Distracting Commentary

[Guest WrestlingDeacon]

I've been watching some puro that a great guy on the boards sent to me and pretty much digging it. I, of course, don't speak Japanese and can't understand the commentary, so I tune it out for the most part. I think that has lead me to really follow matches more closely and pick up on storylines and such myself more.

 

So, I was thinking, have you ever seen a match that was brought down by the commentary? Where the announcers stupid babbling damaged your enjoyment of the match. Conversally, has good commentary every helped out a match for you to seem better?

[Guest Ravenbomb]

five words...Lawler talking endlessly about Cherries

[Guest Youth N Asia]

Bash at the Beach 96

 

Tony: "Here comes Hogan!"

Bobby: "Yeah, but who's side is he on?"

 

Thanks for ruining it completly Bobby.

 

Royal Rumble 99 when it was down to Austin/McMahon

 

JR: "Austin's gonna win! Austin's gonna win! Austin's gonna win! Austin's gonna win! It's in the bag! Blah Blah Blah Blah!"

 

Completly gave the ending away when he said that...you knew he was going to lose...JR has ruined many matches that way.

[Guest goodhelmet]

i usually tune them out. a few times, the commentary can enhance a match, but that is the exception, not the rule.

[Guest razazteca]

Tony Schiavonie can kill a good match with his constant shrilling for the Hogan Main Event. Fat Tony has made Nitro hard to watch, and the classic this just in updates took the focus away from the matches.

 

never really liked Mark Madden either, especially after the Great Muta incident.

[Guest Ravenbomb]

what was the Great Muta incident?

[Guest Youth N Asia]

I was going to ask the same thing.

 

And remember when Tony wasn't just a rancid announcer...you really gotta think back, late 80s/early 90s he was decient at his job...honestly

[Guest bob_barron]

Bash at the Beach 96

 

Tony: "Here comes Hogan!"

Bobby: "Yeah, but who's side is he on?"

 

Thanks for ruining it completly Bobby.

 

Royal Rumble 99 when it was down to Austin/McMahon

 

JR: "Austin's gonna win! Austin's gonna win! Austin's gonna win! Austin's gonna win! It's in the bag! Blah Blah Blah Blah!"

 

Completly gave the ending away when he said that...you knew he was going to lose...JR has ruined many matches that way.

They didn't know Hogan was gonna turn according to Brain's book so he was just playing the role he always plays as guy who doesn't trust Hogan.

 

 

JR wasn't at RR99

[Guest Ravenbomb]

but if he were, I'm sure he'd be saying that

[Guest The Electrifyer]

The most distracting commentary for me, is just when the commentators talk about a comletley different segment during a match that has nothing to do with the people in the ring. Cole does this a lot, he's always focusing on the main event or some other occurance during a different match.

[Guest The Metal Maniac]

I find that, as far as helping a match with commentary, Paul Heymen could do well.

 

Like, look at WM X-7, Angle vs. Benoit. The whole time, Heymen is talking about the match, what they're doing in the match, and such things. Very well done.

[Guest BaldFish]

I hear the commentary on the ICP JCW tapes is great.

[Guest razazteca]

why I hate Mark Madden:

 

well it basically Madden no selling the Green Mist of Muta. Mark Madden was wearing a cheap ass Hawiian shirt that you might see on blue light special at K-Mart and sunglasses, when Muta went to the announcer table to spray the MIST of DOOM~, Madden just sat there not reacting much to the spot. Then after the commercial break we see Madden talking to KeeeWeeeeee. The show went back to normal as if nothing happened, you would expect Madden at least leave the announcing table for "medical attention" but leaving Tony Schiavonie alone is not exactly going to help the show.

 

I hate when announcers are involved in skits or angles. big F U to Russo or whoever was responsible for this tripe.

 

Mike Tenay heel interview with Scott Steiner was almost just as bad.

 

JR getting his own announcer table with Dr Death was as pointless as the WCW stuff.

[Guest CoreyLazarus416]

BaldFish, the JCW tapes have convinced me that ICP are probably the best color commentators on the planet. Utterly offensive, definitely FANS of the product (considering it's THEIR product), and hilarious.

