WWE is set for another shakeup beginning on tonight’s episode of Monday Night Raw. The Royal Rumble in January marked the return of Pat McAfee behind a WWE commentary desk after missing nearly all of 2023. He has been a regular member of the commentary team with Michael Cole on WWE Raw ever since, but that all changes tonight. McAfee announced via social media that he will be taking an indefinite hiatus from the WWE Universe following tonights episode. “I’m very bummed out that tonight will be my last trip to that wonderful WWE family for a while,” he said in the video.
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While he didn’t give an exact reasoning, it’s safe to assume that his leave is in part due to the college and professional ffall sports season amping up. McAfee has a number of hosting duties, including ESPN’s weekly College GameDay show which is set to get underway this weekend. If that and his hit daily show The Pat McAfee Show don’t keep him busy enough, he also regularly does NFL coverage.
Even though McAfee is leaving the desk, he has a legendary replacement in veteran ESPN play-by-play broadcaster Joe Tessitore. He will begin commentary duties on WWE Raw in September alongside Corey Graves and Wade Barrett, revealed in a previous press release. Cole will be the head of the blue brand, SmackDown, though it us unclear who will join him at this time. McAfee closed out the video with a heartfelt message to WWE and its fans.”football season is starting, which is awesome, but the WWE family is where I’m supposed to be,” McAfee added. “And I know that, and I hope they do too.”
Tonight’s WWE Raw will get underway with CM Punk who has a message for “The Scottish Warrior” after his assault on Drew McIntyre last week. Not only that, Randy Orton is back on Raw to address the WWE Universe after his actions from last Monday night when he RKO’d Gunther ahead of their title match at Bash in Berlin. If that wasn’t exciting enough, the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships will be on the line when Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn put them on the line against Damage CTRL and Pure Fusion Collective’s Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark.
WWE Raw goes down every Monday night at 8/7c on USA. In the meantime, stay tuned to ComicBook for all the latest news and updates on WWE.
