Vince Reportedly "Furious" with Byron Saxton

[OYDK]

Not much to note here, that the title doesn't already point out.

If you missed Raw on Monday, than you missed Brock Lesnar run roughshod on the entire commentary team and an INNOCENT CAMERAMAN BY GAWD. JBL, Booker, and Cole were each taken out relatively early on, and none other than a seemingly shell-shocked Byron Saxton was sent out their on his own to call the remainder of the biggest RAW of the year, in a sink-or-swim scenario... he sunk. I don't think anybody can disagree that Byron seemed very uncomfortable and disorganized at the time, but you really got to feel for the guy. I mean, it was his first Raw as a broadcaster and he was thrown in there in the middle of the night, on the biggest night, by himself. That being said, WWE has always had a "baptism by fire" frame of mind, and if you can't step up to the plate in a pressure filled scenario, than you're not going to go very far with Vince... ignorant? Maybe, but that's Vince Mcmahon. He's not asking anybody to do what he hasn't done already.

Still, not many people would have been able to pull that off and you have to give props to Byron for trying, but it seems his career may take a hit. The exact words in the report were, "both Vince and Kevin Dunn reportedly feel that when Saxton was given a major oppurtunity, he did not "grab the brass ring." I mean honestly, people can call this cruel by WWE but it DOES take a special person to be able to do the commentary job and do it well, and obviously Byron couldn't pull it off this time.

Don't really have a question to ask here... just discuss if you're interested.

 

[Navi]

I felt sorry for Saxton. Lesnar had just destroyed the announce team and there he was standing in the middle of all the rubble. Honestly I can't remember what he did that night, whether he was good or not, all I know is all of a sudden there was Lawler standing there helping him out.

What might have helped, is the last we saw of Booker he was under the announce table, and they never bothered to even stand it up properly, so Saxton and Lawler had to stand and do the commentary. I kept wondering if Booker was still under the table, or if Lawler was standing on him.

It was a great segment by Lesnar, but not very well thought out by the WWE in the aftermath of everything that happened. It's hard to go from 3 experienced people calling the commentary, to one new one in the space of less than 5 minutes.

 

[Prince Vee]

Yeah I too feel sorry for that guy. But when I read the report about Vince furious with Bryan Saxton this is the first thing that I remembered. Well, Michael Cole recently for an interview said that he'll be hearing Vince throughout the show in his ears and also there will be a social media team giving them details about Twitter and Facebook trending topics and there will be another broadcast group informing some miscellaneous data. So as a Commentator he gotta listen to all these three data and also should give a running commentary about what's happening in the ring. No surprises that Bryan Saxton got nervous and uncomfortable at the first place and that too in front a very hostile crowd! Gotta feel for that guy....

 

[Stone Cold Tea]

I do feel for the guy yes. The thing is though he must have known he was going to be in there yet he seemed very unprepared.

At the first when he came I thought he was selling shock. But it just dragged on and on. I would imagine he was getting slaughtered on social media. For me his voice was so boring it took away from the excitement.

It's a shame he has missed this current opportunity. I imagine there will be others. He got chucked into a sink or swim and he sank hard. With Vince reportedly high on Renee Young maybe she will get the gig one day. It would be a shame though if the opportunity is lost because he failed on the biggest Raw of the year with no monitors, partner and everybody screaming down his ear. He did improve when Jerry Lawler came out.

 

[Mustang Sally]

It's a shame he has missed this current opportunity. I imagine there will be others.

Yeah, but the "others" might come in junior high school gyms in West Virginia, working for an independent wrestling company.

Actually, when I think of it, I can't remember anyone who was summarily fired by Vince McMahon immediately following a poor performance; either a wrestler or backstage worker.....although, for the latter, I would hate to think McMahon himself is watching the work performance of the guy who tightens the ring ropes. Then again.......

Still, recalling Mick Foley's remarks about being on-camera in an announcer's position while Vince is screaming at him through the headset reminds me of Michael Cole's statements about same......and given we read that Vince is in a perpetual state of rage because he demands perfection in a form of entertainment in which perfection is impossible, I'm mighty glad I don't work for Vince McMahon.

Maybe Byron Saxton looked so confused out there because McMahon was hollering at him the moment we were watching. What does a new employee concern himself with at that moment, the millions (and millions) of folks to whom he's broadcasting......or the voice of the person who can fire him on a whim?

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

Honestly, I'm starting to question the validity of these constant stream of reports. Over the last few weeks we have heard that Vince is mad at AJ for her social media comments to Stephanie; mad at Shawn Michaels for using the words 'strap' and 'wrestler' (largely in a historical, quoting context, it must be added) the night before WRESTLEmania; mad at Diesel and Madusa for putting over WCW (by proxy) in their HoF interviews despite both of them spending longer in WCW than WWE, and both were WCW BEFORE WWE; and now this.

