Wade Barrett has been vocal about his scheduled time off from WWE, and it seems that WWE is, similarly, not shying away from the news. On Monday’s episode of “WWE Raw,” it was announced that Barrett’s now-vacant place alongside Joe Tessitore on the red brand’s commentary booth has been filled by none other than Corey Graves.
Tessitore appeared alongside Graves during “Raw’s” opening moments to address the changes to “Raw’s” commentary booth. Tessitore mentioned Wisconsin’s rich football history as a segway to explaining Barrett’s absence, citing the upcoming football season as the reason for WWE’s recent broadcast shake-up. Tessitore claimed Barrett was on a “well-deserved vacation” before introducing Graves to the announce team. Graves poked fun at Barrett’s recent news cycle woes, claiming that he had thought Barrett was “exiled to some far-away island,” thanks to the online wrestling community. The two proceeded to call the show as normal.
Barrett made headlines when reports of his upcoming WWE absence were released online. Many netizens began speculating, and drew connections between Barrett’s absence and his less-than-flattering Clash in Paris comments about WWE Hall of Famer Nikki Bella. Barrett only added fuel to the fire when he took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to personally denounce the rumor mill. While Barrett claimed his time off was pre-planned and completely innocuous, controversy continued to follow the commentator when he incorrectly credited the news story to PWInsider’s Mike Johnson, who took offense to the “trash aggregation.”
Why exactly Barrett has taken a step away from WWE’s commentary team is unclear, and there are currently no verified timelines for his return. Tessitore will be calling action on “Raw” with Graves as his partner for the foreseeable future. Whether this will interfere with Graves’ position on “WWE NXT’s” and “WWE SmackDown’s” commentary teams is unclear.
