I miss Don West

[a0161613]

It is very sad when Don West is held up in such esteem. Taz is a better fit for the product with more experience in his left bum cheek, that means he was more relevant also. I don't dislike hearing him talk about matches.

West had an orgasm down the mic everytime something "dramatic" happened and being TNA, that drama was regular as my bedtime. And don't get me started on his reactions to the X Division. OMG....

 

[Mitch Henessey]

I did enjoy West as a heel commentator. I loved the constant arguments between him and Mike Tenay, and the moment where West turned was just done so well:

[YOUTUBE]zIn0GchsGo8[/YOUTUBE]​

West as a heel could be pretty enjoyable at times, but I thought he was atrocious as a face commentator. His frantic style of calling matches used to drive me crazy. I couldn't even understand what he was saying half of the time. Tazz isn't what he used to be when it comes to commentary, but he's a suitable replacement for West. So I really don't miss Don West. It's not like he was that great anyway.

 

[Rayne]

I prefer Taz to Don West, and here's why:

Taz has passion for the profession that literally oozes from him. There's nothing faked about his enthusiasm for the industry; I can't see Don West getting in a ring and telling the doubters to screw off, right as a pay-per-view opened by people who hadn't been on pay-per-view for years kicked off. At least, not with any kind of sincerity. Taz quite clearly loves the business, and that can cover up for a lot of other failings on the microphone.

Don West, on the other hand, always seemed like he was forcing the enthusiasm somewhat; as if he was enthusiastic because the script called for it. He was getting better as a heel commentator, but "getting better" isn't always enough to keep your job.

Taz isn't the announcer he was in the WWE, however. Production managed to keep him reined in when he needed to be reined in; a lot of the time, he isn't informative, funny, and he fails to add much to the broadcast.

I don't think the main problem with the announcing in TNA is the broadcast staff; I think they need a better job in production. Maybe, Taz, Mick, just maybe you needed those voices in your ear telling you what to say.

 

[Vintage]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. TNA didn't need to replace Don West. They didn't need to do anything with the announce team, they had a good thing going at the time. If anything, they should have done something different and went with a 3man team and played to each others strengths and weaknesses.

Taz seems to be hard to work with, hearing him on Xplosion with JB is just painful. Now, JB is just terribad but the fact that Taz points it out in plain english makes it worse.

His chemistry with Tenay is shaky at best, he'd actually probably get a long a lot more with the heel west character. Don is everything that Tenay isn't and I think that Taz needs to work with someone who can shut him up every now and again.

 

[Alex]

I just loved the guys enthuasium. He was fairly shit commentating but the way he acted made you want to watch the match. Taz just seems bored and doesn't make the matches as interesting, if Taz had some sort of enthuasism that would be good.

 

[theapexpredator222]

From Commentary to sales he should stay in sales. I personally never favored his commentary primarily because they're are so many better ones, but as for TNA I wish he would replace Taz because simply Taz is never very ardent on the mic were Don West almost goes into a cardiac arrest (Kinda Like Flair) on the mic which is amusing at times but as commentary goes for TNA get some new people. Tenay I never really cared for either but he's sure significantly better than Taz

 

[Slyfox696]

What's sad is that I was a Don West fan back when he was the most hated commentator in wrestling. I said all along many of the same things people in this thread are saying now. And, moreover, I was saying years ago that Taz was fucking awful on commentary.

How come nobody listens to me sooner? Especially since I'm always right?

 

[KBUnitz]

Don West got promoted to merchandising or something up in the business department.

Does Tazz piss me off? No, do I care much for the color commentator? Not really. Between some of the other color commentators, I'd say Tazz is way better than Lawler, he's way better than Coachman, my point is that Tazz isn't a bad commentator, just not as good as Don West. If anybody watches Xplosion, Tazz has been the play-by-play announcer, and Jeremy Borash, aka JB, has been commentating, watch Xplosion, and that's the ultimate snore fest.