WWE Announces Changes to the Commentary Teams!

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With the safety off!!
The WWE has announced that starting on January 12th there will be changes to the broadcast teams for both RAW and Smackdown. Due to Smackdown's move to Thursday nights the changes are as follows.

RAW's broadcast team will now consist of Michael Cole, JBL and Booker T, doing the play by play and colour commentary. Smackdown's broadcast team will be Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler and Bryon Saxton.

According to the report PPV's will still be handled by Michael Cole, JBL and Jerry Lawler, so no change there. Probably because Booker T is on the panel for each one.

So what it boils down to is Lawler is moving to Smackdown, JBL is leaving Smackdown, and Booker T is joining RAW permanently. I don't know if I'm happy or sad about this. Your thought's?
 
Me neither.

I wish they could do more play-by-play commentary. The only person still doing that right now is Michael Cole, but even he, is doing that at the bare minimum. I supposed this is the new direction WWE is heading now (actually that has been that way for many years now, lol).

Ever since Edge announced his injury, I have also hoped that he would join the commentary team, but chances are getting slimmer and slimmer by the year...
 
Terrible for 2 reasons...

Booker T makes your ears hurt... you can't even understand what he's saying half the time...

Renee Young deserved a spot on the smackdown team
 
I'm a huge Booker T fan, but I don't generally like his commentary. JBL fits more naturally as he is still playing the same character, just in a different role. Booker T tones down the traits that I thought made him appealing to begin with.
 
What I didn't like was the way that the two of them, JBL and Booker T, teamed up last week on RAW to slam the Ascension. This guys come up from NXT and are handed a gimmick to work by creative. Nice that they come out and the announcers get on them for it.

I hope it's not going to be a continuing trend. I wish Renee Young had been given a shot as well, at least on Smackdown.
 
Jerry Lawler going to Smackdown makes sense. He's been announcing forever and has been the worst member of the Raw announcing team for the past few years. Nothing like how he was before 2007-ish, but that's a whole other topic. I also approve of Booker T joining the Raw announcing team, that was a great pick and he will be much better than Lawler in that role. Tom Phillips being replaced by Byron Saxton should also be a good move, but we may need to wait and see how that plays out. Cole and JBL constantly mocking Phillips got old. My main problem with the new announcing teams is this.... WHY IS MICHAEL COLE STILL ON BOTH SHOWS!? Have Alex Riley or Renee Young do Smackdown instead of Cole. Heck, I'd even take Jason Albert replacing him on Smackdown if it meant Cole was only on one show. Other than that, good decisions and the announcing will hopefully improve.
 
As I like Raw more than Smackdown and Smackdown is a shorter show, I think this is a great move. No more Jerry 'the clown' Lawler on Raw.

Give Booker some time before you get the daggers out, he'll settle into it I'm sure.
 
Personally, I couldn't care less at this point. They're just moving one lousy announcer to a different show, yet keeping him for pay-per-view events, and replacing him with an announcer that's just as bad. When Booker T was doing commentary on SmackDown!, there were as many complaints about him as anyone else, especially when he started in on the Shucky Ducky Quack Quack stuff.

Byron Saxton has done a good job in NXT but the main roster is a whole other ball game because Vince McMahon likes to do things in a different way than Triple H does. In NXT, the commentators are focused on the matches, hyping the wrestlers involved and generally hyping the product. On the main roster, commentators basically have to do whatever asinine thing Vince wants them to do.

At the same time, however, WWE commentary can be very good when they're allowed to be. During some matches, usually the main event or anything with Cena or one of the upper level stars, they're serious and focus on the action primarily. For much of the rest of the time, they're telling stupid jokes or otherwise acting like a bunch of goofs essentially treating what's happening in the ring as generally unimportant. It's not entirely their fault, however, as you have the original Lunatic Fringe himself, AKA Vince McMahon, sometimes telling them what to say. It's bad enough having a lot of Sports Entertainment themed filler matches and/or segments, but adding inane Sports Entertainment themed commentary to the mix only makes it worse.
 
I think I'll like the two announce teams better the way they're changing it around. I think I prefer Booker T over Lawler because he's simply funnier to listen to. I feel like Booker T is better at putting over wrestlers on commentary than Lawler also (oh and he's a massive supporter of Ziggler, that helps..) I might prefer it more, but I honestly don't think it's going to change our viewing that much, if at all.
 
Well, at least they're giving the newer commentators a chance. First Tom Phillips and now Byron Saxton. I wonder if Cole, JBL, Booker and King are going to retire someday or are they just going to trot them out to do commentary every week until they're dead. No disrespect to King, but that looks like the most likely option for him, considering he's getting pretty close.
 
Me neither.

I wish they could do more play-by-play commentary.
Unless you are blind and I'm just not aware of it...why? Why do you need play-by-play for a televised show?

A commentator should not be doing play by play, a commentator should be a narrator to the story being told in the ring. Michael Cole isn't the best the WWE's ever had at that, but he's not the worst either. And with the way the pacing of matches has changed so much, he's certainly having to do a little trailblazing.
 
I would have prefered to take Michael Cole off of one of the shows, Maybe replace him on smackdown with someone and try to give Smackdown a slightly different feel from Raw even appeal to a slightly different domographic.
 
I just don't understand why Paul Heyman isn't on the announcer team. He is the best talker in Wrestling now. When Bobby the Brain Heenan made the switch from managing to commentating he did so very well, him and Gorilla Monsoon formed the best broadcast team of all time, yes better than JR and King. Now Paul Heyman may not be quite as good as Heenan, but he is very close, and if anyone else could pull that off, it certainly is Mr. Paul E. Dangerously.
 
