yeah he is a douche, I’m not saying that he isn’t. Nor am I saying he is some great commentator if he didn’t have Vince in his ear. For the prior commentators in the lead chair, Vince hasn’t been in their ear like he has with Cole. A lot of former wrestlers and backstage agents have said Vince tells cole literally everything that comes out of his mouth. What you hear on Raw isn’t Cole, it’s vince with Cole’s voice. Now is Vince doing that because Cole is so bad at commentating that he needs to use him as a ventriloquist dummy or has Vince become so controlling of his product that he can’t allow someone to say anything that doesn’t go through him?
I wonder how stuff like this gets leaked. Is someone just set up in the crowd with a mic recording like it's a Dead show?
The issue with Cole isn’t JUST the spoon fed lines. He will randomly shit on the product and the performers. And his calls in the big moment are horrible. He’s had one call in his entire run I can remember. We don’t bash the smackdown crew and Vince is at gorilla as well. Feeding him lines just like Cole. At some point you get tired of the same voice. Eric made this point on his podcast. They would split up the announcer crews for Nitro just so people weren’t forced to listen to the same voices for two and three hours. We have listened to Cole for the last 10 years. Enough
Cole called Foley's first title win. That was it. Everything else has been anything from garbage to passable.
he's still considerably better than JBL was, and even though you can hear Vince from his words throughout, it doesn't bother me in the slightest because Graves is actually good at his job
So Slammiversary only did 1,500 PPV buys, how can they function off that? what are they getting paid? That's insanely low for how decent of a show they have currently.
JBL wasn’t the lead guy, he was a color guy who would flip flop from heel to face depending on the segment And he is just awful in general
Graves needs to just go full heel, he could be as good as Heenan if Vince didn’t make him still pop for Roman and other faces
Right, thats the difference. In NXT he was much more a Heenan contrarian. Now he just flips flops non-stop. Match to match and sometimes even in a match. He's considerably worse now.
Sorry but i'm not going to like these corny ass gimmick wrestlers just because they aren't on WWE tv. Not a fan of penis power, orange Cassidy or even Joey Janela tbqh. I get there is a section of wrestling fans who enjoy that stuff and more power to you. Not my thing.
He's being asked to be on TV to much. Being asked to fill roles his counter parts (looking at you Renee) can't do correctly. He's also filling in for Cole who couldn't call a clothesline by it's correct name if his life depended on it. It goes back to my point that he needs to be on one show. And if its RAW find a replacement for Renee and Cole. I find Graves much more enjoyable on Smackdown where he, Phillips and Saxton have defined roles and do a great job of calling the show and putting characters over. You never hear Phillps shit on stuff like the Fire Fly Fun House. Saxton call for the Kofi title win and the weeks prior and after was fantastic. He did a ton to get the moment over and not step on it in the process.
Last years Slammiversary show was fantastic. Impact seemed to have some momentum coming out of that but it stalled out after the show. I think putting the title on Austin Aries was a mistake and led to what was an embarrassing moment for the company when he eventually dropped the belt. I thought once again this years Slammiversary show was pretty good. But not being on TV and people needing to find them on twitch is just to much work for a company who's brand has suffered so much. Now add in what seems to be a large exodus of talent and people just wont invest in them. And its really a shame because the guys who currently run Impact are really good and deserve better. AEW would be wise to pick them up if or when Impact bites the dust.
Saxton was absolutely at his best when he was the white meat baby face announcers and Graves just shit all over him. Their dynamic was great. They haven't replicated it yet in WWE
The fact that he's worse than his NXT run is irrelevant to this conversation though, nobody's saying Vince's needless micromanagement doesn't make commentary worse. Graves being demonstrably better than JBL was and actually adding value shows that talent can still work around Vince. Yes being the lead is a different animal, but just because Cole is terrible doesn't mean that someone else can at least make spouting Vince's words presentable.
Yeah I fell in love with the Undertaker as a 10 year old. Sorry if a mid 30's bankz isn't all about penis power and slow motion wrestling. Sorry if a mini out of shape jericho wanna be doesn't do it for me. Again you can enjoy those guys... obviously they have a fan base. I'm not interested in that.
I agree 100%. I wouldn't be against that being our new RAW crew. And let Vic Joseph, Nigel and English become the Smackdown crew.
I wish they'd bring back Mauro full time but I don't know if he can handle it with his anxiety issues. Maybe with JBL gone it'd be ok.
Along with JBL/Vince issue I think Mauro also had a hard time juggling all his commitments. NXT seems to be easier on him in general. He's asked to come in for TV every once every 4-5 weeks and then call a TakeOver once every 3 months. I'm ok with him not leaving NXT because i'm selfish and belive its the best wrestling product in the world and he's amazing. And I don't want something to happen to him as a person for being mentally drained from the job of main roster.
Speaking of the Undertaker... I just purchased tickets for Extreme Rules and its only because of him. Never got to see Taker live. I want to see his entrance in person. Hopefully the guys out perform the meh build.
Oh man... I'm not sure if I would demand a refund or consider myself lucky to be the first live crowd to see the Graveyard Dogs new entrance
I am actually interested in what happens at Extreme Rules. I could see it being an awful show that just kind of finishes out the old tired feuds to give Paul and Eric a fresh slate next week. If that is the case it will be a bad PPV, but needed for the refresh. Could also see a few big moments and swerves to kick off the Paul and Eric era. Wonder which way they go with it
I hope yall aren't expecting things to immediately change after Extreme Rules. You know Vince is gonna want certain programs to last through Summerslam
I have zero expectations in general, if the product turns around and becomes decent I'll be glad, I'll resub on the network, and will watch more. But if nothing really changes for the better, and it's just minor stuff, I'm not going to be surprised cause it's still Vince's company and he's going to do Vince.
There are a few MINOR changes that could be made that could improve the product drastically almost immediately. RAW seems to have started one of them recently starting the show with big matches over 20 minute promos. I am not talking about feuds per se.
I think some have unrealistic expectations that wont be reached. If we can things to make sense, promos sound like a normal human is speaking and story lines to have some continuity I think that's a huge win. Take Smackdown this week. This was Vince ideas implemented by HHH because Vince wasn't at Smackdown. And the show was really enjoyable. Promo's were very good and the closing was great. If Heyman and Eric can pull that off most weeks i'll be very happy with that.
i don’t think it will change much at all actually but I hope I’m wrong. Heyman and Bischoff are going to have the same problems every other writer has had; every idea will still have to go through Vince for approval. I mean look at Heyman’s first Raw a couple weeks ago. Everyone loved the opening, the crowd even started chanting thank you Heyman. That had to have pissed Vince off with his ego. So the next day WWE “leaked” that yes Heyman was there in gorilla with Vince but he didn’t really have much to do with the show yet and the night before was still Vince in charge.
His “personality’s” are showing up backstage on both RAW and Smackdown since his videos have come to an end
Watching Ep3 of Road to Fight for the Fallen...this is great. Will have to go back and watch the others.