Post by James Phoenix on May 29, 2011 23:28:29 GMT -5
WWE Superstar Evaluation: “Traversing The Cole Mine”
May 27, 2011
Marcus: Hello Everyone and Welcome to The Wrestling X-Pound's Superstar Evaluation! I am Marcus Shadow here with my broadcast partner, James Phoenix! Now I know in the last Evaluation, we said we were going to tackle our first Feud Evaluation, but... it's been a couple weeks since then and given the fact that Over the Limit happened this past Sunday, we can't pass up this perfect opportunity. So... without further ado, let's dig right in to this week's Superstar Evaluation. We give you... the man everybody loves to hate, "The Cole Miner" Michael Cole!
James: Right you are Marcus, and since things seem to be toning down for him for the time being, now's as good a time as any to take a look at his past, present, and future in the WWE. It's time to delve into the mind of the most hated man in the WWE today. Let's take a trip...into The Cole Mine.
Marcus: Since "The Cole Miner," Michael Cole isn't really a WWE Superstar in the strictest sense of the term, this particular evaluation will be slightly different. For starters, we’re going to give some background on him. He started as a Backstage Interviewer for the, then, WWF. He did a good job, was funny, and was the perpetual butt of jokes from Superstars such as Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock.
James: Indeed he was. Born Michael Sean Coulthard, Cole joined the WWF in mid 1997 as an interviewer and the host of WWE Livewire alongside known psycho Jim Cornette. He began doing play by play commentary in late 1997 for a short time before being replaced by Jerry "The King" Lawler; however he regained his position in 1999 when Jim Ross suffered his second attack of Bell's palsy.
Marcus: Right you are, Jim. And once Jim Ross recovered and took back his seat on RAW, Michael Cole was moved to a permanent seat at the Announcer's Table on WWF's, then, Expansion Show, SmackDown! Since then Michael Cole has grown into WWE's Primary Announcer, replacing Jim Ross on RAW and actually sitting at the Announcer's Table on all shows that WWE airs. Because of this, he has taken to calling himself "The Voice of the WWE." And this leads us into Michael Cole as he is today.
James: What did I tell you about calling me Jim? Anyway, Michael Cole as we know him today began his gimmick in February of 2010 when he became play by play commentator for WWE's new show NXT, which featured rookies being trained by current WWE Superstars, or Pros, competing to earn a spot on the WWE Roster. Cole began a heel turn when he began to talk trash about some of the rookies on the show, most notably Daniel Bryan.
Marcus: Daniel Bryan, hailing from Spokane, Washington, would talk trash about Michael Cole up until his elimination from NXT. Hailing from the great State of Washington myself, I give Cole a big Stone Cold Salute for ragging on the kid. Despite going 0 for during NXT, he would go on to become the most successful and popular NXT contestant, culminating, so far, in a United States Title Run. So suck on that, Michael Cole!
James: I don't know if I'd say Bryan is THE most successful, as Wade Barrett has been in World Title matches as well as the Intercontinental champion. But I digress, Cole's heel character slowly made its way over to Raw as he began to support heel superstars while chastising the faces. During this time Cole also became a commentator on SmackDown, thus calling himself the Voice of the WWE. Cole's heel character slowly began to annoy his co-commentator Jerry Lawler, who became more verbally antagonistic with him each week. This grew even worse with Mr. McMahon's introduction of an Anonymous General Manager whom communicated his orders via e-mails to a laptop at ringside, which Cole would read as they came in. This truly established his gimmick, so let’s get into it.
Marcus: Indeed let's. However, we'd be remiss to not mention that the birth of Heel Cole as we know him today or "The Cole Miner," as I like to call him, really happened when he began to back The Miz during his WWE Title run. During this time, a short-lived feud between The Miz and Jerry "The King" Lawler took place. That culminated in a WWE Championship Ladder Match between Lawler and Miz. Cole would cost Lawler the match by directly interfering and that gave birth to the Cole versus Lawler Feud we have to this day.
