text: The night after losing the United States Championship, Joe attacked WWE Champion Kofi Kingston, leading to a title match at Extreme Rules in July 2019 that was won by Kingston. At the Smackville event later that month, Joe unsuccessfully challenged Kingston for the title in a triple threat match also involving Dolph Ziggler. In August to September 2019, Joe competed in the 2019 King of the Ring tournament, defeating Cesaro in the first round, wrestling Ricochet to a draw in the quarter-finals, and losing to Baron Corbin in the semi-finals in a triple threat match also involving Ricochet. Following the match, Joe became inactive while rehabilitating a broken thumb. While injured, Joe began appearing as a color commentator on the November 18, 2019 episode of Raw (replacing Dio Maddin) as well as appearing on WWE Backstage.
  On the December 23, 2019 episode of Raw, Joe was attacked by the Authors of Pain. The following week on Raw, Joe saved Kevin Owens from an attack by the Authors of Pain and Seth Rollins. Joe returned to the ring in January 2020. Later that month he competed in the Royal Rumble, being eliminated by Rollins. On the February 10 episode of Raw, Joe teamed with Owens and the Viking Raiders in a loss to Rollins, the Authors of Pain, and Murphy; this was his penultimate match with WWE and his last match for 18 months. Later that month, it was reported that Joe had injured his head during a commercial shoot and was not medically cleared to compete. Four days later, Joe was suspended for 30 days for violating the WWE wellness policy.
  Joe returned to television on the April 27, 2020 episode of Raw, replacing Jerry Lawler as the Raw color commentator. He was named "Commentator of the Year" for 2020 by CBS Sports. He remained on the Raw commentary team until April 12, 2021, when he was replaced by Corey Graves. He was released by WWE on April 15, 2021.