Another (less angry) TNA Rant (contains spoilers for March 3rd)
- Thread starter klunderbunker
- Start date
All of this works fine for Vickie, but not for Cole. Because Cole, despite heeling it up constantly, still tries to switch gears into babyface analyst mode every week on RAW and fails miserably at his job as play by play man to a degree I have never seen from anyone before.
Cole is great on Smackdown, where he has Matthews to be the straight play-by-play man and he can just be a heel. He''s so bad on RAW I actually long for the days of Mike Adamle or Rob Bartlett.
Yes, heels are supposed to make you hate them, I get that. But Cole just comes off as using really, really cheap ways to get heat. Constantly repeating the same things over and over again. Shouting at the top of his lungs. Never, ever shutting up. All things designed to annoy people, but really, there are better ways.
And I hate to bring this up, but Cole talking about Lawler's mom was completely unnecessary. The heat between them was already at the boiling point, there was no need to go further. Particularly in such a terrible way. Even if JKL was OK with it, it just came off as thrown in at the last minute to get that extra loud boo. And yes, Cole going "no disrespect" was a douchey thing to do, but again, completely unneeded.
You take a look at a heel manager/commentator like Jesse Ventura. He didn't need to be constantly annoying to get heat. He got heat because he was able to match wits with any other commentator and, in some cases, just be right about things. Likewise for Bobby Heenan. Sure, he was somewhat more annoying than Ventura, but he was smart too. Cole just comes off as an unintelligent douche who thinks he knows what he's talking about. Maybe that's a good idea, but in execution, it just comes off as forced.
Serious Mozzarella
Special Victims Unit
I've never seen Cole go babyface on commentary. I've always understood the PBP guy to be neutral, while the color was either a heel or a face. That's what I see with Cole and King. Cole being neutral, when he's not being a heel, and King as a face. I think it works rather well, as it generates heat even from the IWC. The worst kind of heat IMO, is silence. But Cole has never generated silence, in his entire career.
Maybe King just isn't needed on commentary anymore, unless he can do a proper PBP job.
Also, check my post again. I updated it.
Serious Mozzarella
Special Victims Unit
It may not be clever man, but it's extremely effective. And I don't even see it as cheap heat. He may be a cheap character, but at this point, everything he does is consistent with his personality. Cheap heat is when someone like Randy Orton breaks his super-serious "voices" character to insult sports teams or something. But Cole just has to read the GM e-mails and cheer the Miz, because that's who Cole is.
Vickie's heat is also consistent with her character. People used to have teachers who said "EXCUSE ME" like Vickie did, so they can relate to hating the kind of person she portrays, so they can push "EXCUSE ME," and bam, instant heat.
It may not be complex, storyline-driven, smart heat, but it's definitely not cheap, and it's extremely effective.
That's what he's trying to do. That's why he's a heel. Because he's annoying. And he's getting YOU mad. Heels are basically trolls. They do what they have to do to get a rise out of the fans, and their success is based on whether or not it works. And it's working.
Serious Mozzarella
Special Victims Unit
Okay, maybe it's not neutral per-se, but they've never been extreme babyfaces. They've always been...
what's the word...
centrists? Like, they recognize what anybody else in the world would recognize as somebody doing something objectively good, or somebody doing something objectively bad, where-as the color, being a heel, would take the side of the extreme heel, not caring at how illogical they're being.
Like when Cole would witness The Miz or A-Ry cheating, and he'd be like, "HE DIDN'T CHEAT, HE USED THE ENVIRONMENT TO WIN. THAT'S SMART!"
No babyface PBP would ever argue that in the face's favor.
See what I mean?
DirtyJosé
Best angle of all: retirement
What I meant was, I don't mind/care/whatever if someone wants to vivisect TNA. That's fair game. I'm talking more about people knocking others because they don't sufficiently "defend" the things they enjoy watching. I'm not into TNA much. I could go into detail on why that is, and what I think they are doing wrong. But I'm not going attack someone for enjoying it.
Silly me. I'm too fair.
Silly me. I'm too fair.
Not true Mozz, JR would constantly be okay with Austin or The Rock cheating to even up the odds and Schiavone, Tenay, and Zbysko would actively root for the faces to beat the NWO heels every week, celebrating when the faces would cheat or team up on the NWO.
Cole does try to switch gears to babyface analyst nearly every week on RAW. And it's awful. Your play by play man CAN NOT be a heel, because it goes against the very definition of his job, which is to get you interested and invested in the action and angles. It's hard to give a fuck about the babyface getting his revenge when Cole is screaming at the top of his lungs about how the babyface sucks and The Miz is God and blah blah blah.
Cole is a fine heel. He's just a fucking terrible play-by-play man. Terrible.
Cole does try to switch gears to babyface analyst nearly every week on RAW. And it's awful. Your play by play man CAN NOT be a heel, because it goes against the very definition of his job, which is to get you interested and invested in the action and angles. It's hard to give a fuck about the babyface getting his revenge when Cole is screaming at the top of his lungs about how the babyface sucks and The Miz is God and blah blah blah.
