2011 Wrestling Observer Awards: What Michael Cole Deserves
by *Asterisk* on Dec 21, 2011 9:09 AM EST
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It's that time of year again, the pro wrestling fans of the world are busy writing their "Year End Awards" lists.
Often, wrestling year end awards are hard calls, any die hard wrestling fan will tell someone how difficult it is to say if Misawa vs. Kawada or the MSG Ladder Match was truly the best match of 1994, but every once in awhile, an award recipient seems so obvious that for anyone else to win would be criminal. Was there any doubt in anyone's mind that the Triple/Kane feud in 2002 was the worst thing to ever happen to wrestling? Was there any doubt that the Kane/Matt Hardy saga in 2004 was WWE's personal dare to try and top the Katie Vick angle? Does anyone question that the Jenna Morasca/Sharmell match at Victory Road 2009 wasn't the worst match of the decade?
And lastly, is there any doubt that Michael Cole is the worst thing to happen to WWE since Triple H violated that mannequin while wearing the Kane mask?
Taking a position this extreme often makes one look like a fanatic, but its no stretch to say that Michael Cole deserves to win every negative award available in every wrestling year end awards list put out in 2011, and not just the "worst commentator" award he's won for the last two years. Michael Cole has been such a disaster towards everything he's touched in 2011 that children from Somalia send wrestling fans five cents a day for the atrocities we've witnessed: and as little effect as year end awards typically have on the mindset of Vince McMahon, it needs to be ingrained into anyone who can listen that fans don't want to see Michael Cole in any capacity ever again, and a loud screech of negativity is the last reach the IWC can give before self immolation makes itself an option.
Wait, before you go on, why pick the Observer Awards?
In addition to the fact that the Observer Awards are the only wrestling awards to take remotely seriously, they're also high profile enough to where the winners of the awards somewhat matter in the industry, if not for promotional reasons, than as an indicator to the people who run the wrestling companies of who to push, and who to exsanguinate. If anyone reading this article votes in the Observer Awards, I strongly encourage you to cast your ballots towards Michael Cole for every negative award on the list.
Allright. What are the negative awards Michael Cole is eligible for, and does he really deserve all of them?
Yes for both questions. For those curious, the following are all the negative awards the Wrestling Observer Newsletter still gives out, and Cole deserves to win every one of them.
Most Overrated
Michael Cole has been pushed harder than anyone else in the history of pro wrestling. He's on TV four to seven hours a week, he gets no comeuppance for burying the product and the wrestlers, and he's never made anybody any money, or put on a good match in his life. If anyone deserves this award, it's Cole.
Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic
Mocking Jerry Lawler for the death of his mother. Mocking J.R.'s Bell's palsy. Humilating every wrestler who doesn't have enough political clout to staple his scrotum to a live raccoon. The Twitter plugging. The blatant political commentary meant to benefit Linda McMahon's campaign.
It's hard to pick which one, but they're all Cole's work. One can't go wrong.
Worst Television Show
It's no stretch to say that RAW has been as bad in 2011 as any weekly wrestling TV show, and 90% of the reason for that has been Michael Cole's commentary. Another award for Cole.
Worst Worked Match of the Year
In a perfect world, no match would be worse than John Cena vs. The Miz at Wrestlemania XXVII, bar none the worst Wrestlemania main event of all time, but thanks to the efforts of Michael Cole, Cena vs. Miz might not even have been the worst match on the card, and thanks to the further efforts of Cole in Cole's match against J.R., neither of those Wrestlemania are indisputably the worst matches to happen in the month of April.
Maybe the Sting/Jeff Hardy match is slightly worse, but TNA is so unimportant to the current wrestling landscape that I doubt it's even worth the effort to vote for that atrocity of a match.
Worst Feud of the Year
See above. Cole's feuds with Ross and Lawler were so bad they made Cena vs. Miz not the worst thing WWE executed this year, if only for the fact that Cole constantly avoided comeuppance to the point where WWE probably wouldn't generate a buyrate for a Prison Shower match between Cole and JBL, Cole would probably win that match via DQ if WWE actually booked it.