Whilst I'm sure Vince is a perfectionist are pretty on the money, and I'm sure he wishes WWE was as popular as it was during the Attitude Era, he's also quite old school. And there's an old adage, "there's no such thing as bad publicity" - or, to put it a different way (thanks Bischoff), "controversy creates cash". So while he may have initially been disappointed in AJ's tweet, he probably saw the reaction on social media and saw $$$ (honestly, how often in his long career has he gone against the wishes of the fans, long term?)

I doubt anyone can be so narrow-minded as to induct people into a Hall of Fame but expect them to only mention the two year stretch of their 20+ year career that they had in WWE - especially as only one inductee (Rikishi) this year was signed to WWE longer than any other company. Regarding the key words he was allegedly upset with from Michaels, again, I fail to see how the one non-kayfabe night of the year can be subjected to his regular tv rules - and the HoF is largely that, non-kayfabe.

Finally, I do believe Vince was disappointed in Saxton's performance. I DO NOT believe he was furious. There is NO WAY that Vince would send a new guy out on the biggest Raw of the year to do that particular job and NOT have a contingency plan. Likely he planned to have Saxton replace Cole for a few weeks, to give him the same experience Cole got in 1999 (when Cole was universally hated by the fans) after Jim Ross fell ill, but after that performance, realised Saxton still needed work in NXT so has brought back Cole already. But I highly doubt Vince was furious - especially since Vince worked as a commentator (a poor one at that) for many years himself, so knows better than anyone the pressures of the job.

I don't know why people would embellish these stories, or who 'reveals' them, but logic dictates that most (if not all) are amplified versions of what actually happened. Vince didn't become a one-time billionaire by making rash decisions and getting angry the first time something didn't go to plan, after all...

 

[Just Do It]

Wait, I thought he was just acting shocked etc, selling the scenario? I've seen Meltzer confirm that Vince was angry on Twitter. He is great elsewhere, I wonder if he was just out of his element being micro managed on headset?

 

[gooseholla]

I remember a long time ago a TV presenter called Louis Theroux doing a program about TV shopping. He is brilliant in what he does but the moment he was on live TV having to talk about a product and have someone shouting info in his ear he was awful. So it can happen to the best of people. The only way to do that kind of thing is to have been part of a 2 or 3 man team for a while... else it is going to be disaster.

 

[Pedigree1]

Most definitely I feel for Saxton I thought it wasn't right just to throw him into the fire without warning but it is what it is i suppose.. Its pretty easy for Vince to say "I have been there myself i expect no less from you guys" No Shit you own the company cant exactly fire yourself!

Anyway under the circumstances I thought yes Bryon was a bit confused but handled himself the best he could have.. Not an easy thing to do,when you have a maniac screaming at you inside a headset without proper warning on the biggest MNR of the year.. I say good job Bryon

 

[Spidey Revivey]

Hey guys, I have this great idea. Let's have Brock Lesnar just destroy the announce table and everyone that sits at it. Then we'll let this one guy come in, stand all awkwardly by it, and commentate all by himself. Doesn't that sound amazing?

Jesus. If this is all true (which I doubt, because it makes no goddamn sense), then Vince is mad at Byron because Byron was following his orders. As if one guy could keep the tables alive that wasn't named Joey Styles. Why they didn't bring in Lawler since the beginning and grab a few chairs while they were at it is anyone else's guess.

All in all I thought Byron Saxton was more bearable to listen to than Cole, JBL, and Booker honestly. He sounded like he was a genuine fish out of water due to Lesnar's destruction and I thought he was selling the overall shock of being tossed into a position he wasn't ready for. I may be in the minority, but I thought it went over well for as long as it lasted and was refreshing to have somebody talk about something that wasn't related to pop culture. If Vince didn't like it, then he has himself to blame.

 

[SinCityBlitz]

If Vince was mad nearly as much as they say he is he would be dead already.

Saxton did an okay job considering he basically got thrown to the wolves. I don't know what anyone really expected.

I would last 30 seconds listening to Vince scream at me in the headset before I told him to take his job and shove it up his ass.

 

[chicagokmc]

assuming the report is true, wwe should blame themselves and not saxton. at minimum announcing raw is a 2 person job. since lawler was already there and saxton is a newer, less experienced wwe commentator, they should have brought both out there together as soon as the lesnar segment ended so that they could play off of each other and seem less disorganized. secondly, they should have put the lesnar/rollins segment closer to the end of the show. that would have given minimal tv exposure to saxton as a commentator.

