10 WWE Fates Worse Than Death
4. Kissing Someone’s BBQ Feet
Michael Cole's 2010-2011 heel turn ranged from passable to downright terrible. The worst of it came when he was ridiculing Jerry Lawler's recently-deceased mother or ruining matches by trolling as one of the most obnoxious bad guy announcers ever. There's some difference between a heel colour commentator and a heel play-by-play guy - play-by-play runs the show, so they talk too much to be constantly aggressive and dismissive of babyfaces.
WWE let Cole run amok with it though. He stunk out the ring opposite Lawler in a match that was far too long at WrestleMania XXVII, then they had a 'Country Whipping' tag bout also involving Jim Ross and Jack Swagger at Extreme Rules 2011. The following month, Michael then worked a 'Kiss My Foot' match with Jerry that again hogged far too much TV time in the build up to the pay-per-view.
Mercifully, it was a short, 3-minute affair on the night, but it'd live with Cole longer than that. He lost, then had BBQ sauce poured in his mouth by a vengeful JR before suckling on Lawler's toes. That had to be utterly disgusting. Jerry's feet would've been horrible enough to kiss without the added barbecue sauce shenanigans. That cold sauce mixed with cheesy tootsies? No thanks.
Credit to Cole for giving it his all, but this wasn't what people wanted to see on WWE PPV. They'd had more than enough of this commentary team rivalry, and most were screaming for Michael to return to his largely inoffensive, mild-mannered play-by-play guise. That'd happen eventually, at least.
Just go towards the white light, Mike. It'll all be over soon!