Is there a more loathsome personality on wrestling TV than Mike Tenay?

[Bix]

 

The insistence on YELLING AT US all the time.

 

The insistence on YELLING AT US what the wrestlers just said in their promos all the time.

 

"OOH, THAT WAS STIFF!"

 

The tuxedo.

 

This.

 

As my friend SLL put it:

Mike Tenay is a pro-wres announcer currently employed by TNA Wrestling. Prior to that, he did color commentary for World Championship wrestling, and was one of the American announcers for AAA's "When Worlds Collide" event.

 

Tenay is largely notable for being a sad, bitter shell of a human being, and for having a seemingly bottomless depth to his contempt for humanity. The precise source of his misanthropy is unclear, but it has manifested itself throughout his career, particularly in TNA, where he has been the lead announcer since the promotion's inception in 2002.

 

The symptoms of Tenay's sociopathy are many, but the most notable are as follows...

 

* A desperate need to describe exactly what is happening all of the time, regardless of if it needs to be described or not. Should anything occur on screen at any time, regardless of if it is completely obvious as to what it is and what purpose it serves, Mike Tenay will confirm what it is and what it's purpose is on commentary. If a wrestler is cutting a promo, and there is even a brief pause between the lines, Mike Tenay will fill the dead air by pointing out EXACTLY what the wrestler just said SECONDS AGO. His entire commentary method is based on the children's game "I Spy", only he doesn't actually give you time to guess. He just sees or hears things and points them out for no reason whatsoever.

 

* A compulsion to describe the meaning of anything that happens on screen, even if the meaning is something that would be obvious to newborn babies. Pro-wres acting tends to be played very, very broad, so these kinds of explanations won't be necessary, but damned if Tenay won't do it anyway. He often prefaces this with the phrase "It's almost as though..." so as to make it seem like he is subtley cluing the audience in to the intracacies of the story, when he's really just being a smarmy douche. For example, when Eric Young makes the "eye-to-eye" gesture to the audience, it's "almost as though he's trying to say he' and the audience see 'eye-to-eye'". And I can almost guarentee he was making air quotes off-camera while saying "eye-to-eye". This trait is particularly notable, because it indicates that Tenay somehow managed to underestimate the intelligence of the average TNA fan, which is a truly monumental error in judgement.

 

* A willingness to mug for the camera like a silent film villain. Despite being an announcer - and thus meaning to be heard and not seen - Tenay's time on-camera is often spent with him discussing the show's matches and angles in the most stern manner possible. His attempts at coming off as serious and respected are pitiful to begin with, but are completely undercut by his need to look as much like Sam the Eagle as possible at all times. To wit...

 

In spite of all evidence to the contrary, there are those who would suggest that Mike Tenay is an actual good pro-wres announcer. This is probably attributable to his friendship with Dave Meltzer, and his WCW tenure, where his admittedly extensive wrestling knowledge was used to help provide background information for the various international stars WCW brought in, so that viewers would become more interested in them. Tenay apologists also benefit from the presence of his broadcast colleague - the over-eager former Home Shopping Network pitchman Don West - who's relative inexperience in wrestling and hyperactive nature make him an easy scapegoat for any of Tenay's flaws.

He was okay on color in WCW. WCW went out of business 6 years ago. He has been increasingly awful since then. Let the idea that he's any good go away.

[gordi]

I'm curious what Dylan Waco's opinion is. I know that he likes Don West's color commentary.

 

I personally can't stand the TNA announce team, to the point where I find it very to hard to enjoy watching even two of the best TNA matches in a row... but I don't know if speaking down to the audience and yelling all the time truly makes them more loathsome than, say, McMahon...

[Bix]

Well, I mean loathsome based on their TV personalities. Vince McMahon is clearly a worse human being than Mike Tenay. Mike Tenay is a much more loathsome TV personality than Vince McMahon.

[gordi]

Well, I mean loathsome based on their TV personalities. Vince McMahon is clearly a worse human being than Mike Tenay. Mike Tenay is a much more loathsome TV personality than Vince McMahon.

