Whats with the King and all WWE commentary

[Rated_R_Superstar2010]

im watching superstars right now and katie lee cut a promo about being psychic. kind and cole said something about reading minds. king then said to cole "i tried to read your mind once but the print was too small"

what?

is that supposed to be a joke? it doesnt even make sence.

so i have to ask how bad is the wwe commentating?

 

[1C3-M4N]

I'm not sure if it's always been happening buy recently King has been messing up a lot. In the WWE tag title match with ShowMiz, SES, and defending DX it went to a commercial and King said something like "we'll find out who the new champions are when we come back" implying that DX was going to lose before it happened on live TV. Another time was maybe two or 3 weeks ago Santino was coming out and clearly wearing a Cobra shirt and king called it the scorpion. These are times I've noticed them screwing up. But the insults are terrible when the announcers make fun of each other. This week on NXT Michael Cole was making fun of Josh Matthews cause his hair was a little long. Come on guys be more professional.

 

[Syborgg]

You guys realize the immense pressure these guys are under right? I mean they have Vince and other production people talking into their headsets all the time. Telling them how to act, who to put over at what times, etc. I'm not sure when it all started to be like that, but I've read some of J.R.'s blogs and he mentions it from time to time. The stupid part is they are told not to really "call" the match move for move anymore. In my opinion if there's 2 superstars in the ring, they deserve most of the attention if not all of it. Although I think there's a fine line between what WWE does and Mike Tenay going ape on TNA over every move by every guy.

 

[Big Nick Dudley]

WWE commentary is garbage, has been for quite some time now. And to blame it on Jerry Lawler is just foolish. He messes up every once in a while? Who cares. The problem isn't with these guys "messing" up. The problem is they provide zero entertainment.

King used to be really funny, back in the 90's. He was a great character, one of the more comedic WWF had. But now, with Vince and company basically giving them their lines, it has become more than stale. It stinks.

When I first started watching wrestling, you had guys like Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura. Gorilla was obviously the clear face, putting over the "good guys" and promoting the "do the right thing" kind of message. Ventura was amazing. He was slime, and always thought his point of view was correct. They had great banter back and forth. It could make the most boring match in the world entertaining, and it didn't take away from the good ones.

Monsoon and Heenan were amazing as well. I could have listened to Heenan for hours on end. He was one of the funniest, most original heel commentators I have ever heard. The stuff he would come up with out of nowhere was great. His comedic timing was great. And Gorilla played off of him perfectly.

That type of commentary is missing today. I honestly believe that this boring analysis is hurting the quality of WWE programming. Without banter, we are stuck with two guys analyzing a fake sport. I mean, how is that entertaining? It's not. If it were up to me (and it obviously isn't), heel commentators would be back on tv. I have read that Vince thinks that kind of commentary takes away from the matchs. I guess I don't really know Vince's motives for not having heel commentators, but whatever it is, he's wrong, plain and simple. Bring some excitement back to the booth, Vinny.

 

[matt_hud]

I dont think King is the issue... He & Ross made an excellant duo... However with JR's health not being the best and Cole being a less then spectacular commentator the WWE needs to do something... I have 2 ideas....

1) Move Arn Anderson from an agent and let him try play by play, with his intelligent delivery and knowledge I think he could make a great play by play man and someone the King could feed off of for some great commentary...

&

2) Bring in Tenay to team with Lawler... I might be among the minority here but Tenay reminds me so much of Gorden Solie or even Jim Ross when Ross was in WCW... I think Tenay and Lawler could be as good or maybe better then Ross & Lawler ever were....

But also for either senerio to work Lawler would have to go back to being a full blown heel commentator

 

[ultraviolence]

I think you are on to something nickb03, I'm really missing J.R. on commentary, he had a really good way of carrying King. J.R.'s comments were usually on point and some what insightful and King could just make his jokes and it just didn't bother you as much. Cole is a one catch phrase guy and the other new guys, well they just blow. King can't carry anyone, and because he has so little to work with, he comes off like a clown.

 

[Weems2k]

I always hated the King. He was either Jerry, The Face Lawler, or Jerry, The Pedophile, Lawler. What ever happened to the the good old days of the heel cheering color guy, and the face play by play guy?

 

[dave_theanimal_batista]

Move Arn Anderson from an agent and let him try play by play, with his intelligent delivery and knowledge I think he could make a great play by play man and someone the King could feed off of for some great commentary...

