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I Haven't Watched Wrestling in Over Ten Years


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RE: the announcing being awful

 

I think the biggest issue facing WWE announce teams is that they can't just "call a match" anymore. There are certain buzzwords or nicknames being fed to them and their goal is to either get it trending on Twitter or sell a t-shirt. When they aren't trying to fit those buzzwords into every other sentence, they are being asked to sometimes completely ignore what is going on in front of them and preview what is going on later in the show.

 

Of course, that doesn't excuse Lawler showing a complete lack of interest in almost everything about the current WWE product or Michael Cole being unable to name 90% of the wrestling moves in the matches he calls (everything is either a "slam" or "throw" to him). There's a whole generation of kids who are going to have no idea what the difference is between a german/exploder/tiger/fisherman suplex. They're all just described as "what a devastating slam by The (insert nickname)!"

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Uhm, JBL is a heel who constantly touts his agreement with The Authority. He's even the NXT Commissioner, which they gave to him as a means to humiliate Dusty during that angle. He SHOULD be running down D-Bry. And he has said stuff like "The fairy tale continues" and the like. Cole hasn't been burying him at all but has harped up his accomplishments. 

 

 

Calling it a fairy tale is about the same as burying him,. Eventually they will run into trouble if they don't recognize Bryan's accomplishments as legit and not just blind luck, a miracle, or some sort of fairy tale run. On that front, there's a difference between being a heel and burying someone to the point where you're doing him a disservice. That's what JBL does with Bryan, where even when he does win he really doesn't acknowledge his win and instead keeps taking shots at his height and the like. That's not what a good heel announcer does.

 

 

I liked them calling Bryan beating HHH as "the biggest upset in Wrestlemania history" or whatever it was. The dude has kicked the everloving shit out of every motherfucker every week and twice on Mondays since June last year. It shouldn't have been a surprise that part-timer, stuffed shirt HHH got his head kneed off too.

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I'm fine with JBL being a bitch about Daniel Bryan. He's an Authority brown noser and a heel. So much better than Michael Cole doing it. Heenan would make fun of dudes all the time, but when they came through he'd lose his shit and be all incredulous, and it made you even happier the face came out. Heenan's better at doing these little things when running down a guy while at the same time building them up than JBL - but JBL is still the least problematic in my book. 

 

To add to it, JBL being such a bitch about Daniel Bryan and believing the Authority's brown nosing and heelishness actually improves the story because of that dynamic: By Michael Cole stopping doing it- and being the one who always defends Bryan to JBL and says he's being hard on him, that Daniel Bryan's one of the best in the company right now- it does more to sell the overarching storyline than anything else (Michael Cole became despised by the WWE fanbase, LEGIT, because of how Cole had bitched about Daniel Bryan for 18 months. COLE being the one to defend Daniel Bryan to JBL really sells the whole thing perfectly- Daniel Bryan's so good in the ring he even won Michael Cole, his single biggest detractor, over.)

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I would pose that the more difficult question right now would be, "What do I have to not be happy about?"  I think you have to actually make a conscious effort at this point to be really negative about the WWE family of shows and the direction of the company like a Miami Heat fan who thinks Labron passes too much or something. I would ask why wouldn't you want to follow WWE at this point?  What are you missing from the broadcast?  Blood?

 

"PG totes sucks!  Bring back ECW!" -- many tools on Facebook

 

 

It could be because my wife is due to give birth to our first next month and I like the idea of being able to share my enjoyment of wrestling with him in a few years; or, it could just be that I'm 31 and not 17 anymore. Either way, I really love the current era. I go back and watch some stuff from ECW and Attitude Era on the Network now and it's just cringe-inducing. 

 

Heat Wave '98 is a good example. The opening match is an outstanding one between Jerry Lynn and Justin Credible. For as much as people (me included) loved Joey Styles at one time, he is just trash here, making dick jokes about Nicole Bass and cracking on Jason. 

 

On the topic of announcing, I don't mind Cole nowadays, provided he isn't screaming at me about an app. King needs to be put out to pasture; I'd love for A-Train/Giant Bernard/Tensai or Regal to replace him. I can't stand JBL, seems like he's more interested in getting his character over than he is the action. 

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Amazing reading all of this and seeing just how disconnected from it all I am. I just don't give a fuck about any of these guys any more. Maybe I should take a break or something, but endless Bray Wyatt empty rhetoric promos and Shield six man tags just doesn't appeal to me the way it does to you guys. If Naimark is talking 2003-04ish, there was Hollywood Rock, Hogan, Sheriff Austin, Benoit, Lesnar, Bikertaker, Evolution, and a bunch of interesting midcard guys. Now there's none of that. I like Bryan and enjoy his stuff but the rest minus Cena and Hunter is just dull.

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I'm fine with JBL being a bitch about Daniel Bryan. He's an Authority brown noser and a heel. So much better than Michael Cole doing it. Heenan would make fun of dudes all the time, but when they came through he'd lose his shit and be all incredulous, and it made you even happier the face came out. Heenan's better at doing these little things when running down a guy while at the same time building them up than JBL - but JBL is still the least problematic in my book. 

