Is The WWE Missing A Golden Opportunity With The King/Cole Team?

[Turd Ferguson]

Well, not so much a golden opportunity, but at least a way to make the Raw commentary a lot better than it usually is.

Ever since the WWE paired Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler together, they've been terrible. Lawler seems like he's just there for a paycheck. He sits there giving half assed "analysis", and Cole is his usual unbearable self, yelling out "Vintage!" and his usual assorted catchphrases that we love to hate him for. King refuses to really engage, and the commentary for Raw sucks. It's part of the reason why sometimes watching Raw feels like more of a chore.

However, on NXT, Cole has been a different commentator. He's antagonistic when it comes to Daniel Bryan and "Internet Geeks". The vastly underrated Josh Matthews is usually more than willing to argue and engage with him, and it's just another reason why NXT is so much fun. It also shows that Cole has the ability to be a good commentator. Some of his best work was when he was paired up with JBL, because JBL would be willing to go back and forth with him. Right now, Cole's carving out a nice character where he feels like a hotshot, and as a heel commentator, he's actually pretty fucking good and hysterical to listen to.

Right now, the WWE should absolutely have Cole try to engage with Lawler more, and become more of an antagonist. If Lawler's going to just sit there and be bland, make Cole give Lawler something to work with. Lawler wouldn't stand for being pushed around by Michael Cole, of all people. It would make the commentary a lot better and make Raw a little more fun to watch. He's nowhere close to matching the brilliance of a Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, but why not have Cole be that type of commentator where he rips on fans and certain wrestlers he doesn't like, such as Daniel Bryan?

People rip on the Cole/Lawler team for being boring. If Cole has the capability to be an antagonist, and if Lawler, who is more than capable of being one isn't going to do it, why not run with it?

 

[SydTinDad]

Before anybody starts going ape shit on the announce teams, remember that Uncle Vinny is on the headset barking out instructions on how to act and how to speak. Vinny needs to back the fuck off once and for all and let his announcers actually, ANNOUNCE. Screw your "build the storyline" bullshit. Story lines build themselves Vince; you senile old bastard.

That's why "VINTAGE" Jim Ross during the Attitude Era and "VINTAGE" Joey Styles during the true ECW Era was so great; they called the match with no interferance.

 

[XgringolocoX]

I love how everyone complains that Vince is yelling inthe headsets of the announcers during the entire show without them ever having heard what's in those headsets.
But I digress....

I've pretty much have felt the same way. Lawler has been phoning it in for a long while now. His WM26 commentary was absolutely terrible outside of HOG SPLASH!! LOL
I've never had an issue with Cole, I just thought he was really vanilla. His NXT commentary is more entertaining and would be a welcome addition to RAW. Some one just needs to bitch slap Lawler and remind him to be entertaining.

 

[WWE Manster03]

Cole on Raw I think has to play the straight guy, much like Jim Ross used to. That doesn't work for him. When he gets to play the smug asshole like he does on NXT, I thoroughly enjoy his commentary. It seems much more natural and free flowing from him. I really think the biggest problem with the Raw team is Lawler. He just doesn't seem like he cares enough to be the bad guy anymore. He was great about 3-4 years ago still, but even before JR went to Smackdown, his work had gone well below what it should of been. Hopefully King calls it quits in the next year or so. Matthews could do very well on Raw if they were to let him and Cole play off of each other like they do on NXT for sure. Matthews still calls out the moves in the ring and puts the wrestlers over, much like Matt Striker does.

 

[Athena]

We have to keep in mind that while he wasn't terrible, the majority of King's success was because he was paired with probably the greatest play-by-play man of all time, JR. It's sort of a similar situation with Vince and Ventura - Vince by himself was boring and didn't provide anything remotely entertaining, but when the Body was there telling him to shut up and arguing back and forth, Vince suddenly became entertaining.

While I doubt they'll actually do it, I think they should have Cole further his persona that he displays on NXT. Nothing is better than listening to a guy who thinks he knows a lot about something, but actually knows nothing and makes a jackass of himself. Have Cole start contradicting Lawler about certain facts, or have Cole start criticizing certain face stars and have Lawler defend them. It would make RAW a whole hell of a lot less monotonous, and would hopefully derail the internet hate machine target against Cole. He's show on NXT that he can be interesting and entertaining, but when he's paired with Jerry "oh I actually have a job to do?" Lawler, he comes off sounding a lot less interesting than he actually is.

 

[Dan E. Inferno]

On the face of it, it seems rather obvious that it would benefit RAW by having Cole carry over his NXT persona onto RAW. There's no doubt that he's much better on NXT than RAW. Also, his back and forth interaction with King would surely improve the current standard of RAW's commentary. By having an antagonist sitting to him, King may actually start giving a shit and it could sort of revitalise his commentary.

The question I have though is whether Cole could successfully carry over his NXT style onto RAW. On NXT, it's relatively easy for Cole to act the way he does, as Daniel Bryan is a prime target for him and it gives him the opportunity to shoot on the IWC and interact with Josh. For me, Cole's whole NXT persona is based around hating on Bryan. I wonder if he could adapt his style enough for it to work on RAW, where he would have to think quicker on his feet, what with it being live TV and him sitting next to a pretty good antagonist (in his day) in Lawler.

However, I definitely think it should be worth a go, whether it proves successful or not. The commentary, and subsequently my enjoyment of watching RAW, would surely increase if Cole and King could pull it off, so its got to be worth the risk of failure.

 

[John Henry]

cole still has it in him he just needs to channel it. shave his head for an Edge, grow some more facial hair back and be the man he used to be

 

[Mr. TM]

I like Cole on Smackdown, and as Guy said, it really helps NXT to be great. I myself think that Lawler should be packing up his bags about now, he does nothing for me in the WWE. Although, I think he would make a great backstage announcer more than a commentator.

But yes, they should build up tension between the announcers. Shouldn't the announces each give us one half of the spectrum of good versus bad that we see in the ring? If Cole is building up Batista, force Lawler to build up Cena against him.