Michael Cole

WWE officials held a meeting last week after the RAW ratings came in, during which Michael Cole's commentary was discussed according to F4Wonline.com.

TV rating's patterns show fans have little interest in seeing anyone on TV besides the top Superstars. It was considered that a reason why might be Cole's continual burial of talent on Raw and Smackdown for the past year or so.

http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/247219-wwe-officials-discuss-michael-coles-commentary

Now, compare that story with this one:

F4WOnline.com is now reporting, also as a result of poor ratings, that WWE has placed Zack Ryder in a romance story line with Eve Torres in order to distance him from the main event picture.

The report is noting that these managerial moves are stemming from the very poor 2.67 cable rating drawn by the main event of last week's Raw Supershow. It's being said that the current Ryder/Torres story line is expected to continue for the next several weeks.

http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/247197-report-another-star-pulled-from-main-event-due-to-ratings

Is Cole to blame? Does he carry that much say so with the viewers? Does he really carry that much influence?

stoopid!

i think we can judge for ourselves

That was my thought also James.
But then again, here in the UK we treat the wrestlers differently from the Americans when the shows are across here. Maybes its the American kids who are influenced by him?

This just further points to the fact that he should be a heel manager rather than a commentator.

Saying that, the commentary in general has been poor for years, so to lay the blame squarely at the feet of Cole is a little harsh. King barely discusses the talent and only ever gets interested in the Divas matches and belittling Cole.

Perhaps they have just been looking for a reason to punt him off of commentary and this is the coincidence they were waiting for.

I find it hard to blame Cole when he is just doing his job as a heel announcer.

Yes, Cole is to blame to some extent, but more so in the sense of his character rather than being a rubbish commentator. They have tried a heel play-by-play guy and while I think Cole is really good at it, as the OP says it's proving counter productive.

I heard JR saying recently (I think it was in the new Stone Cold DVD) that the main job of the PxP guy is not to describe the action but more to portray the heels as 'badasses' and a real threat, but guys that viewers should want to see lose- think how he used to be disgusted and angered by heel Triple H (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjkwRv2IOME) - and to sell the faces as hard working, who dont give in even in the face of adversity (the times i've heard him say things like "*insert name here* is giving us everything he's got here. He wont give up, he's never quit on any of us..).

The problem is now that many of the characters aren't getting that push from the current announcers that makes viewers want to buy into them. Fair enough maybe it doesnt have that much effect on guys like us who can form our own opinions and readily discuss them on here, but for younger kids and families that watch at home, who dont admire dolf ziggler for his ability to sell moves, why should they care about Wade Barrett that much? Why should they be that bothered about Daniel Bryan holding onto his title? He's not as good as Randy Orton is he.

Michael Cole's current heel character has to have some of the blame. I used to quite like Cole, but now that he buries everybody, has his own separate feuds and ignores what happens in the match he has become a detriment to the product.

If the people sat two foot away from the ring are failing to get excited, or even complaining about the people in the ring why should the fans be expected to care? If it's all down to our own judgement, why do we have them at all? They are there to build the talent up, to emphasise the storylines and to call the action.

WWE has lost its touch when it comes to commentary.

Cole has become the scapegoat. A fair amount of what he says (largely the burials) come from Vince screaming into his headset from the gorilla position. They aren't going to blame the boss are they.

That said, there are far more bigger reasons why WWE is losing viewers besides Coles ramblings

I like Cole but only on Smackdown his banter with Booker t is top notch. I find him boring and annoying on Raw.

JR and The King on Raw

Cole, Josh and Booker on Smackdown

I've been thinking this for a while. I think the play by play guy should always be a face. Always. How credible does it make the US title look when we can all clearly see how hard Ryder worked, and won a hard fought match, and genuinely looked happy to be a real champion, only to have Cole turn around and go "This guys a goof". Or his constant burial of Bryan.

The play by play man is the main connection between TV fans and the action, so he should be telling the story the way it should be told, ie, cheer on good guys, hate on bad guys. If you want a heel commentator, it should be the colour guy, ala Heyman, JBL and the King.

I think the play by play guy should be neutral, he shouldn't show bias for anybody. He should put over everybody, but emphasise the face-like qualities of the face and the opposite for the heels. I think a big problem for commentary these days is the fact that a lot of the characters these days are morally ambiguous, there often isn't as clear cut a line between face and heels as in the past.

