Michael Cole's Announcing

[Next Big Thing]

Can he please get future endeavored soon? Him trying to play the heel role is laughable. He doesn't actually get heat like Heenan or King he just comes off as a whiny bitch. It's not consistent either. I'd rather see Matt Striker in that spot.

[Funky Fly]

He is a whiny bitch.

[VSG]

His whining is what makes him watchable.

[Mike Honcho]

I actually thought King is worse now than cole. King used to be awesome, but he sucks ass now.

[Gertner]

Just because he doesn't suck the IWC's dick doesn't mean he's terrible.

[bostonbill41]

Personally I find him pretty funny. It's way better than what they give us on Smackdown.

[Innovator]

Lawler doesn't even watch the shows, its ridiculous.

[EDWARD]

I kinda like him as a heel. Everytime I hear him putting down Bryan and Kaval, I hate him even more, which to me is a good thing.

[Anybody Thrilla]

Cole is the man right now.

[St. Jimmy]

Cole is the cancer killing WWE.

[Savio]

Cole....and the n...W...o

[The Pope]

He sucks, It's a miracle he's been there for so long.

[bigslimjj]

Michael Cole is a hack. He stole "Vintage" from Joey Styles. I watched like 3 ecw shows from the old days and Joey said "Vintage Sandman","Vintage RVD" etc. He's a hack and sucks donkey's. The new age Tony Schiavone(Shi-a-vone, like Y2J said).

[The Pope]

He is a rip off, he has no lines of his own. "No not this way! Dammit! Not this way!" He can't say that cause its not PG.

[What Would Kevin Do?]

Heel Cole is amazing.

[James Steele]

Seriously people, Michael Cole is doing the best work of his career lately. Everyone complained about the lack of a heel/face announcer duo since King/JR became BFFs in 2003.

[blak23]

Can he please get future endeavored soon? Him trying to play the heel role is laughable. He doesn't actually get heat like Heenan or King he just comes off as a whiny bitch. It's not consistent either. I'd rather see Matt Striker in that spot.

this is why people hate the iwc

[Jordan]

He is great! I do not fit in with the IWC's "Cool 2 Hate" list.

Cole is great, and Cena is actually really good.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

He is great! I do not fit in with the IWC's "Cool 2 Hate" list.

Cole is great, and Cena is actually really good.

Cena's good when he's not blowing smoke up his own ass and actually trying to get other people over. This however is not all that often.

Cole isn't bad... he's hilarious when he's ripping on Daniel Bryan tho.

[Jordan]

Cena's good when he's not blowing smoke up his own ass and actually trying to get other people over. This however is not all that often.

Cole isn't bad... he's hilarious when he's ripping on Daniel Bryan tho.

Add R-Truth to that.

[Ol Dirty Dastard]

I've always been a staunch supporter or Ron Killings. People on this board hate him for no reason. Sure his gimmick is silly, but he himself is a great worker.

[DrCrawford]

i like how heel cole is playing out

[whiteyford]

At least he has a personality now. I like him paired with Taz and JBL, but until he started going heel on NXT he kinda got stale.

[NeanderCarl]

The announcing today is the blandest, most uninspired it has ever been. Even back in the mid 90s when Vince was experimenting like crazy trying to find somebody other than Lawler to fill Bobby Heenan's shoes (with the likes of Stan Lane, Bruce Pritchard, Johnny Polo, Ted DiBiase, Ray Rougeau, Dok Hendrix and even Shawn Michaels for a while) it was still better than today.

Lawler is capable of so much more, as he proved for many years. One of the best talkers in the history of the business has been completely castrated and stripped of any semblance of personality by Vinnie Mac and Kevin Dunn.

Top notch commentary can make a poor match entertaining, a good match great and a great match unbelievable. Look at the Royal Rumble 1992 as an example of how commentary should be done. Gorilla Monsoon and especially Bobby Heenan knocked the ball out of the park.

When a midcard match is underway on a PPV and the triumvirate of Lawler, Striker and Cole are engaged in mumbled, casual conversation and forcing laughter at in-jokes rather than putting the product and performers over, you have serious problems. WWE seems to think that having an antagonist announcer is 'old hat'... well, I would be far more interested in watching WWE programming if somebody with even half the personality of a Jesse Ventura, Bobby Heenan, Roddy Piper, Randy Savage, JBL, Paul Heyman, Terry Funk, Curt Hennig, Jim Cornette or even Polo - who I always liked - were holding court on the mic, keeping the play-by-play announcer in line and actually putting over the action in the ring.