That I agree with 100 per cent.

[Jingus]

Tenay's facial expressions are indeed goofy as hell. His "righteous indignation" face especially comes to mind.

 

Problem is, I don't know exactly how much of this to blame on Tenay himself, and how much might be a result of just doing what he's told by TNA management. That sort of thing can have a huge effect on an announcer: look how the WWE ruined Joey Styles by insisting he change everything about himself.

 

And finally, even if you reject that... please do remember that this man sat and watched EVERY single episode of Thunder... from ringside... and had to try to make sense of it all on commentary. There's no way you can live through that without it scarring your very soul. I think the non-temporary insanity defense is one Mike could easily invoke.

[Bix]

Problem is, I don't know exactly how much of this to blame on Tenay himself, and how much might be a result of just doing what he's told by TNA management.

Mike Tenay IS TNA management.

 

That sort of thing can have a huge effect on an announcer: look how the WWE ruined Joey Styles by insisting he change everything about himself.

Joey Styles was never actually good.

[Jingus]

That sort of thing can have a huge effect on an announcer: look how the WWE ruined Joey Styles by insisting he change everything about himself.

Joey Styles was never actually good.

 

We're gonna have to disagree on that one. Totally, utterly, violently, yet politely disagree.

[Bix]

That sort of thing can have a huge effect on an announcer: look how the WWE ruined Joey Styles by insisting he change everything about himself.

Joey Styles was never actually good.

 

We're gonna have to disagree on that one. Totally, utterly, violently, yet politely disagree.

 

His stuff has AGED really poorly, even with the stuff Heyman was feeding him. Too cutesy and awkward. Great performance at the first ONS, though.

[sek69]

Was Bischoff telling him what to say in WCW? Cause I liked the scholarly-if-kinda-molester-looking Tenay from WCW educating the masses on all the cool Lucha dudes who were jobbing on Nitro that week.

 

The problem with TNA Tenay is that announcing teams always have one guy who's levelheaded and one guy who's yelling and screaming. Tenay seems like he's trying to outscream everyone else and when he's sitting next to Don West that is just not going to happen at all. Ironically I like West as the David Crockett on 15 cups of coffee. He clearly likes his job and you can't help but to get into the action a little bit more when DW is marking out like a 5 year old.

[Loss]

Tenay was a color guy in WCW, so his role was much different. That's obviously what he's suited for, not whatever it is he's doing now.

[Dylan Waco]

Tenay is fucking terrible for all the reasons SLL listed and the fact that his transparent phoniness really drags down the awesomeness that is Don West who marks out for pretty much everything. I mean Fucking Don West is really the best announcer on tv when given a chance, as the David Crockett analogy works really well, cept he's arguably even nuttier as Crockett was working in a family business that he knew was a work, whereas I'm not entirely sure West has been clued in half the time.

 

Come on, West freaking out for Joe v. Steiner is pretty much the best thing the companyhas ever done.

[S.L.L.]

Tenay is fucking terrible for all the reasons SLL listed and the fact that his transparent phoniness really drags down the awesomeness that is Don West who marks out for pretty much everything. I mean Fucking Don West is really the best announcer on tv when given a chance, as the David Crockett analogy works really well, cept he's arguably even nuttier as Crockett was working in a family business that he knew was a work, whereas I'm not entirely sure West has been clued in half the time.

 

Come on, West freaking out for Joe v. Steiner is pretty much the best thing the companyhas ever done.

 

Yeah, that's another thing. The contrast between the genuine emotions of West and the clear disingenuity of Tenay is really, really striking. What I wrote about that....

