Major Changes Coming To WWE Commentary Teams

It’s one of the important parts. Wrestling is a television show and that means it needs to have a narrative of some sort. No matter how you look at it, the fans need to know which way they are supposed to go and it is the promotion’s job to guide you in that direction. WWE is no exception, which is why commentary is such an important part of the show. Now that might be changing a bit.

There have been a lot of changes in WWE over the years but one of their true constants has been Monday Night Raw as the flagship show. The show has been on the air for nearly thirty years now and has been the company’s main show for the entire time. That gives the show a certain level of importance and as a result, the commentary team means a lot. Now, things are going to be changing a bit.

According to Wrestlinginc.com, Canadian sportscaster Adnan Virk will be replacing Tom Phillips as the lead commentator on Monday Night Raw. The change will begin this week on Monday Night Raw, with Virk taking over on the first show after WrestleMania 37. Virk previously worked for ESPN but was fired for leaking inside information to the media. Phillips has held the position since January 2020.

Another change to the commentary teams will see SmackDown’s Corey Graves moving to Monday Night Raw to replace Samoa Joe. This change will also begin during this week’s Monday Night Raw, with Byron Saxton remaining on the team. There is no word on what will happen to Samoa Joe, or who will replace Graves on SmackDown. It is possible that Graves will work on both shows.

I can confirm the report by @RajGiri_303 that Raw is getting a change-up for the announce team

Corey, Byron, and Adnan Virk are headed to Raw.

— Andrew Zarian (@AndrewZarian) April 10, 2021

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Opinion: I’m not sure how much of a difference the change is going to make given how much control Vince McMahon has over commentary, but maybe a fresh voice could do a bit of good. It isn’t like the commentary is that much different anywhere else, but Graves does at least come off with a slightly different perspective. Then again, that might go away if he moves from SmackDown to Monday Night Raw.

At the same time, maybe this means Samoa Joe can move back into the ring, at least for a little bit. He has had over a year out of the ring and hopefully that means his injuries have healed up. I know he doesn’t have much time left in the ring but, assuming he wants to get back in, it would be great to see him getting one last run. Samoa Joe is one of the better in-ring stars around, so maybe he has one more run in him.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books.

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