The decline of commentating

Handsome Bob

It's so bad these days. They are basically clones of each other now. What's the difference between Todd Grisham, Josh Matthews and Michael Cole? The only one that is in any way decent is Matt Striker, yet he's still rubbish. I get the feeling they are actually telling him to be bland and generic just so he fits in with the rest of the clones.

Compare Jerry Lawlor to what he is now to what he was back in the day. He was once full of character and was comedy gold alongside JR, but he's been awful for a long time. No doubt because they've told him to be more bland and generic, you don't have a personality labotomy like that.

Chris Jericho did commentating on NXT a few weeks back and he absolutely embarassed Cole and Matthews. Absolutely class stuff, why can't they give us more of that instead of this boring ****e?

The final straw for me was WM, most of the matches were good to great, and these clowns commentating still somehow managed to actually hinder the matches. Just shocking stuff. :mad:

campo

I agree on Cole,Matthews,Grisham they may aswell be the same person
Striker I think though is pretty good and the King well between having no JR beside him and the new PG rating this has badly affected him.
Things are worse in TNA though Tazz is just awful

Handsome Bob

campo wrote: »

I agree on Cole,Matthews,Grisham they may aswell be the same person
Striker I think though is pretty good and the King well between having no JR beside him and the new PG rating this has badly affected him.
Things are worse in TNA though Tazz is just awful

I think PG is the main thing in regards to the King, because even alongside JR he's been bad for a long time.

I always thought Tazz was brutal, even when he was supposedly good on SD I thought he was bad. JBL was a considerable step up there.

Tricity Bendix

Personally I like the Grisham/Striker combo. It may be a huge step away from the classic announce teams, but its the best the WWE can come up with.

Pity JBL didnt stick with it. And Foley for that matter.

gimmick

We were just spoiled for years by JR. I think thats the long and short of it tbh.

What the commentary misses most nowadays is a bona fide heel commentator. Its what wrestling commentary needs in order to give it an edge. King was at his best in that role, rather than the idiotic horny old codger he has played for the last few years. Bobby Heenan, Jesse Ventura etc.

In recent times, I actually liked Taz and I thought JBL was a fantastic throw back to the good ol days of commentary.

Oh, and before anyone says Joey Styles was great, please stop, engage the thought, and dismiss it. He was crap

campo

good point on the heel commentary Gimmick as I think Cole is actually doing a good job on NXT but only because of his hatred of Danielson and the Internet smarks
and Joey styles yes awful trully awful

waltersobchak

WWE should hire Tony Schiavone :pac:

The shocking thing is Jim Ross is fit and healthy but Vince doesnt want him back:eek::eek: Cole and King are one of the reasons i dont bother watching Raw anymore, basically because they annoy me so much.. Although Cole was bearable on Smackdown all his catchprases and basic knowledge get on my fu*king nerves, Tbh id love to see JR in TNA with Mike Tenay and Taz that would honestly be a tremendous announce team..

Joey Styles was awesome lads, just because his run in WWE sucked, that wasn't exactly his fault to be fair

starviewadams

Compare Cole and King to J.R. and Paul Heyman from a decade ago,we were so spoiled!
JBL was awesome aswell and he actually made a very bleak period for Smackdown very entertaining a few years back(he did a great job of getting MVP over after he debuted,he had so many cool little sayings for him),cant really remember if Foley was much use but he was certainly a step up from his predecessor The Coach!

Stryker was good when he was announcing on ECW(probably had a lot more freedom) but seems to have just turned into a slightly better version of Michael Cole since he's been on Smackdown.Grisham,King and Cole are all horrendous and I think they actually drag the shows that they are announcing waay down.

The less said about Taz and Stylesy the better!!

Wompa1

They could do with bringing Joey Styles back. Even Coach!...I use to like Coach and Grishom. You tell me the guy didn't deserve his own entrance theme!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9xI19R_HQo

grames_bond

i actually like stryker, i think if they give him a bit more freedom he could be great, he knows alot and he was heeling it up on sd! this week which is something i have wanted to see for a long time!

i think wwe should just throw money at jesse ventura again....my god that man is a legend and when he hosted raw he still had the hunger and drive you want from a commentator....but he is too buzy politicing it up!

gimmick

waltersobchak wrote: »

Joey Styles was awesome lads, just because his run in WWE sucked, that wasn't exactly his fault to be fair

No, he wasn't, he was terrible. He just got over excited in a very contrived sense in ECW - OH MY GAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!

