Michael Cole has reportedly made a change to his WWE job responsibilities.
PWInsider reports that Cole “has pulled back” from his role managing WWE announcers behind the scenes so that he can fully concentrate on his on-air duties. Cole is the lead play-by-play voice of WWE, calling WWE Raw and all of WWE’s premium live events.
“We are told that this was a Cole decision and one the company had no issue with,” PWInsider wrote. “The word making the rounds is that Sue Cundaro, who has been with the company for a long time and worked with Cole in managing announcers, has taken over his former responsibilities.”
Cole joined WWE in 1997 and has only ever missed three shows during his time as a commentator. He works alongside Pat McAfee on the Raw commentary team.
In addition to being a commentator for WWE, Cole hosts events like the pre-Backlash kickoff that took place in Lyon, France this afternoon. There was a moment during the event where Cole gave Cody Rhodes a “Too Sweet” after AJ Styles refused to.
Sting won his retirement match on Sunday, teaming with Darby Allin to retain the AEW Tag Team titles against The Young Bucks in a tornado match. The titles have since been vacated, and a tournament will begin this month to crown new champions.
After spending a number of years with TNA, Sting had a brief run with the WWE in 2014, losing to Triple H at WrestleMania 31. He returned that fall in a match against Seth Rollins where he suffered a neck injury after taking a turnbuckle powerbomb. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2016, where he announced his first retirement. He stayed retired until returning to the ring in 2021 for AEW.
WWE has reportedly made a change to its commentary teams.
Michael Cole will be exclusive to the Raw brand moving forward, PWInsider is reporting. Both shows will have two-person commentary teams beginning in the new year, although it is not clear who Cole will work with on Raw and who the two-person team on SmackDown will be.
Cole had been working both Raw and SmackDown in recent months. In August, WWE announced that he would work alongside Kevin Patrick and Corey Graves on SmackDown while also working with Wade Barrett on Raw. This was being done to help Patrick develop in his role by taking advantage of Cole’s 25 years of experience in the business.
“According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, WWE remains high on Patrick and think that pairing him with Cole will only benefit his growth as a broadcaster,” Variety wrote. “Cole has been with WWE for more than 25 years. Per WWE, he has only missed two shows in that time.”
The longtime WWE announcer was notably absent from Monday’s season premiere of Raw, with Kevin Patrick taking his place. PWInsider reported on Monday that Cole missed the show due to a personal commitment, and had requested the time off “some time ago”, and will be back for next week’s episode.
“In asking around, we are told that Cole had requested this week off some time ago due to a personal commitment, and it just happened to land on what was later scheduled to be the Raw season premiere,” they wrote. “It is not an illness or anything similar.”
As part of their latest broadcasting reshuffle, Cole currently is an announcer for both Raw and SmackDown. Wade Barrett joins him on commentary for Raw, and the duo of Patrick and Corey Graves join him for SmackDown.
Cole has been doing commentary for WWE dating back to 1997. In a recent segment with Seth Rollins, Cole noted that he had only missed two events since joining the company 26 years ago.
Tonight’s episode of Raw will include an interview with the new Undisputed Tag Team Champions.
WWE has announced that Michael Cole will conduct an exclusive interview with Cody Rhodes & Jey Uso on Raw tonight. At Fastlane, Rhodes & Uso defeated Judgment Day (Finn Balor & Damian Priest) to win the Undisputed WWE Tag Team titles.
EXCLUSIVE: @ByronSaxton has some big news ahead of #WWERaw tonight … @MichaelCole will have an exclusive interview with the NEW Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions, @CodyRhodes and Jey Uso!
The unlikely duo of Rhodes & Uso formed after Uso left The Bloodline. With Uso quitting SmackDown, Rhodes brought him over to the Raw roster.
There is likely to be more dissension within Judgment Day after losing the Tag Team titles at Fastlane. Their loss came after a miscommunication between Priest and JD McDonagh. When Rhodes moved out of the way, McDonagh accidentally hit Priest in the knee with the Money in the Bank briefcase. Shortly after that, Rhodes pinned Balor to win the titles.
