I can't stand Mark Madden (WCW commentary)

[wrestlefan01]

I'm sitting through WCW 2000 on the Network. I never really kept up with Nitro in the day. I was solely a Raw viewer back then

Honestly, I'm actually enjoying what I'm watching. It's a billion times better than WWE post-2015. The only thing I'm finding unbearable is Mark Madden's commentary, especially during The New Blood/Millionaires Club angle. His voice is completely cringe that not even Tony Schiavone can carry this geek. I'm finding his shots at the babyfaces and veterans like Hogan, Nash, DDP and Flair to be unwatchable. It feels like they somehow got a fat, neckbeard smark and decided to just put him on commentary. I thought it was lame how he called it pro-wrestling and gave it a 'real' sport label when everybody knew it was fake.

I can't sit through the rest of Nitro and listen to his try-hard attempt at being cool. He just yells over the promos and matches until he loses breath. It can't just be me, who can't stand listening to him.

 

[ilapierre]

You are not alone. I've never heard of one person who ever enjoyed listening to Mark Madden. At one time about a decade ago Madden used to have a weekly column uploaded to this site. It was always twice as bad as his WCW 2000 commentary.

 

[supertanno]

I personally always really enjoyed his columns, not sure why but I did. His commentary was absolute shit, though. Couldn't call a match to save his life.

 

[Garak]

Madden was terrible. Whoever came up with the idea to have Madden usurp Heenan's heel heat should have his name forever vilified in professional wrestling. Considering it was probably Bischoff's doing, I guess that's already happened.

 

[Garak]

I personally always really enjoyed his columns, not sure why but I did.

Yes, his columns were significantly better than his commentary. Then again, it would have been hard to do worse.

 

[Bernard de Hattrix]

Mark Madden deserves to choke to death on something sharp just for coining the term "spinnerooni." Or at least be placed alongside Rob Bartlett, Mike Adamle, Lord Alfred Hays and David Crockett in the purgatory of worthless commentators that make you want to drive an icepick into your inner ear canal.

 

[GoochOwnsYou]

I was a WCW guy to the very end and and yes, Mark Madden was terrible on commentary.

 

[SwanSong]

I don't think you will find anybody that will argue with you that Mark Madden is one of, if not THE, worst commentators to ever appear on a major wrestling show but I have to disagree with you on one thing.

It's a billion times better than WWE post-2015.

I don't know what you specifically look for in your wrestling but if it is the actual wrestling then I don't see how there is any comparison between WWE's current product and WCW (and even WWE from this time period). I have been a WWE fan since the 80's and today's product might not be the best creatively (although it is FAR from the worst), but it is light years ahead of anything from the late 90's/early 00's when it comes to in ring work and honestly whenever I pop on an old PPV from that time period the storylines (esp in the Russo era of WCW) are so cringy it is hard to watch. Anytime somebody says that today's product sucks I have to raise an eyebrow because with the sheer amount of content WWE produces on a weekly basis (Raw, Smackdown Live, 205 Live, NXT, NXT UK) I legitimately can't imagine there isn't A show for you.

 

[SwanSong]

Madden was terrible. Whoever came up with the idea to have Madden usurp Heenan's heel heat should have his name forever vilified in professional wrestling.

Let me start by quickly saying that there is NO comparison between Bobby Heenan (arguably the greatest heel commentator ever) and Mark Madden (the undisputed worst heel commentator ever).

But as great as Bobby Heenan was for the vast majority of his career, he was no longer the Bobby Heenan we all loved by the year 2000.

The sad truth is that all performers, even broadcasters, have a shelf life and have to be moved out to pasture at some point and make room for new talent. Bobby admitted in all three of his books that WCW was literally nothing more than a paycheck by the end of his run and it was clear on tv. His passion for the product was visably gone whenever you listened to him commentate during that time period. His disillusionment with WCW as a whole and his failing health sadly made the decision to replace him an easy one and one you can't blame Bischoff or Schiavone or Russo for. It was the right decision for the product.

I don't think it is fair to say "WCW took Heenan off tv so the could replace him with Mark Madden". That just isn't true. I think it is infinitely more accurate to say "WCW needed to get rid of Heenan and Mark Madden just happened to be next in line for the job."

