WWE Commentary Thread (Raw, Smackdown, NXT, PPVs, etc.)

[Grimmas]

This might sound odd, but I thought Jim Duggan was really great at his one match at WrestleMania 7 that he did.

 

I also thought Hillbilly Jim was really good as a colour commentator on house shows.

[Matt D]

Does anyone else have fond memories of Sean Mooney and Lord Alfred Hayes on commentary during matches aired on Prime Time Wrestling?

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm the only one.

 

I enjoy the last year or so of them when Alfred was starting to become more subtly heelish

[TonyPulis'Cap]

While I'm not a fan of a lot of modern WWE announcers and not sure how great a Byron Saxton would be even if he was allowed to freestyle more, you have to think that a large part of the issue is the rules and rigid format that all the announcers are constrained by. WWE have got to where they are in the industry by being on top of every detail and instilling a professionalism into everything, but at the same time, that means the TV product, and especially the announcing is so over produced, lacks any spontaneity and has little room for anyone's individual characteristics or personality to shine through. As some have already highlighted, there are so many tropes to WWE commentary now, with seemingly almost half their time spent shoehorning a wrestlers nickname into a sentence or cramming in the latest buzz words that they've been told to use.

 

I've been a big fan of Nigel McGuinness since he's been on NXT and then 205 Live, actually because he doesn't come over as too polished and still says things and delivers analysis that are very unique to him and that you wouldn't normally hear on WWE TV. If he ever gets that promotion to say a RAW or a Smackdown then I'm sure it would only be about 6 months before he sounded exactly like a Tom Phillips.

 

I've said it before, but for all his faults, Mauro at least sounds different to everyone else. You can find him very annoying - I happen to enjoy him - but at least he has a passion that comes through. I also thought his call of Almas/Gargano at Takeover was fantastic, being a crucial part of building the drama of that contest for me.

[CarpetCrawler]

Does anyone else have fond memories of Sean Mooney and Lord Alfred Hayes on commentary during matches aired on Prime Time Wrestling?

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm the only one.

 

 

No way!! Mooney and Hayes as a team own bones. Mooney was at his best with Hayes and I feel like at his most comfortable. If Hayes really was the guy Vince used to help audition new color commentators I can completely see why. He has a very casual personality and for all his faults, will bring out discussion with his sometimes longwinded statements. He deserves more props honestly. When he was bad, he was terrible. But he had strengths and they shined frequently enough that I like him.

 

This might sound odd, but I thought Jim Duggan was really great at his one match at WrestleMania 7 that he did.

 

I also thought Hillbilly Jim was really good as a colour commentator on house shows.

 

Hillbilly was tremendous and I wish he would've been given the spot on Challenge over Neidhart in 1991. There's a great match at MSG with Duggan and Savage with Hillbilly on commentary where he is fantastic. Real underrated. Duggan surprised me too, I get what you mean. He wasn't just providing generic statements but legit analysis and tale of the tape-esque comments about both The Rockers and Haku/Barbarian. Caught me by surprise.

[Cornette's racket]

Talking about past commentators for a second I'll never complain about most of today's commentators after listening to superstar Billy graham ramble on while making no sense other than saying brother a lot.

 

On three man booths I've never liked them as to me a pro wrestling commentary team is a play by play and a colour guy. If you have a third guy there he gets lost.

 

I loved heyman and JR during 2001. I know it wasn't the plan as they had probably assumed that lawler would be there, but I worked perfectly.

[C.S.]

No way!! Mooney and Hayes as a team own bones. Mooney was at his best with Hayes and I feel like at his most comfortable. If Hayes really was the guy Vince used to help audition new color commentators I can completely see why. He has a very casual personality and for all his faults, will bring out discussion with his sometimes longwinded statements. He deserves more props honestly. When he was bad, he was terrible. But he had strengths and they shined frequently enough that I like him.

 

I still remember a ridiculous argument between Mooney and Hayes about the pronunciation of Kato.

 

Hillbilly was tremendous and I wish he would've been given the spot on Challenge over Neidhart in 1991.

I forgot all about Neidhart. He must've been terrible, right?

 

Talking about past commentators for a second I'll never complain about most of today's commentators after listening to superstar Billy graham ramble on while making no sense other than saying brother a lot.

Haha!

 

Anyone remember these stinkers?

 

- Rob Bartlett ("comedian" on the early RAWs that was inexplicably used in place of Bobby Heenan)

- Reo Rogers (Bruce Prichard?)

- Stan Lane (heard he was in a tag team once...)

 

I can't remember if they were good or not, but they didn't last long:

 

(Note: They may have been hosts and not commentators - it's been so long that I can't remember for sure.)

 

- Charlie Minn

- Joe Fowler

[Stiva]

Mike Adamle's stint on ECW was certainly something. Didn't it all but drive Tazz out of the company? I mean, that was no great loss but still.

[hammerva]

This is probably a dumb question but when Tazz walked off commentary for no real reason that one ECW show while Adamle was talking was that a work?