Raw is taking place from the CHI Health Center Arena in Omaha, Nebraska tonight. The updated lineup for the episode is listed below:
NXT Women’s Champion Becky Lynch defends against Tegan Nox
Viking Rules match: Kofi Kingston vs. Ivar
Nia Jax vs. Raquel Rodriguez
Michael Cole conducts an interview with Cody Rhodes & Jey Uso
WWE is making changes to its broadcast teams for Raw and SmackDown.
It was announced via Variety today that, going forward, Michael Cole will now call both Raw and SmackDown. On Raw, he’ll be joined by Wade Barrett. On SmackDown, there will be a three-man commentary team of Cole, Corey Graves. and Kevin Patrick.
Patrick and Graves were previously the Raw commentary team. Cole and Barrett were the SmackDown team.
The new commentary teams will go into effect starting with Raw this coming Monday (August 7) and SmackDown next Friday (August 11). They’re the first episodes of Raw and SmackDown after SummerSlam.
Variety reported that WWE believes putting Cole with Patrick will help Patrick grow as a broadcaster.
“According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, WWE remains high on Patrick and think that pairing him with Cole will only benefit his growth as a broadcaster,” Variety wrote. “Cole has been with WWE for more than 25 years. Per WWE, he has only missed two shows in that time.”
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Fallon Henley vs. Brooklyn Barlow, Tatum Paxley vs. Sloane Jacobs, and Malik Blade & Edris Enofe vs. Dante Chen and Javier Bernal has been taped for Friday’s NXT Level Up.
Kayla Braxton responded after a tweet celebrating Pride Month got a negative reaction from some on social media. “It’s sad to see the amount of insecure, hateful and self-loathing people who feel the need to express their disdain for gay pride and the LGBTQ+ community,” she wrote. “Don’t knock it til ya try it, sweeties. Maybe you’ll like it.”
AEW released a Control Center video with Tony Schiavone ahead of tonight’s Dynamite at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles.
Frankie Kazarian spoke to PWInsider about AEW holding tonight’s Dynamite in LA. “Yeah, you know what man, the last week in Vegas is a drive for me as well. And this week in Los Angeles and in Ontario, all drives. So for two weeks out of the 52 week year, I’m not getting on a plane. So I’m very, very grateful for that. That’s cool. And yeah, man, like, as a kid that grew up in SoCal, being able to perform at the Forum and the Whisky back to back, that’s literally a dream like scenario. You know, I never would have thought I would have been on the stage at the Whiskey. I dreamt it, I never thought I would have been performing in the Forum but those dreams are literally coming true. And it’s a little cliche, but it’s very cool man and I don’t take these for granted and am very psyched to be part of AEW’s debut in SoCal, it took long enough. Here we are, and we’ve got a lot of stuff planned this week and I’m ready to go.”
A trial date has not been set for Tammy Sytch, who is in jail for manslaughter and DUI charges. There is a pre-trial meeting set for June 30th at 9:00 am.
NJPW released a video of Juice Robinson calling out Will Ospreay.
Gisele Shaw of Impact spoke to the Daily Star about the stigma of professional wrestling. “Go to a show and give it a chance,” she told them. “People have this stigma when it comes to professional wrestling and call it a joke, or say that it’s fake, but nobody looks at a Marvel film and goes ‘oh, it’s fake’. Do they really think that Ironman is flying around, or that Thor is out there somewhere? They don’t get that same flack as wrestlers do. If you watch a film, you enjoy it and you know it’s not real – I’m not saying wrestling is not real, as there is a lot of emotion to it and when you hit the canvas it hurts. There’s a lot of broken bones and people break their necks. When people give it a chance and go to a show, they change their minds and realise that it’s pretty incredible.”
Matt Cross and Budd Heavy are the latest to enter MLW’s Battle Riot match set for June 23 in New York City.
The former Dakota Kai on Twitter: “In this very moment, I’m King. Kota.”
On his radio show today, Pat McAfee explained his reaction to last week’s announcement that Sasha Banks & Naomi have been “suspended indefinitely” by WWE.
The suspension announcement was made by Michael Cole during last Friday’s episode of SmackDown. McAfee appeared to look confused while Cole was speaking, which drew attention on social media.
