Commentating a mess in WWE?

Has commentating in WWE ever been in such a poor position?

You have Booker T who is supposedly a face yet he applades heelish behaviour why?

Cole? What is his role now? He's kind of a watered down version of his recent character. But still this doesn't work, the role of the main play by play guy is to build up & but over talent he doesn't do either of these yet he's on the 2 biggest shows

Jerry Lawler is hopeless as the lead face your colour man is tradionally a heel. He seems to have forgot what Cole has done to him over the past 6 months. He's hopeless contridictive. One minute he's calling Vickie fat then he's completely bashing the Bellas for saying the same about Kharma???

Josh Matthews - Improving but very bland, doesn't seem to be able to carry a broadcast & is often shown up by Cole

JR - Still without doubt the best guy on the books but doesn't fit Vinces model of what a commentator should look or sound like? Why? He did ok in the attitude era didn't he?

Solutions? They should bring back JR & reunite him with Lawler on Raw. Move Cole to a managerial role with Swagger then maybe get him developing a stable. Drop Matthews back to superstars/nxt bring back Joey Styles have him lead Smackdown with Booker who I'd clearly define as a heel.

What you guys think?

Booker's commentating is unclear and contradictory. He hated the Corre interfering but when Barrett won on his own with a steel chair, that was just initiative and very clever

Plus my favorite line from a couple of months ago, was something like 'I don't condone anything... but yeah I condone that'. That said I agree with you, make him a full on heel and he won't confuse himself as to his actual role and I think he would get better

Vince doesn't want to have JR on camera long-term just incase he has a Bells Palsy attack on air. I'm not even sure JR would want to be on the road with them again all the time anyway.

Styles is busy as the lead editor of WWE.com I believe, he's doing a very good job at it as well, the website has improved ten-fold since he took over the running of it.

I'm not sure why they bothered trying to water down Cole's character, he was doing fine as the bum of the WWE, he was getting heat for it, X-Pac heat probably, but heat none the less.

I think they need JBL back, get Lawler off the shows, he's dreadful and I doubt he'll go back to his old heel character.

I think Striker should be brought back and have commentating team of:

RAW:

Todd Grisham
JBL

Smackdown:

Michael Cole
Matt Striker

I would have kept Cole on Raw, but realised that it would mean having two heel commentators, which wouldn't really work. Although Striker normally plays heel, I'd actually have him as the straight play by play on Smackdown, with Cole as the heel colour commentator.

I don't really enjoy Booker as a commentator, he seems to be jabbering on nonsensically almost constantly...

JR is the man for Raw for me and always will be while he can talk; who cares what he looks like. Then King with him.

Cole could carry Smackdown as the lead man, and I was a fan of him when he was there. I would have my favourite commentator with him, JBL! He was classic and the pair of them worked well together too.

Alteast Bookers better than Dusty Rhodes...

...HE'S GOT A BICYCLE!

For those who watch NXT what are you making of William Regal's comentary?

Ché Guerrero wrote:For those who watch NXT what are you making of William Regal's comentary?

I watchedthe 1st couple & he seemed ok but just stuttered a little. I think with time he'll improve....

Ché Guerrero wrote:For those who watch NXT what are you making of William Regal's comentary?

I thought he did a good job, bit more time on it and think he would do a great job on either smackdown or raw to be honest.

Raw
JR
Jerry Lawler

Smackdown
Michael Cole
Booker T

NXT
Todd Grisham
William Regal

Superstars (just keep it 2 throughout the show)
Josh Matthews
Matt Striker

am i on the only person that rates Matt Striker as a commentator? He's the only one that bothers to name the moves being performed. Would be just as happy having JBL back, even Jesse Ventura was terrific as a commentator in his stint as Raw GM

I think Striker is a decent commentator, sometimes he can get annoying though as he appears patronising, even though he gets some stuff wrong. Can't be any worse than Lawler and Booker T though!

I think Michael Cole is a great commentator, he conveys the stories excellently and does his job of compere on the show very smoothly too. He gets a lot of stick just for not being JR, JR is good but is now part of the past. It's good to see him from time to time but he isn't slick enough now to do a weekly job.
Josh Mathews I'm also quite a fan of, however his voice can be rather monotone at times, his voice isn't as dominating or distinctive than Coles.
Striker I found to be okay, but quite boring and his voice was quite irritating. But he's better than Booker T who is a little bit rudey poo to be honest, mentions 'the best in the biiishniss' every 5 minutes and is only on Smackdown to add a little star power to the show.

I agree that Michael Cole is good. I don't think JR was as good as he was in the attitude era for years, I honestly think his mind is stuck in the past and he fails to connect with the new generation of 'superstars'.

Personally i think its a bit of an over reaction to imply that the commentary is a mess. Ok so these guys arent exactly Monsoon and Heenan, but nobody ever will be. The bar was raised so high back in the day that its only natural that the new guys on commentary will be compared to their high standards and they will always be on a hiding to nothing.

I think Mathews and Grisham do a decent job considering. I certainly dont cringe listening to them like i did with Mike Adamle. Like i said they will never be on par with the old school but i definately wouldnt say its a 'mess'. Besides, it cant be easy having Vince in your ear these days, i dont think even Vince knows what Vince wants anymore so it doesnt give much hope for the poor guys at the desk!

I don't think it's a mess at all, i actually enjoy the commentary at the moment.

Mr H wrote:Personally i think its a bit of an over reaction to imply that the commentary is a mess. Ok so these guys arent exactly Monsoon and Heenan, but nobody ever will be. The bar was raised so high back in the day that its only natural that the new guys on commentary will be compared to their high standards and they will always be on a hiding to nothing.

I think Mathews and Grisham do a decent job considering. I certainly dont cringe listening to them like i did with Mike Adamle. Like i said they will never be on par with the old school but i definately wouldnt say its a 'mess'. Besides, it cant be easy having Vince in your ear these days, i dont think even Vince knows what Vince wants anymore so it doesnt give much hope for the poor guys at the desk!

The sheer fundamentals are wrong. The play by play guy is a face who tells the story in the ring & puts (usually the faces) over. The color guy favours the heel.

Can you name me one face that the commentatorys on Raw have successfully endorsed since Cole turned heel?

The best commentator on Raw this week was Dolph Ziggler

There's such a gulf at the minute between Cena & the rest in terms of most popular faces on Raw. You have Cena at the top of the ladder then maybe Rey a few rungs down but who's next? Kofi? Morrison who's injured? No effort is made to build anyone up instead Cole just bashes everyone but the Miz every week. The play by play guy could be a powerful figure in elevating the talent in the past & advance storylines however you can't do this if you play by play guy just buries the entire roster each week

Mr H I totally disagree with you, Heenan & Monsoon might not have much competition but the currant crop should be aiming to be the best, even if the dont reach the stars, that is what the should be aiming for, there is guys out there, Jeremy Borash and Joey Styles are two of the best just now, Don West could be a great colour guy, JR is still available too, I don't think doing commentry should be to difficult, if your passionate it should come naturally

Fair enough gaff, i see your point, but Heenan & Monsoon were trusted and had a license to pretty much say what they wanted. The chemistry between them was magic and they played off eachother naturally but thats because they were the only 2 guys at the desk consistently week after week and at every PPV so it gave them time to establish their relationship.

These days, the commentators chop and change all the time, how many different combinations have there been at the desk on Raw and Smackdown in recent years? It doesnt help when they get included in the annual draft. I agree that it shouldnt be difficult, but i just think Grisham and Mathews do a decent job considering they are novices and they probably sound quite generic because they are probably too scared to 'ad-lib' incase Vince goes nuts at them!