Wade Barrett has been confirmed as the fill-in for Pat McAfee for the January 20th Raw from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.
ESPN announced earlier this week that McAfee will be a part of the broadcast team for the College Football National Championship game between Ohio State and Notre Dame, calling the action from inside the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Due to the ongoing drama over the Raw commentary position, fans wondered who will replace the former NFL star on the show. Barrett then revealed during the latest episode of SmackDown that he’ll be joining Michael Cole on Monday.
WWE made changes to both Raw and Smackdown commentary teams to start off 2025. With McAfee’s return to the company, Michael Cole was put back with the Football star on Monday nights. The duo of Joe Tessitore and Wade Barrett who had been on the Red Brand were moved to Friday nights.
These changes left Cole’s existing partner Corey Graves in an awkward position. Despite being only behind the EVP in experience among the mentioned names, Graves was forced to return to NXT instead. The Savior of Misbehavior was visibly unhappy with what he considered a demotion.
He was taken off TV by the company after Corey took to social media to express his frustrations in now-deleted tweets. Graves’ status remains very much in the air since then with no updates on his return to TV.
WWE has announced a match between Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre for Monday’s episode of Raw as well as an appearance from JBL. The New Day are also expected to compete at the show but their opponents have not been confirmed.