The WWE commentary teams are once again undergoing a refresh beginning in early 2026.
As reported by Mike Johnson of PWInsider, Michael Cole and Corey Graves are set to all the action on Monday Night Raw, while Joe Tessitore and Wade Barrett will be the announce team for Friday night SmackDown, meaning that the pairings will stay the same, but they have switched shows.
The report notes that the change will come into effect on the January 6 episode of WWE Raw, which will mark one year since the show moved to Netflix. The debut show was a star-studded affair that featured appearances from The Rock, John Cena, Roman Reigns and many top stars. The announce team for that show was Michael Cole and Pat McAfee, with Graves moving to NXT. Shortly afterwards, Graves vented his frustrations on social media, and was absent from TV for a number of weeks.
Back in September, Tessitore and Barrett were moved to Raw to allow Tessitore to cover college football on the weekends.
New Commentary Line-Ups Among Other WWE Changes In 2026
Along with SmackDown receiving a new commentary team in January 2026, the show will also be extended to 3 hours at the start of the year. The reported reason for the change is because the USA Network does not have a strong show to put on the 10 pm to 11 pm slot on Friday nights, so it elected to extend SmackDown by an extra hour. It is currently unknown whether this will be a temporary change like in early 2025, or will be the new format for the foreseeable future.
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