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Shard posted:Cole has been commentating since the 90s he's the one who called mankind's first world title win Jr wasn't there I didnt think cole was a main fixture on raw or smackdown commentary til mid 2000s. Thought he was mostly doing heat, backstage, and substitute in the 90s.
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May 10, 2023 03:48
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cole did livewire and shotgun saturday night in 1997 but quickly joined the raw announce team toward the end of the year and stayed there for over half a year until that setup (w/ JR and kevin kelley) got replaced by the JR/king duo. then a few months after that JR had to take a leave of absence and cole became the lead guy for a few more months, including the entire extended road to wrestlemania 15. he was on there a fuckload during those two years. he stepped away from that right into being the lead announcer on smackdown when it started
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May 10, 2023 04:04
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that's why they say michael cole is a gamer.
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May 10, 2023 04:06
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Defenestrategy posted:I didnt think cole was a main fixture on raw or smackdown commentary til mid 2000s. Thought he was mostly doing heat, backstage, and substitute in the 90s. quote:In late 1997, Cole became one of the three announcers for the first hour of Monday Night Raw, alongside Jim Ross and Kevin Kelly. Eventually, Cole was permanently replaced by Jerry Lawler in mid-1998. In December 1998, Cole became the regular play-by-play announcer for Raw is War, subbing for Jim Ross when Ross was ill with Bell's palsy. He continued in this role until WrestleMania XV in March 1999.
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May 10, 2023 04:14
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Mark Madden in WCW
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May 10, 2023 04:27
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vampiro in lucha underground
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May 10, 2023 05:32
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Suplex Liberace posted:vampiro in lucha underground Vampiro was at least saying really stupid stuff I could laugh at while Matt Striker was saying really stupid stuff that was just annoying.
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May 10, 2023 05:37
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Cole is crazy underappreciated. Everything people hate about him is someone else's fault that he gets to be the public face of. He produces the commentary across the brands including NXT and can call an actual wrestling match if ordered to. He's a company man who's willing to produce garbage, but that order isn't his call.
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May 10, 2023 05:42
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Nehru the Damaja posted:Cole is crazy underappreciated. Everything people hate about him is someone else's fault that he gets to be the public face of. He produces the commentary across the brands including NXT and can call an actual wrestling match if ordered to. If a guy produces bad commentary for the majority of his career he's not underappreciated. Maybe he's poorly utilized, but he has been responsible for some of the worst commentary in history. No one has any reason to appreciate the guy who annoyed the gently caress out of them as heel Michael Cole, and some of that was in his delivery, not just it being a really bad idea. He's producing bad commentary and speaking bad commentary that turns people off of a show. Can he do a good job? Sometimes, but like, he mostly doesn't so it's not a case of being underappreciated.
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May 10, 2023 05:45
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX0x73WcAmY
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May 10, 2023 06:02
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Mark Madden in WCW was unbearable. Every sound that came out of his mouth prompted a 'SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP' response from me, sometimes followed by me muting the show if he didn't in a timely manner.
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May 10, 2023 06:31
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Madden was also really bad because Scott Hudson would constantly take his bait and they'd have little squabbles during the actual matches. Meanwhile, Tony just kind of sat there quietly not giving a poo poo. It kind of was like proto-heel Michael Cole now that I think of it.
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May 10, 2023 06:42
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MassRafTer posted:A lot of the territorial announcers were really loving bad but people grew up with Ed Whalen so they think he was good even though he was extremely bad. Ed Whalen is up there for sure....Also not that good of a hockey announcer either
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May 10, 2023 06:45
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Hedgehog Pie posted:Madden was also really bad because Scott Hudson would constantly take his bait and they'd have little squabbles during the actual matches. Meanwhile, Tony just kind of sat there quietly not giving a poo poo. It kind of was like proto-heel Michael Cole now that I think of it. It definitely felt that way. Hudson sounding exactly like Officer Barbrady from South Park didn't make the affair any better to listen to.
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May 10, 2023 06:50
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I was trying to remember why I hated Mark Madden before he was on WCW and I saw he wrote for the Pro Wrestling Torch. Surprised that this suggests I read that in the 1990s, but I guess at that point I would have read basically everything I could find online that talked about wrestling until I decided the author did not actually like wrestling, which probably happened with Madden
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May 10, 2023 07:03
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Michael Cole was on comms when mankind won his first world title and 'mick foley has realised his dream and the dreams of everyone who's ever been told "you can't do it!"' is a genuine all timer piece of commentary that I assume wasn't fed to him since basically everyone else in the company was in the ring, so on the basis of that he cant be the worst ever imo
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May 10, 2023 07:38
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Nehru the Damaja posted:Cole is crazy underappreciated. Everything people hate about him is someone else's fault that he gets to be the public face of. He produces the commentary across the brands including NXT and can call an actual wrestling match if ordered to. Yes, he’s better when he doesn’t have Vince in his ear, you’d like to think he’s capable, but he’s spent 25 years with Vince in his ear, at what point is he complicit in his own poor quality output?
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May 10, 2023 08:28
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Also cole and tazz are the GOAT smackdown commentary team. cole miners rise up
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May 10, 2023 08:34
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bryan’s weirdest flex ever cracks me up every time
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May 10, 2023 08:51
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MassRafTer posted:But Matt Striker is the worst to ever do it regularly. I also can't stand Jordan Castle for the same reasons I can't stand Striker. Along with the Striker brand of extremely strained analogies, Castle adds trying way too hard to be funny like it's open mic night at a lovely comedy club, and also yelling so loud his audio blows out most of the time.
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May 10, 2023 09:38
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Michael Cole sucks. Commentator for two decades plus and has like three good calls all of which happened over ten years ago. Every announcer has their own tics and go-to phrases but Cole’s are all terrible. OH MY
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May 10, 2023 09:46
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Bruce Pritchard doing a Dusty impression as the character Rio Rogers was awful.
