Following WrestleMania 37, both Raw and SmackDown’s teams were adjusted due to WWE hiring former ESPN announcer Adnan Virk. His recruitment saw Tom Phillips move to 205 Live, Samoa Joe released due to still being injured, and Corey Graves switching from SmackDown to Raw. The decision came as quite a surprise, as while Virk is a capable and accomplished broadcaster, he had no prior wrestling experience and was so unfamiliar with the product he actually had to visit WWE.com to learn the names of finishing moves.
Now, just seven weeks into his role as the lead announcer on the companies flagship show, WWE has announced that Virk and they have mutually agreed to part ways. No specific details were provided initially as to why, but shortly after the announcement, Virk took to Twitter and blamed the weekly travel, which is somewhat surprising because he would have been aware of that before accepting the role.
Calling wrestling is vastly different from sports, and Virk had received criticism from fans for his performances, so it is possible that also played a part in the decision. Additionally, Virk may not have been comfortable commentating on matches featuring zombies, given his sports broadcasting background.
Virk was hired by the company on the recommendation of WWE President & Chief Revenue Officer Nick Khan, who was previously his agent. The Canadian announcer was with ESPN for nine years and worked on Baseball Tonight, SportsCenter, Outside the Lines, and ESPN College Football during that time. However, back in 2019, he was fired and escorted from the building because he had shared private information about the network’s baseball coverage with a journalist. After that, he worked for the MLB Network, NHL Network, DAZN, and on his own podcast.
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