Michael Cole, as time progressed, supported the Heel Superstars at the Announcer's Table, playing opposite Jerry Lawler's 'Face' Persona. With the advent of "The Anonymous RAW General Manager," Cole's two, now, infamous catch phrases were born: "May I have your attention please?" and "And I Quote..."
James: And as any current fan can tell you, those two phrases now receive some of the biggest heat in the WWE today. Personally I find Cole's gimmick to be highly effective, well constructed, and his catch phrases successful. I'd love to see him in a more active role outside of commentary, such as being revealed as the anonymous GM or acting as a manager for some of the up and coming superstars whose mic skills aren't quite up to snuff yet.
Marcus: I, too, find Cole's Gimmick to be great. He's, arguably, the best Heel in the business right now. And I also agree that he's probably the "Anonymous RAW General Manager." If he's not, then, yes, he should move on to become a Ring Manager for a Rookie. But, as with anything, there's a fine line between doing your job well and going too far. And, I think many WWE Fans will agree that Michael Cole definitely went too far when he used Jerry Lawler's recently deceased Mother for 'Cheap Heat.'
James: I can understand why some would feel that way, but I also think that there’s no way they would have done that without Lawler's approval to do so. Even so, I can agree that it was still in bad taste, even if it was effective. The feud between King and Cole was very well built prior to Wrestlemania with the addition of Jack Swagger as the trainer for Cole, though some say it was a waste of Swagger's talent.
Marcus: Swagger has talent? *laughs* In all seriousness, I have to agree with that assessment. But I think they put Swagger with Cole for two reasons. One was that I bet they wanted to put Swagger on RAW and used Cole as an excuse to do so prior to the Draft. Second was that they probably didn't know what to do with him. The biggest problem I had with the Cole vs. Lawler Feud is that, I feel, it dragged on for too long. Especially after the Fan response to the first time Cole used Lawler's Mother in his in-ring promo, they should have just let Lawler beat the piss out of him.
James: That's true, but the feud was fine until Wrestlemania. Had it ended there everything would have been fine and the feud would have moved on. The fact that they kept it going for not one but TWO additional PPV events was just taking it too far. Also him randomly being knighted by the fake Queen came out of nowhere, though I do have to admit that Sir Michael Cole is a catchy stage name.
Marcus: So true, Jim. So true. The thing of it is, I feel the Feud Length was about right. And, as you mentioned, it was built well and pushed well. The problem lied with the fact that with Cole mentioning Lawler's Mother the first time was in SUCH bad taste, coupled with the Fans' overwhelmingly negative response to it, there should have been an immediate resolution to it at Wrestlemania. But there wasn't. We, the Fans, had to wait through two more PPVs, up until now to get that resolution. If they had allowed Lawler to destroy Cole at WM, especially with Stone Cold on his side, it would have been better. And they could have still continued the Feud if they wanted to extend it a few more PPVs.
James: I honestly don't think they could have, given that once Lawler destroyed Cole there was no longer any tension to it. The fans’ wanting to see Cole get destroyed was the entire purpose of the feud and if that were gone then no one would want to see it any longer. I also think you're exaggerating the effect Cole's use of Lawler's mother had on the fans. I mean yes they were mad but I think after a couple weeks they mostly got over it, despite Cole using his mother for another promo later on. This wasn't the only factor that led to the feud being stale, it was the simple fact that it ran too long and was no longer interesting. It was the same thing over and over again between them both, in full promos and sniping at each other on commentary, and the fans were just sick of it.
Marcus: Very true. Either way, I'm glad it's over. Of course, the question now is... is it REALLY over?
James: That really is the question, isn't it? On Raw, Lawler rubbed his victory at Over the Limit in Cole's face and Cole reverted to what seemed to be a forced nice-guy act on commentary, sort of like he didn’t enjoy that he was being a nice-guy. This leads me to believe that there might be something more up his sleeve. While it may not directly involve Lawler, I doubt Cole is the kind of person to let defeat stop him or to let anyone else steal the spotlight. Maybe not right away, but at some point down the road, Heel Cole will be back in full force.
