When I awoke from my slumber this morning, I did so with a burning desire to write a new article. Not just any article, mind you. An article that would set a new
1. Insult Daniel Bryan. (I"m not going to do that, because Bryan happens to be my favorite thing about the WWE at the moment.)
2. Say John Cena is a better promo than CM Punk. (I disagree with this, but am incredibly tempted to say it just to see what would happen. I"m guessing the number of new message board posts in a given minute would be higher than Jeff Hardy is at any given point.)
3. Praise the current Michael Cole character and his work. (Ding ding ding! We have a winner!)�
Michael Cole"s recent heel character and commentary has come under fire from a variety of sources, not just the trolls and flamers that almost exclusively comprise the IWC. On the Pro Wrestling Torch podcast, Torch creator and Editor Wade Keller and columnist James Mitchell were critical of Cole"s commentary and new character, saying it did nothing to get the wrestlers in the current match or segment over, and seemed to only benefit Cole. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Mr. Keller and the work he has done in the past and continues do. Heaven knows he"s probably forgotten more about wrestling than I"ve ever known, but I"m going to have to respectfully disagree here. Not necessarily with the argument that Cole"s commentary sometimes takes away focus from the match, not to mention doing little to get the competitors over, but with the general opinion that Cole"s recent heel transformation is a bad idea.
Michael Cole"s new heel persona seems to center around a few different things: his hatred of SInternet Darlings such as Daniel Bryan and Kaval, and his unabashed, almost uncomfortable admiration for current WWE Champion The Miz. Whoever thought of going that direction with Cole really should be commended, as it"s a genius move and accomplishes multiple things simultaneously. First, you take an announcer who, despite a legitimate journalistic background covering such events as the Waco siege on the Branch Davidian compound, the Oklahoma City Bombing, and multiple presidential campaigns, is a fairly bland and uninspiring character, and you make him interesting. Cole actually has somewhat of a personality now. The only notable previous departures from the mostly serious, vanilla Michael Cole character was when Cole threw up on Chris Jericho at the Smackdown! Anniversary party in 2009, and when he appeared to be Sviolated by Heidenreich on camera. Next, you make him heel by attacking the most beloved wrestlers of the IWC and so-called Ssmarks, an incredibly vocal group, thereby guaranteeing him a ton of heat every Monday. And for the icing on the Michael Cole cake, you make him a huge fan of the Miz, who had been getting a little more popular than a heel is supposed to be, thereby transferring Cole"s negative reaction inferno to the Miz. The surprisingly good Lawler-Miz TLC main event from last Monday"s Raw wouldn"t have been nearly as successful without heel Michael Cole. I certainly don"t mean to diminish everything the two match participants (Lawler in particular) did to make the match as entertaining as it was. But the idea of Cole screwing over his broadcast partner in what will likely be the only shot he"ll ever get at the WWE championship just because he couldn"t bear to see his man-crush lose gives new depth and intrigue to many current WWE storylines. The Cole-Lawler angle can easily be intertwined with just about any other current storyline and make that storyline more intricate and interesting as well.
The biggest benefit of the Michael Cole heel turn is also by far the most ironic. It certainly appears that Vince and the creative team may be working towards making Cole a manager or other non-announcer character, which could bring about his departure from the announcing booth and usher in the return of Good ol" JR. This is ironic, of course, because one of the IWC"s biggest points of rage against Michael Cole was the fact that he replaced the BBQ sauce salesman from Westville, Oklahoma as the play-by-play commentator of WWE"s flagship. I"ll be the first to admit that I would gratefully welcome Jim Ross back into the announcer"s chair. Ross is undoubtedly one of the best of all time at calling matches. In my mind, he is the voice of pro wrestling, and really has been ever since about 1996. When I play back all of the most memorable moments in WWF/E over the last 15 years, every last one of them has Jim Ross as its narrator. So of course I want Jim Ross back calling matches on Raw. As much as I"ve pumped up Michael Cole, going from Ross to Cole, simply in terms of their ability to call a match, was like going from dating Brooklyn Decker to dating the Brooklyn Brawler. So bringing back Ross makes the most sense from a business standpoint, and also makes everyone happy. Seems like an obvious win-win to me.
The biggest catalyst and most underrated aspect of the Cole heel turn is the fact that it"s working so well because of the efforts of Michael Cole himself. Newsflash, IWC.Cole is doing a fantastic job being a heel! It"s very clear to me that Cole is fully invested in making his character work, and in being good at his job. With very few exceptions, everything that Cole says comes off as his genuine opinion and doesn"t seem forced or otherwise contrived. Not only is he a sniveling, butt-kissing, pompous weasel, but he is a believable sniveling, butt-kissing, pompous weasel. Stop and think about how many wrestlers you can really say that about. Go ahead. Just take a few minutes and think. I"ll just wait here.
(Waiting.)
There are a lot fewer than you"d thought there be, aren"t there? Yet this attribute of believability that is quite necessary for a successful wrestling character is clearly manifested in Cole"s work, yet is absent from a large number of very talented wrestlers. Michael Cole will never be mistaken for Gordon Solie, but one thing is for certain: Michael Cole does a great job at being a heel.
You can quote me on that.
Denim Millward is a semi-regular contributor to hittheropes.com. You have a moral obligation to follow him on Twitter @DenimMillward.
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