There are a number of reasons why the announce team has been so poor. One reason many will point to is because Michael Cole is annoying as a heel announcer and people hate to hear his utter bias on both Raw and Smackdown.
Another reason it has been subpar is because of Booker T's inexperience. Booker T is not a good announcer, as much as it pains me to say that. Booker T rambles on about stuff that rarely makes sense and has horrible catch phrases (again this hurts me to say this).
By the way, somebody tell Booker T that he doesn't need to yell during commentary. We can hear him just fine.
One more reason people will give as to why commentary hasn't been good for some time is the fact Jim Ross isn't calling the action anymore. While I can't disagree with that, as JR is the best play caller in professional wrestling history, that is still not the biggest problem.
To me, not having Jerry Lawler as the heel announcer is the biggest problem with the announce crew. He is a million times more entertaining as a heel announcer than he is as the face announcer he is right now.
Currently, Lawler is boring as a face and doesn't add much. What made him such a great commentator in the 90s and 2000s was his hilarious commentary and humorous bias he had for heel wrestlers.
Just watch any WWE event from the time Lawler took the announce table until a couple years ago. Lawler was such a great heel because he was so comically biased, while at the same time somewhat likable due to his perverted and humorous comments, hilarious laugh, and natural ability to make people disagree with him.
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Lawler was such a great heel announcer because even though he was a "bad guy," he was tolerable to listen to and he was great at what he did. His current state allows him to be more listenable than Michael Cole and Booker T, but that is not saying much.
A heel turn by Lawler, followed by his usual antics as a heel would be a great move by the WWE. His jokes as a heel were funny, but got the crowd heated. That's why he was such a talented heel.
The best moves for the WWE would be to make Lawler a heel, return Michael Cole to his unbiased play-by-play caller role, take Booker T off the announce table (new GM anybody?) and continue to utilize Josh Mathews. I would even go as far as to put William Regal at the Smackdown table with Mathews and keep Cole exclusively on Raw with Lawler.
Commentary may not seem like a big deal in professional wrestling, but if you are annoyed at what you hear, you aren't going to want to watch or listen to the broadcast. The WWE needs to realize Lawler's value as a heel and find a way to turn him to the dark side as soon as possible, as it could be the best direction to go in.
