2 Cents... the Announcers

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Big Red Machine
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2 Cents... the Announcers

Post by Big Red Machine » Jan 18th, '16, 18:45

Just write down the first few things that come to mind about the following current announcers:

BYRON SAXTON-

COREY GRAVES-

JBL-

JERRY LAWLER-

JOSH MATHEWS-

KEVIN KELLY-

LENNY LEONARD-

MATT STRIKER-

MAURO RANALLO-

MICHAEL COLE-

POPE-

RICH BRENNAN-

ROB NAYLOR-

RON NIEMI-

STEVE CORINO-

VAMPIRO-
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Re: 2 Cents... the Announcers

Post by Big Red Machine » Jan 18th, '16, 18:47

BYRON SAXTON- I’m not even sure why he is out there. Diversity, maybe? He just seems to be lost or have nothing to say. He literally contributes nothing to the booth.

COREY GRAVES- Fantastic! He knows how to be a heel while still building the babyfaces up. It feels like a lost art nowadays.

JBL- shut up and stop yelling you obnoxious doofus!

JERRY LAWLER- a man who stopped giving a sh*t long ago, but for some reason he has never been reprimanded for it despite how much he hurts the product. In retrospect, he never should have turned babyface.

JOSH MATHEWS- would have been fine if he stayed babyface in a regular promotion, but he struggles when having to deal with stupid TNA bullsh*t and it all got worse when they made him flip-flop to be a heel only for EC III’s matches.

KEVIN KELLY- a weird hybrid of what an announcer should be and a WWE announcer. He doesn’t hurt the product per se, but I do think that ROH would be much better served with a more "real sports," "call the moves" announcer.

LENNY LEONARD- a modern day Joey Styles. A guy who can call the moves, be snarky when it’s called for, and react to events in the proper babyface way, all while sounding completely professional.

MATT STRIKER- tries too hard to tell a story, and as a result winds up saying tons and tons of dumb sh*t.

MAURO RANALLO- a much-needed breath of fresh air and hopefully the savior of WWE announcing. He makes me sad I didn’t watch New Japan on AXS.

MICHAEL COLE- a mystery of potential. I’d love to hear what Cole could be like without being restricted and screamed at by Vince. He might be just as bad, or he might be wonderful, but I’m kind of sad that we’ll never know.

POPE- TNA’s version of Steve Corino

RICH BRENNAN- I’m still not always sure which voice is his.

ROB NAYLOR- if left unchecked, he will grow into an indy version of Steve Corino, but there is still time to train him correctly.

RON NIEMI- the indy version of Byron Saxton. Not in that he sounds lost, but more in that he just seems to get in the way.

STEVE CORINO- too much of mark most of the time. Sometimes it’s funny (like with Cole), but sometimes it’s just annoying (like with the Bucks). He also needs to stop trying to be funny.

VAMPIRO- half the time he is extremely insightful and the other half he is just blabbing out stupid crap, with very little in between.
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XIV
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Re: 2 Cents... the Announcers

Post by XIV » Jan 18th, '16, 19:29

BYRON SAXTON- Because they've got to pay him for something right? Maybe Vince's way of trying to not appear racist by having a black commentator on each of the big two shows. See nothing he brings at all.

COREY GRAVES- potential.

JBL- Tries to be Jerry Lawler of all people. Would serve better as a manager to a wrestler.

JERRY LAWLER- PLEASE RETIRE *CLAP CLAP CLAPCLAPCLAP

JOSH MATHEWS- I like him. He's clever, he researches, he knows what he wants to get across, shame he's not at WWE anymore.

KEVIN KELLY- Better now he's not at WWE. Reliable and steady.

LENNY LEONARD- Don't know enough of him to comment.

MATT STRIKER- Again... I liked him. Called the big moments right and knew how to share shock and awe with the WWE fans.

MAURO RANALLO- Best commentator in WWE right now, and Cole has been trying to match him since his arrival, the quicker he goes to RAW the better.

MICHAEL COLE- He can be so good. But he can be so bad. Doesn't match the big moments though. They just always seem less epic with him calling it.

POPE- Ugh.