 

[Garak]

In the other commentary thread, I addressed that, just for reference. Everyone phoned in their job at WCW by that point, and I don't blame them.

 

[wrestlefan01]

I don't think you will find anybody that will argue with you that Mark Madden is one of, if not THE, worst commentators to ever appear on a major wrestling show but I have to disagree with you on one thing.



I don't know what you specifically look for in your wrestling but if it is the actual wrestling then I don't see how there is any comparison between WWE's current product and WCW (and even WWE from this time period). I have been a WWE fan since the 80's and today's product might not be the best creatively (although it is FAR from the worst), but it is light years ahead of anything from the late 90's/early 00's when it comes to in ring work and honestly whenever I pop on an old PPV from that time period the storylines (esp in the Russo era of WCW) are so cringy it is hard to watch. Anytime somebody says that today's product sucks I have to raise an eyebrow because with the sheer amount of content WWE produces on a weekly basis (Raw, Smackdown Live, 205 Live, NXT, NXT UK) I legitimately can't imagine there isn't A show for you.

I'm talking about entertainment. They were trying to be entertaining and in most cases they were. There were still actual storylines and it wasn't meaningless matches with little to no purpose behind them. There was still starpower and wrestlers looked like stars and were larger-than-life. Fans were still into the shows and weren't trying to be the show. There's a difference between the two.

I would rather be entertained with 'crap' matches than bored with 'good' ones.

 

[WhiteWolf]

I'm sitting through WCW 2000 on the Network. I never really kept up with Nitro in the day. I was solely a Raw viewer back then

Honestly, I'm actually enjoying what I'm watching. It's a billion times better than WWE post-2015. The only thing I'm finding unbearable is Mark Madden's commentary, especially during The New Blood/Millionaires Club angle. His voice is completely cringe that not even Tony Schiavone can carry this geek. I'm finding his shots at the babyfaces and veterans like Hogan, Nash, DDP and Flair to be unwatchable. It feels like they somehow got a fat, neckbeard smark and decided to just put him on commentary. I thought it was lame how he called it pro-wrestling and gave it a 'real' sport label when everybody knew it was fake.

I can't sit through the rest of Nitro and listen to his try-hard attempt at being cool. He just yells over the promos and matches until he loses breath. It can't just be me, who can't stand listening to him.

 

[WhiteWolf]

I agree. They always rag on David Crockett being bad, but he was Gordon Solie compared to Maddon. Bobby Heenan with a head cold is a thousand times better than that goof.

 

[enviousdominous]

Is this the "We Hate Mark Madden" club? Good, because I hate him too! Not really, more like I just plain don't like the dude.

He was hated on ever since he debuted, and seems to have taken the ire in stride. He wasn't even a heel commentator back then, he was just an over-excitable fat dude who had the unenviable job of trying to turn whatever the fuck WCW turned into during the mid to late 1990's into something interesting.

It was a weird dynamic. Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay, and Larry Zbyszko all played straight men to his wacky idiot act. When Muta and Vampiro decided to team up as a Juggalo tag team (yeah, that happened) it was Mark shrieking "BROTHERS IN PAINT! BROTHERS IN PAINT!" that was the only endorsement that tag team ever received.

I remember when WCW was filming Ready to Rumble, and instead of wrestling on Nitro they just aired Tony and Mark sitting in an empty studio and recalling past angles like a couple of kids waiting for a school bus. Tony got to be all calm and cool, while Mark would bounce up and down and act as if he was reliving the events as they talked about them and also really had to take a big shit.

Then there was one of the WWA shows, where Mark was apparently brought in just to throw out horrible wise-cracks during a wrestling match between two little people.

From what I saw, Mark was trying harder to be a combination of Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross than he was trying to be a viable replacement for Bobby Heenan.

His writing isn't bad. He railed hard against Nancy Grace and CNN when they falsely claimed that Owen Hart died of a drug overdose during the controversy over Chris Benoit's actions, which was righteous and I'll give him that he was spot on for that article. Plus, for a guy who makes lots of cracks about women's bodies in his podcasts, he's been oddly easy to offend when he sees what he believes is evidence of abuse of female wrestlers.