Michael Cole gets a lot of flack, and while some of it is deserved, a lot isn't. Sure, he'll never be Jim Ross (or Mauro Ranallo), but it's got to be hard to have Vince McMahon in your ear for three hours at a time, all while trying to banter back and forth with other announcers and give the product some semblance of credibility. Cole does everything that his nearly-impossible job requires, and he does it satisfactorily. Still, Cole - who from all accounts is a smart, quick-witted guy - can't be expected to remember everything Vince McMahon wants him to push. While wrestlers cutting promos only need to memorize a few minutes' worth of a script, Cole is out there all night. Thankfully, with a table in front of him, he can simply lay his papers out and read some of the more important points he's supposed to hit - but what happens when his table gets demolished? Brock Lesnar was powerbombed through the announcers' table in Fastlane's main event, leaving Cole, JBL, and Byron Saxton floating around the ringside area. When Roman Reigns finally won and Triple H came down to get nose to nose with the number one contender, Cole was ready to make the big call - unfortunately, he was reading off a clipboard he was holding, and he got caught on camera as he pitched, "In 42 nights, Triple H versus Roman Reigns for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania!" You might think that's a relatively easy line to remember, but damned if it wasn't a long night.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
