2 man commentary

[pipebomber]

On RAW JBL was clotheslined by Luke Harper and had to be attended to in the back for a match before returning to ringside. While I like JBL on commentary and would rather have had Cole or Lawler leave for a match, I was happy for a return to a 2 man commentary team. It feels to me to be less pointless conversation on a 2 man team and more focus on what's going on in the show.

Am I alone or would you rather have a 2 man commentary team or do you prefer the 3 man team?


I know this conversation has been brought up many times before, but I haven't seen it in a while so I thought I would bring it up again.

 

[chicagokmc]

I like 2 man teams best. I definitely enjoy the Smackdown commentary over the current Raw. It's common in real sports to have 3 person teams and WWE just seems to be following suit. These 3 are just not the best combination. Usually JBL and Cole dominate the conversation and King gets little time and he's saying stuff that's more irrelevant than relevant. In the past there were some 3 man teams with Booker on them and he was better for that format because he doesn't dominate conversation like JBL does. I'd go with JBL and Cole and slowly phase King out by limiting him to PPV and then slowly removing him from those.

 

[TootsieBear]

I just miss the days of good ol' J.R. and The King. Today it feels like everything is a plug for the Network, Twitter, etc. NO! I don't mind it once in awhile for the commentators to go over different things unrelated to the matches. But too much poisons the well.

 

[Slash-LN]

I don't care if it's two or three as long as there's some chemistry between whoever is announcing.

If you can get three people who work together well and sound good then go for it.
If there's a team of two people that are better than the three person group then do that.
Hell Joey Styles was a one man announce team for a lot of ECW stuff and he did fine on his own.

The only part of a three person announce team I don't like is when guest commentators come out there. Then you have 4 people and in some cases 5 people all trying to talk at once.

Quality is way more important than quantity.

 

[TheLogan27]

I honestly don't mind. I actually think it's a good combination. I really love JBL and to me his is very entertaining. I love Jerry "The King" Lawler. To me he is very entertaining. But I do think JBL tends to dominate the conversation and in my honest opinion, I think Michael Cole and JBL have better chemistry than Cole and Lawler.

Since the GM position is now open and Lawler has pretty much done his time, why not make Lawler the new GM? They could even have some sort of storyline when because of the Wyatt's attack Lawler claims that he will sue HHH and WWE if they don't do something about it and provide some sort of change. Everything that The Authority tries, Lawler denies until somehow the GM position is open and there you have it. New Raw GM Jerry "The King" Lawler! That way everybody wins. We are back to a 2 man booth. Lawler is still around. He can even hire Brad Maddox back as an assistant (I like the guy. Don't know why. I just feel he needs more time) and the vacant GM role is filled. Thoughts?

 

[Attitude_Era_Guy]

I think quality means more than quantity. 3 can be better than 2. Vice Versa.

However in the current WWE, I think JBL and Michael Cole should commentate Raw, and Jerry Lawler should be slowly phased out.

 

[chicagokmc]

Since the GM position is now open and Lawler has pretty much done his time, why not make Lawler the new GM? They could even have some sort of storyline when because of the Wyatt's attack Lawler claims that he will sue HHH and WWE if they don't do something about it and provide some sort of change. Everything that The Authority tries, Lawler denies until somehow the GM position is open and there you have it. New Raw GM Jerry "The King" Lawler! That way everybody wins. We are back to a 2 man booth. Lawler is still around. He can even hire Brad Maddox back as an assistant (I like the guy. Don't know why. I just feel he needs more time) and the vacant GM role is filled. Thoughts?

Funny, I actually did a post about this earlier. The problem now is that the GM is just an Authority stooge given that HHH/Steph are on camera every week running things. It would be extremely odd to see Lawler go from questioning the Authority to be an Authority flunky. And we saw today what would happen to Lawler if he defied the Authority, so I don't know if it would work to put him in a position where he is trying to balance out the Authority's power (like Steve Austin would have done back in the day).

