IC25's New Article - The Hypocrisy of Bryan, Cole, and Jericho

[IrishCanadian25]

http://www.wrestlezone.com/editorials/article/the-hypocrisy-of-bryan-cole-and-jericho-112575​

Before I explain the title of this peice, I want to clarify something that a few readers of my last editorial (Young Stars Have Arrived...) had popped on to the forums to challenge me on. My spelling of Seamus. A few people accused me of spelling it wrong. Others simply asked me the reason, since there is a pattern. Well, folks, the fact is that the actual celtic spelling of the name is Seamus. Though "Sheamus" may be acceptable, I prefer to go the classic route. My ancestors weren't sitting around pounding Guinness and building the Emerald Isle with a bunch of h's in their names. Besides - Seamus took 3 H's out of the WWE picture (Triple H), so we can afford to lose one more.

Nomenclature soapbox aside, is anyone else completely riveted by the Daniel Bryan angles on Raw lately? And even one step further than that, how his presence has helped boost both The Miz and Michael Cole? The smark in me looks at this as a well-booked angle to advance the business. The wrestling fan in me (who still is able to suspend disbelief and pretend that wrestling is real a few nights each week) is really annoyed by Michael Cole and cannot wait for this battle to leave the arena of backhanded comments and enter a deeper realm.

Michael Cole calls Daniel Bryan a kid who kicked around the indy circut for 10 years. He speaks about "the indy's" like it's some sort of a disease. Funny enough, to me, this is a direct parallel to the praise that one Chris Jericho gets for being "the last great wrestler to go through the territory system." Jericho started his career as an 18-year old kid in some of the remaining Canadian wrestling territories just before the entire territory system was swallowed up by Michael Cole's boss - Vince McMahon. Wrestlers and fans LOVE the fact that Jericho worked his way up to the WWE the old-fashioned way; territory to territory, territory to ECW, ECW to WCW, and finally to the 'big leagues' of the WWE. It's a far cry from the movie stars with muscles and realtiy-show champions who earn big money contracts these days. The Miz didn't have to live out of an old car for months on end the way Mick Foley did. Wade Barrett didn't go through multiple bankrupcies the way the great JJ Dillon has. Jericho is the last of the "hard knocks" guys, and he is respected and praised for it.

What's a kid like Bryan to do in the post-apocalyptic professional wrestling world? Gone are the territories like Mid-South Wrestling or Smokey Mountain. There are tiny promotions operating out of police athletic league buildings and VFW's, and then there are solid indy promotions like ROH. Truth is, Ring of Honor was Daniel Bryan's territory system, and to lambaste him while praising Jericho for essentially the same thing is hypocrisy.

Now clearly, this accusation of hypocrisy exists only in the kayfabe world. WWE must be really high on Daniel Bryan for them to give him the "fired / big return" treatment, the to place him in a major weekly program on Raw and even put the US Title on him. But as I slip past the blurred line between "smark" and "fan," I find myself furious at Michael Cole for being such a hypocrite towards Daniel Bryan. That's part of what is so great about this entire angle and where it may be going.

Chris Fitzpatrick - "IrishCanadian25"

Forums Moderator

 

[Jack-Hammer]

For possibly the first time I can remember, I actually find Michael Cole to be stimulating right now. There has been a very noticable shortage of credible heel announcing in wrestling for a long time now and Michal Cole is doing something that is unique in the history of heel announcing: He's using the fact that he might be the single most hated wrestling commentator this decade and is embracing it.

Michael Cole has often been called a poor man's Jim Ross and that's always going to be true unless Michael Cole is able to break out and actually establish himself as something more than just the guy that will never be as good as JR. Cole's harsh words towards Daniel Bryan and the indy scene in general are helping Cole immensely to get over as a heel commentator. Cole's hypocrisy, kayfabe wise, allows him to exploit an avenue that a WWE heel hasn't really gone down before. When I hear Cole's hateful comments of Daniel Bryan, Kaval and the indy scene in general, Cole does a good job in making me suspend disbelief and I'm able to fully believe everything he says. It's his tone when he says it, it's the pitch of his voice when he insults someone, it's the look on his face when he's doing it.

I look for the backhanded comments to continue for a little while longer. If you listen to Cole's comments and seen his behavior on NXT the past few weeks, the WWE is basically right at the edge of having Cole simply become a fully fledged heel commentator, and that's something they haven't had in a long time. I like where things are right now, I love the whole thing with Bryan, The Miz & Cole and I'm just really anxious to see where this goes. This angle in general seems to feel extremely personal and I hope that WWE Creative might be able to take some of what's going on here and apply it to other feuds in the future.

 

[Davi323]

I get the feeling that your attitude is precisely what the WWE wants it's fans to think. We are supposed to feel that there is nothing wrong with the Indys, that Michael Cole is wrong to mock Daniel Bryan Danielson and Kaval for going that route. This was a great way to get Michael Cole to become a full fledged heel announcer. He picks on the little guy, we hate him for it, because we know that not all the great ones come immediately to the "big leagues".

