4. "Why Don't You Go In There John?"
It must be said that I really despaired of Michael Cole's heel period. When the play-by-play guy who is announcing the wrestling goes out of his way to essentially bury half the roster it doesn't add to the atmosphere of the wrestling. Furthermore, while he was attempting to put the Miz over with heel heat by associating with him, it actually did a lot of damage to the Miz's championship credentials. After all, would you believe Jerry Lawler- a wrestling great who was loved by all of the WWE or would you believe Michael Cole- a man who never wrestled and to many viewers usurped the great JR? It was a relief to many then when after Cole handled the horrible situation of Jerry Lawler's heart attack that he turned back to a babyface. What the fans wanted was a relatively impartial play-by-play announcer that would acknowledge great performances of anyone- whether they be heel or babyface. Unfortunately what they got instead was a cheerleader for the babyfaces that was almost as irritating as his heel persona. This can be best seen when the faces have the upper hand in the ring and JBL talks about some injustice- usually that the Authority has been besmirched and Cole will talk (sarcastically) about how JBL should get in the ring to make things right. The problem with this is that it just sounds juvenile and boring rather than adding anything to the commentary. It actually makes one want to shut Michael Cole up rather than JBL. It's also really weird because Raw has a face announcer already in Jerry Lawler, so it seems a bit uncomfortable when the play-by-play announcer is acting more biased than the guy who's job is supposedly to be biased.