Marcus: That does seem to be the case, doesn't it? Of course, one has to wonder if Cole's actions on Raw weren’t also WWE's way of apologizing to the Fans for taking it so far. But now that his feud with Lawler has come to an end and Heel Cole, for the time being, has been neutered, where can Cole go from here?
James: That's a good question. Personally I'd like to see him as a heel manager for some other superstars, or at least revealed as the Raw GM. Cole has talent in his character and can be valuable outside the announce desk if they wanted to use him. I personally think making him the GM, and having him hire Vickie Guerrero as Assistant GM like she was on SD would be a great move because it would create an unstoppable heel heat force which would automatically make anyone going against them a mega babyface. People would tune in just to see if Cole was going to get beat up. He would be the new heel authority figure and could drive many interesting storylines.
Marcus: As I stated when you mentioned that before, I completely agree with you about Cole either becoming a Heel Manager or even the RAW GM. If he does end up being the GM, I hope they've thought of your idea and consider it because teaming him up with Vickie would be good. However, if that does happen, Cole better watch his back. Vickie 'aced T-Lo' when she was his Advisor, if you'll remember.
James: That's true except that ‘T-Lo' was against her, while she and Cole share similar goals as they are both heels. I could see it working out. However, as of right now, it looks like they are just going to limit Cole back to play by play for the time being. I suppose that’s alright, as people probably need a break from him, because he'll still maintain the heel heat as long as he continues to speak for the Anonymous GM.
Marcus: Very true. Except I don't know if they're going to have him continue doing that. If you'll remember, Josh Matthews read the Anonymous GM's Message on the latest RAW and that was AFTER Cole returned to the desk. If they decide to have him take a break from reading the 'e-mails,' how do you see them maintaining Cole's Heel Status?
James: That's a good point, but I would hope that was just because Cole was selling being all sad and upset at having lost to Lawler, and that he will hopefully again be answering the e-mails next week. If not then he'll just have to keep some heel tendencies and build himself back up.
Marcus: Well one thing is certain, Cole is the best Heel in the business right now and WWE would be foolish to let him atrophy and not capitalize on it. But then again, this is WWE we're talking about.
James: A valid point, WWE is known for screwing up obvious plot ideas in the past so we'll just have to wait and see what happens to Cole. But that leads to another question...what happens to Jack Swagger at this point? Clearly he is no longer loyal to Cole, but given how fast loyalties change in this company, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him back by Cole's side in the event he does go full heel again, whether it’s with Cole as his manager or working for Cole as GM.
Marcus: That's a distinct possibility. However, if RAW was any indication, I think they're going to try to revive Swagger's in-ring career. Honestly, as much as I don't like Swagger, he really was wasted on Michael Cole. Wherever these two Heels end up, we'll be watching. Any last words before we climb our way out of this Mine?
James: Just that I hope WWE doesn't waste the potential they have in Michael Cole right now. They could use the fresh storylines and feuds, and it would really perk up the company a bit. Just as long as we don't have to see Cole's nasty infected foot ever again (though I do give props to the make-up person that had to create that thing).
Marcus: Amen to that. So Jim, what do we have on tap for next week? *rubs hands*
James: Actually Marky Mark, I was thinking that we might tackle the current debacle that is the WWE Pay Per View Scene by looking at past and current Pay Pew Views and dissecting exactly why buy rates are dropping and why PPV's no longer seem to matter to fans, as well as possible ways WWE can fix these problems.
Marcus: Going for the jugular, I see. You know... THAT topic might be too big for just us to tackle. I guess we'll find out next week. For now, I'm Marcus Shadow...
James: ...and I'm James Phoenix...
Marcus & James: Thank you for joining us on our trip through The Cole Mine!
