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Sympathy For Cole?

Hey Scott,

    I appreciate you indulging the questions I and others pose to you.  I have a question for you, which I'm sure will cause some good debate amongst the Keithminers.  Is Michael Cole a sympathetic figure?  Hear me out: His debut was at SummerSlam '97 when he tried to interview Stone Cold on his way to his infamous match with Owen Hart.  Austin called him a piece of trash, and threatened to make the new guy kiss his ass.  After middling around as an interview guy/merchandise stand for The Rock, he suddenly gets thrown in as lead announcer when Jim Ross is struck with Bells Palsy.  It was very clear he was not ready for the job, as you pointed out many times in your brutal but hilarious rants.  My favorites are "Michael Cole the Goatee Wearing Little Bitch", your recap of the Rock/Mankind I quit match at the '99 Rumble, calling him out for saying the most dangerous part of Hell in a Cell is getting your fingers caught in the cage, and my all-time favorite SK match, the Rock Bottom Buried Alive match, with your running gag based on Cole's assertion that the tombstone above the grave  “weighs in excess of 3000 pounds.” When Ross mercifully came back, he went right back to being humiliated weekly backstage.  He finally catches a break when he is paired with Taz on Smackdown! doing a much better, if unremarkable, job as the lead commentator on the B show. 

Then Vince decides, without telling them, that JR and Cole will be switching brands in the 2008 draft.  Clearly Vince wants Cole to be his new lead, since he has been groomed in the "WWE Style" commentary that Vince loves.  Naturally the fans rebel and Vince, since he knows better, just has Cole turn heel, because what better way to make someone hated by the fans popular than by making him a jerk.  His running down of Daniel Bryan wasn't too bad, but then he is forced to repeatedly mock JR's weight and Bells Palsy, comment on Jerry Lawler's mom dying and bringing his son out to call his father neglectful, act like a chauvinist pig, stuff his paunchy announcer body into a skin tight unitard, "wrestle" a match that would have been ranked worst of the year if not for Jeff Hardy and basically put down every face in the company not named John Cena.  Add to that, he is now the embodiment of everything the fans hate about the WWE.  His relentless Twitter chatter, not to mention confusing trending with most talked about, ignoring the action in the ring, calling belts championships, using the term sports entertainment and calling wrestlers superstars.  There was an incident on Raw a few months back where he called CM Punk a superstar on commentary, and Punk insisted he was a wrestler.

My point is, it seems like he was a guy who was treated like a joke for so long, got some credibility, was thrust into a spot the fans hated, and then became the most hated heel in the company for the wrong reasons. While I have heard he has a bit of an ego since he is friends with Cena, I can't imagine this heel crap was all his idea.  Vince loves to make his employees due what he wants no matter how much the hate it.  Michelle McCool admitted in an interview she and Layla hated the Piggie James storyline, but Vince wouldn't relent. Mark Henry was forced to be felt up by a cross dresser, get in a sexual relationship with an 80 year old woman AND admit to being in an incestuous relationship with his sister, all allegedly to get him to quit so Vince could reneg on that infamous contract.  While I'm sure Cole enjoys his salary, and the luxury of being considered an employee and getting benefits, he just seems like a guy who was doomed from the start and never saw the signs coming.

Thoughts?

 

You lost me at “Sympathy for Michael Cole.”  Although there did used to be a point where he would appear to have a mind of his own without Vince yelling in his ear all the time, but a couple of years ago he appeared to buy into the Michael Cole Character 100% and would act that way even when it was known that Vince was in another country at the time. 

No, I’m afraid the Michael Cole who had potential to grow and change is long dead. 

Comments

  1. Michael Cole should have quit commentary on a regular basis after WM last year.

    He could have done tremendously well as a heel manager or GM. But as a lead play-by-play? He's awful.

    But then there is no logical reason that a heel play-by-play should work. His character is annoying, sanctimonious and egotistical. Why should we be surprised that such a character being the most heard voice in WWE = turn off

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  2. Although there did used to be a point where he would appear to have a mind of his own without Vince yelling in his ear all the time, but a couple of years ago he appeared to buy into the Michael Cole Character 100% and would act that way even when it was known that Vince was in another country at the time.

    But isn't that just him doing his job?  I'm not defending him, but are you saying that when Vince isn't around he should do whatever he wants?

    But one thing that I hate - and others have commented on this before - is how Cole will spill his vitriol and be at odds with the announcers...and then they cut to some video package or promotional deal and they're all smiling and agreeing with each other, acting all buddy-buddy.

