The shake-ups in World Wrestling Entertainment’s announce teams has resulted in another departure. According to PWInsider, veteran color commentator Nigel McGuinness was reportedly released by WWE earlier this week. This ends a six year run for McGuinness in WWE, as he had been working for the company since 2016. McGuinness spent the majority of his time on both NXT and NXT UK, serving as the color man alongside Mauro Ranallo, Michael Cole, and others. McGuinness first debuted with WWE at the inaugural WWE NXT UK Championship tournament, which kicked off WWE’s expansion of the NXT brand overseas.
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Before WWE, McGuinness called the action in Ring of Honor after retiring from in-ring competition in 2011. As a wrestler, McGuinness ascended to the top of ROH, winning both the promotion’s world and pure titles on one occasion each.
McGuinness was notably absent from the WWE commentary changes that were announced earlier this week. Monday Night Raw will now be called by the tandem of Kevin Patrick and Corey Graves while Friday Night SmackDown will see Michael Cole and Wade Barrett at the announce table. Over at the WWE Performance Center, Vic Joseph and WWE Hall of Famer Booker T will be the voices of NXT.
McGuinness joins former Raw play-by-play man Jimmy Smith as the releases at the result of these announce team changes. Smith called Raw for over a year, replacing regular baseball announcer Adnan Virk who only lasted six weeks in the role. Patrick taking over for Smith marks the sixth different play-by-play announcer that WWE’s red brand has seen in the past three years.
While his future at this time is unknown, it’s worth noting that McGuinness has relationships with many wrestlers across numerous promotions. A bulk of those exist in the aforementioned ROH, which is currently owned and operated by AEW President Tony Khan. Longtime ROH announcers like Ian Riccaboni and Kevin Kelly have been brought into All Elite Wrestling on numerous occasions for ROH-related matches and storylines.
Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for updates on McGuinness’s professional wrestling future.
