Capital Region Native Joins WWE Broadcast Team

CLEVELAND, OHIO — Joe Tessitore, a sportscaster from Schenectady, will join World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) “Monday Night Raw” broadcast team as a play-by-play commentator beginning Monday, September 2. The news was announced by fellow commentator Michael Cole during WWE’s SummerSlam event on Saturday. 

“This is absolutely not the Washington Avenue Armory in Albany, New York when I was a little kid seeing Chief Jay Strongbow and skipping school to go to PYX 106 parties with Big John Studd,” Tessitore reminisced during SummerSlam. 

Tessitore attended the Christian Brothers Academy in Albany, and later worked at WRGB, the CBS affiliate TV station in Albany, early in his career. Since then, he’s called both boxing matches and NFL games for ESPN. He was also an announcer on “Holey Moley,” a miniature golf competition show on ABC.