Adnan Virk’s WWE Stint Done, Announcer Speaks Out

Adnan Virk’s WWE stint is coming to a surprising end. On Tuesday, WWE announced it has parted ways with Virk, who was hired by the company right after WrestleMania 37. Virk was the lead broadcaster for WWE’s flagship show WWE Raw, which airs Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET on USA Network. The brief statement said the two parties “mutually agreed” on ending their relationship, a fact that Virk seemingly confirmed shortly after WWE announced the shakeup.

Virk tweeted, “Thanks to [WWE] for a wonderful opportunity. The weekly travel along with my other jobs was a grind for me and my family. Am grateful to everyone with the company especially [Corey Graves] and [Byron Saxton] for being such fantastic teammates.” Virk appeared on seven episodes of Raw and received mixed reviews for his work. In late April, Virk talked about his experience in WWE while appearing on the Sports Illustrated Media podcast.

“One of the great pieces of advice Michael Cole said to me, ‘Listen, whatever you do, please don’t check social media.’ I nodded,” Virk said, per ComicBook.com. “He goes, ‘I’m serious about this because no one listens, and then they check it.’ And either way it’s not good. If they say you’re great, well, that doesn’t matter. If they say you’re awful, that also doesn’t matter. One man’s opinion doesn’t matter so don’t lose sight of that.”

Virk went on to talk about being perfect and not listening to people on social media. “You want to bat 1,000, but if you make a mistake, don’t make the same mistake twice, just learn from it,” he added. “My wife starts saying, ‘Oh, this person tweeted this. No, I don’t want to know this. Why would you tell me this? I called my parents Jimmy. ‘How’d it go?’ Same thing, some good, some bad. ‘Yeah, your dad was checking Twitter,’ and I go, for god’s sakes. It’s amazing to me that when people are looking for feedback, social media, as you and I both know, it’s generally a place where people are spewing vitriol.”

Virk, who also does work for the MLB Network, took over for Tom Phillips, who is now the new host of 205 Live and oversees special projects for WWE programming on Peacock and the WWE Performance Center in Orlando. WWE didn’t announce who will replace Virk or if Phillips will return to Raw. This comes less than two months before from WWE leaving the ThunderDome and going back on the road for live events.