Noooo don't do that. Did you ever watch the Buff Bagwell v.s. Booker T match on Raw Arn and Scott Hudson were announcing and Arn was terrible. With all due respect to Arn he kind of has a voice that sounds like a whisper and is very soft spoken. Dont move him from road agent he needs to be in that position.

Writing that I just thought about something I wonder how long it will be before Arn joins Ric in TNA?

 

[skotch]

The WWE's commentating is the worst it's ever been.

First off, the NXT duo of Cole and Matthews has the strangest on camera relationship I have ever seen. Sometimes it sounds like they hate each other, constantly jabbing back and forth for no reason at all. Cole starts going off on Bryan Daniel, for what reason? He's a face! Yes, I know he doesn't like the fact that he had notoriety before the WWE, for some reason, but its not part of his gimmick. It's just such a strange and distracting situation on that show.

Next, the Smackdown announcers, specifically Matt Striker is beyond annoying. The dumb nicknames he gives guys, like CM Punk "The Saint of Second City" and about 30 others... what the fuck do they mean? He's a moron, he's trying to interfere too much with the match. Call the goddamn match.

As far as the Raw commentating, its ok I guess. Its nothing compared to JR. Personally, I like Jerry Lawler as a heel commentator. Watching WWE Classics, I miss the mid-90's Jerry. He's now just a jolly, happy-to-be-here old wrestler.

 

[bazza187]

as far as matt striker calling punk the saint of the second city its obvious what that means punk is doing a saviour angle as if to say he is a saint he is from chicago which is known as the second city from an article in the new yorker in 1959 so thats how you get the saint of second city.
as for the king and wwe commentary it has gone down hill alot part of the problem started when the king got cheered the only option is to have a three man team one of which is an out an out heel that lawler can bounce off and stop cole from saying vintage all the time.
but its not just the wwe that has this problem tna with tenay having a big fit when someone does a move is stupid and with taz making little cole jabs or his classic not for nothing is annoying .
commentating needs a big overhaul we need a tony schiavone commentator who will call the match but also get blasted by the other guy i say get piper on one of the shows he is just classic i remember him doing the job in the eighties nineties and it was funny calling heenan boobie and his time with mcmahon were just classic moments.
hell i say do an angle where mcmahon loses control of the company and ends up back on commentary and realises thats where he belongs it was always a good way to start the shows with his "hi everybody im vince mcmahon along with whoever and welcome to manday night raw /wrestlemania it was good and to those who will say no he was terrible with ventura on raw when he hosted that was what we where meant to think mcmahon can still be a commentator and it also stops him from being in the back shouting down a mic say this say that

 

[THTRobtaylor]

The problem is like with writers, WWE hires from the graduate pool for commentators... They insist on Broadcasting Degrees or Sports Journalism... So you end up with guys like Coach, who use WWE to get to ESPN rather than having the love for the product guys of old have. In the past they used either former wrestlers like Monsoon and Ventura or people like JR who had been around the business forever and in many different roles. The "Sports Entertainment" image is more for sports casters, not ex-wrestlers.

In today's WWE its hard to see anyone being given the chance to become an announcer for them from the podcast crowd...which is where they probably need to be looking, cos Joe in his basement may have the top show in iTunes, but thats not big time enough for Vince...

 

[ThePh3nomonal1]

fuck you skotch, matt striker is fucking awesome and I love his nicknames. He is the only heel commentator around! Also it would be awesome if they gave lawler a different role and replaced him with JBL cause the JBL and Michael Cole partnership was awesome I loved how much he paid out Michael Cole and he is just so good at it.

 

[El AlcoHALLic]

I'm all about Matt Striker as an announcer right now. He's improved a lot since he started calling matches.

I really like how he explains why a standing side headlock hurts, and why it's such an important move at that particular time in the match. He does that with just about every manuever in every match. It's awesome and I really enjoy it and it enhances the match for me.

I don't like Micheal Cole at all. "that manuever was great!" "that was an amazing throw"

 

[Gary87]

Personally, I'm getting sick of all the ridiculous nicknames that Cole gives to everybody. Especially Randy Orton. If I have to listen to the words "Apex Predator of the WWE" one more time, I might lose my mind. Whatever happened to calling people by their name? I don't even mind everything being vintage, because I can laugh at that. The nicknames though, they bother the piss out of me.

 

[Ferbian]

fuck you skotch, matt striker is fucking awesome and I love his nicknames. He is the only heel commentator around!

