Vince McMahon Not Happy With Joey Styles

[Enigma 0]

Numerous sources have told us that Vince McMahon is not happy with the job that Joey Styles has been doing of late on Raw. Sources have told me that McMahon gave Styles a long talking to at last week's Raw on 01/02, telling him what he thinks Styles is doing wrong (from a WWE perspective) and what he expects from the lead announcer of Raw. From what I have been told, Styles will have to realize that he is no longer "calling ECW matches for the internet fans" if he wants to stay on Raw long-term. It should also be noted that when Styles first interviewed with WWE, after ECW went out of business in 2001, WWE had the same concerns about him. It's not a knock against Styles either, but rather a further indication of how WWE sees their way of doing business as the right and only way. They see it as they make movies and tell stories. They don't "call wrestling".

 

credit: PWInsider Elite

 

Also, in the recent edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer says that it took Joey Styles 6 hours to do the voice-over work for the Raw in Afghanistan, which was only about 1 hour and 40 minutes without commercials. They reportedly had to do a ton of re-dos. Paul Heyman recently contacted WWE and claimed that he had to do a lot of "producing" to make Joey sound as good as he did in ECW.

[SamoaRowe 0]

Bogus, Joey Styles has been the best new addition to Raw in ages, and I've enjoyed his commentating.

[Carnival 0]

I wonder what could be the problem? Not enough food references?

[Guest JMA]

Vince telling someone else how to announce is hilarious.

[Guest Princess Leena]

They see it as they make movies and tell stories. They don't "call wrestling".

 

Smarks can't understand this.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Styles calls all the moves. That's not the WWE style of commentatin. The WWE style of commentating is to talk about the story of the match. Since the story of WWE matches is usually Snitskys foot fetish or Shelton Benjamin's mama...that's why the commentary is terrible.

[The Niggardly King 0]

I haven't really paid much attention to Styles since he joined commentary.

[Art Sandusky 0]

Styles calls all the moves. That's not the WWE style of commentatin. The WWE style of commentating is to talk about the story of the match. Since the story of WWE matches is usually Snitskys foot fetish or Shelton Benjamin's mama...that's why the commentary is terrible.

Yup, that's why watching other promotions is always kinda weird for me. The WWF and eventually WWE have always been more about the story than in-ring action. Not the commentators' faults that the stories of the matches have been downright awful over the last four-five years. I was starting to warm up to hearing Styles call WWE matches too. I figured they went to a three man team so that he could do exactly what he's been doing. Let the other two knuckleheads talk about all the dumb shit.

[snuffbox 0]

Hes sounded fine on the rare occasions that Ive caught Raw. He even sells the stupid shit going on convincingly....or at least tries to. Joey seems like a less-stuttering Jim Ross to me. What exactly is Vince looking for? More talk throughout the show about the McMahon family?

[Murmuring Beast 0]

I thought it was just JR but with a new voice.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Basically, it's Vince telling Joey to stop treating the action in the ring like it deserves to be treated, and to start shilling HHH.

 

One more reason why I don't watch WWE, despite Styles being my favorite PBP guy: Vince will never be happy with any other way of doing things, despite how much critical success it gets among the only people that watch his programming, because it's not his way. Nevermind the fact that "his way" has basically been a ripoff of Heyman's way for the last 8 years or so.

[Kizzo 0]

I agree with McMahon.......

 

Yes, Styles is a great "wrestling" announcer.....but the WWE style is more of telling stories and etc....he has to learn how to develop that type of style if he wants to remanin the lead guy....

.....in the WWE its not about calling moves or knowing all that crap......its about the "story" aspect of it...

 

Since Heyman had to "produce" Styles.....then I guess he will be helping him more...

[snuffbox 0]

Why did Heyman have to call in to report this 'producing' after the fact? Nobody at wwe bothered to call Heyman or watch videos or basically do any research on Joey's announcing style?

 

This 'producing' thing shouldnt matter anyway....comnsidering how many other wwe announcers have had all their lines piped to them through an earpiece.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

"Why did Heyman have to call in to report this 'producing' after the fact? Nobody at wwe bothered to call Heyman or watch videos or basically do any research on Joey's announcing style?"

 

This is rhetorical, correct?

[Downhome 0]

I thought it was funny that Joey Styles didn't say a single word during the entire "live sex" segment, and only started to talk when Ric Flair finally came out to end that shit.

[Art Sandusky 0]

This is all pretty surprising after the reports from a few weeks ago that everyone thought Styles was doing great and didn't even have his commentary sent through an earpiece.

[Failed Bridge 0]

I hope they fire him and he goes to TNA. Tenay is good doing what he did in WCW being apart of a three man crew, but his pbp is nothing special at all.