 

[MartialHorror]

I'm not a Byran fan as I find him too be so bland, whereas the others- even if it's because they can be annoying- tend to stand out. However, I didn't mind his execution on RAW because he should sound uncomfortable and awkward. The announcers were injured badly enough to be off TV for a week, so he should act shaken up.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

At the time, I had been thinking to myself "I'm sure this was all spur of the moment but this guy REALLY sucks!" Even if he wasn't prepared, he sounded as if he had no enthusiasm at all. I figured it must've sent McMahon through the roof.

 

[Mudlup50]

Come on Vince, I've never heard one commentator who was skilled enough to pull off an interesting show alone. Ross needed Lawler for goodness sake. I thought it was silly that it happened so early in the show, you'd imagine the Wrestling company that's been around on TV weekly for what 25 years, could figure out we might need to push this segment back to the 2 hour main event slot. I feel bad for this guy and I think it was insanely stupid being as you have Lawler, you have Renee Young, Alex Riley and you have Corey Graves who I thought did a good job on the Wrestlemania preshow. Yet this poor guy gets sent out there alone, which was fine for a little bit but then it was a constant reminder about what happened for the whole night.

This is proof that Vince can be an idiot at times just like the rest of us, love his company but how in the world could you think this was going to work out well? You could have paid Jim Ross to come back for one night only, the crowd would have ate it up! Shame on Vince, hopefully Byron gets another shot to impress Vince when he isn't the only one at the announce table

 

[OYDK]

As expected, reports seemed to be exaggerated. Byron Saxton was out there as the lead man in the booth last night, and did much better given some preparation time and help.

 

[MCMG]

He was definitely better than last week. He still isn't perfect and I much prefer him as a colour commentator. Some of his stuff as the typical heel commentator on Smackdown has actually been pretty good. It helps he is clearly an intelligent guy. If I'm honest, Tom Phillips should have been doing commentary seeing as he has previous in the role. Plus he's done live shows at NXT.

Byron probably isn't the future main announcer but at least he was given a chance. For what it's worth, I'm a massive Michael Cole fan. I think he is incredible at what he does and Byron has helped prove how difficult a job it is. If I want someone calling the action in the ring then Jim Ross will always be my guy but Cole is arguably the best commentator the WWE have ever had.

 

[SoulTrain4]

They hate him so much they brought him back this week. Lol dirtsheets stay lying to people.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

The issue isn't whether Bryon "grabbed a brass ring" imaginary or not, but more that NO young commentator can ever truly be ready with "Cranky Vince" in their ear. The guys in that booth normally have had a LONG time getting used to how Vince operates and all were horrible at the beginning. JBL has improved by throwing in his "pop culture/sporting" references like "he got knocked out like Wayne Rooney", most US fans wouldn't know that the hell that meant but those fans who did, get it... it makes JBL seem knowledgeable and more like a "sportscaster" than a color commentator. Booker likewise was horrid for a long time and Cole literally took years of working with JR and Jerry to get a comfort zone and ease... he too was in Saxton's shoes more than once, being promoted, relegated to Heat etc...

In recent years they've gone through a multitude of PBP guys, even Joey Styles and guys with outside experience like Mike Adamle... Styles many considered the most naturally gifted of all time...Adamle was put in postitions he wasn't ready for when he hadn't had time to even get used to the business and god knows how many color men from Ted DiBiase through Heyman to Mick Foley, who famously quit cos of how Vince does things.

Throwing Saxton in at the deep end was never gonna work, it was an unfair test of the kid and someone like Trips will know that. If Vince is "furious" then it'd soon be pointed out that he can't expect people to "just get it" that quickly... if he was good enough to do that, he'd ALREADY be doing it after all, Trips would also be pointing out that Saxton was a wrestler transitioning to this new role, not a natural PBP guy... so while Vince might expect a lot, these things take many years to learn.

The reality is that no one is "good enough" for Vince yet he gave up the booth himself cos he felt "he wasn't good enough" at it... That's mainly why JR has had so many issues, Vince hated what he was doing but couldn't do it better himself... with others he feels he can, so he gets on that headset to the point where Trips had to almost forcibly step in to that role as they were losing announcers left and right.

To be honest, I can see this all going one of 2 ways. It may be a way to transition Cole and Lawler out altogether... both are coming up on that window where Vince likes to "get rid" of staff... Cole 20 years and Jerry 22... They have Renee who offers an alternative and most likely they have a good "in" with ESPN now... it's not stupid to think that Jonathan Coachman might head back to RAW, either "on loan" or as an extra gig, especially if Brock and Ronda are on the same bill at any point.

Till then like it or not he has to make do with Saxon or stick with the older guys... if you rush a Renee or Corey Graves up, however good their potential, you can kill it... and it's clear Regal isn't getting put in that spot any time soon.