Column: Today’s Commentators, What Went Wrong?
I was watching Night of Champions and was quite frankly appalled when ECW announcer Josh Mathews stated Tommy Dreamer had three or four fans, in reaction to a Matt Striker comment and Christian getting a bigger ovation. The comment, in my mind totally undermined Dreamer and made it seem like Christian was wrestling some jobber. That is not only a very bad thing for Dreamer but it also undermined the match and the title that at that stage Dreamer still held. But it is not just Josh Mathews’ one mistake that gave me the fuel to write this. No, today it seems that the quality of announcing in the wrestling business is slipping by the minute.
It seems we are running out of good commentators altogether. There is not one team on TNA or any WWE show that the fans seem fully happy with. Raw fans don’t like Michael Cole. Smackdown fans don’t like Todd Grisham. ECW fans don’t like Josh Matthews. TNA fans don’t like Don West. So there is not one show we can watch without a bad commentator. A commentator’s role is supposed to be to help the match. Call the moves and explain the match. But now many of them seem to want to push their own agenda’s. Lets take Don West for example, on almost every show he claims he stays up until four in the morning texting the beautiful people. Really I mean that’s just a blatant lie even in relation to his character. It doesn’t make him seem more interesting it makes him seem like a liar and a stalker.
Now I know commentators don’t always tell the truth about interviewing wrestlers but at least try and make it some bit believable. Like if someone says I spoke with such and such briefly earlier on today whether it actually happened or not it’s believable.
But in some cases it’s not even the commentator’s own fault. People are being pushed into the spotlight that aren’t ready or just aren’t made for the job. Are Todd Grisham and Josh Matthews really ready for the big time? When JBL retired WWE should have jumped at the chance to rehire him as a commentator. What about good old JR and Lawler why split them up they meshed perfectly to form a hall of fame team then what happens after they enter the hall of fame there split up. Jim Ross is perhaps the greatest announcer of all time and is loved by many, many wrestlers. So what do the big companies do with him they treat him like a piece of dirt. The greatest announcer of all time shouldn’t have multiple meaningless firings on his CV. How about being publicly humiliated so many times its hard to count. Now apart from wrestling I don’t really follow many other sports but I am guessing great baseball and soccer commentators aren’t treated like that.
So by analyzing the problem it seems to be that big companies are unable to manage their commentators are unable to find a pair of them with good chemistry and when, probably by pure luck they actually do they break them up. Or it could also be that there is such a lack of good commentators out there that unable one’s are being pushed into the spotlight. Though I guess its better than bringing in commentators from other sports …cough… Mike…Adamle… cough …cough.
So how can this problem by solved? Well very easily, someone start a school where commentators can be trained for a career in the wrestling business. Show them what to say, what not to say and for the love of god how to properly call a match.
Paul McNamara
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I personally think you’re being too hard on Matthews. The guy has been with the company for years and it’s about time he got his push. I think the duo of him and Striker are far better than Cole and King.
That leads me to Cole and King. These two guys seem to be clueless these days. People rag on Cole, but to me Lawler has just given up. He comes across as so phony in his excitement. “Oh my god, John Cena!!! I can’t wait for that.” It almost sounds like he’s being sarcastic all the time. And when the pair have their fake little laughing fits, its cringe worthy.
Granted the main problem these days is the announcers are not allowed to call a match. They have to plug the DVD, or hype up the main event, or talk about a storyline, or promote Castrol GTX. And of course Vince is screaming in their ear telling them what to say.
I think the role is so micromanaged you can’t be a good announcer anymore.
In reference to Don West’s lying, he is just playing into his character and we’re meant to beieve that he is lying through his teeth to big himself up.
The actual problem with West is that he tries too hard to base his characters ideals and often his match calls on that of King’s (in his prime) instead of creating something original.
I agree with all of what Keelan is saying and I also think that Striker and Matthews make a great team, they seem to be the most honest of all teh micromanaged announce teams in the WWE. Whether this gets them in trouble or not I don’t know.