 

JCW volume 1 gets ***** from me, and volume 2 gets ****1/2 (if only because some of the jokes aren't as good as the ones on the original).

 

Methinks I should do a review of each JCW tape for the site...

[Guest razazteca]

StrangleMania is the King of Deathmatch Kawasaki Dream event with commentary by ICP.

 

3D owns all

[Guest dreamer420]

Anytime Michael Cole is announcing and resorts back to talking about what happened last week and what will happen later in show, it really pisses me off. I would like to see announcers commentate on the match they are watching and if they have nothing to say, shut the fuck up! I don't need to hear Cole shilling like a whore for the Big Show/Albert title match that is coming in the show, during a classic wrestled by Angle and Edge.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

I hate ICP...but the Stranglemania tapes are at least funny...I've only seen a little bit of 1...but I've seen 2 a couple times.

 

"Oh my God! It's the fuckin Wolf Man!"

 

The oldschool match cracks me up every time. And that chick barbwire match is SO brutal.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

JR wasn't at RR99

My bad...JR does overdue his "This guy's gonna win!" deal way too much where you know it's going to go the other way.

 

And he's too easily fooled by swerves.

[Guest razazteca]

Coach is really bad on Heat

 

Classic Comeback does not work if D-Lo is not his announcing partner, Lita does not help much either since she is basically eye candy with a Nicole Bass voice

[Guest BifEverchad]

The worst fucking commentary or distracting commentary had to be at King of the Ring 94. Football "Legend", Art Donovan sat in on commentary and completely ruined what was a really good show. He constantly made bad remarks and asked stupid questions that made me sigh in disbelief. Whatever reason he was there is beyond me, but the guy absolutely sunk the place up.

 

If you have a copy, go watch it and see what I mean.

 

"How much does this guy weigh?"

[Guest Bricks]

I can't watch any JR and Lawler commentated matches anymore without the mute on. JR is so unbearable especially during an Austin match.

 

As for commentary that helped make the match better, well, Michael Cole and Tazz have been doing pretty good since around late July that they've gotten the BrockLock over with me. Plus last SD, Cole, the announcer asked the former wrestler Tazz if Chavo's working on Benoit's midsection earlier in the match was a reason why Benoit wasn't strong enough to lock the crossface in, which Tazz responded with a knowledgable answer. They need to do more stuff like that me thinks. The "never wrestled a match" announcer asking the "former wrestler" announcer what's it like to be in there.

[Guest thetrendsetter]

They didn't know Hogan was gonna turn according to Brain's book so he was just playing the role he always plays as guy who doesn't trust Hogan.

That kind of makes sense... I think Schavonie was in on it though, he's a high ranking person in WCW right? and he immediately denounced brain's comments as ludacris...

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

As for enhancing a match, look no further than Royal Rumble 1992.

[Guest J*ingus]

I just watched Heat last night for the first time in a while, and I actually liked Coach and Lita's commentary. They were just messing around and having fun, which is a welcome change from the hard-sell, over-emoting style of Monday and Thursday nights.

 

I do commentary for a local indy fed, and it's interesting. One thing I always try hard to focus on is the physical psychology of the match, the different wrestlers' gameplans and why they're doing what they're doing. I think that announcers basically have three jobs: 1.Try to get the people emotionally involved in a match, 2.Explain or clarify parts of the story that's being told (or cover up bad spots), and 3.Shill whatever the promoter wants you to shill (by far my worst part, I can't fake sincerity with a gun to my head).

[Guest Jericholic82]

Bash at the Beach 96

 

Tony: "Here comes Hogan!"

Bobby: "Yeah, but who's side is he on?"

 

Thanks for ruining it completly Bobby.

 

Royal Rumble 99 when it was down to Austin/McMahon

 

JR: "Austin's gonna win! Austin's gonna win! Austin's gonna win! Austin's gonna win! It's in the bag! Blah Blah Blah Blah!"

