Is Michael Cole The Most Hated Man In WWE?

Is Michael Cole The Most Hated Man In WWE?

Yes

No

19.4%

Total votes: 335

The seeds of our longing for Michael Cole’s WrestleMania beating were planted in 1999, when Cole replaced Jim Ross on Monday Night Raw while JR was devastated by Bell’s palsy.

Cole didn’t do anything wrong specifically but, it was then that we noticed Cole was far less talented on commentary than Jim Ross and not moderately less talented or slightly less talented, but severely less talented than Jim Ross.

I know I felt a sigh of relief at WrestleMania XV when Jim Ross returned to the announce desk before The Rock vs. Stone Cold for the then-WWF championship.

Later in the year 1999, Michael Cole became the lead announcer for Smackdown. Back then Smackdown wasn’t the “B show”, but must-see TV along with Raw, but Michael Cole’s presence on Smackdown was the one glaring difference from Raw though announcing discrepancies were easy to mask during the attitude era.

After the brand split and subsequent draft of 2002, Michael Cole’s mediocre commentary became more identifiable.

During the first two years of the brand split, Smackdown arguably had the superior show over Monday Night Raw with Smackdown really taking off once Brock Lesnar and Undertaker permanently joined the roster.

This would have been more apparent with Jim Ross, along with Jerry Lawler on commentary, instead of Michael Cole and Tazz.

Why is Michael Cole Hated?

Subpar CommentaryTreatment of Jerry Lawler, Daniel Bryan, and Other FacesBeing Anonymous GM MouthpieceNot Being Jim RossSubmit Votevote to see results

Jim Ross enhances moments in a way that Michael Cole simply cannot. So it was particularly shocking during the summer of 2008 when Cole was drafted to Raw and Jim Ross was sent to Smackdown.

It was if Vince McMahon was testing how important commentary was to a wrestling show. This move would bring Michael Cole’s shortcomings to a much bigger stage.

You see, we tolerated Cole on Smackdown. We didn’t like him but we were safe from him when he was on Smackdown. We understood more with each uneven trade with Raw that Smackdown was no longer must-see TV.

What is even more remarkable about Michael Cole’s ability to enrage us is that he poses no threat to us. When Mr. McMahon would tell us he can buy and sell us over and over, it’s true.

When The Rock would tell us he can get more pie in one night than we can in a lifetime, it’s true.

When Kurt Angle would tell us that he doesn’t have to second-guess himself like “you people,” sadly, it’s true for a lot of us.

Michael Cole is a lot like us in many ways. He is short, he doesn’t have an impressive physique, and he is a nerd. He, in no way, can make us feel bad about ourselves. Cole has nothing to throw in our faces.

In a way, he should be celebrated for making a mark in a field where people who look like him are hardly more than anonymous referees.

But he isn’t celebrated; he’s hated. I found myself booing him at a Monday Night Raw telecast I attended early last year when he was introduced to the crowd before the show went on-air.

What really takes his heel status to a new level is that he is killing commentary as we know it. The role of commentators is to get wrestlers and storylines over with the home audience; that’s all.

It’s not to hero-worship with The Miz or to grind axes with Daniel Bryan. A commentator’s job isn’t to call divas ugly or to verbally attack baby-face guest commentators.

And it’s certainly not the commentator’s job to cost Jerry Lawler the WWE Championship.

Even though Michael Cole was always average at his job in previous years, at least he did his job. Perhaps now he is appeasing the “Audience of One” we hear so much about.

I never thought I’d see Michael Cole in a WrestleMania match, but we are past the point of no return now. Michael Cole has become the biggest heel in WWE and he is going to be spotlighted on the biggest stage possible.

We, the fans, need to see him annihilated, but Michael Cole needs Michael Cole the heel to be annihilated.

Perhaps a five-minute drubbing at the hands of a 60-year-old man will make him realize he belongs at the announce desk, just doing his job.