Worst Promotion of the Year
Cole is the "voice of the WWE," though I cannot say with confidence that WWE was entirely worse than TNA in 2011, it's certainly a neck and neck vote, and a win for WWE would be a nice middle finger in Cole's face.
Worst Gimmmick
Cole's "heel PBP commentator" gimmick is probably the worst gimmick ever devised, and with Orlando Jordan's TNA deal meeting an unmourned death, there are no other contenders who could challenge Cole on this award.
So is that all?
Yes. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter nixed it's "Worst Wrestler" award back in 2003, but if anyone is voting for any other year end awards, Cole is probably eligible for winning whatever negative awards one can come up with, including "Worst Diva's Match," "Worst Supporting Actor," and "The Sid Vicious Lifetime Achievement Award in Overall Badness."
Often, my opinions have received a significant level of backlash from the Cageside community, but I think it's safe to say that everyone who reads this site agrees that Michael Cole needs to leave wrestling forever. If anybody reading this actually wants to pay money to see Michael Cole in any capacity, stop. You're the problem, and it's people like you that are the reason the world can't have good things happen to it.
Fortunately, that won't be the case. The last Michael Cole supporter died in October of this year after a self inflicted crossbow injury, he spent the last months of his life writing campaign speeches for a pizza mogul named Herman Cain.
The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Cageside Seats readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cageside Seats editors or staff.
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Players who should be in the Hall of Fame: Pat TIllman, Dwight White, Donnie Shell, L.C. Greenwood, Ray Guy, Steve Tasker, Jack Butler, Greg Lloyd, Andy Russell, Cris Carter, Kevin Greene, Curtis Martin, Willie Roaf, Andre Reed and Jerry Kramer
"Back in my day we killed five hookers and thought nothing of it" Craig James
by WVPiratesfan on Dec 21, 2011 11:51 AM EST reply actions 1 recs
yeah I can get behind this
Cole is hands down the worst part of my wrestling experience every week.
Maslow's theory of higher needs does not apply to Patrick Willis. He only has two needs: tackling people and finding people to tackle.
by 49erLou on Dec 21, 2011 1:24 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
Now THIS...is what I'm talking about.
EXCELLENT article. Keep up the good work, man….especially gems like this:
Michael Cole has been such a disaster towards everything he’s touched in 2011 that children from Somalia send wrestling fans five cents a day for the atrocities we’ve witnessed
Cole Miner here
I understand why many hate Michael Cole, but I enjoy him and tend to agree with his opinions more often than not. Even that photo in the post makes me laugh. I do agree that he goes overboard at times, which is not enjoyable.
It seems that Asterisk enjoys discussions and I’m probably one of the few Cole Miners around, so I guess I’ll be the one to argue against this post. Plus, I’m bored right now. I must say that I’m not fully aware of all the announcer nuances in calling matches.
A lot of points are just being a hater.
First off, to be overrated, don’t you have to be highly rated to begin with? Aside from Vince McMahon, it seems like most people hate him.
he’s never made anybody any money, or put on a good match in his life
What announcer has ever made anybody money? That’s a serious question, because I really don’t know. And if you name someone, tell me how so I can understand. How many announcers have put on a good match? Most announcers are chubby tubbos with minimal to none in-ring training.
The Twitter plugging. The blatant political commentary meant to benefit Linda McMahon’s campaign.
How can Cole be bashed for this? If it wasn’t Cole, it would just be whatever announcer is on the show. If JR was there instead of Cole, he would be the one plugging Twitter and promoting Linda McMahon’s campaign.
Cole shouldn’t even be nominated for worst match. He isn’t even a wrestler. I don’t think anybody could work a good match with JR. Maybe I’m wrong, but I doubt it was Cole’s idea to be placed in wrestling matches. He probably just does as he’s told, just like JR allows himself to constantly be embarrassed.
The Cole vs Lawler feud was funny as hell to me. The Cole Mine was hilarious. I didn’t enjoy when they screamed at each other while announcing. That was just annoying.