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May 10, 2023 10:40
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the sex ghost posted:Michael Cole was on comms when mankind won his first world title and 'mick foley has realised his dream and the dreams of everyone who's ever been told "you can't do it!"' is a genuine all timer piece of commentary that I assume wasn't fed to him since basically everyone else in the company was in the ring, so on the basis of that he cant be the worst ever imo It could've been JR talking to him, as Beyond the Mat shows this happening at the Rumble not long after this show, but either way I agree it was a cool moment helped by the commentary. I think Cole was okay during early 2000s Smackdown, where I know Heyman often went through things in detail with him and Taz. I actually quite liked what I saw of the heel stuff for a bit, but it went on for way too long and it seriously messed up the commentary dynamic. I don't think heel commentators are necessarily bad, you just need a half-decent play-by-play to compensate for it, which they didn't have and couldn't be bothered to supply. Also, everything seemed to be pointing towards him being the anonymous GM, until I presume Vince got bored with the angle and revealed it to be Hornswoggle for a joke.
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May 10, 2023 13:34
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Seams posted:OH MY COULD IT BE
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May 10, 2023 13:56
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SatoshiMiwa posted:Ed Whalen is up there for sure....Also not that good of a hockey announcer either I had some people talk him up like he was the Canadian Lance Russell and boy howdy was that a prevarication.
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May 10, 2023 15:38
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neoaxd posted:COULD IT BE IT IS
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May 10, 2023 15:48
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Not the worst of the worst, but Marvez doing the first couple AEW shows was ROUGH.
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May 10, 2023 16:31
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Cole may have had some stinkers but also some good moments and is fine when he doesn't have Vince in his ear. Striker isn't the worst because he seemed genuinely engaged with the product but his constant making references in matches did get insufferable. The Casualty of War (or whatever it was called) match in Lucha Underground between Killshot and Dante Fox is fantastic but Striker's overuse of war references make it a chore to listen to. Madden however I don't think has had any entertaining calls nor did he add anything of any value to the show that he was on. He was also thoroughly unpleasant to listen to and actively made you dislike him every time he opened his mouth. Don West will never be considered one of the greatest commentators of all time. He'd slip up and say some silly things but I still enjoyed listening to him because he was so genuinely enthusiastic and excited about the product and he would try and get over everyone involved. Madden is the complete opposite of this because he was only interested in getting himself over and was just a complete prick (and still is from what I've read).
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May 10, 2023 17:30
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Yeah to me it's Madden or Rob Bartlett, and I'm leaning the former because Bartlett was so clearly a case of "Does not know what he's doing here in the first place."
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May 10, 2023 18:19
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Lucha Underground felt like the exactly right place for Matt Striker to be. Putting him on play-by-play rather than color restrained some of his worst tendencies and it was a weird enough show that I don't think being all hyper-referential was damaging the way it would have been on a normal TV broadcast.
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May 10, 2023 18:30
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Lawler came in as a less-talented Heenan rip off on comms and then evolved into a misogynistic bore to listen to. He’s the worst.
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May 10, 2023 18:55
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Maxwell Lord posted:Yeah to me it's Madden or Rob Bartlett, and I'm leaning the former because Bartlett was so clearly a case of "Does not know what he's doing here in the first place." This is fair. Madden hits me as what Bartlett would have been like if he stuck around and believed himself to be really good at his job.
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May 10, 2023 19:09
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I haven't heard enough of Madden's sports radio to judge but I wonder if he, like Bartlett are somehow even worse at their day jobs than they were wrestling announcers. Bartlett on the Don Imus show is just some of the worst radio in history, and him talking about Imus on other shows is even more pathetic.
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May 10, 2023 19:13
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MassRafTer posted:I haven't heard enough of Madden's sports radio to judge but I wonder if he, like Bartlett are somehow even worse at their day jobs than they were wrestling announcers. I've seen some of NFL Networks top 10 shows with Madden on there and he...was not good
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May 10, 2023 19:30
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Madden for me. In terms of just "bad" I'll give an honorable mention to David "Look at that!" Crocket, but he's saved by how high he would occasionally hit on the unintentional comedy scale.
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May 10, 2023 20:56
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MassRafTer posted:I haven't heard enough of Madden's sports radio to judge but I wonder if he, like Bartlett are somehow even worse at their day jobs than they were wrestling announcers. Madden is notorious for carrying water for ownership
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May 10, 2023 22:10
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the sex ghost posted:Also cole and tazz are the GOAT smackdown commentary team. cole miners rise up Cole and Taz were great in the Eddie vs Brock match in 2004 when Eddie won the title.
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May 10, 2023 22:28
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Cole and Taz were a great team and Cole has proven in recent years with things like the Mae Young Classic and other side-events that Vince isn't there for that he's a decent-to-good commentator when he's given the chance. I know he's company man and he's never going to leave the WWE but I am genuinely curious what Cole would be like on the mic outside of the WWE as far away from the company as possible.
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May 10, 2023 22:34
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Shane McMahon and Jim Ross Shane McMahon and Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler Shane McMahon and Micheal Cole Shane McMahon and Jim Cornette Shane McMahon and Kevin Kelley Shane McMahon and Tazz There is one common link here and it's the person who did not continue to have a long and successful career as a wrestling commentator because he is the worst of all time and it is Shane McMahon
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May 10, 2023 23:10
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I'll say, I don't think anyone on the screen has done more damage to more wrestling over time than Michael Cole. Lots of people have been much worse, but Michael Cole makes every match he calls worse, and he's called more matches than almost anyone at this point, so the damage is incalculable.
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May 10, 2023 23:24
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