[Guest Fook]

I hope they fire him and he goes to TNA. Tenay is good doing what he did in WCW being apart of a three man crew, but his pbp is nothing special at all.

 

They won't fire him unless something major happens. They know that without him they're stuck with Coach, and even Vince knows how bad that is.

[GreatWhiteNope 0]

The 3-man announce team doesn't work with Styles.

 

Him and Coach try to steal each other's lines every week and it gets old really fast. I think it has to do with Joey not being used to competing with other announcers live.

 

One of the Dudleyz said in an interview a month or so ago that Styles was the master of knowing when not to talk. That doesn't work when you have Lawler interrupting that silence with throwaway comments.

 

I was hoping Coach would be phased out a few weeks after Styles joined on. I don't see Joey lasting much longer in the current arrangement.

 

One Night Stand was probably one of the best calls I've ever heard - but you don't know how much Heyman was feeding to him.

 

Sad situation.

[Failed Bridge 0]

Fook, why must you constantly burst my bubble?

 

It could happen though. God knows that both men are very stubborn people.

[snuffbox 0]

"Why did Heyman have to call in to report this 'producing' after the fact? Nobody at wwe bothered to call Heyman or watch videos or basically do any research on Joey's announcing style?"

 

This is rhetorical, correct?

 

Yep.

[SuperJerk 0]

They see it as they make movies and tell stories. They don't "call wrestling".

 

Smarks can't understand this.

Maybe that's because trying to understand this is like trying to understand a 5-sided triangle.

[Guest noyes]

I agree with McMahon.......

 

Yes, Styles is a great "wrestling" announcer.....but the WWE style is more of telling stories and etc....he has to learn how to develop that type of style if he wants to remanin the lead guy....

.....in the WWE its not about calling moves or knowing all that crap......its about the "story" aspect of it...

 

But what happens in the ring has to be, at least, part of any successful story in a wrestling context. If the "story" McMahon and co. want to tell is entirely based on the comically ridiculous antics of a sassy fat black mama then I would never watch a wrestling show to get such a story, I have more professionally executed versions of said story on too many sitcoms on too many different channels to choose from at any gven time. This is at the heart of why the WWE's current intentions for their creative direction have proven to be fundamentally self destructive.

[cabbageboy 0]

The goofy thing here is that if you watch the Taboo Tuesday show Styles did a brilliant job of conveying the HHH/Flair storyline in that match. Perhaps it's because he actually had something to work with there?

 

I'm not sure I agree with Vince on the precise reason why Styles isn't quite right on Raw, but there IS something missing. I think he is just now figuring out how to do weekly live shows, something he never did much in ECW (aside from the PPVs).

[Prime Time Andrew Doyle 0]

Styles has been pretty decent. But when the story you have to work on is that Shelton wants to win to avoid being spanked by his mother, you can't blame him for not doing his best to put the story over, or focusing on it, because it is so fucking ridiculous.

[St. Gabe 0]

Styles has talent, but Is it bad for me to long for Jim Ross calling Raw? Sure, it was bad most of the time, but it was consistent. Raw seems to have lost something for me lately. Even though wrestling quality hads been consistently bad with a few bright spots, the commentary has been incredibly lacking. Coach will never be any good, Lawler is stale, and Styles seems nervous...hell, I havent heard much of anything I like lately,

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Hmmmm, I thought Styles was plenty watered down enough for WWE at this point. Seems like a smoother version of JR. Guess I'm wrong.

 

I think we can expect to see him in some sort of announcer-abuse angle w/ HHH sooner than later.

[UZI Suicide 0]

Styles has talent, but Is it bad for me to long for Jim Ross calling Raw? Sure, it was bad most of the time, but it was consistent. Raw seems to have lost something for me lately. Even though wrestling quality hads been consistently bad with a few bright spots, the commentary has been incredibly lacking. Coach will never be any good, Lawler is stale, and Styles seems nervous...hell, I havent heard much of anything I like lately,

 

I agree with you, I miss Ross too (can't believe I'm saying that). He just knows how to put over a story and bring excitement to a match.

 

Joey Styles calls all the moves.. but who gives a shit? Seriously. He's a generic guy who people drool over because he knows every move. Yeah, here's the thing, I'M WATCHING THE MATCH, I can see what moves are being performed, whether or not the announcer tells me that it was a suplex or a "throw" really doesn't matter to me in the least.

[NoCalMike 0]

The matches should sell themselves. I am not watching the match so I can be told the story of the match. The story of the match is what LEADS UP TO THE MATCH. I don't need to be told DURING THE MATCH what the background story is of the match, hopefully as a fan I would have been watching already to know the story.

 

I want wrestling matches called, not some stupid story to be told.

[Black Lushus 0]

I love people here making excuses for Joey's inability to tell a story. Irregardless of the crap going on in the ring, at least JR could halfway sell it to us.