[Eduardo]

One of the issues with Mauro is the more confident he is, the worst he comes off. Best example is when he did commentary for Showtime, and seeing the difference between how he called MMA and boxing. He was pretty obnoxious calling MMA, but so reigned in when calling boxing. Like he knew he was the least informed person in the booth for boxing, and didn't want to look embarrassing in front of Al Bernstein, so he just did a decent and solid job in his smaller role.

 

Maybe pair him with someone he wouldn't want to be embarrassed in front for his work in NXT.

[Cornette's racket]

This is probably a dumb question but when Tazz walked off commentary for no real reason that one ECW show while Adamle was talking was that a work?

I think tazz let his contract run out. I liked tazz as a commentator to be honest. I liked him calling the moves the way they are meant to be called.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

 

This is probably a dumb question but when Tazz walked off commentary for no real reason that one ECW show while Adamle was talking was that a work?

I think tazz let his contract run out. I liked tazz as a commentator to be honest. I liked him calling the moves the way they are meant to be called.

Correct phrasing here would be “not for nuthin,’ I liked Tazz as a commentator.”

[KawadaSmile]

 

 

I dunno guys but Corey fapping on live television to Mandy Rose is some really sleazy shit

 

He's thankfully stayed out of Lawler territory with that stuff. I think he knows what lines not to cross.

 

Lawler turning into a legit creepy old man during the Attitude Era really killed whatever goodwill I had left for him in that role.

 

Don't know my dudes, he's actively bad for me when he does that pervy stuff. I always envision those old school cartoon wolves whistling and drooling and it's somewhat creepy.

[NotJayTabb]

I liked this quote from Tom in regards to his pbp (from Sam Roberts podcast):

 

"I get tweets from people saying I don't have much of a personality. I'm like 'Great! I'm not supposed to.' I'm supposed to tell you here's when the show is, here's why this guy's mad at this guy and try to tell you some moves along the way."

 

He and Corey were always my favorite duo.

Tom and Corey work really well together. Tom actually seems smart enough to be able to keep up with Corey, and occasionally get one over on him.

 

Cole's call of "It's BOSS TIME" actually makes me like Sasha less, makes me not want to see her wrestle so I can avoid that awful call

[Mad Dog]

Their nickname of the Big Dog for Reigns is up there with the Bionic Redneck and Booger Red as the worst forced nicknames they've thrown out there.

[cowboy hats]

Steer into the nickname and have him wear different Big Dog shirts each week, like https://www.bigdogs.com/p/really_cant_trust_t-shirt/tee3697?pid=8423

[KawadaSmile]

Their nickname of the Big Dog for Reigns is up there with the Bionic Redneck and Booger Red as the worst forced nicknames they've thrown out there.

I can say for sure that it's not worse than The Best Pure Striker in WWE

[EricR]

Steer into the nickname and have him wear different Big Dog shirts each week, like https://www.bigdogs.com/p/really_cant_trust_t-shirt/tee3697?pid=8423

 

When I worked at the mall 20ish years ago there was an entire Big Dog store, and in the window there was a wrestling parody shirt. It was a shirt for Bone Cold Steve Pawstin. It had the Big Dog wearing a Stone Cold type leather vest.

[cowboy hats]

Yeah, there was a lawsuit over that classic (sorry about my links, can’t figure out how to do it better here) - https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp2/280/413/2501351/

[...TG]

 

Steer into the nickname and have him wear different Big Dog shirts each week, like https://www.bigdogs.com/p/really_cant_trust_t-shirt/tee3697?pid=8423

 

When I worked at the mall 20ish years ago there was an entire Big Dog store, and in the window there was a wrestling parody shirt. It was a shirt for Bone Cold Steve Pawstin. It had the Big Dog wearing a Stone Cold type leather vest.

 

I must obtain this:

[Boss Rock]

 

I liked this quote from Tom in regards to his pbp (from Sam Roberts podcast):

 

"I get tweets from people saying I don't have much of a personality. I'm like 'Great! I'm not supposed to.' I'm supposed to tell you here's when the show is, here's why this guy's mad at this guy and try to tell you some moves along the way."

 

He and Corey were always my favorite duo.

Tom and Corey work really well together. Tom actually seems smart enough to be able to keep up with Corey, and occasionally get one over on him.

 

Cole's call of "It's BOSS TIME" actually makes me like Sasha less, makes me not want to see her wrestle so I can avoid that awful call

 

 

They have arguably the best chemistry of any team. My favorite interaction between them was when Tye Dillinger lost to Oney Lorcan and Corey proclaimed him to be "just a 5" and Tom faux-gasped in horror.

[hammerva]

Next week there will be a documentary on Showtime about talking about Mauro Ronallo and dealing with his life long dealing with bi-polar disorder. Looks pretty fascinating and kind of scary to see the mood swings to see what he is dealing with. While it seems to be dealing more with his younger days in Canada there is footage of him in NXT including his now famous frantic announcing of the ladder match. It will be interesting if they bring up the issues with JBL and why he was basically fired from Smackdown. probably not since it is only about 90 minutes

[SirEdger]

I don't know. I don't think this is something Mauro likes to come back on and he'd rather focus on the impact of this doc can have for people suffering with mental health issues like he does. I think there's gonna be plenty of stuff to cover that they don't need to even mention JBL.