Best/Worst Announcers & Commentator Chat

[garynysmon]

I never realised how good Mike Tenay was until he was replaced by Josh Mathews in TNA tbh. What a drop in quality that was.

Meanwhile, Don West should have been the worst colour commentator of all time, but after a while they somehow clicked.

Generally a commentator is only as good as the team though. Jesse Ventura was always the best colour guy in my book, but I much preferred him with Gorilla Monsoon than Vince McMahon as he was somewhat too abrasive with the latter.

Jim Cornette has always been a great announcer, I lost all interest in the NWA after he left tbh.

[air_raid]

1 hour ago, tiger_rick said:

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

It’s possible although from memory Crush was #30 so Vince DEFINITELY had him winning upon sight.

[DCW]

Heyman and JR were the best. Heyman constantly taking the piss out of JR and forcing JR to have a go back at him, instead of the puppy killers trademark sulk that he got on for everybody else. The minute King returned after Survivor Series 01 JR was straight back on autopilot mode confusing Matt with Jeff and throwing in all the lazy cliches. TV suffered immensely for it, I would have loved to hear Heyman/JR call Rock/Hogan at Mania 18 or even just  hear Heyman on the NWO's return. Early JBL and Cole were good value too, before JBL started phoning it in completely and he became insufferable.

Matt Striker was by far my least favourite. So bloody cringe worthy. Remember during the start of Bryan's run he proudly informed his co-commentators that Bryan called his submission 'the cattle mutilation' and you could almost hear the sniggers of Cole and King. Not the mention the 'I'm marking out' shite.

I couldn't tell you who else commentates with Cole these days, as they all sound the exact fucking same with the same weird WWE language and pronunciation.

[Jazzy G]

@garynysmonMatthews & Pope were the drizzling shits, or that weird period where Matthews & Taz were calling impact from what looked like a broom cupboard with the reflection of the monitors in their glasses. It was obvious they were nowhere near any impact taping as it was the exact same room every week, but they always tried to call it as if they were sat ringside. 

Tenay & West were fun, and I enjoyed the little spell where West was playing the heel. His coming in from a non wrestling background also added some legitimacy to those moments where he'd be really excited by stuff in the early days, because you'd feel like he hadn't seen anything like that before.

I remember Jeremy Borash doing live in arena commentary alongside Simon Diamond at a WWA show in Manchester, and Diamond was so bad they sent Disco Inferno out in the second half. Heaps better. 

[Tsurutagun]

7 hours ago, RedRooster 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,

I heard (from Cole I think) that Heyman was coaching Cole and Tazz a lot during that time. The commentary of the Brock/Taker HIAC was really good. 

 

2 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

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

Vince was so hyperbolic that Rumble I'm pretty sure he would have said that Jimmy Del Ray would be going to WrestleMania had the intervals been 2 minutes instead of 1. 

Having been in a Southern States territory binge watch late last year, Gordon Solie is just magnificent especially his time in Continental Wrestling in Alabama. Lance Russell was tremendous in selling the heels being dickheads in Memphis. Lance getting pissed off at Tommy Rich and Austin Idol when they beat Lawler in a hair vs hir match is a must listen. Of the current lot, Rich Bochinini (?) who commentates on MLW is quite good

As for worst, World Class never had good commentators. Roddy Piper at SummerSlam 90 actually might be worse than Superstar Billy Graham at 88. 

Corey Graves sounds like something from a WWE 2K game. 

[bbabba]

1 hour ago, jazzygeofferz said:

@garynysmonMatthews & Pope were the drizzling shits, or that weird period where Matthews & Taz were calling impact from what looked like a broom cupboard with the reflection of the monitors in their glasses. It was obvious they were nowhere near any impact taping as it was the exact same room every week, but they always tried to call it as if they were sat ringside. 

Tenay & West were fun, and I enjoyed the little spell where West was playing the heel. His coming in from a non wrestling background also added some legitimacy to those moments where he'd be really excited by stuff in the early days, because you'd feel like he hadn't seen anything like that before.

I remember Jeremy Borash doing live in arena commentary alongside Simon Diamond at a WWA show in Manchester, and Diamond was so bad they sent Disco Inferno out in the second half. Heaps better. 

I also want to give a shout out for Tenay and West.  Hated them at first, but with their levels of enthusiasm you couldn't couldn't help but get excited about the matches and stories they were calling.  As alluded to on another thread, no one sold harder than Don West, whether it was trying to flog TNA merch, or get the viewer interested enough to watch the next PPV.  Heel turn Don West was also a short lived riot too.

TNA commentary went vastly downhill with the introduction in-turn of Taz, Matthews and Pope.  But when Callis was introduced in 2018 there was significant improvement, and he really dragged Josh Matthews to an acceptable standard.

[PowerButchi]

16 minutes ago, Tsurutagun said:

As for worst, World Class never had good commentators.

I can just about live with Marc Lowrance, just about, but yeah Bill Mercer was absolute fucking dogshit.

 

Other dump - Lee Marshall. Great voice, shite announcer

[Devon Malcolm]

5 hours ago, PowerButchi said:

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". 

Terry Funk was superb on a couple of the PPVs I watched from around that period. Didn't interject too much but was always engaging when he did. Ross and Caudle were a really solid double act too.

[Tsurutagun]

32 minutes ago, PowerButchi said:

I can just about live with Marc Lowrance, just about, but yeah Bill Mercer was absolute fucking dogshit.

 

Other dump - Lee Marshall. Great voice, shite announcer

I enjoyed Marc Lowrance in the Embry/Akhbar feud. I would guess Jerry Jarrett coached him to that adequate level

[PowerButchi]

That was exactly the point which made me say what I did about him. Hearing Lowrance say "ass" is so surreal.

 

Also it was an allround top feud. Love Embry.

[Vamp]

I seem to remember Alex Shane being pretty shit on World of Sport and downright offensive during that weird period when he was calling AAA shows. 

Striker and Vampiro being left to their own devices when calling Triple Mania several years ago was a fascinating car crash. Awful.

Kevin Kelly is always pretty decent for NJPW. 

[air_raid]

Mention of Kevin Kelly reminds me of one of my favourite tongue in cheek commentary exchanges ever. Battle royal on Shotgun featuring The Rock and every loser on the roster, comes down to Rock, Dennis Knight and Skull or 8-Ball.

Cole : “DOA thinks he’s won this one.”

Kelly : “I like Dennis Knights chances.”

60 seconds later, Rocky wins.

[cobra_gordo]

I'm a big fan of Vince on commentary and his BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG BACK BODY DROP. He's very cartoonish bit it fit the style of the product at the time.

I do prefer Heenan to Ventura for colour. Jesse sells the story well but I always really liked Brain's character work and how he would hint to having all this insider knowledge and having the upper hand over the faces whilst also coming across like that lad at school who would try and convince you his dad had made him a half pipe in the garden.

Modern Cole is just the worst and I think he knows it. He sounds so fed up at times wheeling out the same catchphrases. I do genuinely think he's great when he's off the leash though  and allowed to go off script. His commentary at the first NXT UK tournament is brilliant. There's no Vince breathing down his neck and he's not made to say IT'S BOSS TIME or whatever at a specific cued part of the show. He's clearly enjoying himself and it shows. Same with when Titus O'Neil fell over. There's a couple of minutes where it's him and the other commentators just pissing themselves and organically bouncing off each other with jokes.

I always hated Schiavone until AEW. I always found him a bit slimy, even when I was watching only WCW in the late nineties. Maybe it's how he acts on Nitro when Gorilla Monsoon has died but I always thought he was a bit of a cunt. He's my favourite commentator on AEW now as he's the one who seems to be having the most fun, he comes across really natural and likeable.

But yeah, it's JR and Heyman all day long.

[chokeout]

It's JR and Heyman for me. Heyman dragging some actual emotion out of the old puppy pummeler and winding him up is a thing of beauty. 

Cole has basically become the perfect Vince announcer, hasn't he. Able to mix seemlessly between white noise and whatever Vince is shouting into the headset. He's going to be training versions of himself for years to come. 

 

[Daaaaaad!]

34 minutes ago, chokeout said:

Able to mix seemlessly between white noise and whatever Vince is shouting into the headset.

Must be bloody difficult too. I imagine most people have seen this but it's (mildly NSFW) audio of just Cole's side of a conversation between him and Vince:

One can imagine the sort of response he's getting.