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What's the story?
The blue brand had a change in commentary personnel tonight as Michael Cole filled in for SmackDown's resident host commentator, Tom Phillips.
In case you didn't know...
Phillips was the lead play-by-play announcer for the NXT since 2014 and eventually replaced Mauro Ranallo on the blue brand. Since then he has appeared at WrestleMania and all other PPVs for SD Live.
He was also the lead announcer on 205 Live until he was replaced by Vic Joseph. He is usually joined by Corey Graves and Byron Saxton on Tuesday nights.
Phillips subbed in for Cole on Raw earlier this month as the latter had to attend his son's wedding.
The heart of the matter
Cole announced that he would be filling in for Phillips for a few weeks as he is "on assignment". There was no other clarification made on either the nature of the project or the duration of the arrangement.
The WWE is yet to make an official announcement on this development as of this writing.
What's next?
As per his announcement, Cole will take over the role of the lead announcer on both shows for a while until Phillips is ready to return.
Author's take
Phillips has now become the voice of SmackDown and he will certainly be missed during his time off-screen.
However, I believe the combination of Cole and Graves on commentary is absolutely perfect. The two complement each other and it will be great to see or rather hear them in action once again, albeit for only a few weeks.
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