Bottom line, I think you are giving Cole way too much credit for being in control of everything he does. I believe he acts more as a puppet than these angles being his own original ideas.
by Manolo Has Pizzazz on Dec 21, 2011 6:19 PM EST reply actions
What announcer has ever made anybody money? That’s a serious question, because I really don’t know. And if you name someone, tell me how so I can understand. How many announcers have put on a good match? Most announcers are chubby tubbos with minimal to none in-ring training.
Any decent announcer should be able to help generate money by promoting the upcoming PPV’s, at the very least, said announcer shouldn’t actively decrease the buyrates for the shows they’re promoting.
Most of the worst buyrates WWE has ever generated have come from PPV’s which Cole was responsible for promoting. That’s not a coincidence.
How can Cole be bashed for this? If it wasn’t Cole, it would just be whatever announcer is on the show. If JR was there instead of Cole, he would be the one plugging Twitter and promoting Linda McMahon’s campaign.
J.R. has plugged WWE’s stupid ideas in the past, J.R. was even the man chiefly responsible for plugging the XFL, the Marine, See No Evil, and the idea that the crowd didn’t completely despise Cena. The difference between Cole’s promotion of terrible products and J.R.‘s promotion of terrible products is that J.R. was subtle and classy about his plugs, making the items he’s promoting sound like something one would want to check out, Cole acitvely makes people want to turn away from whatever WWE’s promoting: As evident by the wrestlers who Cole buries getting no reaction, and the PPV buyrates and ratings dropping every year Cole’s been the “voice of the WWE.”
Most of the worst buyrates WWE has ever generated have come from PPV’s which Cole was responsible for promoting. That’s not a coincidence.
It is a coincidence. Those buyrates are the result of a product that doesn’t go out of it’s way to promote PPVs.
Is it Cole’s fault that the WWE won’t book half of a card until the week, or even day of the show?
Is it Cole’s fault that many feuds have no meaning, and even the main event feuds are stale and predictable?
Is it Cole’s fault that people can’t justify shelling out 35-40 bucks 13 times a year because of the insane number of PPVs annually, especially during a recession?
No it’s not. I could keep going, but I’m going to stop here and just say that there is no way on Earth you can make that connection and come up with a real justified argument for it. I can’t imagine a person alive who would say “You know, I wasn’t gonna buy that PPV, but J.R. makes a really good point. Here’s forty bucks Vince!”
Beware my tiny electric fury.
It might not be any one persons fault that the buyrates are so bad.
But when someone plays a key role in getting people to buy PPV’s, such as the commentator who spends two or more hours every week calling the show and promoting the feuds, and the buyrates and ratings have taken a consistent trend downwards ever since the guy who’s calling the matches changed from a knowledgeable, pleasant to hear individual into an irritating jackass who constantly tells everyone in the audience what losers 90% of the people in the company are with no comeuppance or contradiction, said individual should be held accountable for the business revenue dropping.
It is a coincidence. Those buyrates are the result of a product that doesn’t go out of it’s way to promote PPVs.
Two years in which buyrates and ratings dropped faster than Kim Kardashian’s undergarmets directly coinciding with Cole becoming “the voice of the WWE” isn’t a coincidence.
Is it Cole’s fault that many feuds have no meaning, and even the main event feuds are stale and predictable?
Yes. Cole should be trying to convince people watching at home that the feuds are important, doing any less is failing at his job.
I can’t imagine a person alive who would say "You know, I wasn’t gonna buy that PPV, but J.R. makes a really good point. Here’s forty bucks Vince!"
This is exactly the reason a lot of finalized PPV buys are put down. The PBP commentator spends anywhere from one to two hours for any given show telling you what’s going on in the promotion, why the wrestlers are important, and why one should buy the card. It is absolutely the commentators fault if they bury the talent, the promotion, and anyone who can’t lock them in a box and deport them to Cambodia with their political influence, and instead uses their time at the desk to promote themselves, regardless of what an ego-maniacal billionaire is yelling at them through a headset.
While I don't agree that Cole is the sole reason DBD is as over as he should be
But he ain’t helping matters. There are very few guys he rags on that are on the top, CM Punk, Big Show being the ones that he does off the top of my head outside of DBD. Maybe if he spent time actually calling a match instead of calling Zack Ryder a goof or DBD a nerd or CM Punk a..well a punk people may actually not be driven away of the show and watch. Let Lawler or Booker be the heel announcer since they are the color guys and don’t TALK ALL THE TIME.
