goodhelmet Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 So was it just Dusty and Bobby Heenan that didn't work? Really brings those 1995 PPVs down for me. I think the wrestling brought those 1995 PPVs down for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goodhelmet Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 Piper had pros and cons. What were they? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cm funk Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 I found Dusty, Savage and Larry Z entertaining most of the time. Piper not so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 This feels like an appropriate place to mention that the WWF once had Brother Love call an MSG show, and he did the ENTIRE SHOW in his Brother Love voice. This remains the worst color commentary of all time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 Piper was bad. He might have added energy, yes, but it was phony energy that everyone could tell was insincere. Listen to him trying to shill the Gobbledygooker's debut for a great example. And what's worse was his general style, constantly screaming and stepping all over the other announcers at every turn. Yep, I always found Piper pretty unbearable for this reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted July 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 Here's what I think: Â You get announcers that are great at big PPV shows and big-time angles and you get ones that are great at nothing TV shows. Â Gorilla Monsoon, who I know a lot of people here don't like, he was a big-time PPV guy and in that context he worked. He was less good at your nothing TV show, where it's obvious he's going through the motions and relying on his stock lines to get him through. Â Dusty, as Jingus said, is better on your nothing TV show than on your big-time PPV show. Â I mean the nothing TV B-show or even C-show is an interesting area. I think that *even* Sean Mooney and Lord Alfred Hayes have a role to play there. Mooney and Hayes could be pretty entertaining during like Hercules vs Scott Casey. Maybe you want those guys there talking shit than your A-show team selling the main angles of the day as the match goes on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingus Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 This feels like an appropriate place to mention that the WWF once had Brother Love call an MSG show, and he did the ENTIRE SHOW in his Brother Love voice. This remains the worst color commentary of all time.Worse than Mark Madden? I believe that you could actually record Bruce Prichard doing play-by-play commentary on his own masturbation in the Brother Love voice, and it would still not make me want to stab my eardrums any harder than Mark Madden's calls on your average 2000-era Nitro. I've never heard an allegedly-professional announcer who was such a jaw-dropping failure in so many different ways. Â Â You get announcers that are great at big PPV shows and big-time angles and you get ones that are great at nothing TV shows.That's a good point. When I was announcing, I was certainly much better at the big exciting matches. During the fuck-off nothings, I quickly got bored and ran out of shit to say. (Except for in the rare cases that the match was SO bad that I started subtly burying it, which was pretty rare.) When it came to ripping off the greats, I was better at copying JR during a main event than I was at channeling Lance Russel during a squash match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victator Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 I was watching the Sabu/Cena match from before the second One Night Stand. Lawler was fucking awful on commentary. Worse than Cole has ever been.  At one point when the match has gotten really good, he is struggling to find things to bury. I wouldn't use that night as an example of anyone's typical work, since it was all too obvious that the announcers were ordered to go out there and bicker with each other as much as possible. JR was trying to be relatively neutral and call it down the middle, but everyone else was arguing like a bunch of lawyers on crack. Tazz was trying his best to get both guys over and Joey was hard selling the PPV. Lawler spent every ounce of his energy on burying the ECW guys. Which was really stupid when they were trying to get ECW over as a brand and selling a PPV.  I mean at one point he was looking for stuff to bury. I have never seen a guy work so hard to derail a show. Even Cole will shut up when a great match is going on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 Ted DiBiase was pretty boring and uneffective as a color guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 Piper: Energy, obviously, but also a sense of outrage. When the heels were doing something really nasty you could sense him frothing, especially with anti-american stuff, and yes, while that was, in part, to put himself over, it carried over and helped the heel get more heat. I really believe that. He also worked in topical issues outside the usual WWF bubble. In 98, it was REALLY dated on promos. In 90-91, however, it stood out and usually in a good way. Ventura used to do it but he was always more hollywood focused. Sometimes he'd also bring an honesty to the proceedings like when he flat out admitted he had no idea what the hell Warrior was doing at Summerslam 90. Â I don't think he was great at actually calling the action though. Note I haven't seen much of his GA (or was it crockett) Commentary. Â As for Larry, he was good at the SUPER Big picture stuff. Getting over wrestling as a game of human chess and all that. i feel like he made things more legitimate somehow even if he didn't add a ton to specific matches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted July 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 What about Jim Cornette for this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 Cornette was fantastic. He and Ross in the late 80s/early 90s are one of the best color commentary teams. He may be my #1 color guy pick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 He hasn't come up yet. But I used to watch Smackdown just to listen to JBL's color commentary. He was probably the best announcer they had in a really long time. Mick Foley came in afterwards and wasn't very good at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 Yeah, Cornette was awesome. Great promo, great color guy. Doesn't belong here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 Booker T is pretty awful. Â I know this is about bad color commentators but Kevin Nash is a fantastic color commentator when he wants to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingus Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 I didn't think we would even need to mention Booker T. Nobody likes his current work, right? Awful catchphrases, terrible jokes, captain-obvious points where he's basically narrating what we're already watching. On the nights when he's in a shouty mood and Cole is full-on heeling, Smackdown has the worst commentary I've heard on any national show in the entire past decade. Â Mick Foley came in afterwards and wasn't very good at all.Oh, hey, yeah! That's a perfect textbook example of this thread's central theme, why the hell hasn't anyone else mentioned it before now? Foley's a world-class talker in promos, but mediocre at best as an announcer. Of course, he did have those infamous problems with Vince screaming in his headset, and teaming him up with generic create-a-commentator Cole probably didn't help either. (Listen to Foley's energized color performance at the first One Night Stand, it's way better than his Smackdown work.) Still, it was rather disappointing that he was such a step down in that position after both Tazz and especially Bradshaw did much better. Â I know this is about bad color commentators but Kevin Nash is a fantastic color commentator when he wants to be.Are you thinking of that episode where Nash did semi-shoot commentary for that one Thunder? We watched that show over in Shitty WCW Club about a year ago, and it hasn't aged well. Nash was drunk and slurring a lot of his words, plus sometimes he seemed to just forget where the microphone was and you couldn't hear what he was saying. I think it was just so shocking back in 1999 to hear anyone shooting on commentary that we all remembered that call a lot more fondly than it deserved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 I was thinking about his announcing in TNA. He did the X Division Invitational at Bound for Glory and was really really good. He was putting guys over left and right and his jokes were pretty good too. Â Yeah, Booker T really lacks the charm of Stevie Ray. My friend and I still use Stevie Rayisms in everyday conversations. How can you hate a guy that regularly used the words "yaks" or fruitbooty" in every day announcing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 I think Foley's problem was he reverted to that "well gee-golly, please like me" kind of guy that he can be at times at first. I don't know, he just didn't translate well into the position. He just was lacking energy and the ability to sell. He's like that NFL player that has tons of personality when they play and then get a booth job and clam up and lose it all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted July 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 Ted DiBiase was pretty boring and uneffective as a color guy. The only things I remember about Ted as a colour guy is 1. He put himself over quite a lot during the Rumble 94 PPV, 2. He marked out worse than David Crockett for that Undertaker casket match against Yokozuna  Despite being the biggest DiBiase fan in the known universe, I even think he's somewhat overrated as a promo. He was never anything more than solid on the mic. He just had fantastic charisma, especially with that character. Probably a better actor than he was a promo. Right now I'd happily say someone like Ole Anderson was a better promo than DiBiase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soup23 Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 Agreed with Dibiase, he was in some very memorable vignettes but his actual promo work in the WWF and UWF was solid but not spectacular. He was also atrocious at the 1994 Rumble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 who announced in OVW when Al Snow was booking it? (AKA did Al Snow ever announce?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eduardo Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 Mick Foley came in afterwards and wasn't very good at all. Worst part about Foley was him mocking Kozlov (when they were trying to build up Kozlov as serious threat). I remember him joking about sambo and just being way too cutesy in his commentary. I doubt McMahon played a role in that. Compared to JBL, who was strongly putting over the midcard of Kid Kash, London, Kendrick, Murdoch, Cade, Taylor all the time, it seemed awful that Foley couldn't be bothered to put over someone they were building up like Kozlov. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ButchReedMark Posted July 3, 2012 Report Share Posted July 3, 2012 who announced in OVW when Al Snow was booking it? (AKA did Al Snow ever announce?) Al Snow announced Velocity, Heat and also did Raw for a very short time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Log Posted July 4, 2012 Report Share Posted July 4, 2012 who announced in OVW when Al Snow was booking it? (AKA did Al Snow ever announce?) It's been Kenny Bolin and Dean Hill for a while. Gilbert Corsey (who's a hell of a great guy!) is their third guy now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted July 4, 2012 Report Share Posted July 4, 2012 Can't think of too many wrestlers who've been good at guest colour spots, but from the opposite perspective I love Owen Hart promos but he's a guy who's not considered a great promo whom I thought was great on colour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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