Update On WWE RAW's Announce Team
Dio, time to go?
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio earlier this week, Bryan Alvarez suggested that there may be "a story" behind Dio Maddin's continued absence from WWE Monday Night RAW's announce booth.
This, it should be pointed out, was incidental speculation informed perhaps by Maddin's inexperience, WWE's choppy approach to commentary, and indeed WWE's choppy approach to selling.
PWInsider's Mike Johnson recently clarified his status: he remains in the role, and has missed the last two weeks to sell the effects of the F5-through-a-table he endured at Brock Lesnar's hands on November 4.
Maddin, per Dave Meltzer, was a Paul Heyman pick. He felt RAW required two brand new voices with which to project itself as a fresher update on the fading flagship. He has slotted in quite well, for your writer's money: you sense he's still finding his voice, and the room to use it, but he has natural instincts and is wholly unafraid to groan at Jerry Lawler's decrepit brand of comedy, which helps significantly in putting over Heyman's vision. Thus far, he and Lawler have worked in relative harmony. Look, the motherf*cker is Gordon Solie compared to Michael Cole.
No further news on when he may return to the booth.