I will say that himself and Cyrus worked well together though.

waltersobchak

gimmick wrote: »

No, he wasn't, he was terrible. He just got over excited in a very contrived sense in ECW - OH MY GAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!

I will say that himself and Cyrus worked well together though.

I know his style wasnt everyones cup of tea, and for the casual watcher he must have seemed annoying as fu*k but i loved it.. I enjoyed how he'd start off relaxed and as the match got more violent he'd start going apesh*t.. but i also thought he had a great knowledge of everything and it was an innovative, differant style of commentating imho..

Reganio 2

We need Coach back, JR at his prime, Bobby Henan at his prime and Coach at any time, theirs a proper team.

Degag

Well apparently Vince is yelling into their ears everytime they screw up and say something they shouldn't or didn't say something they should have. That doesn't lead to the commentators having faith in themselves and only leads to them becoming more generic. The constant referral to the "WWE Universe" constantly being shoved down our throat enforces this point. How can they be different when they are all told to say the same things?

Penn

I'm hoping with the Draft that things get shaken up a bit in the commentary department.

davrho

Is this another case of prefering what you were brought up with?

I always liked Bobby Heenan. Him mixing it with JR, Gorrila Monsoon, Lord Alfred Hayes and Macho Man. Never minded Vince either.

The King and JR partnership worked well. I liked JBL, Heyman and Foley and yes Coach is better than the current lot.

Not too sure PG is to blame. I don't remember anything that bad any wwe(f) commentater said in the last 30 years that you would not want a kid to hear. Most the Kings quotes were innuendo. If in doubt blame pg seems to be the stick to beat wwe with.

gimmick

paddyirishman85 wrote: »

I'm hoping with the Draft that things get shaken up a bit in the commentary department.

What happens when you polish a faece? It is still a faece, so I doubt the draft can do anything.

Well apparently Vince is yelling into their ears everytime they screw up and say something they shouldn't or didn't say something they should have. That doesn't lead to the commentators having faith in themselves and only leads to them becoming more generic.

This has to have alot to do with it.The fact that they are told they can only use certain words and definitely not allowed use others does not help matters, and when they are walking on eggshells to make sure they do not cross the boss, playing it safe is probably the only option.

Sure isn't that one of the reasons Coach quit? He was sick to death of being lampooned by Vince all through the shows.

Jolt2007

What a difference a year makes. This time last year on ECW Striker was superb, and now I want to rip my ears of when I hear him. He's horrible now with his obviously made up "facts", try hard heel act, butting in the wrong time to say nothing of value and terrible nicknames like "The abdominal superstar". Watching Smackdown is fast becoming a chore thanks to him.

Penn

gimmick wrote: »

What happens when you polish a faece? It is still a faece, so I doubt the draft can do anything.

I think getting Cole and Lawlor away from each other can only be a good thing. Cole will be "laughing" less, Lawlor might actually wake the hell up and maybe the chance to commentate on Raw could kick Striker up a gear

Vince135792003

gimmick wrote: »

We were just spoiled for years by JR. I think thats the long and short of it tbh.

He wasn't the only one that spoiled us. Lots of great commentators.

I think Vince controls his commentators so much that it dilutes their personality to the point they have none.

Tricity Bendix

Cole + Striker is a bad combo. Changing things around would actually make things worse. What they need is new blood (but not Adamle's).

flahavaj

The standard criticisms of Cole are valid and have been made plenty times on here. But as a heel who likes to rip on the internet which he does on NXT hes actually bearable, even good sometimes.

JBL was the big loss, he was brilliant on Smackdown. Striker was great on ECW when they lust left him alone.

CM Punk will make a brilliant commentator someday. He has a good voice for it and was pretty good in ROH when he used to step into the commentary booth.

Handsome Bob

flahavaj wrote: »

The standard criticisms of Cole are valid and have been made plenty times on here. But as a heel who likes to rip on the internet which he does on NXT hes actually bearable, even good sometimes.

