7 Ups And 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (March 30th)
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 youre left with subpar announcing on a bigtime Raw, it just completely deflates the impact that the show has. Consider Adrian Nevilles Raw debut. Saxton was just bland and boring, and as a result, Nevilles big moment fell flat. WWE needs to keep that sort of thing in mind if theyre 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 shouldnt book their lead commentator to get knocked out in the second hour.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