RICH BRENNAN- Don't know enough of him to comment.

ROB NAYLOR- Don't know enough of him to comment

RON NIEMI- Dont know enough of him to comment.

STEVE CORINO- Good. Always liked Corino. Does the job well.

VAMPIRO- In it for himself.
Have A Nice Day!

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Re: 2 Cents... the Announcers

Post by cero2k » Jan 19th, '16, 09:58

BYRON SAXTON - Sounds like the biggest tool, he is a generic voice going after Cole's style. I don't know if it's his own talent or someone in his ear, but he always comes out sounding like an idiot even against Cole or Lawler.

COREY GRAVES - Good heel announcer, works perfectly with the NXT freedom. Best dressed announcer.

JBL - He went from being one of my favorites to the one I hate the most, he's become a catchphrase machine. Some people believe that JBL started the crappy announcing table.

JERRY LAWLER - Should have retired when he was on top. His daddy jokes are terrible.

JOSH MATHEWS - See Byron Saxton, except Matthews tries to sound cool soo hard.

KEVIN KELLY - I'm not a big fan, but he's good at what he does. It's impressive when you realize how long he's been in the wrestling business making it work

LENNY LEONARD - Probably one of the best announcers in the independents, which is not hard, since every other indie has a fat nerd as an announcer. He sounds like Mike Sempervive.

MATT STRIKER - He can be great and terrible depending on the environment. He was great with Ross in NJPW, but terrible with Kelly in AAA and NJPW. He has good days in LU, but he has terrible days in LU.

MAURO RANALLO - the Best today. Too good for Smackdown, he should be taking Cole's job. I doubt he'll call Wrestlemania, but is he good enough to call Backlash?

MICHAEL COLE - 100% tool

POPE - Check it out Daddy, he's not a bad color commentator, but he is waay to cartoony, plays the gimmick too much, I want to believe that working along with a better announcer would help Pope.

RICH BRENNAN - See Saxton, but with talent. I love his work along with Graves, because they're so contrasting, in look, in experience, they can feed off from each other. I don't see Rich working well with anyone else to be honest.

ROB NAYLOR - I haven't heard enough of him, but he has potential if he starts watching Smackdown and falls in love with Ranallo. He reminds me a lot of Joe Dombrowski from IWC, which can be good or bad depending on who you ask.

RON NIEMI - No comment

STEVE CORINO - See JBL. He can be great, but he has become a catchphrase machine. SUPERKICK!!!

VAMPIRO - he's a terrible announcer brother, but i love him and i love that he doesn't give a fuck about his announcing. This feeds off nicely from the overly exaggerated and technical Striker. I'm curious to see if he'll change along with his gimmick.

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Re: 2 Cents... the Announcers

Post by cero2k » Jan 19th, '16, 10:08

Big Red Machine wrote:
JOSH MATHEWS- would have been fine if he stayed babyface in a regular promotion, but he struggles when having to deal with stupid TNA bullsh*t and it all got worse when they made him flip-flop to be a heel only for EC III’s matches.
if there is someone that worked well with someone in their ear-piece, it would be Josh

KEVIN KELLY- a weird hybrid of what an announcer should be and a WWE announcer. He doesn’t hurt the product per se, but I do think that ROH would be much better served with a more “real sports” call the moves announcer.
I know this could be a dumb reason, but KK's look and voice doesn't go with ROH's prestige that they try to portray. He feels Cheeseburger odd on ROH.

MAURO RANALLO- a much-needed breath of fresh air and hopefully the savior of WWE announcing. He make me sad I didn’t watch New Japan on AXS.
You should look for the episodes somewhere anyway, even if they're old matches, it's a whole new flavor. Barnett and Ranallo are the best announcing team I've heard since attitude era JR/King. Baffles me that NJPW will rather bring Striker and Kelly than use Ranallo and Barnett for their big shows.
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Re: 2 Cents... the Announcers

Post by Big Red Machine » Jan 19th, '16, 10:32

cero2k wrote:
JBL - He went from being one of my favorites to the one I hate the most, he's become a catchphrase machine.
This!