[Jordan]

I've always been a staunch supporter or Ron Killings. People on this board hate him for no reason. Sure his gimmick is silly, but he himself is a great worker.

Yeah he's good, he makes me laugh with his dancing.

I was commenting on how Cole talks shit about him, makes me laugh.

[ron the dial]

i don't think that michael cole has ever been better. i actually look forward to hearing him every night. ok, maybe that's a stretch but he doesn't make me want to change the channel anymore.

[NeanderCarl]

i don't think that michael cole has ever been better.

Horrible thought isn't it?

[glanville6]

I hated Cole, now he is at least entertaining. He went from an announcer to a character...and to be in this biz, you have to be a character.

[Xero]

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g122/sandman3g/colestare.jpg

[Emperor Smeat]

He's improved a bit since being moved to RAW as the #1 announce team of the WWE. When he first replaced JR, he was very bland and Lawler didn't help him at all.

He is still a bit boring but at least his "heel" commentary on NXT and recently on RAW is different than the usual dull RAW announcing. It also wouldn't matter if Cole improved if Lawler never improves or at least adapts to Cole's style since right now neither of them fit each others announcing style.

[BizarroKing]

He's not getting future endeavored anytime soon sorry to say.

[Next Big Thing]

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g122/sandman3g/colestare.jpg

He looks like he's having a stroke and a bowel movement at the same time.

[Phenomenal 1]

Its kind of dumbfounding that someone would actually say at this point lets get rid of Michael Cole....k lets do that....what does that leave you with depth roster wise for announcing:

You have:

Todd Grisham
Josh Matthews
Matt Striker

Striker is color commentator so he can't be the play by play guy, so that leaves you with Matthew and Grisham, both of which are so green as the lead man its not even funny. Lawler is barely being held together and takes all his ques from Cole, so honestly, Cole is about the best thing going for WWE Announcers right now.

There really is no suitable replacement and JR can't do the demanding schedule at his age and with his health condition.

So learn to accept it at the minimum. There are things that Cole does like the Oh My and Vintage quotes are very toolish. But the serious dimeanor as the Anonymous GM's Email puppet is hilarious and his heelish antics bashing Indy guys that come into the company are great and the way he's riding Miz's jock like a pony is only helping to plug and solidify Miz as a solid main event.

Cole is doing more to contribute to selling the wrestlers to the fans than either Grisham and Matthews could do combined. Both of them need to get future endeavored. I'd rather have Coachman or Adamle back.

[Supreme Olajuwon]

This is the most watchable Cole has been since JBL stopped ripping on him. And this is the first time Cole's actually been interesting on his own. Plus he's actually done a pretty nice job balancing the play by play with his criticisms.

[Phenomenal 1]

^what he said

[Mr. C]

You have:

Todd Grisham
Josh Matthews
Matt Striker

You have Joey Styles too.

[Phenomenal 1]

You have Joey Styles too.

Factually not, Styles does only the WWE.com After the Bell stuff because he's the Executive Producer and Content Controller for WWE.com. He's been very verbal in past interviews with Bill Apter, Dan Masters, and other internet journalists that he has no desire to go back to the announcing position and that he would not be willing to accept a role on screen again as a Play by Play announcer.

[Mr. C]

Factually not, Styles does only the WWE.com After the Bell stuff because he's the Executive Producer and Content Controller for WWE.com. He's been very verbal in past interviews with Bill Apter, Dan Masters, and other internet journalists that he has no desire to go back to the announcing position and that he would not be willing to accept a role on screen again as a Play by Play announcer.

Wow, really? Source?

[thedamndest]

King is worse than Cole and has been for the last year or so. He doesn't seem to know half of the roster's names or moves. Cole may use a bunch of stock phrases and will never be remembered for being able to really build your excitement during a match, but he can at least be bothered to put guys over.

[Phenomenal 1]

Wow, really? Source?

