WWE Officials Discuss Cole's Commentary

[PHX]

WWE officials held a meeting last week after the RAW ratings came in where Michael Cole's commentary was discussed.

TV ratings patterns show fans have little interest in seeing anyone on TV besides the top Superstars. Consideration was given to maybe that's because of Cole burying the talents for the past year.

Idk if it effects ratings but it sure as hell doesn't help when you have your commentator to keep on and on burying guys esp the main one he does it too is now your WHC.

 

[SAL]

Consideration was given to maybe that's because of Cole burying the talents for the past year.

....that's a good start, WWE. But you're going a step further than you have to. Cole's yelling and burying everybody is making the talent unwatchable? No, be more direct than that. Cole's yelling makes the SHOW unwatchable. He's the worst kind of heel announcer, the kind who projects I'M A HEEL with every single thing he says.

 

[Dale]

In theory, it should affect the ratings because if Cole keeps telling you have much of a nerd Bryan is and how much of a goof Ryder is over and over again, people will start to believe that and then ask themselves why the fuck they are bothering to watch them. Cole should be telling us how great these guys are and why we should be tuning in every week to watch them as opposed to telling us how bad they are and why we shouldn't be watching them.

 

[Slim]

The thing Cole needs is a good face to work with. Cole can be a good heel commentator if he has a good face commentator to work with. Lawler is not that guy. Cole buries them and Lawler does very little to build the guys back up. He just kinda sits there and lets him do it.

Cole needs a strong character to work with, to balance the commentating booth and to help the superstars out when Cole is doing what he does. But Cole does go over the top and needs to tone it down.

 

[Defiant]

The most annoying part of all to me is that Cole doesn't have anyone to contend with. He runs circles around around Jerry and Booker and I kind of want to like him. But he isn't challenged, nobody tries to deal with him like they would any other heel, and he gets to continue yelling over the top of everybody with no consequences.

 

[PHX]

That's the thing though it shouldn't even be in that situation. Supposed to be the announcers putting over the product not trying to contend with Cole.

 

[John McHenry]

The thing Cole needs is a good face to work with. Cole can be a good heel commentator if he has a good face commentator to work with. Lawler is not that guy. Cole buries them and Lawler does very little to build the guys back up. He just kinda sits there and lets him do it.

Cole needs a strong character to work with, to balance the commentating booth and to help the superstars out when Cole is doing what he does. But Cole does go over the top and needs to tone it down.

Matthews actually works with Cole quite well, that says something considering the difference in years of everyone around him. And actually in recent weeks commentary has gotten better for the most part with the exception of Daniels and Ryder, and he's even put them over a few times.



But WWE seems to be trying to find a scape goat right now. When in reality it's not Cole's fault I'm sure hes doing what they've been telling him (perhaps too well) but WWE buries the talent just as much as Cole does. They also stopped trying to build guys up years ago and the way they go about it now doesn't work they've finally started going back to their old ways of building guys up so I hope they don't try and change it up now, because it'd probably set them back again

 

[Slim]

Heel/face commentators can work with proper balance. Heenan/Monsoon which was perhaps the greatest team ever made. You had Ross/lawler when Lawler was doing the heel thing... it worked real well. You had Heyman/Ross which was a very interesting team.

2 faces doesn't work, 2 heels cannot work. I mean even when JBL was on commentary back then... I think he worked with Cole. or whoever he worked with... it worked out well cause there was balance. Lawler is too weak to work against Cole. Booker fumbles too much to work well against Cole. The only one that probably could work with Cole is Punk but... can't have him doing that.

Pretty much... Cole needs to be there cause there needs to be a strong presence at the table otherwise it'll be a bunch of pansies kissing up and it'd make commentary even more unbearable than it is now. But the question is... who could do it. Plus it'd help if the guy is knowledgeable about stuff. Like tenay worked well cause he knows stuff as well as Styles.

 

[SAL]

Heel/face commentators can work with proper balance. Heenan/Monsoon which was perhaps the greatest team ever made. You had Ross/lawler when Lawler was doing the heel thing... it worked real well. You had Heyman/Ross which was a very interesting team.

