the announcers and whatnot. To me, he stands out.”

Also read: Sami Zayn will defend the US Title again on the September 19th episode of SmackDown.