Players who should be in the Hall of Fame: Pat TIllman, Dwight White, Donnie Shell, L.C. Greenwood, Ray Guy, Steve Tasker, Jack Butler, Greg Lloyd, Andy Russell, Cris Carter, Kevin Greene, Curtis Martin, Willie Roaf, Andre Reed and Jerry Kramer
"Back in my day we killed five hookers and thought nothing of it" Craig James
by WVPiratesfan on Dec 22, 2011 12:14 PM EST up reply actions
Two years in which buyrates and ratings dropped faster than Kim Kardashian’s undergarmets directly coinciding with Cole becoming "the voice of the WWE" isn’t a coincidence.
This is the very definition of a logical fallacy. I could just as easily pin it on, say, Wade Barrett. His career of two years has directly lined up with this period, clearly people are tuning out because of him!
Yes. Cole should be trying to convince people watching at home that the feuds are important, doing any less is failing at his job.
While I don’t deny that, wrestling fans aren’t stupid. Even if Cole did everything in his power to make meaningless feuds sound meaningful, a lot of people know that they aren’t. Cole can convince me all he wants that Cena/Del Rio Last Man Standing match is the biggest match in wrestling history, but I’m not going to order it because I know that Cena’s character will be booked to win. That’s on booking, not commentary.
This is exactly the reason a lot of finalized PPV buys are put down.
I would love to see the statistic you got this from.
I honestly agree with most of what you’re saying, but I really think this point is asinine and you’re only arguing it to try and make Cole seem like the wrestling antichrist. You can’t blame every bit of the company’s faults on the guy.
Beware my tiny electric fury.
This is the very definition of a logical fallacy. I could just as easily pin it on, say, Wade Barrett. His career of two years has directly lined up with this period, clearly people are tuning out because of him!
Wade Barrett isn’t on TV anywhere from four to seven hours a week. Not to mention that this is a laughable strawman argument considering that Wade Barrett has been consistently buried for 90% of his career, and Cole has been consistently pushed to the highest degree a heel can be pushed.
While I don’t deny that, wrestling fans aren’t stupid. Even if Cole did everything in his power to make meaningless feuds sound meaningful, a lot of people know that they aren’t. Cole can convince me all he wants that Cena/Del Rio Last Man Standing match is the biggest match in wrestling history, but I’m not going to order it because I know that Cena’s character will be booked to win. That’s on booking, not commentary.
A feud being good or bad is irrelevant. A good PBP announcer can convince people that an obviously terrible idea is genius. Thanks to J.R.’s propaganda, the XFL did a 9.5 Neilsen rating in its debut week even though the XFL was the worst idea in the world.
The whole reason an announcer exists is to promote things, no matter how crappy they are. WWE’s trend downward in business is absolutely Michael Cole’s fault, and just because there are other factors at play for WWE’s shitty business doesn’t change the fact that Cole’s constant burial of the product absolutely is a reason for its decline. Considering that Cole gets more screen-time than anybody else in WWE history, and his chief job should be to promote things, the lion’s share of the blame needs to be thrown at him.
I would love to see the statistic you got this from.
http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/244981-wwe-2011-ppv-buy-rate-information-vs-2010-numbers
http://www.sescoops.com/wrestling-news/wwe/wwe-pay-per-view-buyrates-down-23-in-q4-2010/
http://www.2xzone.com/wwe/buyrates.shtml
These figures aren’t that hard to come by. WWE is a publicly traded company.
You can’t blame every bit of the company’s faults on the guy.
Yes I can.
Oh come on man
You’re a smart guy, right? You have to know that your arguments are completely missing the boat here.
Wade Barrett isn’t on TV anywhere from four to seven hours a week. Not to mention that this is a laughable strawman argument considering that Wade Barrett has been consistently buried for 90% of his career, and Cole has been consistently pushed to the highest degree a heel can be pushed.
