The Voice of SmackDown

Friday’s SmackDown was the first episode in a long time to not feature Michael Cole on commentary. Replacing ‘The Voice of WWE’ at the announce position was former WWE champion John ‘Bradshaw’ Layfield. Not only did he do a fantastic job but the dynamic between he and Josh Mathews worked far better than that that exists between Mathews and Cole.

I’m not going to bash Cole. His heel act has been toned down considerably over the last year and he’s been working as a babyface again since Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler’s heart attack last month. It’s a better way of using him. While it will take time for viewers to forget the nauseating amount of TV time Cole gobbled up during the height of his heel run in the long run I think he can be accepted as a replacement for Jim Ross.

That’s not to say he will ever be as good as Ross. Unfortunately for Cole he assumed the lead announcer duties too late to be able to prove that he can do anything but a mediocre job commentating a wrestling bout. The role he has now involved him pushing storylines, gimmicks and shilling for a variety of products WWE has chosen to associate itself with (such as Twitter and Tout).

When ‘Good Ol’ JR’ was at the desk in his late 90s prime he was pretty much left to his own devices as far as calling the action went. Occasionally he’d have to acknowledge a sponsor’s on-screen graphic but that’s about as far as it went.

 

Someone get this man a microphone, stat!

 

Even though Cole has become a lot more tolerable of late removing him from SmackDown was still the right move. It allowed Josh Mathews to do a little more with regards to commentating. He benefited from working alongside a clear heel too. He can come across as bland when working with Cole, whereas JBL brings some passion out in him.

I’d like to see this become a regular thing. Cole would benefit from working only RAW and new show Main Event (although I suspect he’ll get taken off of that when it inevitably turns into a job show): decreasing his profile lessens any lingering resentment viewers may hold towards him. It would be good for Josh Mathews too. WWE needs to get serious about preparing new commentators for their main shows and Mathews would be a perfect understudy for Cole. He needs to be allowed to develop his own style before that can happen though, which is going to be difficult while he’s paired with Cole.

Meanwhile using JBL for every SmackDown would be great for obvious reasons: he knows how to elevate talent while working as a heel commentator and he injects a good deal of knowledge into every broadcast he’s on. Having a former world champion at the announce desk doesn’t hurt credibility either.

Replacing Booker

I made fun of him. We all made fun of him. But now that he’s gone I miss him. I’m talking, of course, about Booker T.

Last week’s episode of SmackDown (which is recapped here) saw Booker promoted to the lofty position of General Manager. The storyline reasoning for this is that Vince McMahon, WWE’s top boss, wanted someone in the roll who had experience and the respect of the fans.

That’s fine storyline reasoning for the move, but it doesn’t make any sense to me for the only man with wrestling experience (Michael Cole’s tedious gimmick outings don’t count) on the blue brand’s commentary team to be shunted backstage. Making him General Manager allows him to keep appearing regularly on TV and even wrestle occasionally, but he was of more use to the show wearing a headset. His deliberately absurd catchphrases and flawed logic were often a highlight of the programme.

After last week’s show it’s clear that SmackDown needs a colour commentator. Josh Mathews is a very good broadcaster by WWE standards, but placing him alongside Michael Cole doesn’t allow him to shine. It also means there is nobody offering a wrestler’s perspective on the . Without Booker T to even things out there is too much Michael Cole. A replacement is needed.

It’s been suggested that John Bradshaw Layfield could return to WWE to resume his old position as SmackDown colour commentator. He was excellent in the role during 2006 and 2007, gradually learning how to elevate talent with heelish comments and forming a good on-screen rapport with Michael Cole.

That was then and this is now. While JBL’s verbal abilities would remain unchanged the same cannot necessarily be said of his relationship with Cole. Since Layfield left the announce desk Cole has become a heel. That would mean either JBL playing a face, which he could theoretically do by altering his gimmick so it’s more APA than JBL, or Cole being switched to a full-on babyface.

As I don’t think the latter would work (because he has been rammed down our throats as an obnoxious braggart for so long) the best route would be to have Layfield work as a face. That could affect his ability to work as a commentator because he’s used to being the bad guy when wearing a headset.

It’s not a guarantee that ‘The Wrestling God’ will be returning to WWE though. The guy is retired and living in the Bahamas, which would make going back on the road with WWE, even for just one working day a week, time consuming for him. WWE may have to look within its current talent pool to fill the Booker-shaped hole on SmackDown.

"Shucky ducky quack quack!" is just one of the Bookerisms we won'y be enjoying anymore

Either William Regal or Byron Saxton could be brought up from NXT to work alongside Cole and Mathews. Perhaps WWE could remove Cole all together and just have a two man unit with Mathews calling the action? Both Saxton and Regal are good enough to call a taped show and would provide the in-ring insight needed in a different style to Booker T. They’d work nicely alongside Mathews too.

I’ve suggested before (here, in fact) that either Wade Barrett or Christian could be tried out at the announce desk. The former Nexus boss has experience in the role from his time in FCW and could easily work as a commentator and still be a full time wrestler if his in-ring appearances were limited to RAW, leaving him free to sit at the announce desk on SmackDown.

‘Captain Charisma’ would be a better fit though. He’s one of WWE’s better talkers, knows how to work as either a face or a heel, and is closer to retirement than Barrett. While he still has many good years as an active performer left in him it would be better to limit his wrestling time than that of a rising star like Barrett.

They could surprise us and bring in rated promo guys Kevin Nash or Mick Foley. It’s not likely though: ‘The Hardcore Legend’ has worked as a broadcaster in WWE before but found the job so stressful that he quit and went to TNA for three years. The naturally more laid back ‘Big Sexy’ has never worked as a commentator for WWE but he’s got a gift for humour and I can imagine him working nicely alongside Cole. There’s a very real possibility of him phoning it in though.

