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One of the recent voices of WWE won’t be calling the action at Royal Rumble or going forward.
PWInsider reports that Kevin Patrick has been released by WWE. This follows a report by the same outlet earlier this week that he had been “removed from his role as the lead announcer on Friday Night Smackdown.”
The Irish announcer (real name: Kevin Patrick Egan) first signed with WWE in 2021. He served in several roles, including backstage interviewer, before getting his big break and becoming the play-by-play voice of Raw in October 2022.
Last summer, Patrick was part of an overall shakeup of the WWE commentary team, with Michael Cole and Wade Barrett shifting to Raw while Patrick went to SmackDown as part of a three-man booth with Cole (as a color commentator, unusual for him) and Corey Graves. That was likely by design, with PWInsider noting that “WWE initially put Michael Cole back on the team with the internal hope that he would be able to steer Patrick in the right direction.”
Patrick is hardly the first person to wash out of the challenging job of WWE commentary, as anyone who remembers the Mike Adamle or Adnan Virk eras can attest. He just seemed like a genuinely likable sort, however, which may be why this news hits a little different even if it was pretty clear he was probably never going to reach Cole’s level.
Best of luck to Patrick in whatever direction his career takes next.
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