Earlier this month, WWE had announced some major commentary shuffles and on-air shakeups. Michael Cole and Wade Barrett are the main commentators for SmackDown. Samantha Irvin serves as the ring announcer, with Kayla Braxton and Megan Morant as backstage interviewers. Kevin Patrick and Corey Graves are on the commentary team for Raw. Mike Rome is the ring announcer, while Cathy Kelley made her return and Byron Saxton conduct onscreen interviews. According to Fightful Select, Kelley had talks about joining AEW.
Cathy Kelley almost joined AEW
Sources told Fightful earlier this year that Cathy had discussions with AEW, including speaking to AEW President Tony Khan directly at some point about the possibility of working there, and that things looked promising. However, it didn’t happen, and there’s no word yet on what happened to make the deal not be reached.
Kelley and AEW were on solid terms before she headed back to WWE. Kelley returned to WWE after leaving the company in 2020.
While Kelley is now officially back in WWE, AEW went on to sign the prolific Renee Paquette (formerly Renee Young in WWE). The former WWE personality joined AEW just two weeks ago when the company crossed the border for “Dynamite” in Paquette’s hometown of Toronto, Canada. Paquette signing with AEW followed rumors she was joining the company after it was reported that WWE and Stephanie McMahon had approached Paquette regarding a return, only for her to turn down the offer.