With a lot of training and the retention of his own personality, I think Booker T could actually be a pretty decent commentator. His delivery can be crude sometimes, his timing is a little off and he sometimes gets interrupted by Michael Cole. Even still, it's a smart business move for WWE. The racism charges levied by Alberto del Rio kinda brought this on as well. WWE is showing a little diversity on commentary by putting in a guy who represents a demographic that sometimes feels ignored by the Machine. In time, it could be a win-win situation for all and be WWE's "CYA" model for 2015.

The New Day? I digress....
 
If there was any way to make Smackdown more of a drag, adding Lawler on commentary is it. The man's an absolute wrestling legend, no doubt, but his best days in the booth are clearly behind him and I would shit myself if I heard him come out in a podcast or something and say that he hasn't totally been phoning it in for years and actually gives two shits about today's product. I mean, I get Vince is old as fuck so to him, Lawler on commentary doesn't seem slow as shit and completely out of tune with the real world but if you're target demographic is the kids, having that fossil calling the "action" is shit.

As for the new commentary teams, my biggest peeve is that Renee Young isn't being given a shot to call Smackdown. That would make that show so fucking fresh with just that one move. To hell with Lawler. Cole, when they aren't trying to make him the number one heel in the company, I can handle and JBL I have no problem with, other then you can tell he's being fed a lot of his lines these days, some of them sounding like they're coming from Vince's mouth directly. Renee knows her shit, which just makes her that much more of a babe, and she adds youth to the broadcast team. Experience is good, yes, but adding somebody to to the booth who isn't in their 40's would be pretty cool too. Easier for me to relate to them personally, then fucking Lawler who sounds like the shit in the ring makes him want to take a nap just as bad as I do. I won't go on about Lawler anymore, or Renee but I will point out lastly, the obvious fact that she is a woman and that a woman to my knowledge has never called Raw or Smackdown fulltime, so their is some potential in that I think. I dunno, I'm not in marketing or TV or anything obviously, but Renee is on twitter, she seems pretty cool, maybe she could connect with the younger female fans and something could grow out of that. I know AJ and Paige sell a shit load of shirts, it's not just young boys out in the crowd. Maybe if they put a little more effort into the WOMENS division (scrapping the term Diva would be a good start) as a whole, gave them writers that gave a shit, had producers not just interested in perfectly timed titty shots, and had a female perspective calling the action, people would actually have a reason to give a shit. This kind of turned into a off topic rant and I don't know why I'm going so in depth on something that means nothing but I'm sorry, you got some good talented ladies down in NXT, it would be a shame to see them come up to the main roster, get punted in the stomach and pinned upside down by Alicia Fox, covered in a fucking orange soda and then be relegated to backstage skits with Santino.

Enough about the women, back to the announcers. I'll keep it short, I would have retired Lawler. I would have added Christian to Raw. If shit didn't go sour with Punk, he would have been like my Randy Savage or Joe Rogan. Him on commentary a few years ago is actually what got me to start watching again, but anyways. The reason I'm going with Christian, he's charismatic, he's not old as fuck and this is a good way to keep him on camera but out of the ring. I'd try and get him on as a trainer somewhat too, this giving him a birds eye view of what hopeful trainees should look out for and try to do. On Smackdown, I would have added Renee. As for PPVs, I thought about that too and again, fuck Lawler. Why not have guest commentators for PPVs? Not necessarily outside guests, but if there is an injured wrestler or a wrestler not scheduled to wrestle, have them co-host the action. Hell, I would have the whole gang, Cole, JBL, Christian, Renee and a guest call the PPVs. Make that shit seem like a party, let them enjoy themselves. I've never heard Saxton so I can't say but my mind was made up on this shit a while ago anyways.
 
I'd rather just be Cole and JBL. The best announce teams in history has been 2 person teams, the only ones ever doing 3 person teams was WCW, and they were never that good. And I don't get why they need fixed teams, why not mix them up on a regular basis, just keeping Cole because hes "the voice of WWE"... Even back in the day they would mix up the announce teams.
 
I like the fact they're giving new announcers a chance. Saxton should be good for the smackdown team. Lawler has really lost most of his magic that made him really good at his job.

I'm not sure if JR leaving/retiring had something to do with it,but since then IMO he really is just floundering around. Booker T should be a great add,i think he will remain neutral but if him and JBL team up together,to slam talent its going to get real old real fast. I didn't like the fact they slammed the Ascension that was unprofessional to be honest.

Michael cole announcing both shows i guess makes sense,but when is Regal going to get his shot? Regal is really good at announcing and he would make a great add to the smacdown team in place of Cole if i had my pick. As far as the PPVs go,the main three announcing is fine! Hopefully this move will re-ignite Lawler as his passion has really been in limbo for quite some time now
 
It's good they finally got some diversity on the RAW announcing team. The way King fit in the group was redundant. I'm glad they moved him to Smackdown.
 
On RAW, Booker T talked trash about the New Day, saying that while he liked them, they need a better attitude. he apparently shares my opinion that they're too nice, but it's an odd choice from a face manager.

Then JBL speaks badly about the Ascension and the jobbers they're squashing.

I just don't get it. Maybe they should just start saying what Vince tells them to say, because ideally I'd know wtf is going on.
 

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