The WWE completed their 41st edition of WrestleMania this past weekend in Las Vegas from the home of the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium. The two-day event was viewed for the first time by a worldwide audience, as the annual spectacle was broadcast on Peacock in the United States and Netflix internationally as part of the WWE’s new agreement with the streaming platform.
While many of the headlines surrounding the event stemmed from the results of the action in the ring, Scott Anderson of 97.1 The Ticket in Detroit found the feel of the event to be amplified by the pre-show programming, including commentator Joe Tessitore.
“WWE does things way better than AEW when it comes to their production,” explained Anderson. “They had Joe Tessitore, the play-by-play voice of college and pro football. Joe Tessitore, he was doing the pre-game festivities, and he was awesome at it.”
Moreover, Anderson said he didn’t expect the addition of Tessitore on the broadcast of the WWE’s WrestleMania event. However, he stated that Tessitore gave added life to the event.
“He gave a big game feel to the scripted outcome event. He knew who the wrestlers were. He knew what the moves were, and he knew the history of what was going on,” noted Anderson. “I was just very impressed to having a mainstream guy brought in to do what he did.”
Tessitore joined WWE in July of 2024 and has since bounced around in roles from lead play-by-play of the WWE’s Monday Night Raw product to Friday Night Smackdown. In addition, Tessitore has hosted several premium live event pre-show and post-show broadcasts streamed on YouTube and WWE’s social channels since his addition.
Furthermore, Anderson described how Tessitore’s presence brought an extra layer of excitement and authenticity to the production.
“He’s just kind of giving a sight-seeing thing, ‘Oh, this is what’s going on over here?’ Then he points out there’s Kirk Herbstreit. right there,” explained Anderson. “It was just cool to have that. It was this big game or big event feel to it, because it is a big event, but it’s scripted. It’s wrestling, and yet it’s still great.”
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