9 Potential Replacements For JBL On WWE Commentary
It's about time someone else called the action on RAW...
As RAW’s color commentator, it is JBL’s job to provide crucial analysis of what’s going on when the play-by-play commentator isn’t calling the match, and provide some comedy. He did a good job at first; JBL was probably the most interesting and entertaining of RAW’s commentators in 2012, 2013 and during the first half of 2014.
Since then, however, he has become the most annoying voice on RAW, even more difficult to stomach than Jerry Lawler with his outdated ‘puppies’ references and Michael Cole’s often-unenthusiastic tone.
JBL’s interpretation of ‘color commentary’ has featured nonsensical banter with his teammates and irrelevant pop culture references that sound so forced that it wouldn’t be surprising that the man himself had no idea what he was talking about (e.g. making a Game of Thrones reference, suggesting one wrestler was Tyrion Lannister and the other Joffrey Baratheon).
If there was ever a reason to mute a RAW broadcast, it’s JBL’s commentary. To prevent that from happening, WWE needs to change its broadcast team, and find someone else to fill JBL’s role as RAW color commentator...
9. Byron Saxton
Saxton might still be a new face in WWE, but so far he has done a pretty good job as a commentator on RAW. Though cut from the same cloth as Michael Cole, in that his voice seems relatively monotone, he has nonetheless done a great job so far of not only calling the matches before him, but of engaging in debates with Michael Cole without them degenerating into shouting matches.
Because of that, if RAW were to ever return to a two-man commentary team, it should be composed of Michael Cole and Byron Saxton, instead of Cole and JBL. Cole and Saxton play off of each other very well, even though both of them come off as a bit bland. But being bland is still better then sounding loud, brash, and obnoxious, which, is what JBL sounds like when he debates with his fellow commentators.
Saxton has shown that he can play the straight man to another commentator’s more eccentric approach to calling matches, and is doing a good job of evolving into the kind of company man and promoter that they’re looking for in a ringside commentator. That said, even if he’s plugging a WWE product during a RAW broadcast, his manner of speaking doesn’t come across as shameless of forced. He sounds genuinely excited to be on RAW, and that’s the kind of enthusiasm that he should be pushing onto the WWE Universe.