Michael Cole To Leave Monday Night Raw In HUGE WWE Commentary Shake-up?

SmackDown and 205 Live both part of significant switches ahead of huge Fox debut.

by Michael Hamflett

Michael Cole will be replaced as Monday Night Raw lead announcer by 205 Live anchor Vic Joseph, according to @WrestleVotes.

In a further update to yesterday's news about a major potential shift in the current WWE commentary setup, WWE's latest "working idea" apparently has the straight swap set up in order to load SmackDown up with as much recognisable and senior figures as it moves to Friday Nights on Fox

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This doesn't add any further clarity to the ever-changing situations on the two shows nor the impact on NXT and 205 Live, though there are continued suggestions that Renee Young will also head to Friday Nights for synergistic purposes - she's set to host a Tuesday show on FS1 - the network may request she remains exclusively linked to their products if WWE are able to plug the gaps.

Last night's 205 Live saw the commentary debut of developmental star Dio Maddin as Nigel McGuinness became exclusive to NXT ahead of it's Network launch next week, but the status and potential end destinations of Tom Phillips, Byron Saxton and - most notably, perhaps - Corey Graves remain unknown.

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett