Cole's new partner

[Find'er Woo'er Ryder]

ok i just got done posting in a thread about jerry the king lawler and in that thread someone said that since he is wrestling so much he could be close to retiring. the question is who would you like to see replace him on the broadcast table with michael cole?

to answer my own question, i would love to have josh mathews come up and announce with cole. it would be interesting since they have great commentating on nxt with eachother already.

 

[MacRae93]

Abraham Washington

I love this guy on ECW, and he I really enjoy his commentary on FCW aswell. Hopefully he might be revealed as RAW GM but he probably won't. He deserves to be on one of the main shows though.

 

[Teddy Irving]

In the attitude era i really loved king's commentating the reason for that was he was meant to be the colour commentator and that is what he done. While he done that he cheered for the main heel and the faces. He had people he just didn't like at all and didn't cheer for them ever.
Does what he did remind you of anyone? Michael Cole. He has moved into the spot King once used. King cheered on HHH and as far as he was conserned the man could do no wrong. He was to King what Miz is to Cole.
Cole as now become the King on the table( that being said King still has that comedic side to him example Vickie G.). I believe the fact that Cole as moved to the colour commentating side is a indication that King might be finally hanging up the boots for good.
With that being said Cole now needs a play by play commentator to get on the table with him, so that is striker out(and the fact that he is apparently not liked by either of those two) I think that would also rule out Washington(he is a great laugh though). Todd Grisham, could happen if they move Josh to being play by play on smackdown. Or it could be the return of Jim Ross one of, if not the best play by play man.
I think it will be Mattews though the two of these did well on NXT together, but they seemed to have a free-er reign on what they said on that because WWE realised that nobody really cared about the show.
I could be wrong and Cole might stay play by play and then it could be Washington or Striker.

 

[dansaun77]

WWE is very down on Striker, and Washington is a nobody. WWE needa former wrestler as xcolor commentator. Ventura was the best at it, JBL was brilliant, TAZ is tolerable, Lawler os ok,CM Punk was brilliant in his short stint. Michael Cole needs a solid color guy to help shadow his crapness.

 

[zangan]

William Regal is pretty good at mic work and is supposed to be retiring from wrestling soon id really like for him to get a try out at commentary atleast.

 

[SFC]

Color commentary is meant for "experts," therefore adding another PBP guy would be pointless. I nominate someone like Roddy Piper, Regal, etc. Or John Madden.

 

[JGlass]

I can't believe how few people have said Josh Matthews. I know it's fun to conjure up commentary dream teams, but Macho Man Randy Savage is not coming back to the RAW announce table.

All signs point to Josh Matthews. He has already proven himself to have great chemistry with Cole on NXT, and he has gotten plenty of face time on RAW as the backstage interviewer, so the more casual WWE fan will still recognize his voice. He's also been on RAW 3 times in the past couple months (I think), which is a clear indication that WWE is trying him out/easing him into the position. With Miz's attack on King tonight, there's a good possibility that Matthews will be replacing an injured Lawler next Monday, and I think it will be the beginning of the Cole-Matthews era.

 

[Darin Zion]

IDK, we could see Matt Striker, but who would replace Matthews on SD? And why would you do Cole and Striker there? WWE needs to really rethink the SD and Raw commentary teams after WM and the draft. It'd be nice to see some structure.

 

[MoneyMack]

I dont wanna see it be Mathews or Striker. Arent they already the announce team on Smackdown together??

Im of the belief that there needs to be a former wrestler on the announce team for RAW. Lawler has been losing his touch over the last couple of years & may have just been written out of his job lastnight by The Miz. If that is the case & Jerry is done announcing- I wish him well in whatever he decides to do from here on out. But back to my point: There needs to be a former wrestler next to Cole. CM Punk proved how important this is to have at the table, for the TV viewers.

Suggestions from a thread a couple weeks ago: "**" next to the guys I personally think would be excellent choices & would be willing to do it also.

Jessie Ventura- VERY doubtful
Roddy Piper**- I actually think he'd do it
Dusty Rhodes**- assume he'd be willing. sometimes hard to understand tho
Dustin Rhodes- if hes done in-ring, why not?
JBL- probly wouldnt be interested
Jake Roberts- could he last?
Randy Savage- would be GREAT, but highly doubtful
MDM Ted DiBiase- gotta think he'd be willing
RD Jesse James- he may work for TNA, not sure
Scott Hall- SOBER very doubtful
Scott Levy**- Raven (J.Polo-haha) I think he'd be excellent in this position. Not sure he's big on WWE anymore tho

Others more "outside the box" Just not sure they'd be willing to ONLY commentate

Colt Cabana- Scotty Goldman (I think he was called)
Larry Sweeney- Saw a video of him here once. He'd be great I think


Anyway... If it was up to me, my top choices would be:

1. Piper
2. Levy
3. Cabana/Sweeney
4. Rhodes

 

[Darin Zion]

Hmmmm who's about to retire on Raw and SD? Besides Regal and Goldust, I really could see someone like Shawn Michaels want to commentate, but he'd not be willing. I'd also like to see Triple H give it a shot for a while then pull the Vince McMahon angle and return. That or we could see Vinny Mac do it. Hmmmm, if I had my choices; I'd ax Michael Cole and put Josh Matthews on Raw and then I'd bring up someone who's wrestled on Raw a bit who needs a job change like Regal or Venis or something like that.

 

[The Pizzaman]

If Jerry Lawler is close to retiring then there will be an opening for another Colour commentator at the Raw announce table. But who? there have been some suggestions but in my opinion it should be someone who has been a wrestler before and knows what he or she is talking about. yes I said She!!!!! why not get a female to be a play by play anouncer? Lillian Garcia, Trish Stratus, Lita or even Chyna. I know its doubtful for any of them to return to WWE as Lillian Has gone back to her singing career, Trish has opened a yoga studio, Lita is now a radio DJ and Chyna is having personal problems but there are no Major Female employees in WWE with the exception of the in ring divas and Vicki Guerrero. It would certainly add spice to the announce team. However if you are going to stick with a male then there is only one person who I think would be a great replacement to Jerry and that is William Regal.

 

[RKOx7]

To be perfectly honest, I think they should attempt to keep injured superstars on commentary, as a color commentator and not have them stay in character much like they did with CM Punk. Then again, Punk's on screen character is much like himself, so I've heard time and time again.

However, there is pluses and minuses about this. The idea would get stale, having every injured superstar do commentary til they're back on their feet and they run up to attack someone...

But to have a third man do commentary, being a superstar would be a new insight, commenting on your peers and appearing to be legit honest or commenting as an unbiased character until your time comes to head back into the ring. This is an obvious way to keep a character in mind to everyone, and a subtle way to hype up a return. Could also help bring up mic skills. Personally I like the idea just from seeing what happened with Punk, listening to Punk commentate made me love him 100 times more then I already did... but CM Punk is good on the mic, it would take practice for some other people.

 

[Steinex]

I've read somewhere that Vince likes a 3-man announce team that's why Cole is SD and that Grisham and Striker sucks in Vinces opinion.

Now i would love to have Matthews on Raw with Cole and some1 more cuz they had gr8 chemistry at Nxt and i think they would pair up nicely

 

[Eyeyball Nipple]

I think the Cole and Lawler banter will continue for a while, culminating in a "retirement" stipulation match between the two at Wrestlemania, where King gets screwed and loses/retires.

 

[LSN80]

Why does someone have to be a former wrestler with credentials in order for them to be considered as a good color man by most? There are many wrestler's who can work a great promo, but that doesn't mean that they'ls be competent as a color man for Cole. The person Ive seen that's had the most compatibility with Michael Cole since JBL has been Josh Matthews. He's already getting on the air more and more each week as he's become the play by play guy on Smackdown as well as NXT, as well as doing backstage interviews on Raw.

He and Cole have a natural chemistry together that no amount of wrestling acumen can provide. Matthews is good at putting Cole in his place when the time is needed and he does a great job of actually calling the moves as they happen. I'm assuming placing him on Smackdown is testing the waters with him, and if he succeeds, he'll be a natural to work with Cole if Lawler steps aside either to wrestle again or to retire. I imagine that we'll see him on Raw again this Monday as Lawler "sells" his injuries at the hands of Miz this week. If Matthews continues to show decent personality and chemistry with Cole. WWE takes the approach of "elevating from within" when it comes to their wrestlers, so why wouldnt they take the same approach with their commentary team as well?