I wasn’t pushing this point, I was using as an example that you can take anything that’s happened in that span and argue it’s the reason for the decline, if you don’t have any evidence to prove contrary. I could argue the PG rating has caused it. I could argue that the Raw Guest Host era caused it. I could argue that the general lack of Undertaker has caused it. Just as you are. You just pick something that’s been prevalent in the last two years, and cite it as the decline, with no evidence to your point. It’s a fallacy.
Thanks to J.R.’s propaganda, the XFL did a 9.5 Neilsen rating in its debut week even though the XFL was the worst idea in the world.
There’s no evidence of this, and television programming always does well in it’s debut week. It’s very believable that a great deal of people would tune in to a new football league, because America loves football.
These figures aren’t that hard to come by. WWE is a publicly traded company.
I asked for statistics that prove that PBP commentary is selling or isn’t selling PPVs. You gave me buyrates. Apples, oranges.
Your argument here is just ceaselessly terrible and pointless. You made a lot of good points, don’t sink your ship by desperately trying to justify a bad one.
Beware my tiny electric fury.
How do buyrates not reflect a PBP guys ability to sell a PPV
Isn’t that part of his job, to make me want to spend my money on a PPV. Cole spends more time telling me that BDB is nerd, Ted DiBiasie is a loser because he hangs out with fans before the show, Zack Ryder is a goof and CM Punk shouldn’t be the face of the company because he has tattoos and doesn’t actually wash his hair, than telling me what is happening during a match or why I should buy a PPV. How does that not affect buy rates?
Players who should be in the Hall of Fame: Pat TIllman, Dwight White, Donnie Shell, L.C. Greenwood, Ray Guy, Steve Tasker, Jack Butler, Greg Lloyd, Andy Russell, Cris Carter, Kevin Greene, Curtis Martin, Willie Roaf, Andre Reed and Jerry Kramer
"Back in my day we killed five hookers and thought nothing of it" Craig James
by WVPiratesfan on Dec 22, 2011 9:56 PM EST up reply actions
This is an asinine statement and you know it.
If the guy with the most important job when it comes to selling PPV’s who’s also given more time than anyone else on the show (no one else in the company gets two to four hours to sell shows), if they’re failing at their job, they’re probably the primary reasons for the continuous dip in the ratings and PPV buys.
Suggesting that Cole isn’t the main reason for WWE’s failure just because there are other factors at play is like suggesting David Petraeus wasn’t the reason that the situation in Iraq started to improve as compared to George W. Casey, Jr., or that General McClellan had nothing to do with the failure of the Union in the Civil War which only began to make a turnaround after his ass was canned for General Grant.
If the guy with the most important job when it comes to selling PPV’s
Nope, that’s still the booking team and Vincent K. McMahon as far as I’m concerned.
This is going nowhere, per usual. I’ll leave you to it.
Beware my tiny electric fury.
Quality of product is irrelivent when it comes time to try and sell it.
If Vince McMahon is WWE’s manufacturer, Michael Cole is WWE’s chief marketer.
Take a look at how companies that actually want to make money are run. Back when the Hershey started replacing cocoa butter with vegetable oil to increase profit margins, you didn’t see Hershey’s commercials saying “VEGETABLE OIL instead of COCOA BUTTER, only NERDS eat VEGETABLE OIL,” in fact, even after the government made it illegal for Hershey to declare their product chocolate unless they used actual chocolate ingredients, you’ll find that the Hershey company went out of their way to hide this.
It doesn’t matter that chocolate products without cocoa butter taste like dogshit, most people didn’t even notice this happened, because Hershey was really good at disguising how crappy their product is.
Michael Cole should be doing for WWE what the Hershey’s marketing team did, disguising how awful the product is, but not only does he fail to hide it, he actively points out to the audience how awful things are. Nobody would still be buying Hershey’s Kisses if Hershey’s made a big marketing fuss about how there’s no cocoa butter in their chocolate, and only nerds eat chocolate without cocoa butter, just like how people are tuning out of WWE because it’s constantly pointed out by the announcer how crappy things are.
UFC PPVs?
Two years in which buyrates and ratings dropped faster than Kim Kardashian’s undergarmets directly coinciding with Cole becoming “the voice of the WWE” isn’t a coincidence.
