"Scott,
Are those my only choices? Because teams like Rod Trongard and Lord Alfred Hayes on MSG shows were soul-suckingly awful. But anything with JBL on it wins by default because he's tremendous .
I was watching some of Mysterio's WCW cruiserweight matches last week and it occured to me that WCW's announce team back in the heyday was just as bad as WWE's current Raw team. So, in your opinion, who's the worst announcing team: current WWE Raw (Cole/Lawler/JBL) or mid-90's WCW (Tony/Heenan/Dusty)?
Wes"
Scott, don't forget Billy Graham! Those Trongard/Hayes/Graham teams make watching those 1988 shows almost impossible.
ReplyDeleteTony Schiavone from 94-96 was about as good as anyone.
ReplyDeleteStarrcade 95 is probably his best call ever.
While I loved Vince/Lawler in '94 and JR/Lawler from '98 onwards, Vince/JR/Lawler in '96-'97 was horrible. It just didn't work. Vince did play-by-play, Jerry did heel color commentary, but JR was left with nothing to do but yell SWEET CHIN MUSIC, SWEET CHIN MUSIC!
ReplyDeleteTOMBSTONE! TOMBSTONE! HE DID IT!
I never had a problem with Tony but Mike Tenay was beyond awful and Heenan, though great in WWE with Monsoon or Vince, was nearly as bad as Tenay in WCW.
ReplyDeleteWell Heenan just gave up once he got down to Atlanta. He just took the money.
ReplyDeleteI never saw the appeal of Tenay in a regular PBP role. When they brought him for the lucha matches, it made them feel special
I'll see your Trongard-anchored combos, and raise you Pritchard/McGuirk/Doherty.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing the worst one is whichever you listened to last.
ReplyDeleteAt least WCW shovelled in Mike Tenay for lucha matches to make them tolerable. And as others have said, Schiavone only started hating his job & life post-98. Before then he was tremendous.
ReplyDeleteRob Bartlett gets my vote.
Anything with Mark Madden. Anything.
ReplyDeleteDusty in the commentary booth was gold.
ReplyDeleteI know it was only an hour of Raw but JR/Cole/Kevin Kelly were rough.
ReplyDeleteI hated guys like Rob Bartlett and Superstar Billy Graham on commentary, but I don't think anyone got under my skin like heel Cole. There were so many times I had to change the channel and I eventually started watching the show on mute. So my vote goes to Heel Cole and Lawler as worst ever. I'll take Tony/Dusty over them any day.
ReplyDeleteThe Main Event team of Michael Cole/The Miz makes me watch on mute. They only rehash what happened on RAW anyway. My imaginary worst team ever would be AWA's Larry Nelson paired with Greg Gagne....oh wait, that really happened. Imaginary gold would be drunk/almost dead Jake Roberts doing color for drunk/getting a BJ under the table Kevin Nash.
ReplyDeleteOh fuck, how could I forget: Matt Striker after the sheen had worn off, when he was more focused on fitting as much wordplay, pop culture references and overall-distraction-from-the-matches-in-the-ring in his commentary. To the point where the other commentators were united in their dislike for him.
ReplyDeleteOh and Adamle.
For me, worst announce teams are:
ReplyDeleteStevie Ray and Mike Tenay - WCW Thunder 2000
Kriss Kloss and another guy - Wrestling Society X on MTV
Mark Madden, Tony Shiavone and Scott Hudson - WCW Nitro 2000
Joey Styles and Cyrus - ECW
Anything with Duke Doherty in the booth was the sizzling shits.
ReplyDeleteso many bad announcers over the years. David Crockett was pretty bad at times, particularly when he refused to back down to wrestlers and tried to act the tough guy. Lord Alfred Hayes was awful. The worst team in the old WWF was Pritchard, Mike McGuirk, and Pete Doherty. There were of course some awful one-shots or short-lived announcers like Billy Graham,. Art Donovan, etc. I always thought Bruno was pretty bad too. Never had a problem with Trongard in AWA, although in WWF he wasn't good.
ReplyDeleteIn the 90s nothing was worse than Vince himself. I never had an issue with 80s Vince but post steroid trial the guy was insufferable and to this day he makes the ppvs difficult to watch. His man crushes on certain guys, particularly HBK, make some of the matches tough to watch. And his complete inability to call a move while compounding it with 1...2...3...he got em....no!!! makes him probably my least favorite play by play guy of all time. And his pairing with Lawler before JR helped balance it out some was a horror show. Not a big fan of Savage either but I wouldn't put him on worst list. Piper was ok most of the time, except during the peak of the gulf war when his "patriotism" was so over the top it was beyond annoying.
I have never been a fan of Lawler. Was glad to see Heyman with JR, at least for a bit. The team of heel cole and face Lawler was just atrocious the few times I watched it. Don't much care for what I've seen of Booker T either.
Some other bad ones were Mongo McMichael, Eric Bischoff, and Stevie Ray. I think Mark Madden may be the worst color man of the attitude era due to his smarkiness, insider references, and general smugness about just how entertaining and smart he thought he was.
