[Cool King]

Originally Posted by XL Still working my way through the "Attitude Era", just moved into '98. Doesn't take long to notice the differences to today's presentation. In '98 you get the full opening credits followed by the pyro and JR's incredibly excited intro setting the tone for the show. Today you go from the WWE ident into a cold open with The Authority coming to the ring to talk for 10 minutes most weeks whilst Cole calmly introduces the show.

I hate the cold openings. I actually can't remember the last time Raw opened with the intro.

Thinking about it all now, I feel like Cole has really gotten worse since his heel run abruptly ended. When he was on SmackDown, he was actually pretty good, then he went to Raw and continued with that until his heel turn.

His heel turn was really great and entertaining, but because of what happened with Lawler and his heart attack, the heel run had to end, which I understand. Since then though, he's just gotten worse and worse.

These days, your average Michael Cole commentary consists of "OH!", "OH MY!", "*Wrestler's Name* with a *adjective* move!", complaining to JBL & Lawler that their references aren't "current" and just general bickering with JBL. He doesn't call moves unless they're finishing moves or signature moves. If they're not, then he just refers to them as a "move" or a "hold".

Also, I've noticed (especially recently) that when Cole is calling a match featuring the males, you can sometimes see him in the background leaning forward and looking at his monitor, but whenever there's a Diva's match happening, he's always just sitting back in his chair and not paying any attention to his monitor or the ring, and he looks so uninterested and bored. He doesn't even talk about the match that's happening. He just usually stays quiet or talks about the main event.

I don't want to be one of "those guys", but you would never see JR doing that.