Michael Cole Misses Rare Event On Last Night's WWE SmackDown

There have been many constants in WWE for decades, and one of those in the presence of Lead Announcer Michael Cole, who has been the ‘voice of WWE’ for the longest of times. However, on last night’s Friday Night SmackDown, Cole missed a rare episode of weekly WWE programming. 

It was announced on SmackDown that Cole was away on a ‘special assignment’, though there was no indication at all as to what exactly this entailed. Wade Barrett stepped in to replace Cole on commentary alongside Corey Graves for the show last night. 

Ever since joining WWE all the way back in 1997, Cole has only missed the odd event here and there, being absent from a show last year for a personal commitment. The last time aside from that came seven years ago in 2017 for his son’s wedding. 

The WWE announce teams were reshuffled recently, with Cole heading back over to SmackDown to team up with Graves, whereas Barrett went over to Monday Night RAW to work alongside the debuting Joe Tessitore. It was announced earlier this year that Cole had re-signed with WWE.