Cole is a fine heel. He's just a fucking terrible play-by-play man. Terrible.
Serious Mozzarella
Special Victims Unit
Alright. I'll be around when that happens.
DigitalInfamous
Bitches goin' ham
Serious Mozzarella
Special Victims Unit
OK, but how does that explain him bringing up Jerry's mom like that? You have to admit, that was stepping over the line. Not only that, but under your definition of his character, that seems a bit out of place. He hates Lawler because he thinks he's stealing the Miz's spotlight, so why transition to personal attacks? He doesn't even go that far with Daniel Bryan, the character that turned him heel in the first place. It just seems inconsistent.
Fair enough, but it's gotten to the point that that's all she needs to say. Granted, that can be viewed as a success, but it comes off as somewhat lazy to me.
I get that, believe me, I do. It just feels like not enough effort is being put into making him an effective heel. An effective heel makes the viewer want someone to shut him up, and keeps watching in the hopes that will happen. The other kind of heel just makes viewers want to turn off the TV. It's the latter for me when Cole comes on, because he just comes off as, ironically enough, a really bad smark who thinks everyone should listen to him. Again, I can understand perfectly if that's what they were going for, but it doesn't mean it's a good idea.
Although, to be fair, I could just be flat out tired of Cole. That's another problem I have with Vince, he overexposes some of his creations. It seems like lately, whenever he comes across something that he thinks really works, he puts it on TV more and more to get more out of it. That just results in people getting tired of it much faster. I think I'd be able to tolerate Cole more if he was just on one show, but the fact that he's on both RAW and Smackdown, as well as as sometimes appearing on NXT, just makes me sick of him.
Cena's Little Helper
Mid-Card Championship Winner
For someone who thinks so poorly of TNA, you sure do spend an awful lot of time obsessing over it.
Cole didn't go too far with the mom comment. All he did was say that Jerry's mom was in the "Best seat in the house" and that Jerry's loss could be viewed as letting her down. It's not like he outright said LOL UR MOM'S DEAD AND ROLLING IN HER GRAVE, SHE NEVER LIKED YOU, YOU WERE A TERRIBLE SON, BTW I FUCKED YOUR SISTER
come on
come on
Jason Scene
Classically Charismatic
I dunno, I just don't think it needed to be brought up at all. I thought Miz was gonna overdo it the week before EC, but it was more just used as an explanation as to why King wasn't there. Bringing it up after the fact just seemed unnecessary.
Also, having read over the old thread again, I should ask:
KB, you feeling any better in regards to the cancer?
I agree but ya know Jerry had to know it was coming that being said from a storyline point of view if Cole had said that to me I would have fed him his testacles.
The thing is though, Cole already gets the most heat of anyone on the roster besides maybe Vickie Guerrero. He didn't need to make that mother comment. Cole could not possibly be more over as a heel.
Oh and I just actually read the iMPACT! tapings spoilers...all I have to say is el-oh-fucking-el, that is pathetic. Seriously. Yeah, shit, let's give the title to Sting for the 40th time, why not, that'll shake things up. Christ. Nobody gives a FUCK about Sting winning the TNA title. The only reason he was so hyped online the last month was because people wanted to see him in the WWE. You know, something new. Not the same exact shit we've been seeing in TNA since 2006.
Sting vs. Jeff Hardy at the PPV? Yeah that's not going to completely suck.
Nevermind the silliness of having their show in North Carolina, where the Hardys and Flair were cheered all night (despite ALL being booked as heels). This shit is just sad at this point.
Big Nick Dudley
Nick
Being stupid and having bad taste are two completely different things.
So bad in fact, the WWE was forced to turn a play-by-play guy heel. A fucking play-by-play guy got that much heat for..just being there. That's when you know you're fucking awful at what you do.
One thing about A.J. and/or Beer Money being overrated. I am not a big TNA mark at all. But I think A.J. has actually been getting better. In ring, he has always had it. But it seems he is getting a lot better on the mic. That is one thing I never thought would happen.
A lot of times when a guy is dubbed, "The Guy That Built So and So" they don't get any better. They continue to basically stay the same and try to use that as their building block, or reason they should be at the top in the first place.
But to my surprise, A.J. has gotten better on the mic. I really wonder if WWE would make him a joke or not. Part of me thinks he would go to WWE and do well. But then there is a part of me that also believes he would end up not being taken seriously and would never achieve anything until he left and returned to ROH (If TNA folded, that is).
A lot of times when a guy is dubbed, "The Guy That Built So and So" they don't get any better. They continue to basically stay the same and try to use that as their building block, or reason they should be at the top in the first place.
But to my surprise, A.J. has gotten better on the mic. I really wonder if WWE would make him a joke or not. Part of me thinks he would go to WWE and do well. But then there is a part of me that also believes he would end up not being taken seriously and would never achieve anything until he left and returned to ROH (If TNA folded, that is).
