Todd Kenely Dropped From the Announcing Team

[It's Damn Real!]

This from PWInsider.com:

TNA Announcer Todd Kenely has been dropped from the promotion's announce team. TNA sources indicate Kenely was informed by the promotion at the Slammiversary PPV, which as of now, was his final appearance.

Kenely was brought into the promotion by Executive Producer Eric Bischoff, who had used him on several previous projects. He debuted for the company in October 2012.

The plan going forward is to revert back to the old Impact Wrestling two man announcing team of Mike Tenay and Taz.

TNA sources indicated the door was left open for Kenely to be used down the line if a role was found for him. He was not dropped because of unhappiness with his work, but rather a decision to streamline the announcing team and he was not under contract and had the least seniority.

--

I've actually taken to ol' Toad a bit since he's stuck with things, and the three-man booth is something I've always enjoyed dating back to being a WCW fan, but I'm not so sure this is going to matter that much. While it was a fresh perspective and gave TNA a classic WCW feel to it (heel color, face play-by-play and Tenay), it's also only been in place for such a short period of time that I doubt that many people will feel a negative impact from it (no pun intended).

Thoughts on Todd being out? Any cares?

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

Most people probably won't care. Simply put, commentators add very little to the product. Although, they can take away greatly if they're just that bad.

I actually liked Todd. I though he added a bit of freshness between the frequent awkwardness and often very bad duo of Tenay and Tazz. He was sort of a buffer between the two and made the others not seem nearly as bad. I really don't mind Tenay or Taz that much individually, but as a pairing they can be pretty bad sometimes.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

He didn't make the announce team any better, he didn't make it any worse, to be frank he didn't do anything really, he was just another voice at the table and a mediator of sorts between Taz and Tenay on the odd occasion. Good luck to him in whatever he does, but as far as a wrestling play-by-play guy goes hes not all that good, should probably seek another role.

 

[rokuma]

Most people probably won't care. Simply put, commentators add very little to the product. Although, they can take away greatly if they're just that bad.

I highly disagree with that statement. The commentator provides the voice for the memorable moments. When you see Shawn Michaels posing with the WWF Title at WM 12, who's voice was it? Vince McMahon saying, "The boyhood dream...has come true!" With Hogan/Andre, Gorilla Monsoon's voice was distinguishable for that moment. And my goodness, how many matches is JR synonymous with? Hell in a Cell w/ Undertaker/Mankind? How many Stone Cold Steve Austin matches? Actually, the entire Attitude Era and the WWE itself almost is synonymous with JR and King calling the matches. A great announcer can build up the drama, the suspense, and the action in a good wrestling match and make it seem legendary. It's something that is currently absent from the WWE today and I don't think it's an accident that HBK would request JR calling his final match or Undertaker requesting JR call his match. It adds to it.

That being said, I liked Todd. I liked the 3-man dynamic and it wasn't that he was really good, but Tenay has just never been a favorite of mine on the lead play-by-play. I liked Tenay in WCW as the 3rd wheel and adding background information about the wrestlers, history of the bout, etc. It made it more realistic, but as a lead guy? Not a fan.

 

[ABMorales787]

What Todd really did was keep around the puns and childish jokes Taz would bring before he was in A's & 8's. Never in my life have I heard a man go 60 puns per hour, but that pun demon Todd did it with absolute ease.

My personal feeling is that we need a brand new broadcast team. Taz being stupid is fun but played out and Tenay is even more played out than Taz.

 

[I'm A Vince Russo Guy]

I was starting to like him, but I prefer Tenay. That said, if they go back to Tenay and Taz, those 2 are going to have to tone down their arguing.

 

[scottyshowman82]

I like Todd. With him there, Tenay can be the "professor" and Taz can be the former ring general and voice of Aces and 8's. Kenely has a good grasp of wrestling history, indy talent and knows the moves. I know this seems like something most wrestling announcers should know but a lot don't (WWE especially, not talking about TNA at all actually.)

I'd take McKenely over Michael Cole sorry Cole don't like the bickering.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

Good. Entirely unecessary, and TNA needs to keep expenses as low as possible.

 

[Con T.]

For the life of me, I'll never understood why arguably the best guy in the announcing booth, Jeremy Borash, is the only guy not in the announcing booth.

If TNA were looking to change things up, it should have been with Borash. Whenever he's been called in to do emergency work (Taz being gone during Hurricane Sandy), or just in general, he's always been really good. I know that the belief is that in a booth, you need a color commentator to do the job, but having Borash and Tenay added something to the show that neither Taz, nor Kenely really brought. Sometimes finding the answers involves the simplest choice; Borash has been with them forever, and they still haven't used him as best they can.

 

[I'm A Vince Russo Guy]

For the life of me, I'll never understood why arguably the best guy in the announcing booth, Jeremy Borash, is the only guy not in the announcing booth.

