More Info on Joey Styles' Re-Assignment

[Enigma 0]

From PWI:

 

To follow up what we reported here yesterday (and what you saw on TV last night), Joey Styles has been moved out of the ECW announcing booth and into a position with WWE.com. From what I have been told, the decision was pretty quick in developing last Friday and it took most of the people in the company by surprise when it all went down yesterday.

 

While they announced on TV that Styles will be the "Head of WWE.com", the site will still be overseen by Brian Kalinowski, who is a VP in charge of a number of areas, including the website. Styles will be a point man for the site, kind of a managing editor of sorts, taking a role similar to the one that Michael Cole had before giving up site responsibility earlier this year. Styles will be in charge of all of the content that you see on WWE.com from this point forward.

 

Styles will both work in the WWE.com offices in Stamford and will also travel to all of the company's televised WWE events. He was telling people at TV yesterday that his role will be to tighten up the website and make sure that embarrassing situations, such as the posting of photographs on Monday of people who may or may not be in next week's King Of The Ring tournament on Raw, no longer happen. At the live events, he will sit in on production and creative meetings and thus will be able to convey to those on the website what should be reported, who should be pushed, etc. Styles will be in the loop in a big way and his new role is one that actually adds greatly to his responsibilities within the company.

 

In talking to people inside WWE, the consensus was that Styles was telling people that he was excited about the new role and looked forward to the challenge and showing another area of his abilities to WWE. Of course, he co-owned both ECWWrestling.com and 1Wrestling.com, where yours truly worked closely with him, so he has a lot of experience in the area of new media. Unfortunately, with the addition of Mike Adamle's hefty contract that probably made the company's decision to move Styles out of the announce booth for them.

 

As for why he was moved off of the show, I have heard a few different theories. It's no secret that Vince McMahon has never been a fan of Joey's style, which is understandable considering that Styles' strengths lie in areas that WWE does not emphasize. But of late, there hadn't been much of talk of any problem that McMahon had with the work being done on Tuesday nights. Still, given Styles initial problems meshing with Vince McMahon's view of the business, his removal from the booth doesn't surprise me. As mentioned above, there is also the matter of Mike Adamle and his big contract to consider. He wasn't brought in to be a sideline reporter and given his inexperience calling matches, ECW was the best logical place to let him cut his teeth.

 

Curiously enough, a number of people in the company told me that Styles stock went up given Adamle's less than stellar debut last night. Of course, that has to be tempered by the fact that the people doing the evaluating think that the Coach/Michael Cole combination on Smackdown is working well.

 

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Nothing was disturbing about that at all until I read the final sentence.

 

I'm thinking May will be ECW month on WWE 24/7 Online.

[Silence 0]

Adamle sounds too much like Todd Grisham and can't even call a dropkick right.

[Mike wanna be 0]

He can't even call a big boot right.

 

June's ECW month, what with the PPV and the resurrection and all.

[The Truthiness 0]

"Jamaican me Crazy,Kofi" was such a awesome line, that I can forgive all his mistakes. It was his 1st night, and he did really well.

[notJames 0]

I thought Adamle was awful. He was slow to catch up on the action, sounded like he didn't know who was in the ring at times, and did not have any kind of chemistry with Taz. Sure, it was his first try, but it didn't give me a lot of hope for the future.

[Steviekick 0]

Adamle sounds too much like Todd Grisham and can't even call a dropkick right.

 

At first I thought it was Grisham. Last night, Adamle was awkward at best.

[ANKLELOCK 0]

Adamle did fine. Commentary isn't about "calling the moves" like Styles and guys like Tenay like to do. It's relaying strategy, character, and what role the match plays in the overall story to the fans, who couldn't care less what a "magistral cradle" is. That's why Ross is still the best in the biz, even if he does sometimes confuse a "twist of fate" and a "whisper in the wind".

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

And you feel he did a "fine" job relaying strategy, character and what role the match plays in the overall story?

[GCWPatrick 0]

"Jamaican me Crazy,Kofi" was such a awesome line, that I can forgive all his mistakes.

 

Not when the line is delivered with all the manufactured enthusiasm of Michael Cole on a Ritalin overdose.

[Guest]

Deleted some flaming...none of that.

[The Niggardly King 0]

what the fuck were you people expecting? he never got eased into the role, no auditions, no prep time, just thrown out on a national broadcast and told to learn on the spot. they should have spent a month easing him into the role, keeping joey in the booth and running with a three man team for a little bit or have him do one match a week.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Adamle is not in a good spot. Even if he does a good job in the role, casual fans are going to shit on him because he's not Joey Styles.