 

Part of the reason that I find Don West so easy to like in spite of his flaws is how genuine his feelings are. It was reported a couple months back that the TNA booking crew had a meeting that Don sat in on, and they were reading some negative feedback one of their PPVs got on the Observer website. All of the wrestling guys were deep in denial over it, but that's expected. I'm used to wrestling people lying to themselves about the merit of their works. I mean, WCW's been out of business for six years now, and Vince Russo STILL thinks that giving David Arquette the WCW Title was a good idea. But Don West also thought the comments were crazy, and actually went so far as to claim that they must've been the writings of a WWE shill. Wrestling is a carny business, and it's one where the people working in it often get worked by their own cons. Them getting conned by their own routine isn't surprising. Home shopping TV shows seem like a carny business, too, but one where the conmen are more self-aware. I'm sure Don West sold a lot of stuff that he genuinely thought was cool, but I figured to a large extent, his enthusiasm was a show he put on. I assumed he was a really convincing salesman more than a guy who was genuinely amped up about Ken Griffey Jr. rookie cards. But apparently he is legitimately excited by TNA, so his over-the-top enthusiasm for what he's calling is really convincing not because he's putting on a great show, but because he really, honestly thinks Petey Williams and his sick flip piledriver are the most awesome things ever. And it's especially easy to see when contrasted with the commentary of Mike Tenay, who can barely contain his hatred for TNA's audience and the world in general. I mean, I never really thought that having crappy taste in pro wrestling would actually benefit your performance in it, but there you go.

[kjh]

Problem is, I don't know exactly how much of this to blame on Tenay himself, and how much might be a result of just doing what he's told by TNA management.

Mike Tenay IS TNA management.

To be fair, Jim Ross was WWE management and that didn't stop Vince McMahon from feeding him lines, regularly humiliating him on TV and allowing his son-in-law to potato him in a wrestling match. Of course, even if Mike Tenay knows better, he deserves to be criticised as a gutless coward whose willing to turn himself into a complete laughing stock so he doesn't get in trouble with his feckless bosses.

[Bix]

TNA is much more of a group effort booking/creative-wise than WWE.

[whp]

I hated him in WCW too.

 

That whole "I know more about pro wrestling than you marks out there" attitude just oozed out of him everytime he spoke.

[Tim Evans]

Tenay is really really bad. I think the that what really makes TNA announcing horrible is no Heel commentator with them. I like Don west as a hype man but as an announcer.

 

But let's look at this differently now, Is there actually any good wrestling announcers out there right now not named JBL or Jim Ross? Styles, Lawler, Cole, Grisham, and Coach all suck badly. Tazz is probably the worst in WWE right now.

[jdw]

This.

I thought West was the one sucking there. Not to defend Mike or anything. But West is really dog shit there, and he's talking about 90% of the time. Mike's glove comment actually makes sense, while West's are just plain rambling.

 

I'm sure there are better example of Mike not being good.

 

Loathsome is a bit strong. I mean... if he sucks, he sucks. I tend to think Joey is more loathsome - he's a shitty announcer, always has been, was a phoney in ECW, was a phoney on Bob.com, and now taking Vince's greenbacks is a phoney as well. He sucked back in ECW, but you could never get the ECW Rubes to face that reality. Christ... this is a guy who co-owned a business with Bob Fucking Ryder and paid a fulltime salary to Dave Scherer. How much more loathsome do you need to be?

 

John

[MikeCampbell]

I loved him in his early WCW days, because he was the only commentator who really knew a lot about the business, and especially with WCW bringing in so many new faces.

[Tim Evans]

Maybe it's because I was about 15 when the Original ECW was around but I always liked Joey Styles. He started to suck around 1999/2000. He was much worse in MLW than he is now.

[Bix]

This.

I thought West was the one sucking there. Not to defend Mike or anything. But West is really dog shit there, and he's talking about 90% of the time. Mike's glove comment actually makes sense, while West's are just plain rambling.

 

I'm sure there are better example of Mike not being good.

 

Loathsome is a bit strong. I mean... if he sucks, he sucks. I tend to think Joey is more loathsome - he's a shitty announcer, always has been, was a phoney in ECW, was a phoney on Bob.com, and now taking Vince's greenbacks is a phoney as well. He sucked back in ECW, but you could never get the ECW Rubes to face that reality. Christ... this is a guy who co-owned a business with Bob Fucking Ryder and paid a fulltime salary to Dave Scherer. How much more loathsome do you need to be?

