WWE is moving forward after deciding to remove Kevin Patrick from his role as SmackDown play-by-play commentator. Michael Cole replaced him on last week’s SmackDown before WWE released Patrick.
Pat McAfee replaced Wade Barrett as color commentator on Monday’s Raw, stating that the change was permanent.
While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer stated that the plan is for someone to be introduced as the new SmackDown play-by-play announcer soon, and that Cole will not be in the role permanently, instead calling Raw and PLEs. The new announcer could debut as early as SmackDown this week.
Bryan Alvarez said, “Wade Barrett was not on Raw. He was replaced on the show.”
Dave Meltzer replied, “Pat McAfee is back for good.”
Alvarez stated, “They announced that Pat McAfee and Michael Cole are the permanent Raw team, which means that Michael Cole has a terrific travel schedule.”
Meltzer added, “He’s not gonna be doing he’s not doing Friday much longer. He might not even be doing it this week. At the beginning of the show on Friday last week, Michael Cole said for one week only. So, you know, I mean, I don’t know what that means. When I asked about Michael Cole. I was told he’s got it for now. But absolutely this is not a permanent thing. I don’t know who the new guy is. But I was just told that you know that that is not the case. Michal Cole doing SmackDown [full-time] is not the case. It’s like, again. Yeah, it’s a one-time thing.”
According to PWInsider, Barrett will be paired with Corey Graves on the SmackDown team, with Graves taking over as lead announcer and Barrett remaining a color commentator.
