Joe Tessitore. Matthew Hinton-USA TODAY Sports

Top college football announcer set to join WWE broadcast team

By Michael Gallagher | Last updated Jul 9, 2024 4:16 PM ET

ESPN’s Joe Tessitore is one of the top play-by-play announcers in college football, so it’s no surprise that when the WWE wanted a new top voice for one of its broadcast teams, he was its target.

The company announced on Tuesday it had hired Tessitore to be one of the leading voices of its flagship shows alongside Corey Graves and Wade Barrett, who serve as the announce team for “Smackdown” on Friday nights while Michael Cole and Pat McAfee handle “Raw” on Monday nights.

No start date has was given yet, but Tessitore will begin his new broadcasting duties sometime this summer.

“I think Corey and Wade are absolute stars in the making,” Tessitore told ESPN. “I've watched Michael Cole throughout his career and he deserves to be mentioned in the same class as all the great mainstream network broadcasters of our generation. And I'm truly honored to be by their side.”

If Joe Tessitore knows anything about WWE, he's going to be a great announcer. He has done Monday Night Football, and has that excitement in his voice that will be nice for wrestling.

Here's some of his calls if you haven't heard him:

: @WeWantCody_ pic.twitter.com/C3TqCvcTnV
— ChanMan (@ChandranTheMan) July 9, 2024

Tessitore’s presence as the new play-by-play commentator will allow Graves to go back to what he’s used to — color commentary. He’d taken over as the play-by-play guy for “Smackdown” in January after WWE fired Kevin Patrick.

In his tenure with ESPN and ABC, Tessitore has called some of the biggest moments in college football and boxing. He’s called several championship boxing fights featuring top stars like Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder, Terence Crawford and others, and he’s also been a part of ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” broadcasts as well as the NFL Pro Bowl and wild-card playoff games on ABC.

A proclaimed lifelong wrestling fan, Tessitore has a background with wrestling broadcasting as well, leading ESPN’s coverage of “WrestleMania” during “SportsCenter” broadcasts for the last three years.

“WWE is the most unique TV show there is,” Tessitore added. “It's live theatrical-level entertainment while being a network-level sports event. And that takes a unique skill set to call. There's no down and distance, there's no scoreboard. You have to have the eye to build anticipation.”

Michael Gallagher

Michael Gallagher is a longtime sports journalist based out of Nashville with a decade of experience covering college football, mixed martial arts and prep sports plus the NFL and NHL — specifically the Tennessee Titans and Nashville Predators. He’s covered several notable sporting events including an AFC Championship game, a Stanley Cup Final, an NHL All-Star Game and an NHL Stadium Series. Some of his past bylines can be found at the Nashville Scene, SB Nation, The Hockey News and Fox Sports Knoxville

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