With the season premiers of Raw and SmackDown next week – Raw remaining on USA Network and SmackDown moving to FOX Sports on Friday – the WWE has apparently unveiled the new broadcast teams, according to POST Wrestling‘s John Pollock. While NXT remains the same three person team of Mauro Ranallo, Beth Phoenix and Nigel McGuinness, Raw and SmackDown will see significant changes, and Renee Young‘s future role has been changed and expanded upon.
WWE has announced their new broadcast teams:
RAW: Vic Joseph, Jerry Lawler, and Dio Maddin
SMACKDOWN: Michael Cole & Corey Graves with Renee Young listed as a special contributor
NXT remains the same with Mauro Ranallo, Beth Phoenix & Nigel McGuinness
— John Pollock (@iamjohnpollock) September 26, 2019
RAW
Raw sees the most dramatic shake-up as it sees Vic Joseph, the lead voice for 205 Live and NXT UK moving over to take the lead announcer position for WWE’s former flagship program. Joining on color will be NXT Superstar Dio Maddin, who recently replaced Nigel McGuinness on 205 Live and is apparently moving from in-ring star to the broadcast booth, similar to what Corey Graves did back in 2014. Maddin is former NFL player Brennan Williams. Drafted in the 3rd round of the 2013 NFL Draft by the Houston Texas, Williams was injured and missed his rookie year and was released at the end of the season. He had two practice squad runs with the Jacksonville Jaguars and New England Patriors, before heading to pro wrestling in 2015, where he was trained by Booker T at Reality of Wrestling. He signed with NXT in 2016 and has been working Live Events ever since. In a strange move, former Raw color commentary Jerry “The King” Lawler is returning to the WWE broadcast team. Lawler was last a full time announcer with the WWE back in 2016, as part of the SmackDown team. Since then, he’s been used on Kick Off show panels and the occasional one-off for certain matches.
SMACKDOWN
With SmackDown becoming WWE’s A-Show of sorts now that its moving to FOX Sports, Michael Cole and Corey Graves will be heading to the blue brand exclusively, making a return to the two-man booth for the WWE show. Renee Young will be heading to SmackDown as well, but will no longer be on the broadcast team as it reduces to two people. Renee Young will resume her previous position as backstage interviewer.
RENEE YOUNG’S FUTURE
Renee Young will do more for FOX Sports than just be its backstage interviewer on SmackDown on Friday nights. It was also officially announced by WWE and FOX Sports that Renee Young will now host a new one hour news program on FS1, called WWE Backstage, that will air every Tuesday night at 11pm EST beginning November 5. Renee Young will be joined by co-host Booker T, where the duo will “weigh in on the biggest stories in WWE, and are joined by a rotating cast of guests and personalities, including current and former WWE Superstars,” according to the WWE’s press release.
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.
