Joe Tessitore on WWE Raw Credit: WWE
By Chris Novak on

Being a pro wrestling commentator is hard. Seriously. There’s a reason that since the early 1990s, only a handful of broadcasters have called the action and also had actual staying power.

In the case of WWE, the preeminent North American pro wrestling company, Jim Ross and Michael Cole have primarily provided the soundtrack in the 21st century. So when Joe Tessitore, best known for his stylings on ESPN college football coverage, stepped up to the mic on Monday, it gave some wrestling fans pause.

The company has tried a few different options in the commentary since 2019. Vic Joseph landed on Raw in 2019 before going to NXT, where he’s been ever since. There was the Adnan Virk experiment, which went up in smoke quickly. Jimmy Smith tried his hand, and then off he went. Kevin Patrick, known to Major League Soccer fans as Kevin Egan, saw his time with the company come and go. Pat McAfee? That has worked thanks to his boundless energy, but he’s essentially a part-timer.

So whenever a new person shows up on Raw or Smackdown, there’s a hesitancy to know what to expect and if it will work.

All the hesitance and all the doubt washed away early on Monday’s show. Tessitore and his trademark booming voice opened up WWE Raw on Labor Day evening. Live from Denver, Tesstiore welcomed fans with an intro that you could probably liken to one he’s used to giving on a college football Saturday.

Tessitore proved sharp right away, though there was some noticeable dead air in the early goings. While that hopefully won’t become a habit, we’ll give Tessitore a pass on his first night. Wrestling has a speed about it, and while he’s called his share of fast-paced action on the gridiron, this is a different ballgame. Reacting to what’s in front of you is the lifeblood. If any area was the ‘weakest’ from Tessitore, it was this, but that will undoubtedly improve with more reps under his belt.

One area where you can’t ding Tessitore on Monday night was his situational awareness. Namely, during the segment featuring CM Punk and Drew McIntyre. For the uninitiated, McIntyre and Punk have spent the last eight months feuding. They competed in an intense Strap Match over the weekend at WWE’s Bash in Berlin premium live event in Berlin, Germany.

Monday, McIntyre brutally attacked Punk in what became an acclaimed segment, and Tessitore became part of the reason for that acclaim. Why? His indignance, of course, to the cowardly McIntyre’s attack on good guy CM Punk!

Indignance is one aspect missing from WWE commentary for several years now. It’s storytelling, which is at the heart of what makes WWE (and professional wrestling) both successful and captivating. The legendary Ross made a career out of vilifying the bad guy’s sinister ways. It’s the tried-and-true way to help get a bad guy over, and Tessitore can hang his hat on this one for a first-timer. He nailed it.

Tessitore continued this theme throughout the night. Whenever a villain did something villainy, Tessitore was there to raise a fuss, just as he should. And when Rhea Ripley came out to end the show and attack heel Liv Morgan, a well-timed “How’s it feel, Liv?!” rang off accordingly as she was hit with a crutch.

The wrestling fandom is often a cynical bunch. So perhaps the best way to tell that Tessitore did a great job was all the positive comments about him.

The energy around the show also helped. Denver was a rowdy bunch that got into the show from the jump.

With any luck, Tessitore’s skills will continue to translate to the world of pro wrestling. His debut brought out the lion’s share of optimism that previous commentary hires hadn’t seen.

That doesn’t mean the hard work is over. Fans will likely keep grading and judging Tessitore on his commentary. Wrestling fans are, again, a notably fickle and prickly bunch at times. Sometimes, their opinions can change as often as someone changes clothes. Tess will soon call his first big match. He’ll have to call an epic return. He will probably make a mistake or two. How he rebounds off that and how he fares in those situations will go a long way. But he’s arguably gotten the hard part of the way.

Tessitore also appeared grateful for the opportunity and reflected after the show went off the air.

For any commentator, getting over with the fans at home is one of the first–and most significant–hurdles to climb. With that already in his back pocket, the sky is the limit.

About Chris Novak

Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022

View all posts by Chris Novak