Marcus: Marky Mark? Really?
James: Really. Good Night Everybody!
May 27, 2011
Marcus: Hello Everyone and Welcome to The Wrestling X-Pound's Superstar Evaluation! I am Marcus Shadow here with my broadcast partner, James Phoenix! Now I know in the last Evaluation, we said we were going to tackle our first Feud Evaluation, but... it's been a couple weeks since then and given the fact that Over the Limit happened this past Sunday, we can't pass up this perfect opportunity. So... without further ado, let's dig right in to this week's Superstar Evaluation. We give you... the man everybody loves to hate, "The Cole Miner" Michael Cole!
James: Right you are Marcus, and since things seem to be toning down for him for the time being, now's as good a time as any to take a look at his past, present, and future in the WWE. It's time to delve into the mind of the most hated man in the WWE today. Let's take a trip...into The Cole Mine.
Marcus: Since "The Cole Miner," Michael Cole isn't really a WWE Superstar in the strictest sense of the term, this particular evaluation will be slightly different. For starters, we’re going to give some background on him. He started as a Backstage Interviewer for the, then, WWF. He did a good job, was funny, and was the perpetual butt of jokes from Superstars such as Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock.
James: Indeed he was. Born Michael Sean Coulthard, Cole joined the WWF in mid 1997 as an interviewer and the host of WWE Livewire alongside known psycho Jim Cornette. He began doing play by play commentary in late 1997 for a short time before being replaced by Jerry "The King" Lawler; however he regained his position in 1999 when Jim Ross suffered his second attack of Bell's palsy.
Marcus: Right you are, Jim. And once Jim Ross recovered and took back his seat on RAW, Michael Cole was moved to a permanent seat at the Announcer's Table on WWF's, then, Expansion Show, SmackDown! Since then Michael Cole has grown into WWE's Primary Announcer, replacing Jim Ross on RAW and actually sitting at the Announcer's Table on all shows that WWE airs. Because of this, he has taken to calling himself "The Voice of the WWE." And this leads us into Michael Cole as he is today.
James: What did I tell you about calling me Jim? Anyway, Michael Cole as we know him today began his gimmick in February of 2010 when he became play by play commentator for WWE's new show NXT, which featured rookies being trained by current WWE Superstars, or Pros, competing to earn a spot on the WWE Roster. Cole began a heel turn when he began to talk trash about some of the rookies on the show, most notably Daniel Bryan.
Marcus: Daniel Bryan, hailing from Spokane, Washington, would talk trash about Michael Cole up until his elimination from NXT. Hailing from the great State of Washington myself, I give Cole a big Stone Cold Salute for ragging on the kid. Despite going 0 for during NXT, he would go on to become the most successful and popular NXT contestant, culminating, so far, in a United States Title Run. So suck on that, Michael Cole!
James: I don't know if I'd say Bryan is THE most successful, as Wade Barrett has been in World Title matches as well as the Intercontinental champion. But I digress, Cole's heel character slowly made its way over to Raw as he began to support heel superstars while chastising the faces. During this time Cole also became a commentator on SmackDown, thus calling himself the Voice of the WWE. Cole's heel character slowly began to annoy his co-commentator Jerry Lawler, who became more verbally antagonistic with him each week. This grew even worse with Mr. McMahon's introduction of an Anonymous General Manager whom communicated his orders via e-mails to a laptop at ringside, which Cole would read as they came in. This truly established his gimmick, so let’s get into it.
Marcus: Indeed let's. However, we'd be remiss to not mention that the birth of Heel Cole as we know him today or "The Cole Miner," as I like to call him, really happened when he began to back The Miz during his WWE Title run. During this time, a short-lived feud between The Miz and Jerry "The King" Lawler took place. That culminated in a WWE Championship Ladder Match between Lawler and Miz. Cole would cost Lawler the match by directly interfering and that gave birth to the Cole versus Lawler Feud we have to this day.
