The following was issued by WWE on Thursday.
WWE® ANNOUNCES NEW BROADCAST TEAMS AS A PART OF SMACKDOWN®’S MOVE TO THURSDAY NIGHTS
STAMFORD, CONN., January 8, 2015 – As part of WWE SmackDown’s move next week to Thursday nights at 8 PM on Syfy, WWE has announced changes to the broadcast teams for its flagship programs Monday Night Raw® and WWE SmackDown. Starting Monday, January 12, Michael Cole, Booker T® and John “Bradshaw” Layfield® will handle play-by-play and color commentary on Raw. Michael Cole, Jerry “The King” Lawler® and Byron Saxton™ will be the hosts for SmackDown when it debuts next Thursday at 8 PM on Syfy.
The broadcast team for WWE pay-per-view events will continue to be Michael Cole, Jerry “The King” Lawler and John “Bradshaw” Layfield.
Michael Cole has been the voice of WWE for more than 15 years, calling all of the action on Raw, SmackDown and WWE pay-per-view events. Booker T is a WWE Hall of Famer, a multi-time World Heavyweight Champion, and recent panelist on the Raw pre-and-post shows on WWE Network. John “Bradshaw” Layfield is a former World Heavyweight Champion and a frequent guest contributor on the Fox News Channel. Jerry “The King” Lawler is a WWE Hall of Famer, and a mainstay at ringside, bringing his unique form of color commentary to WWE fans for more than 20 years. Byron Saxton is a former ECW® and NXT® broadcaster, and most recently was a reporter for Raw and SmackDown.