WWE Rumors: Vince McMahon Reportedly Unhappy With Former ‘Raw’ Commentator’s Performance
The latest rumors suggest that WWE officials, including company owner Vince McMahon, weren’t happy with the work of Monday Night Raw color commentator Dio Maddin. This comes after it was noted on Tuesday’s episode of WWE Backstage that the former pro football player will be returning to the Performance Center to resume his career as a wrestler.
As reported by WrestlingNews.co, Bryan Alvarez said on a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Live that while it’s true Maddin wants to return to the ring as a competitor, there’s apparently another reason why his brief stint on Raw’s announce team came to an abrupt end.
“I don’t know if Dio Maddin himself is gonna get mad but I’m sure we’ll hear that this is not accurate but this is what happened,” Alvarez was quoted as saying. “Vince and [WWE executive vice president of television production] Kevin Dunn didn’t like Dio Maddin on commentary and they took him off commentary and I think they were gonna try to re-train him or whatever to do commentary but now I guess he’s decided he wants to be a wrestler again.”
As further speculated, WWE will likely make it appear that it was Maddin’s plan all along to continue his wrestling training and that he “just decided” to make the move during his time as a commentator.
Mama didn’t raise no punk.
She might have raised a dummy. But not a punk. pic.twitter.com/b1xIeAYFpN
— brennan / jibo | vtuber (@GREATBLACKOTAKU) November 5, 2019
Despite Maddin’s apparent inability to impress McMahon and Dunn as one of Monday Night Raw’s commentators, Alvarez opined that the ex-NFL offensive lineman, whose real name is Brennan Williams, did well in his job for someone who didn’t have much relevant experience. In recent weeks, Samoa Joe has been filling in for Maddin and doing commentary alongside regular Raw announcers Vic Joseph and Jerry Lawler. However, WrestlingNews.co pointed out that it’s still unclear if WWE will find a permanent replacement once Joe is cleared to return to in-ring action.
According to a previous report from Wrestling Inc., Maddin’s last appearance on Raw was on the show’s November 4 episode, where he was brutally attacked by Brock Lesnar while trying to defend Lawler from the reigning WWE Champion. At that time, it was claimed that WWE wanted to keep him off television in order to properly sell the beatdown from Lesnar. However, there was already some speculation that the company was considering switching to a two-man announce team for Raw, much like the duo of Michael Cole and Corey Graves handles things on Friday Night SmackDown.
