Pat McAfee Leaving WWE? See Why He Won’t Be on RAW Tonight

Pat McAfee will not appear on RAW on Netflix this week due to his commitment to ESPN’s College Football Playoff National Championship game between Ohio State and Notre Dame in Atlanta, Georgia. WWE has announced Wade Barrett as McAfee’s replacement alongside Michael Cole for the commentary duties.

Barrett returns to RAW after serving as commentator with Joe Tessitore for nearly four months. Barrett and Tessitore transitioned to SmackDown following RAW’s move to Netflix on January 6.

WWE Hall of Famer Addresses Corey Graves Controversy

John Bradshaw Layfield addressed Corey Graves’ recent social media post during an episode of Something to Wrestle. The discussion followed Graves’ January 13 statement regarding his current position.

I can understand. There’s only three commentary spots unless you have two color commentators on a certain show like you’ve had before, with a three-man booth, there’s only three color commentator spots. So you’ve got to move guys around, and that happens. I can certainly understand Corey’s angst in this. I know only what was read, and certainly, text does not denote tone, so you don’t know what tone this was written in. I think Corey has done an incredible job. I think Corey is an incredible commentator. I think Pat McAfee is, too. I think, look, Pat adds so much to WWE. It’s wonderful that he comes in, and it’s wonderful he has this huge following. He does such an incredible job. They’re completely different. To me, I think there’s room for both, and I certainly hope they find room for both.

This commentary followed Graves’ announcement that he would address the situation on the January 14 NXT broadcast, though he ultimately did not appear on the show.