 

[nerd4life]

cole is nothing like king was what are you talking about king never rode HHHs dick like cole does to miz.

Cole ruins raw sometimes they need to go back to jr and king! or josh mattehws is good to

 

[gj2000]

I've read somewhere that Vince likes a 3-man announce team that's why Cole is SD and that Grisham and Striker sucks in Vinces opinion.

Im not so sure if its the fact that he likes a 3 man announce team, just the fact that he thought Grisham was struggling and he added Cole there. Lets face it, if he liked a 3 man commentary team THAT much, it would be on the premier show, wouldn't it?

Im not sold on having injured wrestlers as commentators. There would be too much switching around between commentators, and would create an imbalance in chemistry bewteen the main-stay commentator and the wrestler. Personally, Id love to see Josh Matthews - Hes fairly young, hes fresh, hes vibrant, and can carry a good conversation with Cole before he randomly starts screaming and orgasming over the Miz

 

[Mr. Artistic guy]

Yeah Josh Matthews has proven himself as the most competatant pure-face play-by-play commentator WWE now has. You have to be realistic and although ex pro-wrestlers in the past have made good announcers like roddy piper, macho man or jesse ventura not to mention bobby heenan of course, some suggestions like HBK are just unlikely and unfeasible. WWE seems to prefer, and I agree with this, that ex wrestlers should be a second choice for a commentating spot next to a WWE-made commentator because all residual traces of their past career can sometimes interfere with their commentating job and detract from their work. Additionally, commentating is a different type of talking to doing mic work, most ex wrestlers cannot just adapt instantly as is proven when certain guys put on the headset for a match on occassions.

My vote is for josh matthews to take the job because although he is fairly bland, he makes less mistakes than cole or grisham and always calls the match well. When said and done, he gets the job done so why not.

 

[moneymaker90]

Since JBL probably doesn't want to go back for that spot WWE could try for Booker. Thei give him some money and let some guys appear on his wrestling company and in return not only do they get a great wrestler, they also get an awesome commentator.

 

[AmericanDragonSW]

cole is nothing like king was what are you talking about king never rode HHHs dick like cole does to miz.

Cole ruins raw sometimes they need to go back to jr and king! or josh mattehws is good to

Agreed. The difference is that Jerry Lawler as a heel commentator was entertaining and often times funny. The announcers job is to move the story along and the problem with Cole is that the second they decided to give him some kind of character like he's got now, it's made him even worse of an announcer. I have to actually mute the TV to enjoy Raw because I can't stand that assclown. And can we stop calling him "The voice of the WWE" like he earned something? He didn't earn crap, he only got to where he is now because JR hung it up and Joey Styles didn't want to do commentary anymore. I'm not gonna make a Mark Madden or Don West comparison with Cole because even if I said one was better than the other, it's like moving dog crap from the front yard to the back yard: it still stinks.

Since when does being the heel mean having to annoy to the point where it makes people change the channel? I didn't get that with Vickie Guerrero and I don't get it with Cole. It's one thing if he was on just one show, but you have him on every single stupid show and PPV all year!!!!!! The only time in years where I felt I could enjoy watching Raw was when Cole got an RKO and they put Matthews with King. Honestly, Raw was a lot better without Cole. And then when you had Punk in the mix, it was a mess. One point he's the heel announcer, the next he's siding with King and both of them are telling Cole to shut up. Why does there have to be a heel and face announcer anymore anyway? Just call the stupid match. Nobody tunes in to see Michael Cole flapping his gums. He calls himself a journalist, that douche bag looks like half a butt-puppet. He's a journalist? Yeah right and TMZ is the Wall Street fricking Journal. He does generate a reaction though: He makes people wanna grab the remote. You wanna change the announce teams on the shows: I say get rid of Cole. Edge had it right where I would rather listen to pre-recordings of JR than hear anymore ramblings of Michael Ass-Cole

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

There is only one man who has the mic skills, the clear voice and intelligence to do this job


SCOTT STEINER

Vince, sign this man up. It will turn out that 80% of the WWE roster is a redneck