Michael Cole, as time progressed, supported the Heel Superstars at the Announcer's Table, playing opposite Jerry Lawler's 'Face' Persona. With the advent of "The Anonymous RAW General Manager," Cole's two, now, infamous catch phrases were born: "May I have your attention please?" and "And I Quote..."
James: And as any current fan can tell you, those two phrases now receive some of the biggest heat in the WWE today. Personally I find Cole's gimmick to be highly effective, well constructed, and his catch phrases successful. I'd love to see him in a more active role outside of commentary, such as being revealed as the anonymous GM or acting as a manager for some of the up and coming superstars whose mic skills aren't quite up to snuff yet.
Marcus: I, too, find Cole's Gimmick to be great. He's, arguably, the best Heel in the business right now. And I also agree that he's probably the "Anonymous RAW General Manager." If he's not, then, yes, he should move on to become a Ring Manager for a Rookie. But, as with anything, there's a fine line between doing your job well and going too far. And, I think many WWE Fans will agree that Michael Cole definitely went too far when he used Jerry Lawler's recently deceased Mother for 'Cheap Heat.'
James: I can understand why some would feel that way, but I also think that there’s no way they would have done that without Lawler's approval to do so. Even so, I can agree that it was still in bad taste, even if it was effective. The feud between King and Cole was very well built prior to Wrestlemania with the addition of Jack Swagger as the trainer for Cole, though some say it was a waste of Swagger's talent.
Marcus: Swagger has talent? *laughs* In all seriousness, I have to agree with that assessment. But I think they put Swagger with Cole for two reasons. One was that I bet they wanted to put Swagger on RAW and used Cole as an excuse to do so prior to the Draft. Second was that they probably didn't know what to do with him. The biggest problem I had with the Cole vs. Lawler Feud is that, I feel, it dragged on for too long. Especially after the Fan response to the first time Cole used Lawler's Mother in his in-ring promo, they should have just let Lawler beat the piss out of him.
James: That's true, but the feud was fine until Wrestlemania. Had it ended there everything would have been fine and the feud would have moved on. The fact that they kept it going for not one but TWO additional PPV events was just taking it too far. Also him randomly being knighted by the fake Queen came out of nowhere, though I do have to admit that Sir Michael Cole is a catchy stage name.
Marcus: So true, Jim. So true. The thing of it is, I feel the Feud Length was about right. And, as you mentioned, it was built well and pushed well. The problem lied with the fact that with Cole mentioning Lawler's Mother the first time was in SUCH bad taste, coupled with the Fans' overwhelmingly negative response to it, there should have been an immediate resolution to it at Wrestlemania. But there wasn't. We, the Fans, had to wait through two more PPVs, up until now to get that resolution. If they had allowed Lawler to destroy Cole at WM, especially with Stone Cold on his side, it would have been better. And they could have still continued the Feud if they wanted to extend it a few more PPVs.
James: I honestly don't think they could have, given that once Lawler destroyed Cole there was no longer any tension to it. The fans’ wanting to see Cole get destroyed was the entire purpose of the feud and if that were gone then no one would want to see it any longer. I also think you're exaggerating the effect Cole's use of Lawler's mother had on the fans. I mean yes they were mad but I think after a couple weeks they mostly got over it, despite Cole using his mother for another promo later on. This wasn't the only factor that led to the feud being stale, it was the simple fact that it ran too long and was no longer interesting. It was the same thing over and over again between them both, in full promos and sniping at each other on commentary, and the fans were just sick of it.
Marcus: Very true. Either way, I'm glad it's over. Of course, the question now is... is it REALLY over?
James: That really is the question, isn't it? On Raw, Lawler rubbed his victory at Over the Limit in Cole's face and Cole reverted to what seemed to be a forced nice-guy act on commentary, sort of like he didn’t enjoy that he was being a nice-guy. This leads me to believe that there might be something more up his sleeve. While it may not directly involve Lawler, I doubt Cole is the kind of person to let defeat stop him or to let anyone else steal the spotlight. Maybe not right away, but at some point down the road, Heel Cole will be back in full force.
