commentary has gone

remember the good days when jr went mental at mankind being thrown off and through the cell? "somebody stop the damn match" "by god he may be broken in half" or when austin won the title. "stone cold stone cold stone cold"

or the commentary when eddie guerrero won the wwe title "eddie guererro did the unthinkable" "eddie guerrero is wwe champion good for you eddie" at top of their voices with people celebrating around them in the crowd.

fast forward to 2012 and they stay silent sometimes its appropriate when the wrestler/superstar is talking but when they have a short break from talking for a few seconds to react to the crowd maybe the commentator could pipe in with something.

when big moments happen like the ending part of raw 1000 when punk clotheslined rock and made him go to sleep they should have been going mental shouting why punk why you dont need to do this etc. instead of their usual monotumus voices making it seem like an every week thing. there are no great moments in modern raw because the commentary drags it down and the crowd simply dont know who the superstars are or donr care enough to react.

im at the point now where i dont even listen to commentary anymore i have learned to mentally block it out and ignore it and it actually helps. what do you guys/girls think of modern day commentary compared to years before?

Completely agree. This directive from WWE of their commentators not talking to make the big moments seem more important has hampered things from a viewing standpoint.


Imagine if it had been in place in years gone by? We wouldn't have countless epic quotes like "The boyhood dream has come true for Shawn Michaels" or "The Austin Era has begun" or "Good God almighty! Good God almighty that killed him! As God is my witness he is broken in half!" It's ridiculous.


With the proper commentary a good match or moment can become great and a great match or moment can become legendary.

I'm the same, i've stopped paying attention now. I only ever seem to listen when i hear something factually wrong or completely stupid or offensive.

psycho-gooner wrote:I'm the same, i've stopped paying attention now. I only ever seem to listen when i hear something factually wrong or completely stupid or offensive.

You mean when Jerry said nobody has ever cashed it in like this before during the Cena match

Lawler simply has to go. How that guy keeps cashing his paycheque for such lacklustre work is beyond me.

Obviously JR is by far the best play-by-play commentator the WWE has, whatever the hatchet is, it needs to be buried now for the sake of the busines. I'm in the minority in that I actually enjoy Booker T's commentary too, he gets excited about what's going on and can still go in the ring to take bumps to put over the younger talent, as required. As for the colour commentator, I've no idea? I haven't seen NXT yet but I hear Regal's doing some stellar work there so seems a logical choice.

As for Cole, get him away from the commentary booth and into a management slot where he belongs. He's very strong and confident on the mic now so could surely be best placed as a figurehead go get a stable of young heels over.

By all accounts Vince doesn't want to upset the apple cart when it comes to Lawler, As I hear all the time he doesn't need the money and would have no qualms in just leaving.

I say that's exactly what needs to happen.

bernard black wrote:Lawler simply has to go. How that guy keeps cashing his paycheque for such lacklustre work is beyond me.

Obviously JR is by far the best play-by-play commentator the WWE has, whatever the hatchet is, it needs to be buried now for the sake of the busines. I'm in the minority in that I actually enjoy Booker T's commentary too, he gets excited about what's going on and can still go in the ring to take bumps to put over the younger talent, as required. As for the colour commentator, I've no idea? I haven't seen NXT yet but I hear Regal's doing some stellar work there so seems a logical choice.

As for Cole, get him away from the commentary booth and into a management slot where he belongs. He's very strong and confident on the mic now so could surely be best placed as a figurehead go get a stable of young heels over.

Vince is afraid that JR will have a Bells Palsy attack on air. I agree with your assessment of Lawler though, he needs to go, and has needed to go for about 8 years.

When is the last time Jim Ross had a bout of Bell's Palsy though? At the very least they could stick him on Smackdown seeing as it's a taped show if they're worried about his health.


Regal and Mick Foley should be on colour commentary for me. Foley had all the makings of a classic partnership with Jim Ross on Smackdown back in 2008. Foley is one of the best talkers ever and he's criminally underused right now. And I think I remember hearing that Vince has taken a bit of a back seat from running the shows from the Gorilla position so Mick wouldn't have the problem of Vince screaming in his ear this time around.

I think the last time JR was moved to Smackdown, he was upset about it.

Screw him! He always harps on about being a team player so take one for the team!


To be fair, last time he was moved from the A show to the B show without any forewarning so I can understand him being peed. If you asked him now to move to Smackdown he'd probably pour some barbecue sauce on your hand and bite it off.

Think JR suffered a Bells Palsy attack in 2008 when he was just about to do a SmackDown!

Doesn't seem that long ago, it might have been 09

As for the commentary, it's not a new thing, I started watching again in 2007 and it was one of the first things I noticed (that and the fact RAW was a lame imitation of what it was in 01)

Lawler is a strange one to be fair, Vince McMahon has never been shy in firing a guy that is past it plus he's always got rid of older guys, Lawler is in his 60s and his job's as safe as houses.... he must have pictures of VKM that he doesn't one out

My mum said the commentary made wrestling almost bearable to watch when we were kids! Heenan and Monsoon were brilliant back in the day!!! Its a lost art!!!

I think Cole and JBL complimented each other superbly on SmackDown in 2006/07

the-gaffer wrote:I think Cole and JBL complimented each other superbly on SmackDown in 2006/07

Agreed. JBL was brilliant during the 07 Rumble. Looking back on some of the attitude era stuff, Cole was pretty damn good back when Smackdown first started. What went wrong?

Vince was an onscreen character and wasn't in his ear for most of every show

Ha! Makes sense. Shame really because like I said, Cole used to be very good.

JR had a bout of bells palsy last year as he was documenting his trips to the hospital on Twitter.

His disease is too unpredictable for Vince to take a risk.

I think Cole can be good on his day but have to agree that it's not the same as Yester year when they used to scream out when some one turns heel, what was it Lawler said, Get of him of Punk when Show was attacking Cena.

JR would have done much better.

I think Cole has got a bit big for his boots as well, when the shows became a bigger part of the shows and took JR's spot and was doing Raw and Smackdown and the Anonymous GM he became a bit arrogant.