The problem with his heel persona on NXT is that I don't really believe it, he's calling Daniel Bryan and internet fans dweebs, that man should not be calling anyone a dweeb. :pac:

rossie1977

jbl was great, mike tenay used to be so articulate in wcw now he is horrible

its funny looking back now most of us will reminisce about what a great team gorilla/ventura and especially gorilla/heenan made but monsoon was voted worst tv announcer on the WON in 1985 and every year between 91-95

maybe in 20 years the kids of today will be singing the praises of michael cole and tazz

flahavaj

LZ5by5 wrote: »

The problem with his heel persona on NXT is that I don't really believe it, he's calling Daniel Bryan and internet fans dweebs, that man should not be calling anyone a dweeb. :pac:

Thats what's so great about it tbh.:pac:

Machismo Fan

flahavaj wrote: »

The standard criticisms of Cole are valid and have been made plenty times on here. But as a heel who likes to rip on the internet which he does on NXT hes actually bearable, even good sometimes.

I disagree, they go too far. I was watching Bryan vs. Young on NXT last week and all Cole and Mathews did was bicker for the entire match and it really took away from my enjoyment of the match. It's good in small doses but it shouldn't take precedence over whats happening in the ring.

I'd say Abraham Washington would make a great heel commentator. His show was so annoying that you had to hate him.

Angron

Remember how bad Mike Adamle was when he was commentator on ECW? I felt he was just awful..

I miss JR, but looks like he wont be back any time soon, if at all. I was hoping he would at least make an appearance at Mania, maybe to do Micheals-Taker. But it wasn't to be

flahavaj

Machismo Fan wrote: »

I disagree, they go too far. I was watching Bryan vs. Young on NXT last week and all Cole and Mathews did was bicker for the entire match and it really took away from my enjoyment of the match. It's good in small doses but it shouldn't take precedence over whats happening in the ring.

Fair point. I must confess to not having seen the last few weeks of NXT tbh. Allowing their "gimmick" become more important than the actual in-ring action is a trap no commentator should fall into.

Motley Crue

There's a match on the Randy Savage DVD where he takes on Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels, he teams with Bret Hart, and the commentary for that match is done by a very young Jim Ross...which surprises me, because it must have been a house show in 1992, since most credit WM9 as Ross's first commentating event

Anyway, he sounds much clearer then he did in later years, for obvious reasons...but it showed the power of his voice and obviously the reason why the WWE hired him in the first place

I miss Dot Hendrix actually, and I think Vince McMahon/Randy Savage/Harvey Wippleman (and just before he left) Bobby Heenan made the early early RAW commentary pretty listenable

Otis Driftwood

Its the lack of colour commentary IMO.

Any of the great commentary teams had the straight commentator eg Shivone,Monsoon,JR and you had the heel commentator eg Ventura,Heenan or King.

They had great chemistry together,sparked off eachother and made alot of average matches great.

My favourite combo has always been Heenan and Monsoon,followed by King and JR from the late 90s early 00s,in alot of cases wrestling was worth watching just to hear them give eachother guff.

Ham'nd'egger

The jobs of the commentators is to get the wrestlers and the product over as best as possible which is, I feel the main fall down of most people who try it out as they involve themselves more than they guys in the ring. Easily the best ever work by a color commentator was how Bobby Heenan single handedly got Ric Flair's NWA World title belt over and his feud with the Big Bossman when he made fun out of his mother; somebody who never ever was seen on TV! I often wish they cut a DVD featuring the best of Heenan; the 1992 Royal Rumble is one of the very best ever commentary jobs on an WWF event and has to be it's main event.

While JR is probably the best blow by blow guy out over the last 20 years, it's finding a guy to work well with the blow by blow guy that turns a good commentator into a great team. Lawler works well with JR but Heyman didn't gel with him at all. One guy who is always left out of these discussions is Lance Russell; he was never a prime time announcer but he worked with NWA in the late 80's and has one hell of a delivery.

arsenallegend

Most of these guys aren't wrestling fans apart from Matt Striker they are former news Reporter's so thats why most suck at there job plus Vince tells them everything in there ear