Marcus: That does seem to be the case, doesn't it? Of course, one has to wonder if Cole's actions on Raw weren’t also WWE's way of apologizing to the Fans for taking it so far. But now that his feud with Lawler has come to an end and Heel Cole, for the time being, has been neutered, where can Cole go from here?
James: That's a good question. Personally I'd like to see him as a heel manager for some other superstars, or at least revealed as the Raw GM. Cole has talent in his character and can be valuable outside the announce desk if they wanted to use him. I personally think making him the GM, and having him hire Vickie Guerrero as Assistant GM like she was on SD would be a great move because it would create an unstoppable heel heat force which would automatically make anyone going against them a mega babyface. People would tune in just to see if Cole was going to get beat up. He would be the new heel authority figure and could drive many interesting storylines.
Marcus: As I stated when you mentioned that before, I completely agree with you about Cole either becoming a Heel Manager or even the RAW GM. If he does end up being the GM, I hope they've thought of your idea and consider it because teaming him up with Vickie would be good. However, if that does happen, Cole better watch his back. Vickie 'aced T-Lo' when she was his Advisor, if you'll remember.
James: That's true except that ‘T-Lo' was against her, while she and Cole share similar goals as they are both heels. I could see it working out. However, as of right now, it looks like they are just going to limit Cole back to play by play for the time being. I suppose that’s alright, as people probably need a break from him, because he'll still maintain the heel heat as long as he continues to speak for the Anonymous GM.
Marcus: Very true. Except I don't know if they're going to have him continue doing that. If you'll remember, Josh Matthews read the Anonymous GM's Message on the latest RAW and that was AFTER Cole returned to the desk. If they decide to have him take a break from reading the 'e-mails,' how do you see them maintaining Cole's Heel Status?
James: That's a good point, but I would hope that was just because Cole was selling being all sad and upset at having lost to Lawler, and that he will hopefully again be answering the e-mails next week. If not then he'll just have to keep some heel tendencies and build himself back up.
Marcus: Well one thing is certain, Cole is the best Heel in the business right now and WWE would be foolish to let him atrophy and not capitalize on it. But then again, this is WWE we're talking about.
James: A valid point, WWE is known for screwing up obvious plot ideas in the past so we'll just have to wait and see what happens to Cole. But that leads to another question...what happens to Jack Swagger at this point? Clearly he is no longer loyal to Cole, but given how fast loyalties change in this company, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him back by Cole's side in the event he does go full heel again, whether it’s with Cole as his manager or working for Cole as GM.
Marcus: That's a distinct possibility. However, if RAW was any indication, I think they're going to try to revive Swagger's in-ring career. Honestly, as much as I don't like Swagger, he really was wasted on Michael Cole. Wherever these two Heels end up, we'll be watching. Any last words before we climb our way out of this Mine?
James: Just that I hope WWE doesn't waste the potential they have in Michael Cole right now. They could use the fresh storylines and feuds, and it would really perk up the company a bit. Just as long as we don't have to see Cole's nasty infected foot ever again (though I do give props to the make-up person that had to create that thing).
Marcus: Amen to that. So Jim, what do we have on tap for next week? *rubs hands*
James: Actually Marky Mark, I was thinking that we might tackle the current debacle that is the WWE Pay Per View Scene by looking at past and current Pay Pew Views and dissecting exactly why buy rates are dropping and why PPV's no longer seem to matter to fans, as well as possible ways WWE can fix these problems.
Marcus: Going for the jugular, I see. You know... THAT topic might be too big for just us to tackle. I guess we'll find out next week. For now, I'm Marcus Shadow...
James: ...and I'm James Phoenix...
Marcus & James: Thank you for joining us on our trip through The Cole Mine!
Marcus: Marky Mark? Really?
James: Really. Good Night Everybody!