McAfee explained on his radio show that he was fascinated because it was the first time he was hearing the announcement. McAfee said he doesn’t know what to think about the situation with Banks and Naomi.
“The Sasha and Naomi thing, that was my first time hearing what Cole was saying live there. I have no idea what to think there. I have no clue. This is very fascinating. [Banks is] a superstar. They were our champions. I honestly have no idea what to believe in this whole thing. They keep me out of the loop with everything. I have no f*cking idea. While Cole was doing his thing, I was very fascinated,” McAfee said.
“I wish I had more answers for people. A couple of people asked me during my Chat with Pat on Saturday, ‘What’s going on?’ It’s like, ‘F*ck, I feel like you know more than I do.’ Literally, as that was happening, I’m like, ‘Oh, goddamn, suspended indefinitely.’ We need it [a resolution].”
Along with the suspension, WWE announced that the Women’s Tag Team titles have been vacated. A tournament will be held in the future to crown the new champions.
The suspension announcement came four days after Banks and Naomi walked out of last Monday’s Raw due to taking issue with the planned creative direction. Neither Banks nor Naomi have commented publicly on the situation.
WWE’s Michael Cole revealed today on The Pat McAfee Show that he is dealing with 65 percent hearing loss.
The revelation came after a commercial break on the program. Co-host AJ Hawk asked Cole’s SmackDown broadcast partner what the two had discussed during the ad break. “Mike Cole’s deaf, so he can’t hear a f—ing thing we say,” said McAfee.
Cole confirmed the fact. “I’ve said three words to him in the three commercial breaks,” said Cole. “That is true, I’m actually, like, 65 percent hearing loss.”
Cole went on to explain how he is able to continue doing his job as WWE’s lead play-by-play announcer.
“They make these special in-ear pieces that go underneath my headsets on-air so I can actually hear,” Cole said.
McAfee commended his broadcast partner for his dedication to WWE.
“I’m like, man, I appreciate your commitment to the entertainment, because that’s 100 percent because of you having a headset on for 25 years,” McAfee said.
Cole sat in for all three hours of the McAfee Show today. He discussed his role as lead WWE announcer, plus commented on the sports news of the day. A video replay of the show is available below. The section where Cole discusses his hearing loss begins at 1:48:36.
It will begin airing on the WWE Network at 9 p.m. Eastern time on September 5. The episodes will air after NXT every Wednesday, leading into the finals being held at WWE Evolution on October 28.
There will be a three-person commentary team for the tournament, with Michael Cole, Beth Phoenix, and Renee Young calling the action. Cathy Kelley and Shadia Bseiso, the first Arab woman to sign with WWE as a wrestler, will be the backstage interviewers, and Kayla Braxton will be the ring announcer. Bseiso also has experience working in television.
“A few years ago I was put in charge of all of the announcers in the company,” Cole said in an interview with ESPN. “My goal when I took over was to have, for the first time, a full-time female commentator on one of our main shows. That is still my goal today and it led to, for the first time, having two women in the announcing booth for the Mae Young Classic. It blows me away that this is happening because as little as two years ago I would not have seen this happening.”
Young has expressed renewed interest in doing commentary recently if the opportunity were to present itself. She was previously part of the NXT team. Phoenix also called WWE’s Mixed Match Challenge alongside Cole and Corey Graves.
A bracketology special hosted by Phoenix and Mauro Ranallo is set to air on the WWE Network at 9 p.m. Eastern on August 29.
Tapings for the Mae Young Classic will continue tomorrow and set things up for the finals. Here’s the full list of participants:
Monday Night Raw will be without its regular play-by-play voice on next week’s episode.
WWE.com announced in an article today that Michael Cole would be missing Raw on Monday to attend his son’s wedding. Tom Phillips will fill in for Cole on play-by-play alongside Corey Graves and Booker T, which means that Phillips and Graves will be on commentary for both Raw and SmackDown next week.
The article notes that it’s only the second time in Cole’s 20 years with WWE that he has missed a week of television.
Monday’s Raw will take place at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, with two matches already announced for the show. Roman Reigns will challenge The Miz for the Intercontinental Championship after beating him in a non-title match last week (and then being laid out by Miz and The Miztourage following the match). Seth Rollins will also face Braun Strowman after Dean Ambrose lost to Strowman last week.