LENNY LEONARD - Probably one of the best announcers in the independents, which is not hard, since every other indie has a fat nerd as an announcer. He sounds like Mike Sempervive.
Amusingly, if you've ever seen him, Lenny kind of is a fat nerd.
I kind of see what you're saying about him sounding like Sempervive, but I just can't picture Sempervive ever sounding anywhere near as professional as Lenny always sounds.



MATT STRIKER - He can be great and terrible depending on the environment. He was great with Ross in NJPW,
"He didn't 'swerve' the fans, Matt!~ He LIED TO THEM!"
LOL.




ROB NAYLOR - I haven't heard enough of him, but he has potential if he starts watching Smackdown and falls in love with Ranallo. He reminds me a lot of Joe Dombrowski from IWC, which can be good or bad depending on who you ask.
You're totally right about Naylor having potential if he patterns himself after Mauro. The problem is that, like Prazak, I think he's too close the boys and girls to the point where he comes off too much like he's just one of their friends doing commentary.
I don't see much of a resemblance between Naylor and Dombrowski, but I'm assuming I've heard more of Naylor than you but you've seen more of Dombrowski than me. I think Dombrowski would be good in the Mike Tenay on Nitro role as ROH's "stat guy." Every time he does commentary for ROH (usually at midwest shows with Corino as his partner) he always has a bunch of stats and facts that just give him a different feel from anyone else.



VAMPIRO - he's a terrible announcer brother, but i love him and i love that he doesn't give a fuck about his announcing. This feeds off nicely from the overly exaggerated and technical Striker. I'm curious to see if he'll change along with his gimmick.
The impression I got (which could be totally wrong) is that Vampiro isn't returning to commentary, and that that guy who they brought in for Ultima Lucha will be Striker's partner from now on.
[/quote]
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Re: 2 Cents... the Announcers

Post by cero2k » Jan 19th, '16, 10:53

Big Red Machine wrote:
LENNY LEONARD - Probably one of the best announcers in the independents, which is not hard, since every other indie has a fat nerd as an announcer. He sounds like Mike Sempervive.
Amusingly, if you've ever seen him, Lenny kind of is a fat nerd.
I kind of see what you're saying about him sounding like Sempervive, but I just can't picture Sempervive ever sounding anywhere near as professional as Lenny always sounds.

LOL, yeah, i haven't seen him, but you know what I mean, there are a bunch of announcers that sound like nerds doing podcasts, but Leonard sounds professional.
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Re: 2 Cents... the Announcers

Post by NWK2000 » Jan 20th, '16, 11:04

Saxton: Nothing, although he, Cole, and JBL make a less offensive team than Cole, JBL, and Lawler
Graves: WAYYYY too good for NXT, should def be the main heel announcer on a main roster show,
JBL: Was my favorite announcer in his original commentary run in 2006ish, was insufferable with Cole and Lawler, less so now with Cole and Saxton, I still think Corey is more competent

Lawler: Poison on the announce desk. Clearly he's going to do his own thing. Were it not for Mauro on Smackdown, I'd say take Lawler off the desk and give him King's Court, bring that back as a talk show ocassionally now that Piper's dead.

Matthews: Was REALLY good in WWE I thought, especially during his run with Punk, not entirely clear on why WWE fired him. He's said some arrogant things since his jump to TNA that has made me like him less but he's not completely incompetent

Kelly: Honestly should be held in the same regard as Jim Ross, no matter who he's on color with in Ring of Honor, the chemistry's always been fantastic.

Striker: Adored him in WWE as a commentator, but his flaws definitely show when he doesn't have a strong presence producing or someone like Ross to keep him on a leash
Mauro: Pretty good as a wrestling announcer. Honestly think he and Cole should split PPV's.
Cole: Less offensive somehow since Jerry left Raw, still not as good as Mauro though
Pope: From what I've heard I'm disappointed, which is,in itself disappointing, as I was a huge fan of Pope
Corino: Again, Kelly could announce with anybody and have it be good, but Corino is especially effective as a heel commentator. Nigel had his gems though, such as asking "Who doesn't love Justin Beiber?"
Vampiro: Never would I have guessed Vampiro would be a good announcer, he and Striker work well together in Lucha.
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