He did a 1wrestling.com interview with Bill Apter, which he stated that he's happy with his current position as Media Director for WWE.com. Little known fact that some people may or may not have known, Joey Styles was the creator and webmaster of ecwwrestling.com when the company was active. Styles wrote, directed, and maintained all front pages and sections of the original ECW website, so this is nothing new to Styles to be working in this fashion.

[bostonbill41]

I hated Cole, now he is at least entertaining. He went from an announcer to a character...and to be in this biz, you have to be a character.

Thats why I like him. He knows it's all shtick. I don't watch WWE for serious wrestling. I watch it to be entertained.

[Next Big Thing]

I have to back track a little on my original post. I watched a full episode of NXT for the first time in hopes of a Laycool double nip slip. Cole's interaction with Striker and Mathews was pretty entertaining. Dare I say... I enjoyed it.

But for some reason I still hate him on Raw. The commentary on NXT wasn't the same as his commentary on Raw. It still feels forced on Mondays whereas with NXT him, Mathews, and Striker have a good flow. Does anyone else feel that way?

[The Pope]

McCool <3

[Mr. Nerfect]

I'm of two minds here. I've supported Michael Cole in the past. With Tazz, they completely shat all over the team of Jim Ross & Jerry Lawler. The same goes with when he was with JBL. Cole & King suck, but I do enjoy Cole's new heel traits. Sometimes they get annoying or whatever, but the guy was even more annoying as a guy sucking faces' dicks. I truthfully believe his commentary helped the backlash against Rey Mysterio. The guy can't be an underdog when he is the fucking World Heavyweight Champion, Cole.

Cole & Josh Mathews are so refreshing together on NXT. To be honest, I'd like that team to work RAW together. They won't do it, because King could not say a word for the entire RAW broadcast and keep his job. I do feel that he is past it, though, although when he's playing off heel Cole he is somewhat entertaining.

Todd Grisham is actually a good commentator, and Mathews is even better. Byron Saxton is also down in FCW. He can fill Mathews' spot on NXT if they ever do a switch. I wouldn't release Cole, but I'd support him being removed from commentary if they were going to have him play another on-air role.

[Next Big Thing]

Grisham makes me yawn, Mathews is money. If Cole has to stay, I'd like to see more of the three man booth with Cole, Mathews, and Striker.

[The Show Off]

I like Michael Cole's whiny prick heel role he's going for now but he really needs to go all the way with it. Right now he really just hates certain faces like Daniel Bryan, Ron Killings, & Kaval and likes certain heels, mostly The Miz. But he really just just go full out heel and trash talk Cena, Orton, Taker, Triple H.

[NeanderCarl]

JESSE VENTURA: I don't wanna be hearing you supporting anyone tonight either, Cole, you're supposed to be unbiased.

[NeanderCarl]

As he used to tell McMahon and Monsoon all the time...

[Juan]

I watched a full episode of NXT for the first time in hopes of a Laycool double nip slip.

lol wow

[Destro 2.0]

Hi Guys

[Mr. Nerfect]

Grisham makes me yawn, Mathews is money. If Cole has to stay, I'd like to see more of the three man booth with Cole, Mathews, and Striker.

I really like Grisham. He can be quite witty at times, and he doesn't take himself too seriously. But at the same time, it's not that forced self-deprecation that Michael Cole does ("no one texts me, no one calls me"). Plus he manages to hang in there and actually land some good one-liners on Striker sometimes. I liked it how Striker asked him what MVP & JTG should do on Superstars, and their banter went like this:

The Grish: Really? You're asking me about strategy?

Striker: *laughs* Why not?

Then Grisham gives his answer about how we've seen how aggressive Hawkins & Archer can be without really giving his thoughts on strategy, and then without being prompted.

The Grish: What? You're the master of the non-answer, so don't you put anything on me.

He's also become quite acquainted with his wrestling history. He's not a color commentator, so it doesn't come out that much, and he might even be fed the lines, but he'll correctly bring up stuff from months back. I don't think he's as good as Josh Mathews, but when it comes to strict play-by-play, I like him better than Michael Cole.

Michael Cole & Josh Mathews on RAW, Todd Grisham & Matt Striker on SmackDown! with Michael Cole & Byron Saxton handling NXT. I wouldn't mind seeing that arrangement. Also, when William Regal's in-ring days are done, I would not mind seeing him join Michael Cole in the RAW booth, either.