WWE just made a big move with its announcing team. According to PWInsider, Kevin Patrick (real name Kevin Egan) has been fired from WWE. The news comes days before the Royal Rumble, one of WWE’s biggest premium live events (PLE) of the year. The report also comes after Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer confirmed this week that Patrick was leaving his role on the WWE SmackDown commentary team. WWE has not announced a replacement for Patrick.
In August 2023, Patrick joined the WWE SmackDown commentary team after being part of WWE Raw. Originally, WWE SmackDown was a three-man booth with Patrick, Corey Graves and Michael Cole, and it was reported the goal was to help Patrick grow as a broadcaster. Cole then moved exclusively to WWE Raw earlier this month after calling both shows for months. That left Patrick and Graves being a two-man commentary team for the last few weeks.
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Patrick joined WWE in March 2021 as a backstage correspondent, play-by-play commentator, and Raw talk show host. The Ireland native also worked as a soccer broadcaster during his time in WWE and worked for the likes of the Big Ten Network, the Chicago Fire Soccer Club, beIN SPORTS, CNN International and Sirius XM.
While speaking on the Out of Character podcast with Ryan Satin last year, Patrick talked about how his journey to WWE began. “I’m shaving one day,” Patrick recalled, per Wrestling Inc. “I’m getting ready to go on CNN International. Half my face is full of shaving foam, and I get a phone call [from] a gentleman asking [if I would] be interested in auditioning because they’re headhunting for broadcast positions.”
In the same interview, Patrick revealed how he became part of the commentary team for WWE Raw. “Not long at all, honestly. I was thrust into the spotlight the week of and it’s something that I had been working on doing [commentary] for Main Event,” Patrick said on how much notice he had about before getting the role, per Fightful. “When I got the call, I had no idea. Changes were made, unfortunately. You never wanna see… Jimmy Smith, a friend of mine. You don’t wanna see people move on, but when you’re being told that you’re being trusted with this position, it’s like, ‘Okay, I appreciate that.’ One day, I may be moved on and the next person will come in and I wish them well. It’s just the nature of what we do in live entertainment. So, I didn’t know for long, but I had been working on it week in and week out during Main Event. I love this industry that we’re a part of, I love live television, I love live shows.”
