Best/Worst Announcers & Commentator Chat

[The Gaffer]

I can understand why people loathed Vince's histrionics but without a doubt he knew how to tell the stories. That's an obvious point, perhaps, because he's the guy that was chiefly the architect of them back in the day, but he really made you get behind a Diesel or a Shawn or a Bret. Everything was nicely contained and logical. There was scant little pop cultural references, no snipey back and forths, very little meandering from the actual core presentation. He was really quite good for a lot of the New Gen shows. 

[The Dart]

Vince McMahon is one of my favourite commentators.   I liked his style, especially later on in the 90s.

I think Tom Philips is the best they've got now, overall.

Unpopular I'm sure but I cannot stand Nigel McGuinness as a commentator, I think he's one of the worst they've ever had.   I couldn't stand Mauro Rinallo either (on NXT anyway).

[WyattSheepMask]

1 minute ago, The Dart said:

Unpopular I'm sure but I cannot stand Nigel McGuinness as a commentator, I think he's one of the worst they've ever had.   I couldn't stand Mauro Rinallo either (on NXT anyway).

Not unpopular at all, I think the common consensus is that Nigel is a bit shit. 
I think he only does NXT UK now, which is watched by about 6 people week in week out, so at least he’s tucked away

[BomberPat]

Vince was cartoonish and over the top, but so was the whole product at the time, so it worked. 

The downside was that he seemed to want to replicate the Monsoon/Heenan dynamic of having a wisecracking heel colour commentator, but never mastered the Gorilla Monsoon art of a well-deployed "would you stop!" to stop the heel derailing things, nor was he quick witted enough to actually respond to them properly. Mr Perfect would crack a joke, and he'd just awkwardly fake laugh and say "OH I DON'T KNOW ABOUT THAT". 

His commentary, as much in the early MSG stuff as in the '90s, is full of "an idiot trying to sound smart" language, though. He'd do the same sort of thing as a heel character, using long words because he thought it made things sound more intelligent or official, but you'd allow "held in abeyance" from a heel. 

He's also got his aversion to pronouns that is somehow even worse when it's him commentating than when it's him barking instructions in someone else's ear. Because he won't say "he" or "him", there's one of the old Madison Square Garden shows on the Network where he just ties himself up in a linguistic knot having to say, "I refer of course to that particular named individual, Mr. Fuji". Just not speaking like a human being at all.

[Jazzy G]

I'll take all Vince's "ONE! TWO AND NOOOOOOO!" over Cole's "FOR THE TITLE! NEW CHAMPION!" nonsense every time there's a pinfall attempt. There felt like there was real drama when Vince was doing it. 

[RedRooster]

3 hours ago, Gay as FOOK said:

Cole and Tazz were great in the early years of the brand split, and I think it's something they deserve credit on. Maybe Vince's eye was more off the ball with Smackdown, but Cole was far more human and done well as the genial, fans standpoint 'host' of Smackdown whilst Tazz wasn't too inane yet and provided some nice daftness along with decent shoot style wrestle talk/perspective on the big matches. They also really done a great job of feeling like they were taking the fight to Raw, and had some personal pride in the brand. 

This is who I was going to post. 2002/03 Smackdown on Sky One was my jumping on point as a fan so maybe I'm looking back with rose tinted glasses, but they had great chemistry and I always thought Tazz was (and still is) tremendously likeable. 

JBL became insufferable during his later years on the desk, but when he originally joined Cole on commentary on Smackdown he was fantastic. I don't know whether he got Vince McMahoned, or simply declined in quality over the years, but I really enjoyed that era of Smackdown commentary. 

As far as modern wrestling goes, Tony Schiavone is brilliant. His enthusiasm is infectious and he really enhances the AEW product, making you enjoy it more. Kind of the anti-JR. Tazz is also fun as an AEW announcer, he always sounds like he's having a brilliant time. 

[Michael_3165]

I adored the Monsoon/Ventura combo, especially Venturas raspy voice. Then I've a soft spot for Vince, Jr and King in 1997.

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

Of the current crop in WWE it’s Tom Phillips by far with Vic Joseph a close second. Cole can still be good when he can but compared to the other two he’s starting to give off ‘JR near the end of his guest run’ vibes and from the brief clips I’ve seen Andy Shepherd is awful on NXT UK

JR is my all time favourite commentator but I think he drags Excalibur and Schiavone down at times, Tazz and Excalibur work well together on Dark

[Chili]

I LOVE early Vince because he reminds me of a sports version of Eoin McLove. He looks like he doesn't have a willy. He's just weird.