If TNA were looking to change things up, it should have been with Borash. Whenever he's been called in to do emergency work (Taz being gone during Hurricane Sandy), or just in general, he's always been really good. I know that the belief is that in a booth, you need a color commentator to do the job, but having Borash and Tenay added something to the show that neither Taz, nor Kenely really brought. Sometimes finding the answers involves the simplest choice; Borash has been with them forever, and they still haven't used him as best they can.

I'm guessing it's because he makes a great compere. If you've ever been to a live TNA show, you'll notice how he does a great job keeping things flowing in the downtime between segments.

 

[Con T.]

I'm guessing it's because he makes a great compere. If you've ever been to a live TNA show, you'll notice how he does a great job keeping things flowing in the downtime between segments.

I have, and he is great at that. He is really, really great at it. What I would like to see him do is television though, which shouldn't affect too much what he does at house shows and the like.

TNA likes to do backstage segments without interviewers, which really works for him. Again, I get what you're saying, and you make a good point, but it also just points to my belief that he's the most underutilized guy TNA has ever had

 

[UFOcalling]

Todd's departure from the TNA broadcast table isn't going to matter much, as it's already been stated here. Although some of the posts here are pessimistic about his "future endeavored" status, I'm sure those same people will forget about him over the next month or so (possibly even less time than that, even).

When Todd was first brought on TNA television, I wondered what the reason was. In hindsight I can see that it was probably just because the long-term plan was to place Taz(z?) with A&8s, so TNA creative felt that the announce team should have a third guy with no "political" agenda (since they knew Taz would ultimately side with Aces & Eights). Before Taz joined A&8s, I figured Todd was just getting groomed to be an alternate broadcast member. That's probably what his role will be now, as opposed to when they used to use JB for those spots (as already mentioned, when Taz was stuck at home due to Hurricane Sandy).

I wasn't the biggest supporter of Todd's at first, but I've grown accustomed to his voice over his tenure on Impact Wrestling. As I've already mentioned, the next couple of weeks might seem a little strange without hearing his voice (to most of us) - but we'll all grow accustomed to only hearing Taz & Tenay again shortly. If TNA decides to put Todd back on Impact eventually, it won't seem like such a dramatic change (as it did when he was first brought on TV). Ultimately, this change won't matter in a month or so...to any of us Impact fans.

 

[HBsam31]

Todd was pretty much a non entity to me. Not even sure if I could pick him out if they put him in the booth with a couple of guys I have never heard before. That said, I agree that he didn't make the broadcast team any better or any worse. I also agree with the poster that said TNA could use a whole new broadcast team. I just don't get the feel that things are memorable from listening to them. They need a voice that can be pinned to the memorable moments, and they just don't have that. I don't think the loss of Todd Kenely is going to matter to anyone in the least bit.

 

[Lowdown]

He wasn't bad at his job, but he won't be missed. I don't think TNA was losing a shitload of money in paying Todd. But if this is the way of cutting cost and corners, so be it.

 

[New Hot Fed]

Frankly, he was TNA's best announcer. It's mind-boggling that they would fire him. He was the only solid guy on the announce team. TNA doesn't improve often but Kennely was an improvement to Tazz and Tenay, I thought.

TNA will always look like a circus ride if they keep it up, do a good thing, do a bad thing, do a good thing, do a bad thing. That's why they always stay at 1.0 in the ratings. They don't drop much but they don't advance either.

 

[ヒュー　G.　レックション]

Frankly, he was TNA's best announcer.

Agreed, he actually knew the moves and the history between wrestlers, storylines and whatnot.

For the life of me, I'll never understood why arguably the best guy in the announcing booth, Jeremy Borash, is the only guy not in the announcing booth.

I think the problem is that he's too similar to Tenay. Their commentary at Destination X I think it was, was just the two of them repeating what the other was saying and agreeing with each other.

Taz is terrible though, but I like that the Aces have a voice on there, and there isn't really anyone else who can be heel commentator. All of his Taz-isms are so shitty, does he really need to talk about yambags and tippy tops and talk about his irrelevant self whenever you see any kind of suplex?

 

[Vance Ryan]

Yeah tna does need a new announce team because in another post a read the announcers can make a moment historic just with the way they call it. Not gonna get wwe history with the commentary being synonomist with a moment in wrestling moments they have plenty. Hell even mike tenay and don west has ".ex. Angle coming to tna. But what about taz and mike tenay have they ever since they been together made a moment feel special by there commentary. Don't think waste your time with it cause its a no. Todd didn't make or break them but I really do not like the team of tenay and taz (especally taz ) maybe they can bring back don west and if he toned it down a bit and put borash on the table tna can probably have a decent announce team. I personally liked west but he marked out about every little thing, but his heel work wasn't bad either.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I doubt it's ultimately going to matter. In the grand scheme of things, most commentators simply don't matter as far as the product is concerned, with very few exceptions. When Jim Ross stopped commentating, a lot of people threw a damn fit but nobody's on Jim Ross' level. People will notice that Kenely is gone simply because they've gotten used to a three person commentary team but after they simply notice that there's one less body, they'll immediately move on.

