Michael Cole replaced for the night on WWE SmackDown; misses the show

Michael Cole was missing from WWE SmackDown this week and a replacement for the night had to step up. The reason for his absence wasn't given on the show either.

Cole became a fixture on WWE SmackDown after he moved there from RAW last month. The commentator's usual partner, Pat McAfee has also stepped away due to his commitments with College GameDay. However, in his absence, Cole has been working with Corey Graves on WWE SmackDown, while Wade Barrett works with Joe Tessitore on RAW.

On this week's episode of SmackDown, though, things were a bit different as Michael Cole was not present. Corey Graves said that Cole was away on 'An assignment' and so had been replaced on the show - He said that he had some bad news, and welcomed "Bad News" Wade Barrett back to SmackDown.

Barrett is no stranger to SmackDown or Graves, as he was the regular commentator on the show until two months ago when the change happened. He was back for the show tonight and worked together with Graves.

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It's expected that this was a temporary change and not one for the foreseeable future. For the moment, it's not certain what exactly Michael Cole was doing as there was no elaboration about what being on assignment really meant for the veteran.

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