WWE confirmed the new announce teams on Wednesday that will start next month.
Michael Cole and Corey Graves will be the broadcast team for WWE SmackDown once it leaves FOX for USA Network next month. At the same time, Joe Tessitore will take over play-by-play for Raw, where he will be paired with Wade Barrett.
WWE previously announced Tessitore as the newest member of WWE’s commentary team earlier this month. Tessitore has previously called the NFL’s Monday Night Football and College Football Playoff games.
Graves and Barrett have been on the SmackDown commentary team since this past February. Pat McAfee, who usually calls Raw with Cole, is going on hiatus from the company.
It has been indicated that Tessitore will be moving to SmackDown in January, while Cole will return to Raw to start the series on Netflix. McAfee will join Cole around that time as college football season wraps up.
PWTorch reported that WWE wasn’t unhappy with Graves, and that’s the reason why he went back to being a color commentator. Instead, “WWE Head of Media & Production Lee Fitting was a big booster of Tessitore, whom he has been friends with for years.”
Soon after WWE hired Fitting, he began pitching for the company to hire Tessitore. Joe made a good impression and appeared to be an informed fan of the WWE product while at WrestleMania 40.
Despite his WWE duties, Tessitore will stay at ESPN, where he is a broadcaster for college football and Top Rank boxing.
