Wade Barrett made an appearance on Out of Character with Ryan Satin to discuss a wide range of topics.
During it, he shared when he found out he was leaving WWE NXT for SmackDown. He is currently calling the blue brand with Michael Cole as part of the announce team. He’ll go back to NXT when Pat McAfee returns to commentary once college football season is over.
“I probably found out maybe three or four days before I took the first trip over. It was very much a last minute decision. Pat McAfee’s off for two or three months during his college football stop. Initially, they had Corey Graves stepping in and filling the seat, but I think Cory probably had a lot on his plate. He does a hell of a lot for WWE with all the Pay-per-views and RAW and he’s got his podcast. So I think maybe somebody needed to pick up a little slack on behalf of Cory, so that’s when they gave me the call and asked me to step in there.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription