Best/Worst Announcers & Commentator Chat

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

5 hours ago, RoryFice said:

I'm struggling to pinpoint exactly when Michael Cole went from being ok to unbearable. Perhaps after his feud with Lawler?

I reckon it was his move to Raw in 2008. Being on the flagship meant he was under the microscope more than ever, and it crushed the fragments of personality he showed throughout his Smackdown run with Tazz and JBL. It was all about hitting the points of production (sponsors, WWE app, Tout, Twitter etc etc) more than actually calling the product. I liked him a little prior to that.

An interesting point I've heard is that Cole and Tazz were more free on Smackdown due to Vince being a semi-active performer during that time period. Makes sense, since Vince was too busy with his segments and occasional matches to yell at Cole over the headset.

JR and Lawler still remains my gold standard, although they massively fell off later in their run. Up until around 2005 they were both dialled in, then it seemed like Lawler was the first to really stop giving a shit. JR tried up until around 2008, whenever they paired him with Todd Grisham and he sounded like he hated every last second of it. JR and Heyman were brilliant too, although their run was a little short to give them the top prize IMO.

Also, a shoutout to Tom Phillips and Corey Graves in NXT, they were both passionate and funny, great banter, knowledge and sold the stories well. Much like Cole, the main roster production completely took away their personalities, or at least every fun aspect of them. Both get a lot of grief now, but I promise there's great commentators hidden under the layers of corporate molding.

[CavemanLynn]

7 hours ago, PowerButchi said:

Worldwide tapes had great odd commentary. From Steven Regal commentating on his own matches in 1994 and claiming he was checking the canvas for dirt, Armando Quintero in 1999 acting like Cheech Marin, Larry Z the same year on C5 seeming even more bored than usual unless the Blue Bloods appeared who "Eat tea and sip Cumprets. The Big un from Wigan, Steve Regal!!!" to Angry Mike Tenay, the UK episodes of Worldwide always had marvellous "ah, fuck it anyway let's have a laugh" commentary. 

I thought I'd hallucinated this, as I hadn't been able to find evidence of it since. I remember one distinct call by Regal, who was apparently enjoying afternoon tea in the commentary booth, of: "I'm sorry, I missed that. I was just chewing on a piece of currant."