Why WWE Fans Love Michael Cole Now

4. Jerry Lawler's On-Air Health Scare

10 September 2012 is a day that few wrestling fans will ever forget. There, on Monday Night Raw, Jerry Lawler suffered a heart attack on live television. Of course, at the King's side that night, was Michael Cole.

It may only be in recent months that the WWE audience has fully started to embrace Cole, but that on-air scene of near-tragedy is one that had even the biggest Michael Cole detractors feeling nothing but pure empathy for the man. There, the nowadays 53-year-old not only had to experience the sight of one of his close friends collapsing due to cardiac arrest, but he then had to stay at the announce desk, commentate on several more matches, and was tasked with providing fans with real-time updates on the status of Lawler.

In regards to that status, CPR was performed on Jerry, seven attempts were made to shock the WWE Hall of Famer's heart back into action, and that heart at one point didn't beat for 22 whole minutes.

While Cole did eventually sit in shocked silence throughout the final part of that Raw episode, that didn't take away from the trauma he went through on that Monday night. For that, even his biggest critics had to soften their stance on Michael Cole - even if just for one evening.

Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.

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