7 Ups And 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (March 30th)

By Scott Carlson /

1. Longing For Michael Cole

Fans found out Monday night what would happen if Michael Cole suddenly decided to retire: Everyone would turn their TVs on mute for Raw, because Byron Saxton was just too painful to listen to. Granted, Saxton replaced Cole after the veteran announcer suffered an F-5 from Brock Lesnar and JBL and Booker T were knocked out as well. This led to Saxton calling the action for several segments alone, and he sounded like a deer caught in the headlights. Maybe he was supposed to be in disbelief at his broadcast colleagues being taken out. Whether it was planned or not, Jerry Lawler eventually joined Byron to provide color commentary and somewhat salvage things. An injury angle with Cole is fine, but when you€™re left with subpar announcing on a bigtime Raw, it just completely deflates the impact that the show has. Consider Adrian Neville€™s Raw debut. Saxton was just bland and boring, and as a result, Neville€™s big moment fell flat. WWE needs to keep that sort of thing in mind if they€™re doing an angle like that were the announcers will be knocked off the air. WWE relies heavily on its announcers to sell the show and tell stories, so they shouldn€™t book their lead commentator to get knocked out in the second hour.