    And given how he used Lawler's family in that angle, his condemnation of Jericho is absurd to those of us who care abotu continuity.

    I also remember how people commented on how he looked in shape during the Taxi Driver parody ad; compare that with recent times.

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  3. Keithminers? I thought we, as a collective, were known as Little Keithers?

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  4. If WWE doesn't care about continuity...sigh...there's no point in arguing about Cole's various about-faces. 8 (

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  5. I don't know, I have a feeling that Cole loves being able to play an obnoxious jerk character now and looked like he was having the time of his life in the buildup to WM last year. I'm sure it couldn't have been easy to play a happy smiling babyface shill on TV for over a decade while knowing that all the fans out there hated you. Believe me, I've been attending PPVs and TV tapings for years and even before Cole turned heel, he ALWAYS got booed when he was introduced to the live crowd!
     
    Whenever I see him act like douche on TV, I see him unleashing a decade's worth of repressed anger and frustration. Even though his heel persona has made people hate him even more, I'm willing to bet Cole greatly prefers it to his babyface persona.

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  6.  I don't want to listen to Michael Cole anymore. Somebody please make him go away.

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  7. I really want Michael Cole to disappear. You have Joey Styles and Jim Ross on your payroll and you don't use them? One of which you use to manage your website?

    Fucking baffling to say the least.

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  8. I thought the "belts are called championships" thing was fairly new, but then I went back and watched the awesome surprise HHH-Rikishi title match from '99, and he said about 5 times that HHH hit Rikishi in the head "with the championship."

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  9. Michael Cole is just now allowed to act like himself.  I remember tons of interviews from the early-to-mid '00s that weren't for WWE TV and he came off like a pompous douchebag each and every time.  The only difference is now he's filmed doing it weekly.

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  10. What part of what Cole does is considered Play-by-Play?  Aside from the occasional clothesline, dropkick, or body slam, the dude calls nothing except recap the current story that your supposed to care about involving one of the guys currently in the ring.  Or recap the previous segment's dastardly attack ad nauseum.  And that's just how Vince wants it.  And why you'l never see Styles call a match again, or see Jim Ross do anything other than WM's, which is really a shame.

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  11. A belt is something that holds your pants up!  ~Vincent Kennedy McMahon

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  12. It's pretty funny that some people are simply stating that they just want him to go away and leaving it at that.  I agree.  Why does he have to be on both shows?  The answer: He doesn't.  Joey Styles, Jim Ross, Scott Stanford (he has the most potential, to be honest), William Regal--use anybody else but him.

    Worse yet, whenever I want to go back in time and watch wrestling on various DVDs, he's been "the voice" of WWE for so long that he is invading that moment of solace.  For a while, I could at least escape him and listen to JR commentary on DVDs.  Not so much anymore.  It's been four friggin years he's been on Raw. #sadface, trending worldwide.

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  13. You know, with all this pushing of Twitter, I'm shocked people haven't tried to get #getmichaelcoleoffcommentary or #bringbackjimross trending to see if it shows up on television?

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  14. Cole and Tazz remain my favorite commentary team post-Monsoon; they had a really nice "odd couple" feel to them, their friendly jabs were often funny, and they'd put over the psychology of the match as well. It's a shame what his character is now (I enjoyed it up until he never got his comeuppance at WM last year), because I felt OK in being a Cole apologist. Now, I can't even defend him and indeed must join the anti-Cole masses.

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  15. I liked Doom buggies

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  16. I loved his call on the Edde-Lesnar match.

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  17. My idea was something similar to what was done on Raw (well, in theory): you have Cole be an arrogant dickbag (so, you know, himself) and just really antagonize someone, let's say Sheamus. Sheamus wins the title at Wrestlemania, Cole keeps ripping on him and eventually is about to punk him out when Miz jumps him. Sheamus challenges Cole with the caveat that if Sheamus wins he gets five minutes alone with Cole. Cole accepts and then Sheamus says if Cole weasels out Cole's fired, cue overacting. Sheamus wins and just as he's about to lay down the beating of Cole's life, Cole says he quits. Cole runs down the fans, says they're awful people for wanting an announcer to get beaten up and that he doesn't want to entertain people like them so he quits. Bring back Jim Ross, make him the play-by-play man for a couple of weeks and then have John Laurinitis announce that he's made a major coup by signing a major free agent: Michael Cole. You can go one of two ways from here: either Cole is the "color commentator for the new millennium" and is part of a three man booth with Ross and Lawler or Cole is a manager/"official announcer" for Miz/Swagger/whatever heel you want to get over. 