 

[TheLogan27]

Funny, I actually did a post about this earlier. The problem now is that the GM is just an Authority stooge given that HHH/Steph are on camera every week running things. It would be extremely odd to see Lawler go from questioning the Authority to be an Authority flunky. And we saw today what would happen to Lawler if he defied the Authority, so I don't know if it would work to put him in a position where he is trying to balance out the Authority's power (like Steve Austin would have done back in the day).

Yea. True. And I seen your piece about that earlier. I think your absolutely right. It can become pointless. But I'm sure there's twist and turns in the storyline. He can be a Face GM. I think the only one that WWE has ever had was Theodore R. Long lol. But (and just going into a fantasy world here) didn't Big Show have an iron clad contract or something like that. Hell, give it to Jerry. Or maybe he can be hired by a face Mr. McMahon!! There's ways to make it work. The sad part is that creative is just not that creative in my opinion.

 

[TheBuddha337]

I personally loved the 3 man commentary of Jim Ross, The King, and The Coach. I thought those three worked well together, I still remember when the table was by the entrance ramp and whenever Kane's pyro went off Coachman would freak out.

 

[MC_Live]

It really depends on who's on the team. While i prefer a two man team, a three man team can work if done right. They have like 8 commentators on NXT that they rotate around in 3 person teams, and it's pretty good for the most part. JBL, Cole, and Lawler just don't work. Which really is a shame. It's not their fault. All three of them are great at what they do, but they're so controlled and produced from backstage that they can't do their jobs effectively in many people's opinions. I've found recently that I enjoy WWE matches much more without commentary, which is a travesty. Commentary should always enhance a matches quality, not hinder it. If they cut to a 2 man team, it might cut down on the useless banter that is all over the product. But ultimately commentary will always suck if they're not allowed to talk about what's happening in the ring and what's relevant to what is on the people's TV screens.

 

[A11oftheLights]

I dont care as long as they are serious not clowning around like Michael Cole, the whole product has to be more logical and the best place to start on screen is at commentary. Instead of JBL acting like he has no idea with nxt he should be sprouting how he devoleped them acting like a heel. That was when it was at its best JR called the play by play, Michael Cole used to do this but no longer does, with King being a rather heel persona. Currently we've got 3 bloody colour commentators who mostly be faces. If your gonna go with 3 have one face(King) one heel(JBL) and a play by play who gives a little bit of opinion(Cole)

 

[nbieclkl91]

Jerry "The King" Lawler definitely needs to step down. I don't know if it's just me but when he speaks, it sounds like he just doesn't care at all. JBL & Cole make a perfect announce team and should stay on RAW as the 2 man announce team for sure.

As for Smackdown, I would love to see Renee Young & Jason Albert come up from NXT and do announcing for SmackDown. Renee Young has tons of potential and even though she's great as an interviewer, she deserves more.

As for NXT, Main Event and Superstars, keep Alex Riley on commentary and add Byron Saxton.

Bottom line, 3 man commentary teams suck.

Oh and if they did do this, I would hope that WWE and 2K sports is smart enough to put the different announce teams in the game unlike past WWE games...

 

[Meth Head]

It won't matter as long as long as Lawler's there. Now don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of the King... but he hasn't been anywhere near decent at commentary since about 2008. It's like the PG rating cut his balls off. No doubt he feels restrained, knowing how suggestive he could be back in the day, but he's not even trying to sound interested anymore, which is the exact opposite of what he should be doing.

Much as I abhor Michael Cole, at least he tries to sound remotely invested in the product.

I personally loved the 3 man commentary of Jim Ross, The King, and The Coach. I thought those three worked well together, I still remember when the table was by the entrance ramp and whenever Kane's pyro went off Coachman would freak out.

Agreed. I liked that commentary team. Probably the only instance in WWE I can think of where three commentators bounce off each other very well. Good Ol' JR, Pervy Heel Lawler, and Coach being Coach. Good times, though short lived.