The two main weekly WWE broadcasts are going to look a bit different beginning Monday. Monday’s WWE Raw (broadcast on USA) will now be called by the current Smackdown (Fridays on Fox) team of Michael Cole and Wade Barrett, with the current Raw team of Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick moving to Smackdown. But Cole will remain on Smackdown as well, working with Graves and Patrick there. Variety‘s Joe Otterson broke that news Saturday:
WWE Commentary Shakeup: Michael Cole, Wade Barrett Move to 'Raw,' Cole to Also Remain on 'SmackDown' (EXCLUSIVE) https://t.co/AXlyS12hk1
— Variety (@Variety) August 5, 2023
Here’s more from that article on some of the rationale here:
This marks a return to “Raw” for Cole, who first appeared on the show in 1997 and has served as one of the key members of the broadcast desk for various stretches of time ever since.
It will be Barrett’s first time doing commentary for “Raw.” In addition to his in-ring career, Barrett was previously a commentator for WWE’s NXT before moving to “Friday Night SmackDown” on Fox in late 2022.
…According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, WWE remains high on Patrick and think that pairing him with Cole will only benefit his growth as a broadcaster. Cole has been with WWE for more than 25 years. Per WWE, he has only missed two shows in that time.
It’s certainly interesting to see Cole back on Raw, and to see him pulling double duty with his continuation on Smackdown as well. Cole’s first time on Raw was a December 1997 to March 1998 run with Jim Ross and Kevin Kelly; he then worked with Ross alone through that June, and on several further occasions over the years. He has worked with many other notable commentators on Raw as well, including Jerry Lawler, John “Bradshaw” Layfield, Josh Mathews, and Booker T.
WWE’s announcers have gone through a lot of change over the past few years. In 2020, Mauro Ranallo (who had worked on Smackdown and then NXT) left the company. In April 2021, WWE made the high-profile move to bring in Adnan Virk for Raw, but he only lasted a month, working with Graves and Byron Saxton. Jimmy Smith then shifted from NXT analyst to RAW play-by-play, working (primarily) with Graves and Saxton for most of 2021 and much of 2022. But he left WWE in October 2022, and Patrick took over on Raw alongside Graves. Now, he and Graves are heading to Smackdown to pair with Cole, while that Smackdown team of Cole and Barrett is heading to Raw. We’ll see how these changes are received by fans.
[Variety; image from a 2022 WWE tribute to Cole’s 25 years with the company]