I was only referring to the TV personality. Bob.com and such don't factor in. To me, Styles is more of a terrible announcer, while Tenay just oozes contempt for his job and wrestling fans pretty blatantly.

[jdw]

I was only referring to the TV personality. Bob.com and such don't factor in. To me, Styles is more of a terrible announcer, while Tenay just oozes contempt for his job and wrestling fans pretty blatantly.

Really? That's odd. Last that I knew, Mike actually likes his job of announcing. There were aspects of the business/backstage side that he didn't like, but he was a wrestling fan. He's really one of the few people in wrestling who could walk away from it at any point, take the money he's made and invested over the years, and if needing a regular income go back to what he did before going into wrestling (running a not-so-small Vegas sports book if I recall) pretty easily.

 

Maybe there are some stories out there of him saying he hates his job, and hates the fans, and is only doing the job for the cash.

 

On hating wrestling fans... honestly, Joey comes across far more as loathing wrestling fans, simply poorly hiding it with a phoney exterior. Joey is the one who's doing the gig for the egofuck and the cash.

 

Again... Mike may suck as an announcer. I can't stick around on any TNA program long enough to rate him. I confess - pretty much all wrestling announcers suck, and always have sucked. When you watch someone like poker announcer Mike Sexton run circles around them calling a fucking *card game*, it reminds me of how overrated wrestling announcers. It's like talking about Soap actors being good actors.

 

 

John

[S.L.L.]

I was only referring to the TV personality. Bob.com and such don't factor in. To me, Styles is more of a terrible announcer, while Tenay just oozes contempt for his job and wrestling fans pretty blatantly.

Really? That's odd. Last that I knew, Mike actually likes his job of announcing. There were aspects of the business/backstage side that he didn't like, but he was a wrestling fan. He's really one of the few people in wrestling who could walk away from it at any point, take the money he's made and invested over the years, and if needing a regular income go back to what he did before going into wrestling (running a not-so-small Vegas sports book if I recall) pretty easily.

 

Maybe there are some stories out there of him saying he hates his job, and hates the fans, and is only doing the job for the cash.

 

On hating wrestling fans... honestly, Joey comes across far more as loathing wrestling fans, simply poorly hiding it with a phoney exterior. Joey is the one who's doing the gig for the egofuck and the cash.

Again, it's just for their TV personality. Whether or not Tenay actually hates wrestling and/or it's fans is irrelevant. He conveys hatred for wrestling and it's fans on TV, even moreso than Joey, who actually does feel that way to some extent.

 

Again... Mike may suck as an announcer. I can't stick around on any TNA program long enough to rate him. I confess - pretty much all wrestling announcers suck, and always have sucked. When you watch someone like poker announcer Mike Sexton run circles around them calling a fucking *card game*, it reminds me of how overrated wrestling announcers. It's like talking about Soap actors being good actors.

True. Really, you can extend that to wrestling performers as a whole.

 

That said, this isn't "most loathsome personality on TV", it's "most loathesome personality on wrestling TV".

[whp]

Tenay is really really bad. I think the that what really makes TNA announcing horrible is no Heel commentator with them. I like Don west as a hype man but as an announcer.

 

But let's look at this differently now, Is there actually any good wrestling announcers out there right now not named JBL or Jim Ross? Styles, Lawler, Cole, Grisham, and Coach all suck badly. Tazz is probably the worst in WWE right now.

I can't stand Jim Ross now either. To me it's apparent he doesn't give a shit about the product anymore either and can't be bothered to even know the names of moves either which used to be one of the elements that made him a really good announcer.

 

JBL is hands down the best announcer on North American television. Of all the other people doing commentary for wrestling I also like the ROH team of Dave Prazak and Lenny Leonard. Get the story of the match over, get the wrestlers over, know what the fuck you are talking about, etc. these two know how to be an announce team.

[Bix]

I don't mind current Jim Ross too much. No, he obviously doesn't care, but he doesn't care in an amusing way as opposed to not caring and a contemptible, distracting way like he was before his surgery/almost-firing hiatus.

[Dylan Waco]

Yeah Ross is now so hilariously ridiculous that he's actually pretty fun again