 

To add to it, JBL being such a bitch about Daniel Bryan and believing the Authority's brown nosing and heelishness actually improves the story because of that dynamic: By Michael Cole stopping doing it- and being the one who always defends Bryan to JBL and says he's being hard on him, that Daniel Bryan's one of the best in the company right now- it does more to sell the overarching storyline than anything else (Michael Cole became despised by the WWE fanbase, LEGIT, because of how Cole had bitched about Daniel Bryan for 18 months. COLE being the one to defend Daniel Bryan to JBL really sells the whole thing perfectly- Daniel Bryan's so good in the ring he even won Michael Cole, his single biggest detractor, over.)

 

 

I like that you mentioned this. One of my favorite little aspects of the Wrestlemania main event was Cole yelling and cheering Bryan on telling Batista to tap out. The guy who as you said everyone legit hated for burying their golden boy for almost 2 years while championing Miz was screaming for Bryan to do it and make Batista tap. Great storytelling and one of Cole's finest moments. I think Cole, once they finally dropped his heel gimmick, has quietly become very, very good in his role.

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Amazing reading all of this and seeing just how disconnected from it all I am. I just don't give a fuck about any of these guys any more. Maybe I should take a break or something, but endless Bray Wyatt empty rhetoric promos and Shield six man tags just doesn't appeal to me the way it does to you guys. If Naimark is talking 2003-04ish, there was Hollywood Rock, Hogan, Sheriff Austin, Benoit, Lesnar, Bikertaker, Evolution, and a bunch of interesting midcard guys. Now there's none of that. I like Bryan and enjoy his stuff but the rest minus Cena and Hunter is just dull.

Dude, really, Attitude Era sucked. We're in the best complete top to bottom and diverse product since the Hulkamania Era.

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Cole seems like he works very hard but he's not a great storyteller and he barely calls the action. I often try to think of names of moves wrestlers do all of the time. When I'm at a loss I realize its often because no one on the commentating team bothered to name the move.

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The issue is how micromanaged the announcers are.

 

I agree. I don't think the problem is Cole or JBL but the fact that they're having to deal with Vince or whoever in the back screaming in their ear all the time.

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Amazing reading all of this and seeing just how disconnected from it all I am. I just don't give a fuck about any of these guys any more. Maybe I should take a break or something, but endless Bray Wyatt empty rhetoric promos and Shield six man tags just doesn't appeal to me the way it does to you guys. If Naimark is talking 2003-04ish, there was Hollywood Rock, Hogan, Sheriff Austin, Benoit, Lesnar, Bikertaker, Evolution, and a bunch of interesting midcard guys. Now there's none of that. I like Bryan and enjoy his stuff but the rest minus Cena and Hunter is just dull.

Dude, really, Attitude Era sucked. We're in the best complete top to bottom and diverse product since the Hulkamania Era.

It isn't diverse at all.

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The issue is how micromanaged the announcers are.

 

I agree. I don't think the problem is Cole or JBL but the fact that they're having to deal with Vince or whoever in the back screaming in their ear all the time.

 

 

Yes I really liked theJBL and Cole team in JBL's first commentary run. But I just dont understand what the company wants out of the current commentary team is. I love that the guys throw little barbs at each other but sometimes it feels that every second match is just Layfield bickering with Cole while never calling a single lick of action. It is really frustrating because I think JBL could be great in that role and I think Cole is kinda of underated (I really enjoyed his call of the Rhodes Boys vs Shield match at Battleground) but I just dont think they will ever get the chance to be good.

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The issue is how micromanaged the announcers are.

 

I agree. I don't think the problem is Cole or JBL but the fact that they're having to deal with Vince or whoever in the back screaming in their ear all the time.

 

 

Yes I really liked theJBL and Cole team in JBL's first commentary run. But I just dont understand what the company wants out of the current commentary team is. I love that the guys throw little barbs at each other but sometimes it feels that every second match is just Layfield bickering with Cole while never calling a single lick of action. It is really frustrating because I think JBL could be great in that role and I think Cole is kinda of underated (I really enjoyed his call of the Rhodes Boys vs Shield match at Battleground) but I just dont think they will ever get the chance to be good.

 

 

The thing is that nothing is consistent to me. Sometimes they bicker, sometimes JBL hates Daniel Bryan, sometimes he respects him, sometimes he and Cole are friendly, sometimes they bicker, sometimes King gets along with JBL, sometimes they bicker, etc. I know that in real life people don't get along all the time but there's just no consistency in the WWE "universe".

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Cole is good to great at times. He is fantastic though in those sit down interviews. Like Matt says, it is how the announcers are managed that is grating.

 

I've learned to tone them out when watching since they just blabber on and on about stuff I've already seen or stuff they have replayed over and over again. Just call the damn match and fill in storyline/logic in lulls in the match and leave the video packages to tell the overarching story of the feud. 

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