We see football players from tiny little FCS and Div II schools make in the NFL, they don't all come from BCS conferences. We see them come from the CFL, AFL, etc too. We, as Americans, ADORE the little guy makes good story. We are suckers for it. Its part of our culture to want to root for the plucky kid who works his ass off and eventually gets to see that hard work pay off. Underdogs are very American. We all know that Daniel Bryan Danielson is the clear hero of the story, and that Cole is the clear villain.

How does Chris Jericho fit in? Because how else do you even further establish Cole as the villain, other than his berating wrestlers from the Indies? Simple. Add a layer of hypocrisy to him. Cole praising Jericho while mocking DBD for his path to the WWE is pure psychology, to get us, the fans to fully support DBD. Its clear that Cole berating DBD and Kaval for working in the Indies isn't a WWE prejudice, as you point out, obviously they are high on Danielson to make him the US champion, and to have him do it before the actual winner of NXT, Wade Barrett gets his first gold. Michael Cole's hatred of Indies is not reflective of the WWE's position, but merely part of the storyline...hopefully a storyline that ends with Michael Cole being subjected to Cattle Mutilation.

 

[killerd105]

Well technically Michael Cole is a heel and being a hypocrite is a heels job. Look at Y2J, he says hers the best in the world and losing all his matches. Same Sheamus and Edge and all these other heels out there now. So in my opinion as a heel commentator you have to suck up to the heels in the industry.

 

[CraigThe13th]

Can't fault anything you say about the hypocrisy of Jericho being lauded for going the territory way and Bryan being insulted by Cole for it, or anything else in your column it is a good read. But I must say I feel you are being pedantic over the spelling of Sheamus.

Yes it's true the actual name Seamus is spelt like that, but the character has a H in his name in the WWE, it's been americanized (if that is a word?) for the North Americans, I actually am Irish not just of descent and this does not bother me one bit. Guess it's your choice how to spell it.

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

I'm interested to see if this Miz/Bryan fued goes any further and how, and to see if it's going to benefit Alex Riley in the long term as well but it does nothing to make me pay more attention when Michael Cole is speaking.

I've hated listening to him for the past 11 years now, just because he's slagging off the little leagues does not make me want to listen to him anymore than i did before. I've seen 2 separate PPVs now where he's berated Daniel Bryan for nothing and praised the Miz for things that he was criticizing others for in the previous match. It simply makes me want to put the mute on my TV during Miz/Bryan matches.

If it were ANYONE else, even fuckin' Adamle or Coach (two other announcers i truly hated), i might be more inclined to give a shit, but the boat has sailed, leaked and sunk on me ever being 'interested' in Michael Cole.

Now, i don't watch weekly WWE TV, i literally only watch the PPVs. Has Miz himself actually acknowledged Cole's ring licking and approved of it? Because if he hasn't, then Cole isn't even part of this story at all like some of you claim. He's just this annoying whiny voice in the background while you're trying to focus on the fued in the ring.

If he has, then fine, Cole IS part of the angle, but still yeah, not doing anything for me personally.

As for the hypocrisy of it all, heels are supposed to be liars and hypocrites, otherwise surely Jericho should have packed his bags and left by now shouldn't he?

What annoys me, is seeminlgy, Cole has some sort of werewolf syndrome where he's face 90% of the time, but if he sees someone from the Indys or The Miz, he turns into a heel. ONE OR THE OTHER, NOT BOTH DAMMIT!

 

[Ferbian]

I think the thing is though, that WWE have gone into a period of time where they don't acknowledge the independent scene, or the place where people came from to eventually become WWE superstars. And I really can't blame them, because looking at Chris Jericho, he was on a major weekly television show in WCW, and a decently sized promotion in ECW with somewhat exposure. Due to all of this, WWE couldn't ignore the past of Chris Jericho, but they can now play off the indy position of Bryan Danielson because he's nowhere near as exposed as Chris Jericho was.

Besides, we're out of the era where territorial wrestling and character development is dead, or nearly gone to waste. It's hard to acknowledge someone for being from numerous independent wrestling promotions, when half of them aren't publically exposed due to the fact that the ties that bound them together in NWA, is pretty much dead as well.

Also, I think that due to the fact that Michael Cole constantly racks down on Bryan Danielson is due to the fact that a lot of fans can relate to Bryan's situation. We've all fought, scratched and clawed our way to reach the top of a company, a specific job department etc. And so has Bryan. Michael Cole is the kind of "You'll never make it here" bully that we all know as well. It's putting two roles on both of them, that we all can relate to, and it helps both get over in their respected roles.

And of course, you can't discredit the fact that WWE won't have Michael Cole discredit Chris Jericho for example, considering the fact that he's a big star, and most importantly - He's a heel. He's the guy that Michael pretty much supports, where as Bryan is the good guy, the face that Michael has to discredit and hate.

And to end it off. Really, why Chris Jericho IC? Why not CM Punk? CM Punk's difference to Bryan Danielson is ONLY the amount of years he was featured in the independent scene. CM Punk have pretty much gone through all of the things Bryan has, in terms of independent promotions in front of 20-30 people, and eventually making it "big" in Ring of Honor, only to get contracted by WWE.