I have been a fan of the WWE, then the WWF since the days of JYD, the Sheepherders, Iron Sheik, and Demolition. Through the years, the promotion has gone from having talent with unique, and sometimes out there personalities to a homogenized, monotonous amalgamation of drone-like figures, with very few highlights that break the status quo. It feels that since the end of the Ruthless Aggression era, the WWE has devolved into the PG show of drones, where individuality, especially organic individuality is shunned in favor of whoever creative (and above all the top dog, Vince) wants to push, with paper-thin rehash of boring storyline, after boring storyline, where commentators aren’t allowed to actually commentate, in favor of pre-scripted garbage, as some puppet master is pulling strings from behind the scenes, as he tells them what to say. It is a shell of the former greatness of the Monday Night Wars. During the course of this essay, I want to speak about specifically my issues with the current state of the main roster, and what could possibly be done to change it for this new era they are trying to promote.
The Commentary Team
For decades, commentary teams have been the backbone of the action inside of a wrestling match. They are voices of the match, as they tell the audience what’s happening in the ring, along with a little back story on the participants in the match, and why they are feuding. Back then, you had great commentators like Gorilla Monsoon, Bobby “the Brain” Heenan, Tony Schiavone, Jesse “the Body” Ventura, among others. They were able to tell the story of the match, with a sense of original and off the cuff play-by-play that enhanced the match, and that allowed the audience to be further immersed in the story of a feud. Nowadays, we have the potential of greatness with folks like Michael Cole, Cory Graves, Renee Young and the like, but it seems that while commentating for the main roster, they aren’t allowed to let their knowledge and creativity shine.
There are a lot of wrestling fans who harp on Cole for being nothing more than a public mouthpiece for Vince McMahon, who does nothing but repeat everything that Vince is yelling in his ear during his stint on weekly programming. The thing is I’ve seen him when Vince isn’t in his ear. I’ve seen him while he commentated for the UK Tournament, and when he was commentating for the Mae Young Classic. Michael Cole is an amazing commentator, who enhances matches, not distracts from them, like he does when the creative team of the main roster is on the other end of the headset. The same goes for the rest of the commentary teams of the main roster of the WWE. All of them have the ability to bring their own style of complementary commentating to matches, but for some reason, creative doesn’t trust them enough to actually do their jobs.
Also, why does every commentary team have to consist of three members? Why aren’t they allowed, for the most part, to interject some of their own personality into their commentating? I loved when Bobby Heenan incorporated his heel manager persona into calling the matches. I loved when Booker T would inflect his personality and a bit of his unpolished play-by-play into the commentary. I see that to a degree Cory Graves is trying to do it, but it feels like he is hindered. It’s as if he is being hamstrung to stay in his lane, so to speak. He is a former wrestler turned commentator. He has insight that others may not. Why isn’t he using that insight? Renee Young is a top-notch talent and facilitator of commentary. That was proven when she used to host “Talking Smack” on the WWE Network. She is amazing when interviewing talent and commentating on matches. She was well on her way to becoming a great interviewer/commentator in the same vein as the great “Mean Gene” Okerlund. Why is she now being stunted as a member of the RAW commentary team? She doesn’t need a script—none of the main roster commentators do…not even Byron Saxton. Why are they being forced to follow one? Also, why is there a three-person commentary team for Smackdown Live? It doesn’t need it. Honestly, Smackdown Live could have Graves and Tom Phillips, and honestly, that’s all they need. As it stands now, Phillips, who is a younger, hipper version of Michael Cole says a little blurb, and then the rest of the time, for the most part, the rest of the commentary is split between Graves and Byron Saxton. I’m sorry, but for years now Saxton has been a wooden, bland babyface commentator. I remember when he was a quirky, nerdy commentator, who wore crazy things to some shows and loved wrestling as a whole, as he was a former performer in the ring. Where is that Byron Saxton? I miss him. Now, Graves has gone from being the cool, edgy commentator that was a bit on the heelish side, to trying to be a mix of Bobby Heenan and the “Puppies!” Jerry Lawler more and more by the day. I am not surprised that he hasn’t become a manager for some of the heel talent by now. No disrespect, because if there’s anyone to emulate, definitely Heenan is one to aspire to, but Graves needs to stop, and have the freedom to create his own unique persona at commentary again. He was very close, then he honestly devolved into being a Heenan/Lawler mutant—at least that’s how it feels for a long time fan watching today’s WWE commentary on the main roster.
