Thoughts From The Top Rope 04.01.09: Behind the Booth

Indeed, it’s been said that there’s been a real lack of big news in the wrestling world, considering we’re agonizingly close to WrestleMania 25. That changed yesterday however as, seemingly out of nowhere, it was announced that Tazz is officially done with WWE, his contract expiring earlier this week and Monday’s SmackDown tapings being his last piece of work for the company. Usually the Internet Wrestling Community is well-informed regarding when performers’ contracts are set to expire, but this turned out to be an exception, perhaps because Tazz was just an announcer rather than a wrestler, as no one saw this coming at all.

However, I think it provides a great opportunity both for us and for WWE to take a look at the standard of the commentary announcers provide for their three weekly TV shows, Raw, ECW and SmackDown. In theory, announcers are there to help enhance the product and put over the angles, matches and Superstars so that viewers will be more inclined to order pay-per-views. Needless to say, some do this better than others.

Over the past few years, WWE has had something of a revolving door when it comes to the announce booth; mainstays like Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Tazz and Michael Cole have remained but in some cases changed shows, Todd Grisham and Matt Striker have settled into their role on ECW and the likes of Joey Styles, Jonathan Coachman, JBL and Mick Foley have come and gone.

With Striker and Grisham seemingly having the approval of fans and management alike, and Jim Ross settling with his place on the Blue Brand, it looked as though the long-term announce duos for Raw, SmackDown and ECW had been settled upon. That said, even before Tazz’s departure, there were still obvious problems at the announce desk.

Raw’s announce team of Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler is pretty tedious. Michael Cole is despised almost universally, and while I think he does a decent enough job of play-by-play, his over-reliance on certain phrases has become a real problem, to the point that fellow performers and announcers have made “vintage Cole” jokes in their blogs and even on the shows themselves. But it’s not like pointing out that there is a problem on TV solves the problem, it merely exposes it more. I don’t think Cole is as bad as others, certainly not to the point where he drives away viewers like TNA’s commentating duo of Tenay and West do, but Raw is the A-show, and as such should have the best announce team, surely? Jerry Lawler doesn’t helped. He’s sounded uninspired and unoriginal for the past few years and has developed a really monotonous tone of voice; it comes across as though he doesn’t care about the product anymore, and if he doesn’t, why should the viewers?

Moving over to SmackDown, I think Jim Ross and Tazz made a great duo. I always liked the personality Tazz brought to the table and Ross is Ross, although I’m not saying he’s flawless, far from it. All that said, I think SmackDown’s double-tapings have hindered their work. Commentating for such a long period of time certainly isn’t easy, and I think that tends to show when the second of a double set of tapings airs – Ross sounds almost exhausted and disinterested, and I think to a lesser extent so does Tazz. Now, the advantages of post-production shouldn’t allow this to happen, and I think that’s something that others in WWE need to address, but on the other hand, if you need announcers to work three-four hour slots, perhaps a more youthful and enthusiastic play-by-play is needed. I’m not one of those guys accusing Ross of phoning it in, but there are times when it seems his position is taken for granted. He may still be the best play-by-play in WWE, but I don’t think he’s head and shoulders above Grisham or even Cole at this point. Bottom line, I think Ross as a broadcaster is expendable.

On a more positive note, I’ve nothing negative to say about ECW’s Slammy award winning pairing of Todd Grisham and Matt Striker. WWE struck gold when they put Striker behind the desk, and to mine and many others’ surprise, Grisham has transitioned excellently into the role of play-by-play guy. His improvement since his days on Heat is ridiculously evident, though I wonder how much of that has to do with working with a natural like Striker rather than Coach, who had plenty of opportunity to improve, working with some of the best in the business, and never did.

Now, with Tazz departing WWE, there is a colour-commentator’s spot open. At this point, one can only hope that the rumors of our Intercontinental Champion heading for in-ring retirement (again) are true, because if you’ll recall, when JBL retired in the Spring of 2006, he took to the announce booth like a duck to water. You knew JBL was good, because he made Michael Cole tolerable. What JBL did so well was put over the performers that much more, as well as making everything that was going on in the ring seem like the most important thing fans would see in a wrestling ring that year. Of course, it’s no certainty that JBL is even contemplating retiring from the ring, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if JBL were to drop the Intercontinental Championship in the opening match Sunday before taking up a seat alongside Jim Ross to call the SmackDown matches. Alternatively, they could always give Mike Adamle a call.

Conveniently WWE has a Draft scheduled in less than two weeks, and this could give them the opportunity to freshen things up not just in terms of Superstars on each roster, but also behind the booths. You’ll likely remember the outcry last year when JR and Michael Cole switched shows, although neither was informed of the move. Most were not happy with the switch, least of all Jim Ross. And with Michael Cole seemingly making no improvements as well as the promising new team on ECW, I wouldn’t be too surprised to see more announcers switching shows this year.

The one guy I think has to move in this draft is The King. He’s just so stale and uninspired, and he’s been announcing on Raw almost constantly for well over a decade now. That said, I don’t have any particular interest in seeing him paired up with Jim Ross again – those two may be best of friends and all that, but as an announcing duo, I think these guys ran their course together. I think they’ll probably go down as the greatest announce duo in history, but all good things must come to an end, and their run did. Therefore, I’d like to see Lawler on ECW alongside Todd Grisham, if for no other reason than it’s the freshest possible move for Lawler. Lawler could even play a role as part-time in-ring worker and lend a helping hand to some of the younger guys on ECW.

Obviously that leaves Matt Striker without a broadcast colleague. While I’d imagine he and Jim Ross could well make an awesome duo, I can also see Striker having “The JBL Effect” on Cole, covering up for his inadequacies and making him seem like a more than capable play-by-play guy. And that leaves us with the (unlikely?) duo of JR and JBL. Both guys are old school and both excel at hyping the product, and for that reason I think it’d make the most sense for JBL and JR to be the announce duo on Raw, with Cole and Striker working SmackDown.

Commentators, or announcers if you prefer, are as important an aspect of a wrestling show as any other. They are the one constant of the show, as we hear them throughout each broadcast. Hence it is important for a company like WWE to have the right partnerships in place to best promote their product. Truth be told, there are one or two announcers on TV at the moment who simply aren’t good enough. And while WWE could simply look to bring in new members to the announce booth, they could easily make up for “vintage Cole” and uninspired Lawler by freshening things up and forming new partnerships. Of course, it could be argued that this is only a short term fix, but I’d argue that WWE already has younger announcers ready to take over roles on the bigger shows in Grisham and Striker. And regardless of how well or badly WWE announcers perform, they can rest easy in the knowledge that they’re still leaps and bounds ahead of the “competition.”