What’s your take on UFC PPVs increasing popularity in relation to the decline of WWE PPVs over the past two years?
There is a huge overlap in fans and they can only buy so many PPVs per year. Personally, I would buy a UFC PPV 9 times out of 10 over a WWE PPV. That doesn’t include Royal Rumble for me. That’s one PPV I will always want to watch. WWE can deny all they want that UFC is a competitor, but I think that is a huge reason for the decline in PPV sales.
by Manolo Has Pizzazz on Dec 22, 2011 6:15 PM EST up reply actions
If I ever hear this as the reason WWE is doing bad business again, I'm going to hit somebody over the head with a 2 by 4.
If you look at the buyrate statistics from 1998, back when WWE’s biggest competitor ever, WCW, was still doing well, you’ll find these numbers:
12/28/98 Starrcade ’98 1.15
11/22/98 World War 3 ’98 —
10/25/98 Halloween Havoc ’98 0.8
9/13/98 Fall Brawl ’98 —
8/8/98 Road Wild ’98 0.95
7/12/98 Bash At The Beach ’98 1.4
6/14/98 Great American Bash ’98 0.67
5/17/98 Slamboree ’98 0.73
4/19/98 Spring Stampede ’98 0.74
3/15/98 Uncensored ’98 1.0
2/22/98 SuperBrawl 8 1.1
1/24/98 Souled Out ’98 1.0
Whereas WWE was able to pull out these numbers.
12/13/98 IYH: Rock Bottom 0.8
11/15/98 Survivor Series ’98 1.5
10/18/98 IYH: Judgment Day 0.9
9/27/98 IYH: Break Down 0.9
8/30/98 SummerSlam ’98 1.5
7/26/98 IYH: Fully Loaded 0.9
6/28/98 King Of The Ring ’98 1.1
5/31/98 IYH: Over The Edge 0.65
4/26/98 IYH: Unforgiven 1.0
3/29/98 WrestleMania XIV 2.2
2/16/98 IYH: No Way Out 0.45
1/18/98 Royal Rumble ’98 0.85
Each company put on 12 PPV’s per year apiece, and three of those PPV’s (one WCW and two WWF) scored less than an 0.7.
Compare this with 2009, in which ten out of fourteen WWE PPV’s did less than an 0.7 buyrate. Or 2011, in which WWE had what would’ve been it’s worst year for buyrates ever had WM 27 not been such a success, even though UFC had one money card this year (St. Pierre vs. Shields).
WWE could be just as successful as they were in 1998 in the face of the UFC, they aren’t because of their crappy product, and the people who should be promoting the PPV’s acting nonchalant about their opponents (Cena), and their PBP commentator, who gets two to four hours of TV time a week, is constantly burying everybody on the roster who doesn’t have enough political clout to Tortuga-nate* him.
*For those of you who are fans of the AMC show Breaking Bad.
Hmm
Most of the worst buyrates WWE has ever generated have come from PPV’s which Cole was responsible for promoting. That’s not a coincidence.
I thought that was Mark Henry’s fault.
;)
"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!" Gil Hodges IS a Hall of Famer.
AA Gamethread Embiggening Record Holder- 458 posts (08/24/11)
3rd Place- 2011 AAOP Contest | 1st place- 2012 AAOP Contest
by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Dec 23, 2011 2:43 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
I thought that was Mark Henry’s fault.
;)
This is a blatant misrepresentation of facts and you know it.
Michael Cole has been the undisputed “voice of the WWE” for three years, he’s been pushed harder than ever this year in particular, and buyrates and ratings have gotten worse every year he was on top, though there have been a few guy who made some differences in the buyrates (CM Punk, Rocky), it’s an overall downward trend with Michael Cole on top.
Mark Henry has been given the World Title for the first time in his career, he’s booked to beat everybody, and more dominant than any WWE heel has been since Brock Lesnar’s heyday. Seeing as how his matches always suck, buyrates are pretty much the only thing he can have going for him, yet the buyrates from the PPV’s he’s been on have been disastrous. Night of Champions had Henry winning the title and received the exact same number of buys said PPV received in 2011, Hell in a Cell pulled 180,000 buys worldwide, Vengeance did the second worst buyrate in WWE history, there were less than 300,000 buys for Survivor Series and Rocky was in the main event of that show. Mark Henry is doing bad business, and seeing as how his matches suck, its safe to say that giving Henry that huge push was a terrible idea.