Dusty had a certain goofy fun factor to him, kinda like Piper.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lady in the Men's bathroom. There's a lady in the men's room!!!!
ReplyDeleteHere an and Tenay I suppose always felt like Tony was keeping information about finishes from them so they mailed it in since he was being so difficult.
ReplyDeleteI think the issue with Heenan is he stopped trying to get guys over like he did in WWF and became a stand up act, and often a drunken stand up act. While he could be funny, he wasn't doing anything to get anyone over but himself, often actually detracting from the match. I loved Heenan in WWF and he still made me laugh sometimes in WCW, but if I was a wrestler in WCW, I would NOT have been a fan.
ReplyDeleteif you played identical tapes of him and Gilbert Godfried, I swear I couldn't tell the difference.
ReplyDeleteKriss Kloss and Larry.
ReplyDeleteFuck XPW.
i couldnt think of the xpw team.
ReplyDeletethank you.
That's why I still can't believe to this day that Matt Stryker was part of the announce team that were in charge of a WrestleMania main event.
ReplyDeleteHeenan gave up wayyyyy before that
ReplyDeleteTo me it's heel Cole and Lawler...AINEC
ReplyDeleteI agree. Dusty, while at times very bad, was always entertaining in his own way. I still laugh when I think of his Bash at the Beach call, "He hit him with a rubbah shark!"
ReplyDeleteGWF's Doyle King and "Elvis" David Webb?
ReplyDeleteJack Reynolds and Angelo Mosca were horrible.
ReplyDeleteDusty is vastly underrated. The 2000 wcw was probably the worst ever. Unless we're counting ROH. Are we counting ROH?
ReplyDeleteBruno barely said anything. He was just there for name value and nothing more
ReplyDeleteDoes the ten episodes of color that Ed Ferrara did in TNA count?
ReplyDeleteI couldn't stand Mark Madden - it was like watching wrestling with every super-snarky wrestling smark douchebag rolled into one giant ball of fat.
ReplyDeleteI really dislike Mike Tenay doing PbP. Instead of just calling what he sees, he reacts by basically telling you the story you're watching like he's reading from the Cliff's Notes "theme of the story" section.
However, IMO, the absolute worst announcer ever (and thus it spreads to every announce team he worked with) is Larry Zbyszko. Articulate? Yes. Competent? To a point. But he just had the worst habits that an announcer can have - he constantly talked about himself, put himself over, and laughed off whatever was happening on-screen.
I remember one show where some WCW heel (Jeff Jarrett?) talked a little trash to him at ringside and he blurted out "I'd stretch that punk like a rubber band!" Way to get the heel over there, Larry.
Randy Rosenbaum & Dutch Mantell, Heroes Of Wrestling. And not because of Dutch.
ReplyDeleteOh man, I forgot about Rosenbaum. Holy shit was he bad
ReplyDeleteI couldn't stand Larry whining "But this isn't Mexico" when Tenay was explaining Lucha Libre during the matches. Larry never put over anyone on commentary.
ReplyDeleteThe late Corey Maclin. Going from Lance Russell to Corey was like going from Larry David to Larry Appleton without the dance of joy.
ReplyDeleteI used to love when Graham would say "Lord & Rod".
ReplyDelete"Well, let me tell you Lord & Rod...."
Quit being a fruit booty.
ReplyDeleteThere's a Boston House Show on Classics-on-Demand right now, and it's just Lord Alfred Hayes by himself. He gets joined by Jimmy Hart for a couple matches, then Slick for a couple matches.. I enjoy all parties involved, but still, just BRUTAL~!
ReplyDeleteI'm marking out bro!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, it appears you've made an error. In an attempt to list Mike Tenay as the reason that Thunder's announcing sucked, you seemed to have inadvertently listed Stevie Ray!
ReplyDeleteWell, it certainly is a whacky world we live in where such glaring errors could go unnoticed!
Seriously though, Stevie Ray was at once terrible and awesome.
Also, Larry was easily the worst colour guy of the boom period. Almost as bad as Piper in the early 90s. Even Monsoon and Heenan couldn't overcome that albatross.
ReplyDeleteI thought Schiavone was great from 96-98. Didn't care for him before or after
ReplyDeleteAnything Tony Schiavone in WWF. It just did not seem right and he could not get the WWE style down for PBP.
ReplyDeleteTenay and West in the early TNA days when West had no clue what he was doing he got so excitable you almost think he pissed his pants.
I HAAAAAAAAAAAAATED Don West. Tenay was always cool by me, but man, West drove me nuts. I can't ever recall enjoying that guy's commentary.
ReplyDeleteStill better than Mark Madden, though.
Dusty was pure gold. I don't know why people hated him so much.
ReplyDeleteSuckas gotz to know!
ReplyDeleteMy apology for being a fruit booty. Stevie had funny catchphrases but everything else was pretty basic.
ReplyDelete"Malenko's stompin a mudhole and a-finga-waggin and a-tattle-tellin him"
ReplyDeleteDon West will always be the baseball card man to me.
ReplyDeleteHe got tolerable as time went on because you thought he would never go away. When he did his "heel" turn I was done.
