10 Big Lessons WWE Must Learn From 2016

10. Three's A Crowd, But Four's Ridiculous

WWE’s commentary situation has been a problem since Jim Ross transitioned out of the booth and Jerry Lawler stopped caring. Sadly, the company’s announcers have become glorified hype men who speak almost exclusively in soundbites and rarely sell the action. It can’t be easy trying to do your job with a crazy billionaire barking in your ear all show long, but Michael Cole & co. actively detract from the product when they should be enhancing it.

Mauro Ranallo and Corey Graves have eased things somewhat, but they’re still stuck in a bad situation. Ranallo has suffered the most, and if being paired with the insufferable JBL and clueless David Otunga wasn’t enough, NXT’s play-by-play man Tom Phillips was added to the SmackDown booth a few weeks ago.

Phillips is a solid commentator, but a four-man team is far too crowded. The number of competing voices sees SD’s announcers waiting their turn to speak rather than bouncing-off each other naturally, and their interactions have become a stunted mess. Three announcers is usually too much in the first place, but four is complete overkill, and a big hinderance to SmackDown’s excellent weekly show.

Hopefully somebody within the company recognises this soon, and strips the booth back to where its occupants can talk to each other like humans again.