{"id":183766,"date":"2024-08-28T14:30:36","date_gmt":"2024-08-28T19:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=183766"},"modified":"2024-08-29T12:09:26","modified_gmt":"2024-08-29T17:09:26","slug":"wwe-raw-and-smackdown-announcing-changes-kick-in-next-week-with-debut-of-joe-tessitore-why-changes-were-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2024\/08\/28\/wwe-raw-and-smackdown-announcing-changes-kick-in-next-week-with-debut-of-joe-tessitore-why-changes-were-made\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE Raw and Smackdown announcing changes kick in next week with debut of Joe Tessitore, why changes were made"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-2624942866\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>New WWE announcer Joe Tessitore will debut as the WWE Raw play-by-play announcer on next Monday&#8217;s episode. He&#8217;ll be paired with Wade Barrett on commentary, who is moving from Smackdown.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Cole, the senior WWE announcer on the staff, will move to WWE Smackdown and be re-paired with Corey Graves, who will shift from main play-by-play to color commentary again.<\/p>\n<p>PWTorch is told WWE wasn&#8217;t unhappy with Graves, but rather WWE Head of Media &amp; Production Lee Fitting was a big booster of Tessitore, whom he has been friends with for years. Soon after being hired by WWE, Fitting had been pitching hiring Tessitore. Tessitore hob-nobbed at the last WrestleMania and made a good impression and came across as an informed fan of the WWE product.<\/p>\n<p>Pat McAfee is taking a hiatus for college football season, but is scheduled to return after college football ends. There is expected to be another shake-up when Raw moves to Netflix next January.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2024\/08\/28\/wwe-talent-lineup\">Sports Business Journal<\/a> confirmed the planned announcer pairings earlier today.<\/p>\n<h3>Check out the latest episode of &#8220;Acknowledging WWE&#8221; with Kevin Duncan and Javier Machado, part of the PWTorch Dailycast line-up: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/episode\/acknowledging-wwe-duncan-machado-talk-punk-s-sad-promo-favorite-wwe-wedding-storylines-why-the-miz-is-so-underrated-more--61119086\">CLICK HERE<\/a> to stream (or search \u201cpwtorch\u201d on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?episode_id=61119086&amp;theme=light&amp;playlist=false&amp;playlist-continuous=false&amp;chapters-image=true&amp;episode_image_position=right&amp;hide-logo=false&amp;hide-likes=false&amp;hide-comments=false&amp;hide-sharing=false&amp;hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>RECOMMENDED NEXT: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2024\/08\/23\/wwe-smackdown-feud-tracker-assessing-and-grading-the-bloodline-civil-war-rhodes-owens-ldf-implosion-the-pretty-deadly-musical-more\/\">WWE SMACKDOWN FEUD TRACKER: Assessing and grading The Bloodline Civil War, Rhodes-Owens, LDF implosion, the Pretty Deadly Musical, more<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>OR CHECK THIS OUT AT PROWRESTLING.NET: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/prowrestling.net\/site\/2024\/08\/27\/powells-wwe-raw-hit-list-uncle-howdy-vs-chad-gable-braun-strowman-vs-bronson-reed-triple-threat-tournament-matches-for-a-shot-at-the-intercontinental-title\/\">Powell\u2019s WWE Raw Hit List: Uncle Howdy vs. Chad Gable, Braun Strowman vs. Bronson Reed, Triple Threat tournament matches for a shot at the Intercontinental Title<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Wade Keller Post-show - WWE Raw w\/Javier Machado\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5ZflcyZHhms?start=2490&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2210262184\"><div id=\"pwtor-522934481\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>New WWE announcer Joe Tessitore will debut as the WWE Raw play-by-play announcer on next Monday&#8217;s episode. He&#8217;ll be paired with Wade Barrett on commentary, who is moving from Smackdown. Michael Cole, the senior WWE <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2024\/08\/28\/wwe-raw-and-smackdown-announcing-changes-kick-in-next-week-with-debut-of-joe-tessitore-why-changes-were-made\/\" title=\"WWE Raw and Smackdown announcing changes kick in next week with debut of Joe Tessitore, why changes were made\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":183768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlightarticles","category-prowrestlingnews","category-news_wwe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-2.32.16\u202fPM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183766"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183769,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183766\/revisions\/183769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}