These things aren’t mutually exclusive, both guys are doing bad business, both guys have done bad business for a long time, and both should stop getting pushed as a result.
a Prison Shower match between Cole and JBL
I don’t think it’s possible to hate Cole enough to want to see this particular gimmick match.
Gillberg...Gillberg...Gillberg...
I don't mind a heel announcer
Jerry Lawler was pretty good. Michael Cole, he’s just annoying, though.
"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!" Gil Hodges IS a Hall of Famer.
AA Gamethread Embiggening Record Holder- 458 posts (08/24/11)
3rd Place- 2011 AAOP Contest | 1st place- 2012 AAOP Contest
by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Dec 21, 2011 9:44 PM EST reply actions
Yes, but...
Lawler was a heel color commentator. That works. The play-by-play guy should be either neutral (with a face color to counter the heel color) or face to play off of the heel color.
Michael Cole being a heel play-by-play commentator actually makes his commentary worse, because his excessive hate-boner for the faces actually sabotages his calling the match. He can’t adequately call moves AND get over his heel persona at the same time; honestly, I doubt anyone could. Worse yet, by being a heel PBP, he better serves to bury wrestlers than put them over. As a face, he could use his commentary to get guys over and counter the heel color by making points based on their in-ring ability or actions. As neutral, he could focus on calling the matches and let the face and color commentators put the wrestlers over with their back-and-forth.
TL;DR version: heel color (as Lawler was) good. Heel PBP (as Cole is) bad.
Time to spread a little chaos...
That's a very good point
All the more reason for JR to come back.
"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!" Gil Hodges IS a Hall of Famer.
AA Gamethread Embiggening Record Holder- 458 posts (08/24/11)
3rd Place- 2011 AAOP Contest | 1st place- 2012 AAOP Contest
by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Dec 21, 2011 11:26 PM EST up reply actions
Or maybe...
Joey Styles. (Although judging by his twitter account, he doesn’t seem to mind working on the .com side.)
Time to spread a little chaos...
Agreed...
If for no other reason than the endless Botchamania material that’d be gotten out of it.
Time to spread a little chaos...
Jeff Harvey
Players who should be in the Hall of Fame: Pat TIllman, Dwight White, Donnie Shell, L.C. Greenwood, Ray Guy, Steve Tasker, Jack Butler, Greg Lloyd, Andy Russell, Cris Carter, Kevin Greene, Curtis Martin, Willie Roaf, Andre Reed and Jerry Kramer
"Back in my day we killed five hookers and thought nothing of it" Craig James
by WVPiratesfan on Dec 22, 2011 12:02 AM EST up reply actions
I agree one hundred percent with this. It would be a lot easier for me to watch WWE twice a week if I didn’t have to listen to Michael Cole. I used to think that Tony Shiavone was one of the worst announcers of all time, but at least he put over the product he was calling. I’d rather have Vince back on play by play than Michael Cole. I always thought Vince’s PBP style was a little cartoonish, but it’s better than the ear rape of Michael Cole.
While booking and creative clearly need to start thinking more about logical long-term planning (as has been the case for years), I completely agree that right now, without even making any other changes to the product, replacing Cole with JR would make every WWE show much much more bearable. Cole’s heel play-by-play gimmick has really been hurting the product for a long time now and there’s absolutely no upside for a payoff of him ever getting his comeuppance that would ever make it worth tolerating him for this long and to this degree of awfulness.
Mocking Jerry Lawler for the death of his mother. Mocking J.R.‘s Bell’s palsy. Humilating every wrestler who doesn’t have enough political clout to staple his scrotum to a live raccoon. The Twitter plugging. The blatant political commentary meant to benefit Linda McMahon’s campaign.
I still want definitive proof that any/all of this is on Cole and not just him parroting Vince in his earpiece. I am well aware that Cole lives in the “WWE bubble” and would not have any problem being Vince’s puppet, but that’s still not the same as him just deciding, on his own, to bury talent and otherwise waste broadcast time.
by The so-called Beautiful on Dec 22, 2011 10:49 PM EST reply actions
It doesn't matter if Cole was just following orders.
