When did WWE commentary go to hell?

[EvenStevenBooking]

They got too friendly, if anything. Moonsoon and Heenan were IRL, but they always seemed at odds on TV. Even when King was a straight heel, his egging-ons of JR always seemed liked they were in jest rather than trying to piss him off/challange his view point.

[flyonthewall2983]

Announcing teams that are constantly at odds with each other only exist in pro wrestling. That's more commonplace on cable news, and rarely to be seen in professional sports (aside from ESPN's own talking-head shows). Bobby and Gorilla were at odds yes, but they never seemed to put it above calling the action. Same with Vince and Jesse to a degree, but hearing them on some of those old SNME's felt very over-produced (I'm guessing that was the NBC influence more than even Vince's, it never felt like that on what I've heard when they did Superstars).

 

To me there's no such thing as "too friendly" unless it leans too much into stuff that they or others would only get. That in and of itself is entertaining to a degree (Hall and Nash calling matches during those NWO b&w segments and on Nitro).

[Hegs]

I dont think we can blame the commentators. They aren't calling wrestling matches, they're infomercial guys for the WWE network, twitter, or pre-network PPVs. Its rare they are talking about what is actually happening in the ring at that moment. That being said, I like JBL on commentary. I enjoy his occassional old-school references he throws out. I also enjoyed Regal at NXT. Although I might get crucified for saying this, I liked Matt Striker as well.