[haVoc 0]

I thought casual fans eat whatever they're given?

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

I thought casual fans eat whatever they're given?

Not the ECW crowd.

[Perfection 0]

I thought Adamle was awful. He was slow to catch up on the action, sounded like he didn't know who was in the ring at times, and did not have any kind of chemistry with Taz. Sure, it was his first try, but it didn't give me a lot of hope for the future.

 

Yeah I thought he was absolutely god awful and sounded like he didn't have a damn clue what he was talking about. I can't believe someone like that can get on tv, much less be on the announce team. I truly think I could pick anyone off the street and have them do a better job than he did. It's simply astonishing that they can't or won't find someone better.

[Celtic Guardian 0]

Adamle did fine. Commentary isn't about "calling the moves" like Styles and guys like Tenay like to do. It's relaying strategy, character, and what role the match plays in the overall story to the fans, who couldn't care less what a "magistral cradle" is. That's why Ross is still the best in the biz, even if he does sometimes confuse a "twist of fate" and a "whisper in the wind".

 

Adamle doesn't know the stories or the characters in the stories. Even under WWE's redefinition of the commentary position, he was still not acceptable.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Adamle was better than Brad Armstrong.

[Enigma 0]

Yeah, whatever happened to Brad Armstrong replacing Tazz?

[tominator89 0]

I thought casual fans eat whatever they're given?

Not the ECW crowd.

 

No offense, but I think the real ECW crowd moved on a long time ago.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Yeah but the current viewership of ECW is only 1/3 the Raw audience, which could indicate the casual fans don't bother with it.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

I did a quick search and Im not the first one to say that they should Replace Tazz with Larry Csonka.

 

 

 

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

That would be pretty awesome.

 

Also, Marv, you could not find photos of the tag titles that weren't so damn blurry (assuming you made that photo yourself)?

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

That would be pretty awesome.

 

Also, Marv, you could not find photos of the tag titles that weren't so damn blurry (assuming you made that photo yourself)?

It got blurry cause I had to shrink the pic I found by about 2/3rds and had to paste them over the IC Title carefully.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Joey should update his WWE.com bio.

 

No longer tied down by the politics of WWE, Styles has returned to the place he called home for so many years, ECW.

 

 

[FroGG_NeaL 0]

Good for Joey. All the best to the man.

 

 

As for the new guy, yeah he sucked. He was also put on te spot calling an entire live wrestling show with nobody but Tazz to help him. I'm sure JR screaming lines into his ear from the back wasn't akward at all, either, plus have you ever been to a live show? shit is way crazier once you get into the actual atmosphere. Look, I aint saying duke is gonna be the next Solie, or even the next Cole, just give him a few weeks to learn the job. Negative Nancies run rampant up in this mofucker.

 

 

plus, He's still way better than Don West.

 

 

 

I want a commentary team of dusty, heyman, J.R., and mark madden, myself.

 

Incoherent babbling and insider~! lingo. hellz yeah.

[Enigma 0]

Good for Joey. All the best to the man.

 

 

As for the new guy, yeah he sucked. He was also put on te spot calling an entire live wrestling show with nobody but Tazz to help him. I'm sure JR screaming lines into his ear from the back wasn't akward at all, either, plus have you ever been to a live show? shit is way crazier once you get into the actual atmosphere. Look, I aint saying duke is gonna be the next Solie, or even the next Cole, just give him a few weeks to learn the job. Negative Nancies run rampant up in this mofucker.

 

 

plus, He's still way better than Don West.

 

 

 

I want a commentary team of dusty, heyman, J.R., and mark madden, myself.

 

Incoherent babbling and insider~! lingo. hellz yeah.

 

The show was not live. It was taped about 6 hours earlier in England.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

 

 

I think the guy is better off interviewing, not commentating.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Alright, I got to be honest. I must be the only Adamle mark on the internet. I'm not saying he's fundamentally good but I enjoy listening to the guy commentate. He's not homogenized yet. He comes from a totally different angle than most other generic commentators (Grisham, Korpela, ect). He's not loud or obnoxious. Plus, I was a huge American Gladiators mark.

[Twisted Intestine 0]

 

 

I think the guy is better off interviewing, not commentating.

 

That made you laugh? That's the most annoying thing I've seen.