Byron Saxton has long been thought of in WWE as someone who could one day possibly serve as the new play-by-play voice on Monday Night RAW . Saxton has spent time in the past announcing for NXT and SmackDown , and this past Monday night he got his chance to shine on RAW . However, his performance during the show apparently caused Vince McMahon much stress and frustration.
Following the angle involving Brock Lesnar obliterating the entire announcing crew, Saxton was sent out to the ring to announce the rest of the show solo. However, shortly after 10:00 p.m., Jerry “The King” Lawler joined Saxton at ringside for broadcast purposes.
Lawler was in the building, though he usually only announces SmackDown television now, due to the fact that WrestleMania was the night before and both crews were present. Lawler clearly was not dressed for television when he made his way down to the ring, so that was the first clue that Jerry joining Saxton probably was not part of the plan. Now, according to a report by MetsFan4Ever on Reddit (who has broken many stories in the past and is apparently a well-connected former WWE employee), Vince sent Lawler to ringside to join Saxton because he was furious with Byron’s performance on the show.
According to the report, McMahon told Lawler that he needed to go out there and “breathe life into Byron.” MetsFan4Ever goes on to note that even though Lawler was there to assist Saxton for the rest of the show, McMahon continued to be upset at Byron’s performance. Apparently, according to the report, McMahon ignored Saxton when he returned backstage after RAW due to how frustrated he was over Byron’s performance..
Whether or not the report on Reddit is overblown or not, it is legitimate that there was heat on Saxton Monday night. Dave Meltzer noted this week during an episode of Wrestling Observer Radio with Brian Alvarez that there were frustrations within WWE over Byron’s RAW performance.
With McMahon’s talk of younger talent needing to “grab the brass ring” during his appearance on the Stone Cold Podcast in December, one has to think that McMahon believes this was Byron Saxton’s chance to shine and do just that. However, it appears that the boss was less than impressed, and it will likely take a major change before Saxton gets another chance at broadcasting the WWE’s flagship show. According to Meltzer, Michael Cole will be back this week announcing RAW .
[Image via GiveMeSport.com ]