As to Kenely himself, I thought he did pretty good. He seemed to be more of an old school guy in that he was more interested in calling the action and helping to tell a story than Taz or Tenay much of the time. In my opinion, he was loads better than Taz or Tenay. Taz & Mike Tenay are basically TNA's version of Jerry Lawler & Michael Cole, in a sense at least. Like Lawler & Cole, they can be pretty damn good at times but, again like Lawler & Cole, Taz & Tenay spend far too much time either griping at each other over nonsense or cracking stupidly unfunny jokes rather than calling the action of a match. If I was going to replace anyone, I'd have replaced one or both of them with someone else.

 

[New Hot Fed]

Here's the thing also, not only Kenely knew the moves but I thought he had a pretty good voice, sometime he reminded me of Joey Styles. I liked when AJ turned on Aces & 8s he said "He DOES work alone!".

I heard more than a couple of wrestlers liked Kenely's work and are not too happy about this. Place yourself in the wrestlers' shoes, they like when commentators make them look good and are competent at their jobs, not spend their times bickering with one another.

 

[tak161]

I actually thought Todd was pretty good. I didn't care too much for him at first, but after a few weeks he kind of grew on me. I thought he added a nice dynamic as the straight play by play guy much in the way Tony Schiavone was in WCW during the early days of his announcing. I have never liked Tenay as play by play or as "The Professor" in WCW. I just never bought him him as a legitimate announcer. I can't put my finger on why, but something always seemed off.

I don't have a problem with Tazz, although he was way better in WWE. Heel Tazz is much better than face Tazz in commentating, and I think he and Kenely played well off of each other.

 

[Cena's #1 In My Heart]

Big mistake. Best play by play man since Joey Styles.

Taz and Tenay sit there and argue, and bicker, and distract me from the matches. Can someone please look out for the word Wrestling.

 

[Nikeo]

It's an over statement to call this a "huge mistake", it won't have an over reaching effect on the product, but I do think the old statement "if it ain't broken.....don't fix it" applies.

I considered the Taz/Tenay team to be broken long before Kenely came along. To be honest, in my view, he's outshined both of them since joining the announce team. Taz isn't funny. At all. He makes for frequently awkward moments and his "pot shots" at his fellow announcers are clumsy, unfunny and (for me) detract from the product.

When he sticks to analysing the action, talking about the effect a certain move has on the wrestler, etc, etc, he's actually quite good. When he tries to be funny, portray a character or even further feuds I don't think he's any good at all.

Look at JBL, look at how JBL tried to get people over when he first started announcing. He could do it all: the banter with Cole, further the stories, offer first hand in-ring experience AND he helped get midcard guys over. Look back at JBL's treatment of the likes of Matt Hardy. He'd always put Hardy over on commentary while not breaking his heel character, he was a master at it. I might be wrong but I don't think I've seen Taz put a character over in a meaningful way.

I'm getting off topic but the general point I'd like to make is that I don't think Taz/Tenay work on their own. Apart from my aforementioned point with regards to Taz, as others have also noted, I think Tenay works best in the background of the team. Together they're missing something. Kenely was that something.

The strange thing about him is that I don't think he's as good as when he initially started doing the first hour with Borash. Whether that's pressure of the job, pressure backstage or whatever but he's not as good as we was.

While this decision won't ruin the TNA product, on a personal level, I don't think it was a good one to make. I know they're trying to keep costs down, and with that in mind you can see the business sense in the decision, but on a personal level I wish they'd have kept him on.

I don't watch WWE anymore (don't have the channel) so I don't know how their announcers are shaping up but I don't think it's an overstatement to say they may have an interest in Kenely. It's quite hard to get somebody with broadcast experience and a knowledge of wrestling in general. Look at Adamle, Grisham and to a much lesser extend The Coach. All of them are decent broadcasters but being a wrestling announcer involves much more than broadcasting technique and wrestling knowledge. An understanding of story telling, etc, are all needed.

Don't get me wrong, Kenely is FAR from perfect but with much less experience than so many other announcers he has refined his skills to a very high level. Has he even been announcing on a major wrestling show for a year? People seem to forget his complete lack of experience.

Again, I don't know the current announcing landscape in the WWE, but I wouldn't be surprised if they brought Kenely on board and started training him up. Look where they got Grisham to after 5 years, imagine what they could do with Kenely. It might be wishful thinking but I think it'd be quite a prudent move.

 

[Whap Me Jungles]

Latest news is that Todd Kennely is going back to the broadcast table at Championship Wrestling From Hollywood. I believe it is the voice of all of WZ that wishes him the best of luck in his career.