With SmackDown Live on its way to FOX starting on Oct. 4, it appears WWE has some changes in mind for the commentary teams for both the Blue Brand and Monday Night Raw.
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Multiple reports have popped up in the past week about WWE switching up the commentary teams, which currently has Michael Cole, Renee Young and Corey Graves on Raw and Todd Phillips, Byron Saxton and Graves on SmackDown. Via the Wrestling Observer Newsletter last week, FOX officials are reportedly big fans of Young and could potentially want her moving to Friday nights on top of hosting the upcoming weekly FS1 WWE studio show.
Wrestling insider @WrestleVotes then took to Twitter this week with a pair of tweets indicating a few more changes.
Hearing that significant changes are coming to the commentary teams once the SD to FOX move happens in a few weeks. All shows will be impacted, including RAW. A source has said the return of the 2 man booth is coming.
— WrestleVotes (@WrestleVotes) September 11, 2019
“Hearing that significant changes are coming to the commentary teams once the SD to FOX move happens in a few weeks,” the tweets read. “All shows will be impacted, including RAW. A source has said the return of the 2 man booth is coming. The plans as of now for the new announce teams include Michael Cole heading to SmackDown on FOX. I’m also told Vic Joseph is set to become the lead man on Monday Night RAW. Not set in stone, as nothing is with WWE, but this is their working idea.”
Joseph, who has worked primarily as the play-by-play commentator for both 205 Live and Main Event, popped up at the commentary desk for an episode of Raw back on Aug. 19.
Triple H announced WWE’s plans for a studio show back in April while appearing on First Things First.
“It’s something that I’ve wanted to have happen for a long time,” he said. “I think this is the perfect opportunity for a studio show for us, because of the sports entertainment aspect of it, it’s an endless show where you’re talking about the athletic component of it, an entertainment [show] where you’re talking about where things are going and the storylines and the characters and all of it.
“This is going to be one of those shows where if you are a WWE fan, across the board, this is the show that will be can’t miss because it’s going talk about everything you love in a way that you can’t get any place else,” he continued.
