Real Reason WWE Has Taken Kevin Patrick Off WWE Raw Commentary

WWE

The real reason WWE has made changes to its commentary teams, namely the situation with Kevin Patrick, has been revealed.

From October until today, the Raw commentary team had been Kevin Patrick and Corey Graves, while SmackDown was Michael Cole and Wade Barrett.

Over the weekend, WWE announced some changes – Cole and Barrett will be staying together and moving to Raw as a duo, while Patrick and Graves will both be moving to SmackDown and actually joining Cole to form a three-man team.

WWE broke the news through Variety, with their report including the note that WWE remains high on Patrick, and the decision to put him on a team with Cole is an effort to “benefit his growth as a broadcaster”, and now there are even more details.

According to PWInsider Elite (via Wrestling Inc), a “big part” of the reason for the changes were requests made by Endeavor and WWE’s broadcast partners to have Michael Cole as the “face of the product going forward”.

Back to the aforementioned point about Patrick, he is said to be “extremely well liked” within WWE but the belief is that he does still need “some more seasoning”, and the idea is that working with Cole and Graves will help him along in that regard and help him find the “voice and vibe” the company wants.

PWInsider was told that the move shouldn’t be looked at as a “demotion” for Patrick, but rather just “a step back for long-term gains”.

The reasoning for moving Cole and Barrett to Raw is said to be due to their “great chemistry” and wanting that to be part of the three-hour Raw broadcast.

Reacting to the news, Patrick, real name Kevin Egan, who outside of WWE is best known for football (soccer) commentary, tweeted:

Pumped to be headed to Friday Night Smackdown on FOX! Will miss my buddies at #WWERaw , but a chance to join @WWEGraves & @MichaelCole on a 3-man desk is an incredible opportunity. Grateful fella. Roll on next Friday. Cheers #WWE #SummerSlam #SmackDown

The new commentary teams come into effect immediately, so tonight’s Raw will be called by Cole and Barrett.

If you want to stay fully updated on all the latest wrestling news, click the red bell in the bottom right of your screen to receive notifications from WrestleTalk.com straight to your device!

• Kevin Patrick
• RAW
• Commentary
• michael cole
• wwe

Share this article with friends