If they want to change things up for this new era that they are promoting, why not do away with the scripts for the commentary team? Why not just have a list of the matches, a few bullet points for each match that creative wants the team to put a little focus on, and let commentary go put on the best play-by-play that they can for each match. Minus the study of season statistics and previous game performance, it’s pretty much what a sports commentator for the NFL, NBA or Premiere League would do.
Secondly, bring back “Talking Smack” and to a lesser degree “Raw Talk” with Renee Young as the host. Those two shows were for many wrestling fans, the behind-the-scenes look into the wrestlers. It felt like and by all reports was, in fact, the non-scripted show that let fans get to know the mentality of their favorite and/or most hated wrestlers. She was the lynchpin of that show. Even when she or Daniel Bryan would get pissed and walk off the set, it fed into the storylines that were going on at that time and should have continued to do so. “Talking Smack” is what made Smackdown Live feel more based in reality. That show made SDL feel more grounded in its storylines and pulled fans in and made them care. They need to come back.
Why are Championship matches relegated to the Preshow on pay-per-views?
For example, for this weekend’s Royal Rumble, the Championship matches for the United States championship and the Cruiserweight championship will be shown during the pre-show. Why? To be quite honest, no championship match should be put on the pre-show. It devalues the championship and the champion in the eyes of many fans and audience members.
This year’s Royal Rumble card is filled with championship matches true, but to be honest, a couple of these matches didn’t have to happen during the Royal Rumble, because one, The WWE Championship match, feels like rehash from previous pay-per-views and the other, the Smackdown Tag Team Championship match feels like it was literally thrown together at the last minute. I think when it comes to a championship match, it should never be during a preshow. WWE has a track record of doing this, and as a fan, I’ve always asked why? I would have much rather seen The New Day defeat Rusev Day in their title match during the main part of the Hell in a Cell PPV, instead of seeing Miz and Maryse vs Daniel Bryan and Brie Bella.
This year for the Royal Rumble, the WWE shouldn’t put on a two-hour preshow. I, as a fan and member of the audience, don’t need to see the recap of storylines during the pre-show, if I’m just going to see it before the participants enter the ring for their matches. It’s wasted time that could be spent on the actual event. Don’t get me wrong. I love watching the vets and legends talk about who they think will win the matches, but I don’t need two hours of it interspersed with recaps and preshow matches. Heck, the NFL doesn’t even to do that. They have on the whole one hour of preshow from the prognosticators about the matchups for the 14 games that will be played during a given week of the season, with an extra 30-minutes of preshow from the venue so that the commentators can talk about the last minute news that’s coming from each game specifically, and about what challenges each team will face coming into that week’s matchup. That extra 30 minutes also give the network a chance to have delays in place, just in case something happens during the game that needs to be censored out. The WWE doesn’t need a two-hour pre-show if all they are doing is repeat the same information that they are going to show before the match starts.
This year they need to have a preshow 30 minutes before the pay-per-view starts, having the vets and legends talk about each match (as there are nine matches this year including each Rumble match), and then lead the audience into the main event of the Royal Rumble PPV. I would choose the Smackdown Tag match to start off the main event, so as to get that one out of the way because personally, I don’t care about that match at all. I love The Miz, Shane, and the Bar, but the storyline for this match has been clunky, garbage mess, and frankly, it’s the stinky, mangled carcass of the Crown Jewel PPV—something many fans wants to forget. WWE should give more value to all of their championships. The title defenses should mean more. They shouldn’t be an afterthought. If no story or feud is going on for that title, then don’t have a title defense for that particular pay-per-view. Don’t just throw stories together, and throw it on the preshow.
Part II Coming Soon