It was disgusting to watch, and Cole shouldn’t have done it. Cole is on WWE TV four to seven hours a week, to assume that he wouldn’t have the political power to nix this is the same as assuming Cena didn’t have the political power to nix jobbing the Nexus, or eliminate the possibility of Miz main eventing Wrestlemania.
Why would Cena want to eliminate one of their most over heels from the Wrestlemania title picture?
Beware my tiny electric fury.
Because Miz wasn’t over by any stretch of the imagination, was doing terrible business, and is awful in the ring.
Also please don't bother responding to that
Arguing with you is like arguing with a potato that has no clue what it’s talking about
Beware my tiny electric fury.
by Gravity on Dec 23, 2011 2:15 AM EST up reply actions 1 recs
Arguing with you is like arguing with a potato that has no clue what it’s talking about
Says a guy who’s never bothered to back up any of his facecious claims with any sources who actually has to resort to the “don’t bother responding” defense to cover up their complete lack of credibility.
No one provided any real sources here
But the burden of proof is on you. Whoopsie.
Beware my tiny electric fury.
I did meet the burden of proof.
You haven’t even begun to provide a false proof, let alone meet the burden.
The only thing I've seen from you
Is buyrates. Which as they are, are not entirely the product of bad commentary, so it’s not suitable proof. That’s basic logic. I’ve yet to see any kind of study that suggests people don’t buy PPVs because of Michael Cole, or that PPV buys are heavily influenced by commentary. I doubt any such studies exist, and without anything like that, you’re talking out of your ass, plain and simple.
Now at this point, I understand when a conversation is not going anywhere, and rather than make myself look a fool by arguing with one, I’m going to step away from this now.
I will preface that by saying I fully expect another “You walk away because you have no argument” because that is what weak internet trolls spout out whenever something like this happens. Congratulations on “winning” your argument.
Beware my tiny electric fury.
Well, I could just tell you that I haven’t been giving a red cent to WWE since WM 27 after that utter abortion of an angle that was Cole vs. Lawler, but then you’d just be telling me that my opinion doesn’t matter.
I figured you’d look at the evidence provided by WWE itself as proof of how detrimental Cole has been towards the product, seeing as how WWE has been creatively disastrous with brief intervals of logical booking for a decade, but it’s only since the PBP commentary became exclusively about Michael Cole that ratings and buyrates really began to drop, including the unprecedented events of RAW ratings actually dropping in the second hour, which never happened at any previous point in RAW’s history, but I guess it’s a little too much to expect a man who’s argument against the numbers WWE itself provided is “I’m not going to bother to find a correlation between WWE’s ratings and buyrates drop and Michael Cole becoming the company’s voice, because I have no knowledge about how data analysis has worked since the dawn of calculations.”
Michael Cole sucks, plain and simple
Everything I’ve read in this post only further strengthens my opinion.
Yes, VKM does force feed a lot of crap through the headsets. We all know that. But why do the majority of us like JR and want him back in the PBP seat? JR could sell a match and make it feel important. When a wrestler turned, JR gave it that extra oomph with his words and the tone of his voice. JR could play off of Lawler’s banter and weave it into the show dang near seamlessly, yet still keep you in the moment with the match or segment. Michael Cole can do NONE of these things. Michael Cole is obsessed with putting over Michael Cole. Cole did more harm to the Miz when he was constantly slobbing his knob than Miz could ever do on his own.
Furthermore, I challenge anybody on here to tell me when has having a heel PBP man EVER worked, in any wrestling company?
'Bama fan since birth, Niners Faithful & Hawks fan since '86, Braves fan since '90
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Not to play devil's advocate since I hate the character of Michael Cole...
But it should be noted that the man behind said character really is a credible journalist who has covered wars (and something close to this Okie’s heart and memory, the Murrah Building bombing).
Why do I mention this? Because it shows just how much of a waste this troll character of his truly is. From covering wars to ruining Raw. How the mighty have fallen.
Time to spread a little chaos...
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