Matt Striker is just fine, but he's not "fucking awesome" as you so kindly say.
Matt Striker screws up numerous times, hell I believe I once watched him screw up 3 times in 1 week, once commentating on RAW, then he screwed up again on Smackdown, and then at the PPV the following Sunday.
And to top it off, Matt tries too hard, with the great amount of long words that foreign people might have to grab a dictionary for, hell I actually once had to google one of his words cause I didn't know what the hell he was on about.

The situation of the WWE commentators are pretty bad, but I have my doubts there's much they can do to improve it, at least not the mistaking parts of it.
But they could improve some of the odd insults and jokes they try to make, some of them they manage to pull off well, but some of them are just completely dropped on the floor like a ******ed baby, yes bold statement, but sure gets the point across.
But hell, Jim Ross, a guy who's got the passion and the experience and numerous honors for being the commentator he is, even manages to screw up, a moment that jumps to mind is the time Triple H was on co-commentary and Chris Benoit was making his way to the ring, saying "Jericho is looking right at ya Triple H" thankfully Triple H saved it by the "So is Chris Benoit" comment.
So everybody makes mistakes, always has, always will, can't change it, but would love to see it toned down a bit yeah.

 

[Smooth Sexual Chocolate]

im watching superstars right now and katie lee cut a promo about being psychic. kind and cole said something about reading minds. king then said to cole "i tried to read your mind once but the print was too small"

what?

is that supposed to be a joke? it doesnt even make sence.

so i have to ask how bad is the wwe commentating?

That joke is fucking classic king right there, its about the only part of his commentary that's still alive.

I could see how the kings humor probably goes over the heads of most of the wwepg universe, as it requires a somewhat developed brain to process such complex jokes.

The joke makes perfect sense by the way, and is quite clever as well, I guess a better PG joke would have been. " I tried to read your mind once, but your brain was made of poopy"

 

[MWRedskins]

As BAD as King has been, i feel if WWE turn him heel, fans will still love him. He's a legend and he's a great one at that. He's funny as a heel and people liked the rock as a heel because he was funny. With that said, i think it would be best if they either sent Cole to Smackdown as a heel announcer and move Striker to Raw or just make Cole a heel announcer on RAW, have him go for heels and have King insult his love for the heels. As for Striker, i think he was fine when he's on the heel's side. He just needs to not act all smart on the mic and just call the action and make fun of faces and love the heels.

 

[Chadmw]

And to top it off, Matt tries too hard, with the great amount of long words that foreign people might have to grab a dictionary for, hell I actually once had to google one of his words cause I didn't know what the hell he was on about.

You do realize that is a part of Styker's character right. He is suppose to be using big words to show that he is smarter than everyone else.

As for Cole saying vintage all the time, I don't think people realize that he knows it is annoying and a stupid catchphrase, but that is also the point, he is willing to make fun of himself and have fun. I really don't find Cole as bad as most of you, but most of you will not be happy until Jim Ross is announcing on Raw again.

And while I like Jim Ross and love listening to some of his classic matches that he called, in the past couple of years he has not been that great and actually started to get a little annoying and repetitive.

 

[Ferbian]

You do realize that is a part of Styker's character right. He is suppose to be using big words to show that he is smarter than everyone else.

Yes I know that just fine, but I still have my opinion that he has a feeling around him of "trying too hard" and I believe I'm not the only one around here who finds it fairly annoying having to listen to Matt Striker try to expand the amount of words we put into the dictionary by each broadcast of NXT or Smackdown, or PPV.

I'm fine with the whole Matt Striker, superior intellectual being gimmick, but I don't need to have my vocabulary expanded every time I tune into watch Smackdown, I tune in to watch wrestling, listen to a little bit of commentating (because some matches get a little dull without a little commentary, and that goes for the entrances too) and ultimately, to enjoy a product of entertainment.

 

[Armeniac]

Lawler is getting old and forgeting things fr sure. He had a couple weeks where he called Dibiase(sic) Cody Rohdes multiple times. But his jokes are still good. The anouncing is too scripted fr sure, getting more ex-wrestlers would help alot, add some exitement to the broadcast. Folks that complain about the bickering on NXT must want a dull anouncing crew, the classic anouncing teams, heenan-monsoon, ventura-monsoon, argued all the time. Oh and Stryker rules, he's playing his heel character to a tee!