On Don West; at first I thought his heel announcing was a little forced but now it seems to be working. I’m not sure if you were saying fans didn’t like him due to his ability as an announcer or because of what he was saying, if it is the latter then I’m not sure why because it was only a little while ago that you wrote an article like mine on the lack of heel announcers. And if it is the former then I have to disagree since I have seen very few fan criticisms of his work, beside my own on some occasions, and as I have said he is starting to improve. I think it’s great how he spouts rubbish that obviously isn’t true, do you remember the King in the days of Evolution? Exactly the same thing there and it was announce team gold. It just adds to the face-heel announce team dynamic, you know he is in the wrong and so it either strengthens your hatred for him or makes you laugh when the face announcer gets frustrated, either way it’s a win.
It’s just a shame that TNA doesn’t have two shows since they could do a great combination of Taz and Mick Foley as face-heel announcers and it would serve Vince right for driving the two out of the WWE in the first place. Maybe the two could just call MEM matches, that would be brilliant.
Good answers i respect your opinions those are just some of my opinions we cant all believe in the same thing.
First off, I totally cringed when Matthews said about Dreamer having a couple of fans. It almost ruined the match for me, and I know that’s silly, but isn’t that a prime example of just how much impact a commentator can have..? It was embarrasing, and I could almost feel Striker’s embarrasment. How can you openly discredit your champion??? Talk about taking a sh*t on your own doorstep.
Did anyone else not feel that maybe they were getting word over the headsets to bury Tommy a little? There was also quite a select comment on Christian’s entrance (“Dare I say it, Christian got a bigger reaction than Tommy, IN Philly!”). To me, that just hurts Tommy’s credibility. If it doesn’t put both guys over, then why even mention it?? Again, I felt this was called over the headsets to try and establish Christian as a big player (note on all the SD/ECW adverts, they advertise only Christian from ECW.. Says alot).
Also, people need to back off of Don West. He WAS horrible – key word: Was.
Internet wrestling fans are too stubbourn to accept Don’s clearly got better, and is playing a textbook heel. I happen to find the whole texting the Beautiful People thing really funny… It’s so clearly not true that it’s funny. It’s meant to make Don West look like a try-hard loser. Y’know, the character..?
Selby
It seems commentators now a days talk about anything but the match. WWE commentators will mention what happened to HHH last week or earlier on and not comment on what is going on in the ring. Gorilla Mansoon and Jesse Ventura were an awsome team.
Cole and Tazz I find were great. Maybe with time they will get better. For now they are simply terrbile.
Josh Mathews is great, and this is the first I’ve hears of people not liking him. Also, I think Don West is hilarious and his over-the-top humor actually makes me laugh out loud. Grisham is pretty bland but I don’t mind him. Michael Cole is terrible, though. He can’t call finishers correctly and undercuts the young talent by going on about how it’s a HUGE UPSET whenever they win.
Michael Cole, Todd Grisham and Josh Matthews all have the journalist background. Which i do notice the seem to call matches from a sporting point of view. Where is Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler and Matt Striker have were Wrestler’s so they look at it from a Wrestler’s Point of view. And Jim Ross seems to be the middle man who knows all about the creative side of things and the sport.
All vince has done is tried to keep things fresh by splitting them up evenly.
Good article. i like the fact that you have taken what everybody else thought and commented. However, the main problem for all commentators is VINCE!you don’t have soccer, basketball, american football, snooker, darts, horse racing etc with the head guy of the federation yelling in their ears what to say. i think it needs to go back to gorilla and heenan days or jesse ventura days….the commentating was slick, smart and funny
I think Todd is a lot better than most people give him credit for. He’s got some attitude under the surface that creeps out sometimes that makes him seem kinda cool…him and Striker were GREAT together.
I totally agree with everyone who says Cole and Lawler are dreadful though…Lawler just can’t be bothered anymore, and Cole seems to have got much worse since he split from JBL. Raw’s announcing is dire.
I like Striker as an announcer, JR is the salty veteran that should be paired with the Lawler as a given.
Cole, sucks ass as announcer. You are right Keelan he does sound phoney and scarsistic. WWE management are just plain stupid to let JBL go without securing his vocal talent, and pair him with Cole, It was amusing to listen him diss Cole on many levels.