Who Were WWE's Commentary Stand-Ins At NXT TakeOver 31?
Wade Barrett and Beth Phoenix? Not quite...
The Twitter account @LocalCompWWE posted an interesting picture from WWE's NXT TakeOver 31 event on Sunday.
It shows play-by-play man Vic Joseph sitting behind the announce desk at the Capital Wrestling Center, but he's not flanked by either Beth Phoenix or Wade Barrett. Instead, it appears that the company used stand-ins to give the impression that big Vic wasn't a loner for the evening.
Indy wrestler Kaci Lennox played the role of "Beth" for the night (they stopped short of sticking a blonde wig on her though, thankfully), and referee Kai Douglas did his best Barrett. Neither one said anything, but they did have headsets on throughout the broadcast.
Phoenix and Barrett, meanwhile, provided their commentary remotely.
This was an interesting approach. WWE obviously didn't want it to look like Joseph was the only one behind the table, but they didn't even try to mask that Lennox looks nothing like Beth Phoenix. At least Douglas could maybe pass for Wade from afar.
It must've been pretty weird for Vic to sit there screaming his head off at ringside as both Kaci and Kai remained silent.