Former WCW & TNA commentator Scott Hudson didn’t hold back in a two-hour conversation with IYH Wrestling Radio, unloading on current WWE announcers, the failed Invasion angle, and the recent Reid Flair death mention in an angle with Charlotte and Paige.
Excerpts provided by IYH’s Vic Vic Schiavone with the full interview available here:
– On the current state of wrestling commentary:
“Well first, Michael Cole sucks. That guy couldn’t call a one-horse race. Unfortunately, the best announcer they have on RAW is Byron Saxton, and they don’t let him show his stuff. JBL…he’s terrible, he’s horrible…They don’t know what to do, but then again I’ll give Cole at least a little bit of credit in that he’s doing what he’s told. If he wasn’t doing what he was told, he would be working for Joey Styles at the dot com office. And that’s sad, is that they’ve got the best announcer in the last twenty years on staff not announcing. The guy for New Japan, Mauro Ranallo, he’s the best announcer in wrestling and it’s not even close. He’s fantastic. The guys on Ring of Honor, Kevin Kelly and the rest of that bunch, they’re good, too. But the announcing on basically every WWE product across platforms is atrocious.
I’ve gotta say this, I’m a huge mark for The King (Jerry Lawler); he could read things out of the phone book and I would listen. So I love The King, take him out of that equation, otherwise the announcers there are worthless. But, to their everlasting credit, they’re doing what they’re told. And Vince (McMahon) is happy as a clam, watching ratings…and viewership and everything else and gimmick sales go right in the tank.”
– On the WWE Invasion angle:
“Keep this in mind…when they bought us out, should there ever have been a bigger angle than the Invasion Angle? Because you had ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling) thrown in there, too…That angle, start to finish, should still be going today, fourteen years later. And the problem is one person’s fault, and that’s Vince McMahon. He would not in his dying breath put over a WCW talent or an ECW talent. Now…some guys got over in spite of Vince trying to bury them, but Vince’s whole idea was to bury both companies. It wasn’t to make money by saying “Oh my God, this is WCW vs. WWE vs. ECW”, it was “This is WWE, stop. WCW and ECW guys are job guys.” That’s all he wanted, that’s all he saw, and he did not care that he was sitting on a 20-million dollar profit. He was comfortable with a 2-million dollar profit because he got to bury WCW and ECW.”
– On the current state of wrestling:
“Actually I like all the guys in The Shield, the Wyatt Family guys are entertaining to watch, but the guys out there now, to bring this whole show full circle, it’s all promos. When we had WCW, we had the Power Plant and we brought in the bunch called The Natural Born Thrillers ((Chuck) Palumbo, (Mark) Jindrak, (Shawn) Stasiak, Reno, Mike Sanders). All those guys, with the exception of Sanders, they were all horrible promos. I mean, terrible. But they were great athletes…I mean you go back and watch that stuff they were incredible workers, but they couldn’t cut a promo if you had a gun to their head…And it’s like The Natural Born Thrillers are now the entire roster of the WWE top to bottom: great looking guys, average to fantastic workers, no promo ability; none. I think I mentioned on some discussion the other night that I had online that listening to Roman Reigns cut a promo has all the fire of a Dr. Ben Carson haiku reading. And that’s probably being kind to both of them.”
– On using Reid Flair’s death as part of an angle:
“Well, there’s been so much made of that from Monday night with Charlotte and Paige, but…has the death of Ric Flair’s son ever been used in an angle before? No. But has something as disgusting because it’s real been used in a promotional angle before? Sure…Katie Vick…Hunter accused Kane of murdering and I guess burying a high-school cheerleader…That obviously wasn’t real, but that’s disgusting. And there have been other disgusting things like Blackjack Mulligan’s heart attack…there was a David and Mike Von Erich memorial parade of champions…they named the show after the two dead guys, much less invoking the name of Reid Flair Mondaynight on RAW. The fact that it’s raising so many eyebrows means that wrestling might have actually not had to resort to that level of angle to get stuff over for so long that this seems so disgusting when in the whole course of history it has been lapped several times in the disgusting category.”
