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What’s the story?
Well, you may have noticed that last night, Booker T disappeared from the RAW announce team to make way for Stephanie McMahon to join Michael Cole and Corey Graves for the Women's Royal Rumble Match.
WWE has now confirmed that Booker T will no longer be commentating on RAW, instead of being replaced by The Coach!
In case you didn’t know…
Booker T "temporarily" replaced David Otunga in April on the RAW announce team and, while we were told it was for Otunga to go shoot action film Katrina, there had been a lot of talks that Otunga wouldn't return to the commentary table upon wrapping the shoot.
Well, it turns out that Booker T's tenure is now over and, like Otunga, he now returns to his previous role of being a pre-show panelist on WWE’s pay-per-view Kickoff broadcasts and will continue to make appearances on RAW and beyond as a WWE ambassador.
The heart of the matter
WWE has confirmed that Jonathan Coachman will return on RAW tonight to join Michael Cole and Corey Graves as the voices of the red brand.
Coachman, a longtime WWE interviewer, and broadcaster and former ESPN personality, had recently appeared on RAW 25
The Coach began life with WWE way back in 1999 as an interviewer during the Attitude Era, having many run-ins with The Rock, before joining the RAW commentary team.
Coach also served a spell as Interim Raw General Manager and even as an in-ring competitor on multiple occasions and even ended up as a commentator on SmackDown too.
Following nearly a decade as an on-air personality at ESPN, Jonathan Coachman returns on a permanent deal to join Cole and Graves, with Graves taking to Twitter to welcome Coach back.
What’s next?
Well, following on from what may go down in history as one of the biggest Royal Rumble events ever, WWE are straight back at it again on RAW where we will hear Coach on color commentary as he returns to the announce table for the first time in almost a decade.
Author’s take
Coach was hugely popular during his time in WWE and maybe even more so when making sporadic appearances since leaving.
He's hailed as being one of the big reasons why WWE receives so much coverage in a mainstream sport after showcasing his own segment on ESPN and, while it's sad to see Booker T leave the desk, Coach will no doubt be a great addition!