I thought Cole was a pretty good Play by Play guy when he played the straight guy to Jerry Lawler in the late 90s and to JBL in 2006/07, I really enjoyed his heel turn in 2010 too but felt in order to evolve from that the had to move away from the booth, he is the play by play guy, he can't be burying talent like that, it's easy to say we shouldn't be influenced but that's their job, to influence the audiance

Michael Cole would make a great heel manager. I think he would be better than Vickie Guerrero. You could have her on Raw with a stable and Cole on Smackdown with his.

They completely missed the boat with Cole, he should have been the anon GM of RAW and he should have been one of the men behind Nexus as should The Miz since he was the only guy to coach oin the first two seasons, with Miz and Cole it would have legitimised the Nexus, Cole could have been the brains and Miz could have been the skipper who after scouting NXT1 & 2 could have been the gyuy who recruited the best of the best from both seasons

People blame Cole, but what about King? As said before, all he does is drool over divas, argue with Cole, and he never puts over anyone apart from Cena and Mysterio.

Lawler is a buffoon, but he isn't the main play by play guy

True, but as the 'face' of the commentary team, he is likely to have more of an influence over the kids, etc than Cole.

You shouldn't bury your talent full stop. Same for a to punk when he's burying miz,del Rio on the mike. How can anybody buy into someone when hrs getting buried and other peoples flaws?

End of the day Cole and Lawler sat together annoys me after there feud. It yells any fan casual or not that its scripted. What's the point in the feud if they are best mates 2 minutes after?

Fans are tuning off simply because lack of characters and storylines.


The most interesting thing in the wwe is the vignettes. This tells its own story.

I agree with you to an extent HitmanOwl, certainly as far as the commentators are concerned, as it is essentially their job to put over all talent. As for the wrestlers, I feel you need a certain amount of burial to make feuds and storylines personal and interesting, although I do see where you're coming from.

BloscarPit09-ASK_HIM wrote:True, but as the 'face' of the commentary team, he is likely to have more of an influence over the kids, etc than Cole.

As far as commentary is concerned Jerry Lawler has never put anyone over ever, expecting him to do it now is unrealistic, he's not that talented

HitmanOwl wrote:You shouldn't bury your talent full stop. Same for a to punk when he's burying miz,del Rio on the mike. How can anybody buy into someone when hrs getting buried and other peoples flaws?

Fans are tuning off simply because lack of characters and storylines.

So you're saying you want them to come out to the ring and agree with each other? Settle their differences with a gentlemanly debate?

Yeah. way to increase the quality of character and story.

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Like I said before, Play-by-Play is the main connection between Product and Customer. The play-by-play guy should be enhancing the theatre of it, praising the face and lambasting the heel. They should be the ones creating a clear line between face and heel, which is why JR was so great. Paired with a Heel colour guy it really helps enhance the product. This is why the JR/King combo of 98-01 and 03-05 will always be my favourite commentary team.

Whats the average fan going to think when watching Bryan come down to the ring, the crowd cheering and Cole sitting there calling him all the pricks of the day? Thats not how you intice fans. Thats how you confuse fans.

the-gaffer wrote:

BloscarPit09-ASK_HIM wrote:True, but as the 'face' of the commentary team, he is likely to have more of an influence over the kids, etc than Cole.

As far as commentary is concerned Jerry Lawler has never put anyone over ever, expecting him to do it now is unrealistic, he's not that talented

Really? Well I haven't been watching WWE for long enough to accurately comment on the days of JR and King as a commentary team, however, I do have a friend, who has been watching it for far longer than I have, who told me that King, as well as JR, was a great commentator back in the late 90's.

He was good for his heelish banter and quick quirps, his role was to trash the faces, he was more of a wise cracker, JR was the guy who put people over, even the heels, while he'd never condone their actions he'd sell you on how good they were

Fair enough. Do you think WWE is suffering from a lack of real top quality play-by-play commentators at the moment? JR only shows up occasionally, Josh Matthews always seems a little too disinterested IMO, and Todd Grisham is nowhere to be seen. And as for Scott Stanford...

Lawler is appalling. Last night was a classic example of him ruining moments. His enthusiasm for last nights 'return' was utter pish. And Cole was no better.

I think Cole was having a craftyt fag under the table when Jericho came out, he didn't seem to know he was back at all

Lawler reminded me of the last time he came back and he was like...

'It was the Jeri-code'

But he had all the enthusiasm of Mrs Doubtfire reading porn.