Remember how I said I was going to remain positive after the last couple Wolski’s Wrestling Recaps? I may have exhausted all that with The New Day articles. So I ask you to give me one more week of negativity to ramble on one of what I consider to be a lost art of professional wrestling.
That being solid commentary during the show that gets you into the action and is enthralling enough to provide stories, context and laughs for you while you watch. In terms of the WWE, that is gone, except in certain bright spots.
I can’t tell you the exact date that realization came to me, but it would definitely be around the tail end of 2012.
Heel Michael Cole was going strong, making fun of the faces and even some of the heels. Jerry Lawler sounded like he wanted to be anywhere else, and the only bright spot for me was Booker T.
Booker T was not a good commentator in the traditional sense. He never named moves, flubbed lines, and just wasn’t good at calling the action. But he had one thing no one had at the time.
Emotion.
He sounded like he loved what he was watching and when he was excited, I was excited. When he was mad, I was mad. I loved hearing him talk about “shucky ducky quack quack,” and his ever-rotating “fave five” that usually had at least 10 people in it.
The ability to convey that emotion and be invested in wrestling is gone from WWE now. All we have is Cole and Tom Phillips spouting buzzwords, Jonathan Coachmen spouting nonsense while sounding like he’d rather be back at ESPN and Byron Saxton making Gorilla Monsoon sound like a good commentator.
Even bringing back Jim Ross, one of the all-time great commentators, didn’t work out. Be it because of old age or a loss of passion, JR falls into the same trap Cole and Phillips have lived in for years. Raw 25 was abysmal when JR and Lawler had to carry the broadcast.
The only good recent call JR had was with Nigel McGuinness calling the Tyler Bate-Pete Dune match at Takeover Chicago last year.
One of the few bright spots in WWE announcing is Corey Graves. He is very funny and has a quick wit that harkens back to the days of Jesse Ventura and Bobby Heenan. There’s a reason he’s on both Raw and Smackdown.
However, one bright spot can’t save a whole show, and especially since Booker T is gone and can’t have great banter with Graves and Cole. Say what you want about him, but Booker T’s constant criticism of Jason Jordan was hilarious.
But not all is lost because there are a few commentary teams in wrestling that still do a good job.
For instance, the NXT commentary has been on point. Mauro Ranallo is fantastic at what he does and makes everything and everyone in NXT seem like a big deal. Nigel McGuinness is a good foil that cheers for the heels on occasion and brings his years of ring experience to help add context. Percy Watson is just kind of there, but he does nothing to take away from the commentary, which is a plus.
Also, I can say that in NJPW, Don Callis and Kevin Kelly are a pretty good commentary team. Callis is funny and helps provide some good background to the characters, and Kelly brings the emotional and historical facts in. They’re not my favorite, but they do a really solid job and helped introduce me to New Japan.
I can’t speak on ROH or TNA, as I don’t watch them, save from the old DVDs I have. However, one of the better commentary duos I can remember is Don West and Mike Tenay from the earlier days of TNA.
I have plenty of DVDs focusing on the 2004-2008 period of TNA (which you could argue was its prime) and West and Tenay complemented each other perfectly and made some of the standout action you see even better. West always sounded genuinely shocked when someone pulled out a big move, and Tenay was great at getting the facts and backgrounds on each wrestler and feud. It was the best of both worlds, emotion and play by play.
However, the commentary issue in WWE is part of the much larger problem it faces, as everything in WWE is too squeaky clean, too sanitized and too corporate. Nothing feels genuine, and it reflects onto the commentary.
Granted, if I had to deal with so many moving parts (including Vince McMahon yelling at you to say certain things in your earpiece) I’d probably suck too. For now I’ll just stick to watching 1997 Raws with the classic JR, King and McMahon trio.
Henry Wolski
Executive Editor