 

Completly gave the ending away when he said that...you knew he was going to lose...JR has ruined many matches that way.

FYI: JR wasn't commentating at Rumble '99, Michael Cole was with Lawler, so you can yell at him for that lol, but as we saw in beyond the mat, jr was backsatge feeding lines to the two of them. this was when jr got bellspalsy a second time, he came ready for the rumble, but vince decided he wasnt healed enough yet, which they later turned into the evil JR angle with Dr Death

 

just thought i'd let you know, but I understand what you were getting at

 

 

(and I am not trying to be a jerk, so please don't think I was insulting you)

[Guest bob_barron]

They didn't know Hogan was gonna turn according to Brain's book so he was just playing the role he always plays as guy who doesn't trust Hogan.

That kind of makes sense... I think Schavonie was in on it though, he's a high ranking person in WCW right? and he immediately denounced brain's comments as ludacris...

I think Tony was just playing his role as Hogan defender. He's not going to go: I agree Brain. Hogan is gonna turn- and look- there he goes

[Guest Youth N Asia]

Bash at the Beach 96

 

Tony: "Here comes Hogan!"

Bobby: "Yeah, but who's side is he on?"

 

Thanks for ruining it completly Bobby.

 

Royal Rumble 99 when it was down to Austin/McMahon

 

JR: "Austin's gonna win! Austin's gonna win! Austin's gonna win! Austin's gonna win! It's in the bag! Blah Blah Blah Blah!"

 

Completly gave the ending away when he said that...you knew he was going to lose...JR has ruined many matches that way.

FYI: JR wasn't commentating at Rumble '99, Michael Cole was with Lawler, so you can yell at him for that lol, but as we saw in beyond the mat, jr was backsatge feeding lines to the two of them. this was when jr got bellspalsy a second time, he came ready for the rumble, but vince decided he wasnt healed enough yet, which they later turned into the evil JR angle with Dr Death

 

just thought i'd let you know, but I understand what you were getting at

 

 

(and I am not trying to be a jerk, so please don't think I was insulting you)

Already pointed out and acknowledged earler in the thread...although since JR was feeding him lines I can still blame him.

[Guest MillenniumMan831]

As for enhancing a match, look no further than Royal Rumble 1992.

AMEN!

[Guest dreamer420]

Or Wrestlemania 8. Bobby and Gorilla at their best.

[Guest Anorak]

I was watching Survivor Series 87 recently and the Monsoon/Ventura commentry was totally focused on getting over the match in the ring. Whether it was highlighting the strengths or flaws of some wrestlers, explaining the psychology of what moves or tactics were being used in the match (Ventura would consistantly pinpoint exactly why a wrestler was doing a certain move at a certain moment etc) or putting over the storylines rather than themselves. Ventura always sounded impassioned and forthright when he was justifying a certain heels behaviour ( eg. HTM getting himself counted out when it was 3 on 1) rather than flippant or sarcastic, he often managed to back up his arguments with a degree of logic. On this particular PPV they even took a few separate minutes out post-match to discuss what effect the bout would have in the coming weeks or months, it made everything feel important and less disposable/forgettable.

 

Summerslam 89 is a modest PPV (first I owned on video) that is raised by a really entertaining Ventura/Schavonie commentry. Jesse just pulls constant scorn on Tony's blatant favouring of the babyfaces in every match. Tony coming over as an ultra goofy Todd Petingil-like face commentator who is totally naive together with an increasingly frustrated and ever-cynical Jesse is a great combination. They were never quite like this again together in the years that followed as Tony never 'quite' sounded as dumb again and Jesse mellowed slightly in his style.

 

Rumble 92 and Wrestlemainia 8 have already been deservedly mentioned, I love Heenan's commentry on the Savage/Flair match as much as the Rumble stuff.

 

Summerslam 91's triple commentry between Monsoon, Heenan and Piper is worth checking out as well, again it makes a modest card quite a fondly remembered one for many.

 

The JR/Heyman pairing began to get really good just before Lawler came back. After quite a shaky start there were some great insults flying between them. Survivor Series 2001 was Paul E in his element.