There are a lot of good posts in this thread. I agree with those who do not like Michael Cole. His commentary more times than not just doesn't seem natural. His best days in my opinion were when he was with JBL, because JBL wasn't afraid to call him out on his stupidity on the air. JBL would say remarks that Michael Cole HAD to give a natural response to, which gave Cole some character...which I feel he doesn't have anymore.
Cole isn't believable nowadays and I think he needs to go back to Smackdown or even ECW. He is not RAW material.
I didn't mind Cole until he moved to RAW. This is when I became annoyed with him, but I think it is partly due to him having awful chemistry with the King (hopefully Vince corrects this at the draft). Listen to his commentary at No Way Out. The match that comes to mind the most here is the Orton vs Shane match. Now the match wasn't that bad, but Cole and King had so many moments of just empty space, and I just couldn't get into the match at all.
On a side note - I don't think pairing him up with Tazz would be wise. Tazz is a studdering, bumbling fool now and quite simply annoys me. I think he should be a heel manager on the level of Jimmy Hart or Bobby Heenan, but as color commentary he is just not entertaining. Also yeah JR is past his prime, but his decline I think is due more to him missing the King and being on Smackdown, not because he is "losing it". Make King a heel, pair him with JR have them call the main event at 'Mania and you'll see the old JR in a flash.
Here are my suggestions for the WWE if they really care about commentary (which I do):
RAW: JR and a Heel King
Smackdown: Cole and a Heel JBL
ECW: Joey Styles and a Heel Striker
We need our color commentators to be full fledged heels.
