WWE Announces New Commentary Teams for WWE Raw and WWE SmackDown
Between Friday Night SmackDown moving from USA to FOX and WWE Backstage launching soon on FS1, WWE [...]
Between Friday Night SmackDown moving from USA to FOX and WWE Backstage launching soon on FS1, WWE officially announced on Thursday that the commentary teams for both Monday Night Raw and SmackDown will change starting next week. According to the announcement Vic Joseph, Dio Maddin and Jerry "The King" Lawler were commentate Raw while Michael Cole and Corey Graves will serve as the SmackDown commentators. Due to her new role as host of WWE Backstage, Renee Young will no longer be commentating on a weekly basis though she will appear as a "special contributor."
Joseph has previously worked as the 205 Live and Main Event play-by-play commentator while Maddin (former NFL offensive tackle Brennan Williams) just joined the 205 Live commentary team in early September. Lawler's tenure on the Raw commentary team will reportedly be short-term.
View this post on InstagramSay 👋 to your new #RAW, #WWENXT, and #SmackDown announce teams for WWE Premiere Week!
Meanwhile NXT, which is completing its transition from the WWE Network to the USA Network on Oct. 2 will keep its current commentary team of Mauro Ranallo, Nigel McGuinness and Beth Phoenix.
The announcement is particularly momentous as it means Cole will not be apart of the Raw commentary team for the first time since 2008. There's no word yet on what will happen to Tom Phillips and Byron Saxton, who have been working the three-man booth with Graves on SmackDown.
WWE announced Young's involvement with the Backstage show several hours before.
"WWE Backstage is a wrestling show for wrestling fans. From hardcore fans to people new to wrestling, we'll give them a little bit of everything," Young said in the release. "It's going to be fun, it's going to be loud, we're going to give them a ton of opinions and I can't wait to help spread the word about SmackDown coming to FOX."
Two-time WWE Hall of Famer Booker T will co-host the show with Young, alongside a rotating panel of wrestling personalities. A special preview for the weekly studio show will air on Oct. 15, and the weekly show will premiere on Nov. 5 on FS1.
"It's awesome being part of the FOX family and part of this movement of Friday Night SmackDown to FOX," Booker T said in the release. "FOX Sports has always been the one-stop shop for sports and now it's going to be the one-stop shop for sports and entertainment. I think this is going to be a tag team that's going to last for a long time, and one that cannot lose. As I always say, now can you dig it, sucka?"
