WWE Hires Veteran ESPN Broadcaster To Do Play-By-Play

A notable name is set to join the WWE commentary team. The company officially announced today that ESPN broadcaster Joe Tessitore will accompany Corey Graves and Wade Barrett as a play-by-play announcer beginning this summer.

Tessitore currently serves as one of the voices of college football for ESPN and ABC — a position that he'll continue occupying alongside his new WWE job. Closer to the realm of WWE, Tessitore is also known for calling boxing matches on ESPN. In the past, Tessitore has called NFL games as part of the Monday Night Football team, as well as providing play-by-play for the golf-themed reality competition TV series "Holey Moley."

"Joe is an absolute pro with incredible energy behind the mic, and is the perfect addition to our already star-studded announce team," WWE CCO Paul Levesque said on X regarding Tessitore. 

WWE has not yet specified exactly when Tessitore will begin his commentary role. Additionally, though the press release stated that Tessitore will join Graves and Barrett, no specific mention was made of "WWE SmackDown," leaving a potential opening for the company to shake things up ahead of the new TV deals that will begin coming into effect later this year. "SmackDown" currently airs on Fox but will move to the USA Network beginning in September. Meanwhile, "WWE Raw" will remain on USA until it moves to Netflix at the start of 2025.

Tessitore will now follow in the footsteps of recent commentary transplants such as Jimmy Smith and Kevin Patrick, both of whom entered WWE after a lengthy history of commentary outside of wrestling. Smith and Patrick each lasted several years with the company before parting ways, which is something that Tessitore will undoubtedly look to avoid.