2 faces doesn't work, 2 heels cannot work. I mean even when JBL was on commentary back then... I think he worked with Cole. or whoever he worked with... it worked out well cause there was balance. Lawler is too weak to work against Cole. Booker fumbles too much to work well against Cole. The only one that probably could work with Cole is Punk but... can't have him doing that.

Pretty much... Cole needs to be there cause there needs to be a strong presence at the table otherwise it'll be a bunch of pansies kissing up and it'd make commentary even more unbearable than it is now. But the question is... who could do it. Plus it'd help if the guy is knowledgeable about stuff. Like tenay worked well cause he knows stuff as well as Styles.

I think you could have heel Cole turned down a whole bunch of notches and everything would be fine. The classic heel commentator has never been as loud or as indignant as Cole. Guys like Heenan, Lawler, JBL, Ventura, they'd root for the heels, but that wasn't their entire shtick. They'd contribute something else to the show. All Cole does is call moves (occasionally), and he usually screams over them when the good guy's the one on offense. Compare Cole now, the Cole who hates every single face with a fiery passion, to the Cole of a year ago, who loved the Miz, had issues with a few faces, and agreed with the other commentator about how the Nexus was going to ruin WWE. The heel announcer accomplishes nothing by screaming over everything.

 

[Dale]

In my opinion you should never come out at the end of a show and be talking about the announcers so much like we seem to be doing these days. For me, I love Josh because he does his job perfectly, tells me everything I need to know and I never get to the end of the show and feel like I have to discuss stuff he said because I feel like he wasn't there if that makes sense? I also love Booker and as whacky as he is he does a good job of putting guys over even if we do discuss him from time to time because of his crazy sayings but I don't mind that really because JR had the same whacky catchphrases. Cole puts too much emphasis on himself throughout the whole night that he does actually take away from the guys in the ring which he shouldn't be doing at all. If he wants to be the centre of attention, take him completely out of the booth and have him be the new Vickie.

 

[PHX]

Pretty much summed it up perfectly and why I actually think Matthews is a very underrated announcer. He does the job he's supposed to do without drawing attention away from the guys he's supposed to put over. Like Sal pointed out there is a way to be a heel commentator without drawing attention away from the product. I know they don't give a shit about the divas but boy do they make it obvious with Cole who did the definition of the term burying to them too many times to the point where I feel sorry for them.

 

[John McHenry]

Someone needs to start a matthews on raw announce table petition.

 

[Kiffy Lube]

Cole helped Daniel Bryan become what he has become today. Cole has his place and it can be to put over wrestlers.

 

[The Cork]

Very ridiculous report.

How many downright terrible announcers have they had down the years without it affecting ratings? JR, Foley, King, Adamle, Coach. Nobody watches wrestling for commentary, and theres a mute button so its irrelevant, even if you dislike it.

Seems like everyone is looking for an excuse rather than point at the most obvious problem, you put dull characters as your main focus and people wont watch, its that simple.

Its astounding how thick people on the internet are (not saying anyone in particular, and not just this forum), when Cena was supermanning through the roster as champ and ratings fell, it was all Cena's fault, but now IWC gods are at the top of the card and nobodys watching, its Micheal Coles fault?

ROFL.

 

[Troy]

There is a huge difference between Cole and all the other commentators you listed. None of the others would yell and scream about how bad the talent are and none became a character that was bigger than the announce table. Cole became the smug heel commentator who hated every face but he went about it in a more obnoxious manner than any heel commentator before him. Heel commentators have never buried the wrestlers as much a Cole has, Lawler when he was at his best as the heel colour commentator would dislike the faces but wouldn't bury them. Remember when Cole buried an entire division in the Divas division when he would start talking on the mic during their matches? You can't tell me that Cole doing that helped get the Divas over. WWE need to change Cole's character and tone him down a lot especially if he is meant to be a play by play announcer since all he should be doing is calling the action and pushing the storylines. Or WWE could keep the character the same but then they have to make him a manager or make him the GM, this current character doesn't work as a play by play announcer.