Personally I’d like to see WWE give Road Dogg a try. He has been working backstage as a producer since last year so he’s available to the company and his appearances on web series Are You Serious? and RAW’s 1000^th episode show that he hasn’t lost his touch on the microphone. The New Age Outlaw has worked with Josh Mathews before and as a natural babyface he would fill the gap left by Booker T nicely.

If it were up to me WWE would give Road Dogg a try and keep ‘The Instant Classic’ in mind as a backup choice. They should also be grooming new commentators in developmental, but I‘ve said this before. Perhaps the lack of Booker will spur them into action.

As long as they don’t give the job to Matt Striker we should be fine.

Embrace the Hate

It’s taken over five years of mixed reactions for WWE to finally begin teasing a John Cena heel turn. The main reason they’re (finally) taking this approach is because they know Cena is going to get some very rough treatment when he walks into Miami to face hometown hero The Rock at WrestleMania XXVIII. He is unlikely to officially turn anytime soon. WWE are simply giving themselves more creative freedom with the Cena character, which is a good thing. ‘The CeNation Commander in Chief’ is going to need an edge to him if he’s going to be working with ‘The Great One’ over the next couple of months.

Not only does it give the creative team some freedom but it allows Cena to change his character a little and give a more serious performance. Anyone who’s been paying attention to his performances over the last few weeks will have seen evidence that he’d make a very convincing heel. His facial expressions have become far less cartoony, more focused, since he was first encouraged to “embrace the hate” by Kane on the December 26^th RAW.

His treatment of Josh Mathews on the January 23^rd RAW was noteworthy too. When asked for a response to Kane’s vicious assault on ‘Long Island Iced Z’, Cena knocked the microphone from Mathews’ hand and gave him a menacing stare. That was not the standard Cena response.

The beating he gave Jack Swagger the week before was a good example of Cena’s ability to work as a heel too: had the face-heel dynamic been switched during that squash match Cena would have been booed out of the building and ‘The All American American’ would have been an incredibly sympathetic character. If Cena were to turn tomorrow and give one-sided beatings like to that on a weekly basis he’d be one of the most detested men in wrestling (for the right reasons).

Of course, Cena’s heel potential should be clear to anyone who remembers the beginning of his WWE career. After he’d killed a few months working as a bland babyface in the lower mid-card the future WWE champion was given the chance to reinvent himself as an antagonistic, baseball shirt-loving rapper on a Halloween episode of SmackDown. The character was different to anything else WWE was doing at the time, and Cena’s crisp promos and amusing putdowns helped establish him as “cool heel”.

Eventually Cena became so cool that he had to be turned face. That may sound surprising now (even to those who were watching WWE at the time it happened) but there was a time when Cena was so popular he simply wouldn’t work as a heel. His character has softened over the years (partly because of the PG rating, partly because the material Cena was using just couldn’t be used by a babyface) but he is still essentially playing the same character.

Will we see Cena stick to rising above hate at tonight’s Royal Rumble? Or will he embrace it and batter Kane? As I said above, I can’t see him officially turning. At most we’ll get Cena edging slightly closer to the dark side, getting himself disqualified and then standing around afterwards doing his usual “heavy breathing/confused look” selling. Anyone who knows Cena should know the sort of thing I mean.

An official heel turn before WrestleMania? I can’t see it happening. A heel turn before next year’s supershow is a far more real possibility.

Rise Above Hate: how much longer can John Cena keep on doing that?

Turning Cena will create fresh matches and change the dynamic of WWE’s TV and pay-per-view output. Cena’s been the number one face for so long that RAW would feel incredibly different with CM Punk or Randy Orton being presented as the company’s lead star. It would be a move for the better though: Cena would have something new to do and his replacement would have new matches and feuds to experience. Theoretically new talent would have the chance to rise up the card. Star building is something WWE needs to be getting on with in a big way.

When the time comes for Cena to finally stop being the good guy I think the best way to do it would be to pit him against the Undertaker at WrestleMania. Cena has been presented as unbeatable for so long and has beaten everyone there is to beat. If WWE were ever going to end ‘Taker’s ‘Mania streak Cena would be one of the favourites to get the win. If that match were to be announced most fans would instantly realise that Cena is a genuine threat to the streak. Anyone who thought otherwise could be convinced with some strong booking.

If Cena were allowed to dominate the Undertaker in the weeks leading up to a WrestleMania match WWE could convince people Cena was going to win. It wouldn’t be a stretch to have Cena dominating an opponent, even somebody on the level of the Undertaker. He dominates everyone, no matter their position on the roster.

 A match in which Cena went to increasingly heelish lengths to beat ‘The Dead Man’ would draw amazing heat. Have ‘Taker kick out of the AA. Then kick out of a second and survive the STF. Cena could survive choke slams, Last Rides and even a Tombstone without a single change to his character: he already survives everyone’s finishers anyway.

The reason that match would work so well is that both men survive so much in their matches. With Undertaker it’s the character’s gimmick, and people love and respect him for it. With Cena it’s because he simply doesn’t grasp the concept of selling, which makes people hate him. These facts would make a WrestleMania encounter between the two magnificently heated and a fitting addition to ‘The Phenom’s’ legacy. It wouldn’t be the most technical match of the legendary streak, but it would have an amazing “big fight” feel to it.

This match obviously isn’t going to happen this year. This year Cena will tackle ‘The Great One’. But when the time comes for him to turn heel a slow burn storyline between Cena and the Undertaker, two of the company’s most successful and memorable characters, would be a great way to kick off Cena’s run as the most hated man in wrestling.