Favourite duo will always be Monsoon & Ventura for me. It's the best and most comfortable partner for stories that Monsoon could actually excel at for once as Jesse was much like Heyman with JR in that he got some good calls out of Monsoon, though sometimes to amuse himself. You can tell when Jesse is ragging on Gorilla and it's great but always seems not too serious. They have a mutual respect.

Heenan and Monsoon are a weird one, you first think Primetime with those two and then you suddenly remember they called some banging PPV's beyond the famous Rumble 92 match. They kind of blossomed late in a way did Heenan/Monsoon, they only ever really called Challenge and they were TV squashes for the Brain to do his schtick.

Lance Russell is objectively probably the best, I've only ever seen a bit of him but I'm convinced. He treats it all with real respect for how serious you can take wrestling and not look daft, and he;'s just a brilliant host. It's a gaping hole in any memphis footage when Lance isn't there to sit with you.

At the moment Tony Schiavone is easily the best announcer going. A personality you cannot dislike, my non-wrestling fan friend adores him, thinks he just seems to be so happy to be doing anything. He's the nearest we have to a Lance Russell, JR being a bit like what Solie was before he got mothballed.

Bonus to Excalibur and Taz on DARK. Duo I enjoy the most at the moment. Excalibur is tolerable when he's not calling every move and having genuinely great bits of chat with Taz.

[Factotum]

Didn't Heyman work and work with Cole and Tazz during those days. Cole speaks highly of him and i remember on Austin's podcast Heyman saying he would get them in on their off days to redo stuff to get them better and better. They certainly felt like an announce team which so many don't now.

Cole is frustrating. We know there's a very good announcer in there, but we see it so rarely

[Maverick]

Mauro Ranallo would be my least favourite commentator of all time in any sport. Would rather have Andy Hinchcliffe or Peter Beagrie. 

Felt like he was assaulting your ears and rendered any show he was on unwatchable.

Lance is my favourite followed by Schiavone. His renaissance in AEW is one of my favourite things about the company. Was always gutted when he used to miss the odd episode early on.

Note nobody's mentioned Cornette. Similar to Heyman and really good at telling stories and adding to the match. 

[PowerButchi]

89/90 WCW had some great announcers, didn't they? Ross, Russell, Solie, Caudle, Cruise, Funk, Hayes, Garvin, Cornette, Heyman, Sullivan, probably a couple I'm forgetting. That's a real embarrassment of riches behind the desk. They're all at the very very least "Ok". 

[Jazzy G]

Bob Caudle is often overlooked. I see him more as an interviewer from my experience of his work, but he could certainly hold his own on commentary as well. I always love how Gordon Solie pronounced suplex. 

[air_raid]

I used to love Mike Tenay as the “moves” guy in the team because it was always that he knew the name of the move and told you if it suited the circumstances, without it being too much. Joey Styles always pushed it too hard with the wrestlers’ dumb move names (Danny Doring matches especially) and sometimes struggled to catch his own breath - go listen to him try and call the stereo finish ending to the opener of Guilty As Charged 99, it gives me an asthma attack. Mauro used to piss me off tremendously because he’d use as much fancy terminology as possible but only got it right about 60% of the time. As well as being loud and abrasive.

I used to hate Vince. “One, two, HE GOT HIM!.... no he didn’t” was so tiresome. He was also fond of declaring a random lump the winner of the Rumble if they came out as number 30 and boldly declared Lex Luger “the next World Wrestling Federation Champion” on his way to the ring once. Calm your tits! And he cheered for the goodies in a really unbecoming manner, which the Gorilla never did.

I won’t hear a word against Big Tone, Jesse Ventura or the obvious answer, Gorilla & The Brain.

[tiger_rick]

40 minutes ago, air_raid said:

I used to hate Vince. “One, two, HE GOT HIM!.... no he didn’t” was so tiresome. He was also fond of declaring a random lump the winner of the Rumble if they came out as number 30

Didn't he come out with something preposterous during the 1995 Rumble like "Dick Murdoch is going to WrestleMania!"