 

[Moda B Turki]

Yeah finally some 1 notice that .. WWE commentary SUCKS .. Or u cant say WWE ,, U can say Raw's Commentary sucks .. Look at smackdown .. For real They are Doing a Great fucking Job! look at Matt striker His so Damn Great Commentary his almost Right In every single thing he says .. his not heel all the time and not Face for sure .. U can say His the perfect Commentary and i think in this next draft they'r going to draft him to raw .. :S and they also have todd groshim .. his doing also good job but not in striker's level ..

and i do think that Cole should turn kinda heel cuz King would never do that ..

 

[LitasRevenge79]

I miss the commentary days with Ol Heyman on the broadcast table. Now THAT was entertainment!! Lawler and Heyman together were pure energy. Especially Heyman with him. You can't tell who the crazy one was. Has anyone noticed the jokes from Lawler being recycled? I swear the other night I was watching a diva match from an old Divas dvd between Trish and Terri or something, and King said "You know how I feel about women like this?" and JR or Cole at the time said "How" and King said "With my hands" Then about 2-3 weeks ago or so, a match on Raw between Maryse and someone, he made the same joke. I'm sure that's not the first joke that had been recycled.

I agree that Striker seems to be one of the best suited persons for Commentary. I can see why him and Grisham won a slammy for best announce team. I'm kinda sad to see him stuck as a backstage reporter on NXT. Maybe he can teach the other broadcast people on WWE a thing or two.

 

[Attitude]

I have noticed how dull and boring IMO the Raw announcing is. I'm not sure maybe it's because the PG ratings King can't get away with saying "Puppies" anymore or have the sense of humour he did during the attitude era. I noticed however on the 3/15/10 episode of Raw King and Cole actually seem enthusiastic and happy to be there. They actually seemed alive. This of course was during Stone Cold's segment I didn't watch all of Raw. Did anybody notice that besides me?

 

[Boxer38]

It's horrible. Well IMO Michael Cole makes it horrible. All he is, is a J.R wanna be, with his stupid vintage line, how he over-reacts to the most stupid things, laughs at the most ridiculous jokes. God I hate that guy. I'm sorry if this isn't the answer you were looking for, I just figured that this would a good place to bash on that annoying kiss-ass Michael Cole.

 

[Depakote]

I blame the direction and not the commentators themselves as much. When King is allowed to do his thing, he's really good. Cole isnt half bad either when he doesnt have McMahon barking in his ear every two seconds. Its hard to remember when commentators had more free reign. They were more natural and relaxed and able to be themselves more. In the Attitude era, King and JR were great and had great chemistry together. Now there's no more heel commentators. Even Striker was reeled in before jumping up to Smackdown. He's more of a tweener than anything now. I miss Gorilla and Heenan together. They were gold. JR and King were the first and last pair to ever come close to Gorilla/Heenan. I will say that Striker is refreshing compared to everyone else right now. Sometimes King still has his moments that remind me of the Attitude era, but overall, I think the work atmosphere for commentators has changed greatly. McMahon wants the story to be sold more than the in-ring action, which can be annoying at times because commentators feel more like the news ticker at the bottom of a network news channel more than commentators. They just spew a bunch of useless info that you couldve acquired just from watching the show with the sound off. Mike Tenay might sound like a Yorkshire Terrier on crystal meth sometimes, but at least he does play-by-play still. He'll tell the fans if it was a brain buster or a vertical suplex and I think thats a needed thing to educate newer fans who havent been watching for 20 years to know the difference.

I guess the WWE doesnt need as much play-by-play anymore since they have a very specific move set, where youre much less likely to see a brain buster instead of a vertical suplex. They call an arm drag an arm drag. They dont care much if its a Japanese arm drag or not. The WWE treats its audience like theyre really ******ed and need everything thoroughly explained to them. Lots of moves get lumped together into categories so as to not overwhelm the audience with jargon they may not be familiar with, which makes it easy for new viewers to pick the show up, but also hurts the established tradition of wrestling.

WWE continues their streamlining by removing heel commentators. In every other sport, there is no heel commentator. You dont usually hear a UFC commentator play the heel and support a display of poor sportsmanship, for obvious reasons. I think this is a format that WWE is trying to emulate to give the show more of a 'real' feel to it, instead of having every single person involved playing either a face or heel, including the commentators. McMahon feels that commentators dont have to be over-the-top characters anymore and they can just focus on putting the product over as a whole instead. Its not totally a bad thing but it does take away from the traditional pro wrestling set-up. But isnt that what McMahon has been trying to do anyway? Get away from wrasslin' and focus on "entertainment"? I dont agree with the direction, but I can see where McMahon is coming from.