Announce teams...

[Dead Kennedy]

Well, 2008 has so far been a year with a lot of changes to the announce teams. First Joey Styles retired and was replaced by Mike Adamle, WWE's equivalent of Don West. During the draft there were more changes and Mick Foley, shortly thereafter (or was it before? Crap short-time memory.) Adamle became GM and was replaced by Todd Grisham. Next, Foley who had made a good debut as announcer on SmackDown earlier in the year eventually left the company, causing Tazz to move from ECW to SmackDown and Striker to take his spot. You know all this of course, but nice with some perspective.

So my question is...how well do you think the announce teams have turned out after the changes? Better or worse?
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Personally, it's a bit mixed. Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler are the best announce team in wrestling today and it at first felt like a mistake when they broke up the team. Jim Ross worked pretty good together with Mick Foley the short time they announced together. However, I greatly prefer Jim Ross/Tazz. Never really liked Tazz on commentary before he started teaming with Joey Styles...they just worked so well together, with Joey playing the sissy guy and Tazz owning him on every turn. JR and Tazz work well as an announce team.

But Matt Striker has really stolen the spotlight as WWE's best color commentator right now. Matt Striker has always been a great mic guy but he would never become anything special as a WWE superstar so making him a color guy is one of the best announce changes. He's a natural. Grisham isn't perfect, but he's alright. He works better together with Striker and for a while, Tazz than he did on Heat with Josh Mathews. So getting Striker was a nice move after Joey Styles' retirement from commentating. Happy with the ECW team.

However, Raw's announce team as of right now is pretty damn bad. King and Cole do not work at all...Cole has never worked as an announcer for me and King's performance has been lackluster since JR's move. The announcing aspect of wrestling has a very subconscious effect; if good enough it can enhance a match. Cole and King do not do that at all...basically, I barely even notice that they're there. Breaking up King and JR was a mistake, and I would gladly see it undone.

Hmm...the sad thing is that the only real improvement that has happened is Striker to ECW. Aside from that, the announcing situation has only been declining. I truly believe a good announce team can make programming better.
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Err yeah, enough about me, what do you think about the announce team situation in WWE right now?

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

Smackdown and ECW's announce teams have gotten better....I like the combination of Striker and Grisham...With RAW its another story...Lawler should be a heel announcer like when Evolution was around....Cole is the ultimate face announcer and you need a heel to counteract it...That's why I liked JBL as an announcer so much...I hate Lawler and Cole agreeing on everything

 

[Checkmate]

RAW - JR and the King are a classic team. I've heard so many matches called by them that wrestling just wouldn't seem as good without them together calling it. When JR was moved and replaced by Cole, I saw it as a loss for RAW and a huge gain for Smackdown. The Cole and King team aren't horrible, but leave much to be desired. Right now, they look like the worst announce table, which is a pity as RAW is supposed to be the flagship show.

ECW - 2008 has shaken ECW up to its core. Adamle was pathetic, and Styles leaving was a sad day for the brand. However, after several changes, ECW announcing has picked up. Grisham is good. Not great, but good. He gets the job done, which is what ECW needs. Now Striker, Striker is excellent. He has the in ring knowledge to back himself up, and has the more outgoing character of the two to explain things. This team is great, and is perfect for ECW. Why? I think that since ECW has all the fresh faces and is the least popular of the shows, it wouldn't be a smart move to waste the best announce team on superstars that they can't really sell yet. This is where Grisham and Striker shine, as they are the least known announcers too. It just matches the brand. When the brand gets somewhere, so does the announce team.

Smackdown - Smackdown has had its losses and gains in 2008 as well. Gaining JR was a boost, but the loss of Foley hurt. Now, I'm not saying that Foley/JR was the best team (still JR/King, IMO), but losing Foley on any announce table would hurt. JR on smackdown seems out of place, and he needs someone next to him with experience for that person to seem credible. Tazz isn't the worst choice, but I'm still missing the King/JR team. However, Tazz has seen the smackdown seat before and has done well. JR is newer there, but will likely be good 'ol JR anywhere he goes. Again, I just see it as Raw's loss.

 

[Showtime]

I love Grisham and Striker on ECW, but that's mostly because I love Striker so much. He's so articulate and it's refreshing to have a heel colour commentator. Grisham still needs work, but he'll improve with Striker by his side.
JR and Tazz are good, I perfered JR and Foley more, but Tazz is alright beside JR. At times thou, Tazz can become quite annoying and repetetive. I find he works best at bouncing jokes and makeing fun lesser smaller co-announcers, like Cole, Striker, Grisham. But he can't poke to much fun at JR because he's JR. Hopefully, they'll be able to build off a little chemistry together and continue to improve together.
Cole and King are good, but disappointing. Watching Cole on RAW, i've listened to him call more and have realized two things. One, he's not as bad as some people say, two, but he's still not all that good, he makes mistakes and is just not that exciting to listen to. As said about Tazz, Cole is good at being the reciever of the jabs and jokes. There playing Cole as sympathetic and it's not making the fans like him. And King is kinda getting old as a face, so why not turn him heel. King and Cole have worked together before, back in the late 90's when King was a huge heel and Vince sympthazier. I don't remember them being too bad then and King would be able to make all sorts of cracks about Cole. Anyway, there good but like I said about JR and King, they need some work.
What would I change, well sometime down the road, I would like to see JR and King rehook up again. Tazz and Cole would hook up too and depending on Cole's performance during that time would determine which team would be on RAW. WWE wants Cole to be their guy right now. This is their test and I hope he'll pass, if not then we'll have JR back so it won't be a big loss. I would also like to see JBL go back to the announce booth. Happy he's made his little comeback and all, but I'm getting tired of the guy and gringe during some of his matches. He was much better as an announcer, when know he can work well with Cole and I think he could also work well with JR too, they'd have two announcers with cowboy hats on. lol.