ReplyDeleteAgreed on Heel Cole and Lawler. The only times I watched wrestling on mute or changed the channel because of commentary. And anytime Vickie Guerrero came on, I would think, "Lawler, you miserable old pedo-fuck, you'd be lucky to have her," while he was talk about her size or age. It really grinded my gears
ReplyDeleteStriker's body of work does include his first months or year, though, and he was really good during that time. But, you're right--after a while, he distracted from matches instead of adding to them. He needed more yelling in his ear, perhaps, the same way RVD's best work comes when he is leashed up by the WWE style.
ReplyDeleteHis work on some of the DVD sets were superb as well. While I'd cringe hearing Cole talk to HBK in his last DVD set, Mysterio's last DVD set was greatly enhanced by the conversations Rey and Striker had between matches.
I'm in the minority but West at least acted like he cared (though admittedly too much) which is better then hearing Tazz sound like he was confused and drunk
ReplyDeleteDONT YOU BESMIRCH LARRY RIVERA!!!
ReplyDeleteexxxxx peeeeeee dawbleyouuuuuuu
quiet, you yak
ReplyDeletelenny vowels, gettin' it right
ReplyDeleteLawler and Cole in 2011.
ReplyDeleteAll is forgiven. My genuine appreciation for Stevie Ray's commentary stems almost entirely from an interview he did with Lex Luger.
ReplyDeleteIt was one of those "This guy's been gone and he's back, but he's in the crowd and what does it all mean?!" type of things, and Stevie just shat all over it by opening with "For the dozen or so people who care, what have you been doin'?"
I had to look them up when I was doing a deathmatch disc review. If you had a horse farting into the headset, it would be more nuanced and informed than those idiots.
ReplyDelete"Chico *mumble mumble mumble* New Yack *mumble* Chico *spanish*"
ReplyDeleteNo one mentioned Lee Marshall? He was fucking horrendous.
ReplyDeleteDamn, I didn't even know Striker had left the company until I looked it up just now.
ReplyDelete" Larry never put over anyone on commentary."
ReplyDeleteThat's not fair. He put over himself quite a lot.
David Crockett was pretty bad - but he did lead to this:
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/O08FH4LTi1c
"THERE"S A LADY IN THE RESTROOM"
ReplyDeleteI've heard similar stories - except that it was Bischoff and the production team who kept the entire announcement team in the dark - including Tony. They wanted them to see it the same way a fan would or something.
ReplyDeleteI actually watched the first match of that show and thought Jimmy Hart was really good. I mean, shamelessly putting over the guys in his stable came across as silly but it kinda made me sad that WCW didn't make him a color commentator in the late 90's once the Dungeon of Doom was dead and the nWo was all the rage.
ReplyDeleteThe Tony/Heenan/Dusty announce team was awesome so I'm not sure how this is even a topic. It'd be like asking, who was better: Bret Hart or Scott Casey
ReplyDeleteThe Tony/Heenan/Dusty announce team was awesome so I'm not sure how this is even a topic. It'd be like asking, who was better: Bret Hart or Scott Casey
ReplyDeleteAnytime Duke Doherty was there. His commentary on the Bees/Demos match from Houston in 1987 was
ReplyDeletehorrible. 'The Demolition team,, I tell ya...they gonna annihilate them
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha'.
God...what a tool. I pictured him being this Burgess Meridith-looking motherfucker with a Kango hat and a stogie. When I actually saw what he looked like, though...that was some funny shit.
The commentary team that called the final televised AWA match (Lee Marshall, Eric Bischoff and Verne Gagne) was soooo bad.
ReplyDeleteWhere to start? First off, Lee did the ring introductions and in the process royally botched the name of Col. DeBeers' team. The AWA then showed their production incompetence by keeping the botch intact, whereas WWE's slick crew would have made sure that botch never saw the light of day.
And don't you just love how Verne's "expert" commentary consists of him forgetting most of the guys in the match which is simply inexcusable considering that he hired those guys in the first place
.
And to cap it off, Verne proves to us that he was watching his 1974 movie "The Wrestler" instead of watching the match by asking Lee who won the match. Keep in mind that Verne is the owner of the company and not even he is paying attention to his own product, so what does that say about the rest of the audience?
Dusty never gets enough praise.
ReplyDeleteGot to mention just a couple of my favorite Dusty-isms:
His excellent twisting of the word "athleticism" at Halloween Havoc '97 by coining it as "athletic-cism".
And the time he put over Tatsumi Fujinami at SuperBrawl '91 by bringing up a random story about how he was at Willie Nelson's house and Julio Iglesias was there for some reason.
And speaking of albatrosses that not even the great Monsoon/Heenan duo could overcome, got to bring up Rob Bartlett.
ReplyDeleteCame across this particular "gem" that consists of Gorilla and Bobby having to put up with this goof doing the single worst Vince McMahon impersonation of all time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgBWn2g5tC0
He was better than Slick.. That's all I can say..
ReplyDeleteTodd Pettingill was awful on the Action Zone.
ReplyDeleteSean Mooney and Lord Alfred from 19991 were the drizzling shits as well...
ReplyDelete