5 WWE Announcers You Totally Don't Remember
They called the action, apparently.
WWE commentators have come in for just as much criticism as WWE certain superstars in recent times, their work constantly put under the microscope and scrutinised by fans. With so many hours of WWE programming on offer each and every week, it's perhaps natural that more attention will be paid to the voices the WWE Universe has to hear for such long periods of time.
The same arguments continue to crop up:
Three-man announce teams don't work. JBL is awful and getting worse and if he says 'Maggle' one more time, I'm gonna do something I regret. Speaking of Cole, he'll never be as good as Jim Ross and will never be accepted as the true voice of WWE. They should switch Paul Heyman from Brock Lesnar's advocate to play-by-pay man. I miss when they used to actually call moves by their name, et cetera...
I wonder how those same fans would feel if the following five men returned to the fold.
Far from having their work broken down on a weekly basis, some of these guys weren't around long enough or featured enough for fans to form an opinion on them. They were all employed as commentators, calling the action on WWE's various televisions shows, but you might have to jog your memory before you can recall them describing bodyslams and suplexes.
5. Ernest 'The Cat' Miller
Thanks to a real-life friendship with Eric Bischoff, Ernest 'The Cat' Miller enjoyed a successful four-year run in World Championship Wrestling. Even though he wasn't a good worker or anything, his martial-arts inspired offense, charisma and colourful character ensured that he stood out to the masses.
When WCW folded in March 2001, Miller opted against taking a buy-out and collected on his guaranteed Time Warner contract. When it ran out, he joined WWE not as a wrestler, but as an announcer. Realising he'd be better served behind the booth as opposed to in the ring, WWE stuck him on Velocity, which he called alongside Josh Matthews.
Was The Cat any good as a commentator? Not especially, no, although he was no worse than, say, Bill DeMott, who also commentated on Smackdown's weekend show around this time. Soon, though, Miller ventured back into the squared circle. Talking with WWE.com in 2013, he explained the decision;
"It’s just like any old athlete. You sit and talk about it, but you feel you’ve still got something in the tank. They gave me the opportunity to see if there was something left in the tank”.
Did Ernest have a lot left in the tank? Erm, not really. After weeks of performing in dark and house show matches, he made but two on-camera in-ring appearances at the 2004 Royal Rumble, where he was eliminated in a matter of seconds, and in another 15-man Rumble on Smackdown days later (where he was once again thrown out to little fanfare).
He was released from his WWE contract weeks later.