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  18. Jim Ross doesn't have the stamina to call every Raw anymore. Jim Ross is the best pbp announcer ever, but he's been doing it for 30 years. It's time to give someone a chance, someone who is young, knowledgeable and ready. Of course, finding that person will be hard but I'm sure there's someone out there. Like wrestlers, eventually the old ones need to step down and the new ones need to come in to bit the product. That's what they've kind of done with Michael Cole (even though he's pretty old himself), but at least as a heel, it isn't working thus far.

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  19. Except that J.R. seems to constantly post on his Twitter page about how he wants to still be behind the commentary desk. Or get Joey Styles? Why have him manage the website when he's a young and capable guy that can actually call a match?

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  20. Don't get me wrong: Jim Ross could call important events but I doubt he'd be able to call it on a daily basis anymore. Joey Styles is far from young. He's 40 years old. Maybe Vince McMahon doesn't want Styles calling Raw because he'll be known as an "ECW" guy. As much as I would want to see Styles or Jim Ross call the shows, from a business standpoint, I believe it's better to get someone young and new to fit the evolution of the product.

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  21. 40 is very young for a commentator in most sports, and pretty young in wrestling. 

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  22. Yes! That was a great and underrated combo. They often treated the matches like an actual sports event and it added to the competition, in my opinion. The suspension of disbelief is helped when you feel like you're actually watching a sport and Cole and Tazz were good at that.

    And, yes, he's soooo much worse now.

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  23. Yeah, 40 is young. Brent Musburger and Marv Albert (two of the best PbP guys in sports) are WAY older. So was Keith Jackson.

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  24.  Yup, pretty much. There's some intercepted satellite footage floating around youtube and he's acting like a douche in all of it.

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  25. Cole is older than Joey Styles. So your young theory is out the window.

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  26. "That's what they've kind of done with Michael Cole (even though he's pretty old himself), but at least as a heel, it isn't working thus far." I said that in the orginal comment.

    I think Joey Styles would be one hell of an upgrade to Cole. I thought Styles was a top 3 or 4 announcer of all time. However, Joey Styles got his chance, plus he said he doesn't want to announce anymore. So, it's time for someone new and young to announce. I bet there's at least one person in this world who's young and can announce.

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  27. In defense of Michael Cole, I think if he would occasionally be like he is here, he'd probably be more entertaining.

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  28. While I think that Cole is AWFUL in his current heel role, I actually find it a little unnerving that so many people seem to have a problem with him as a human being, as if the actor and the performer are one and the same.

    I firmly believe that Cole is trying his best and putting his all into every performance, I just think he happens to be terrible at it. Going on long tirades, insulting all the faces, talking over the other commentators... I think those are all just his attempts at being a great heel. And you know what? In those ways, he's actually doing exactly what Vince, seemingly, is asking of him. The problem, though, at least in my own opinion, is that he has no conviction; as has been noted many times by many people, he'll often follow-up a big "heel" rant by smiling and laughing along with the other commentators, or perform some sort of "vain" action (such as dancing around the ring) with a giant shit-eating grin on his face. He's basically a terrible actor that has been tasked with playing a major role on a TV show.

    And that's not his fault. It's Vince's fault. The character and performer are "bit players" at best, but Vince is either too stubborn or too out of touch to make a change. "Evil Cole" shouldn't be the lead announcer for EVERY SINGLE BROADCAST, but a manager that gets five minutes of mic-time a week. He'd be FANTASTIC in that role! Just like some wrestlers are considered too one-dimensional to be legit main-eventers, the same is true of Cole; he's just annoying enough to help generate some help for a struggling mid-carder, but not so good at his act where he should be one of the biggest focuses of the product.

    Then again, maybe I'm doing exactly what I'm accusing others of, that being judging Cole on his current persona. I'll actually argue that when he first started with this character, during the original season of "NXT" when he was bad-mouthing Daniel Bryan, he was REALLY good. I thought the promo he cut on Bryan, saying that Bryan "tapped out of this competition", was fantastic, it felt really genuine, and you could cut the tension between Cole and Bryan with a knife. If we could get more of THAT Cole, I don't think people would be complaining as much; he wasn't an annoying loudmouth desperately seeking attention, but an intellectual cutting to the chase and citing facts ("you say that you're the best wrestler here, but you haven't won a match yet"). Granted, even with that character, he probably shouldn't be the lead play-by-play guy, but I think he would have been a great heel color man.

    Like a lot of great ideas and one-time performances, though, I'm sure Vince took one look at it and said "give me that, times a thousand!" And that's on Vince.

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