Great Announcers

[PunkStep]

I didn't grow up listening to Solie, so I think it would be unfair for me to judge.

 

I didn't think Vince was that bad, and I think Monsoon gets a lot more stick than he should. I loved his partnership with Heenan and his partnership with Ventura was also very good. I have a soft spot for his voice, but probably because growing up his voice was the voice of WWE when I watched. Didn't like Schiavone, not mad on Tenay either.

 

JR & King pre-2002 was a fantastic partnership. Imagine if JR & Heenan in their prime worked regularly together during the WWF Attitude era?

 

Styles was good for ECW, Heyman was superb. I've never had a problem with Cole and really enjoy him now he has a heel persona. Tazz has always been ok, although cringeworthy sometimes when he tries to be 'hip' and 'down with the kids'.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Jesse Ventura was the best for me. Anyone you stuck him with instantly raised their game, whether it was Monsoon, Schaivone or McMahon. Actually, one of the best commentary performances I've heard was at SummerSlam 89. For some reason, Schaivone was oddly comming across like a world beater on commentary (which is unusual for him) and Ventura was a great double act for him. They were great that night.

 

What does everything think of Joey Styles? I hated him personally, and thought he was such an over the top and fake prick on commentary. Everything he said sounded like he'd wrote it down and was parodying his own product.

[Dead Mike]

Vince was a great play-by-play man. I always liked the way he called matches like it was a real sporting contest, calling each move as it happened as opposed to just jibbering shit & putting over angles constantly. Made it seem like a legit sporting commentator & gave the matches more a genuine feel.

[garynysmon]

Vince was a great play-by-play man. I always liked the way he called matches like it was a real sporting contest, calling each move as it happened as opposed to just jibbering shit & putting over angles constantly. Made it seem like a legit sporting commentator & gave the matches more a genuine feel.

 

Which is ironic seeing as he doesn't like calling moves these days.

[fraserbee]

It's interesting reading all the love for Gordon Sole. I remember hearing him occasionally when WCW first appeared on ITV back in the late 80s and then again commenting on NJPW on Eurosport a few years later. Personally, I thought he was very good at telling the story of the match and also had such a great voice. Lately however, I've been reading some old Wrestling Observers from '84 and '85 and have been really surprised how much Dave Meltzer seemed to dislike him - almost every issue contains some critical reference to Sole's commentary.

 

Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura would be two guys that I have mention, echoing others before me. I think Ross was great in that he was obviously very knowledgable and legitimately enjoying the product. Ventura was also great, I particularly like how he explained little bits of a wrestler's strategy or commented on their execution, like pointing out that a guy might not be sitting as deep in a Boston Crab as he should, or pointing out that a guy with an injured arm throws a clothesline with the opposite arm (see Rude vs Steamboat from Superbrawl 2). These are the best two commentators I've ever heard.

 

I'd mention Paul Hayman and Jim Cornette as just a shade behind them too.

[air_raid]

McMahon and Ventura on SNME was also awesome as Ventura really did come out with some classic put-downs!

 

"You're dumber than Monsoon! I thought the Gorilla was the biggest idiot alive!"

 

As time goes on, I really do think I'm the only one who hated JR for most of his run.

 

His drawl, his hick slang expressions ("pet coon" etc), his favouritism, his yelling, the resorting to saying "bastard" and arguing with his colour guys (especially Heyman) instead of maintaining any sense of professionalism, and worst of all the fact that by the peak of the Stone Cold (STONE COLD! STONE COLD!) era, he was a ludicrous self-parody of the great commentator he used to be. Any matches I watch JR call from his early years even right up to 1996-97 when he occasionally played "Tenay" to Vince & King's "Schiavone & Brain," he was full of insight, explaining what a hold's effect was, going into what the athletes were going through, some of the backstory and so on. His call of "the eyes tell you the story on Brian Pillman" during (IIRC) his match with Goldust at SummerSlam 97 is a great example, probably seems small to you guys but it really added to the match and to interpreting Pillman's character, and he used to do things like that all the time.

 

Somewhere along the line Ross stopped being a commentator and became a raving barbecue-obsessed lunatic.