schma
Hank Scorpio
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Post by schma on Jul 28, 2018 22:32:10 GMT -5
Not a big fan of their commentary. Heenan was past caring and his disdain was obvious. Schiavone was actually a better commentator than he gets credit for but his ridiculous hyperbole overshadows it (although most of that was probably Bischoff in his ear telling him what to say). Tenay was good but was never really used consistently. Then there’s Mongo, dear f***ing Christ. Zbyszko was too busy marking for himself most of the time. Towards the end I actually quite liked Scott Hudson but he was commentating for a company that was dying on its arse. Mark Madden was absolutely woeful, I get that he was meant to be sucking up to the bosses but any heat he got was from him being f***ing awful. I used to believe this, until i started watching actual whole nitros from 1996, and heenan and Tony would actually go back and forth at times. There were even times they'd team up on Tenay. Yeah, not consistently amazing like his WWE work, but.... It's like everything WCW, it's easy to look at the obvious failures and say it always sucked, but if you dig deep, there are gems, and Tony doesn't literally "greatest night in the history of our sport!" Every nitro and thunder. Well i don't know about march 1999+ tbh... Bishoff too could be quite good when not taking pot shots at WWF. There is genuinely a lot of good (even in late WCW) that is looked at with brown tinted glasses because of the way it went down. The company was actually turning a corner when it was sold. Admittedly, the commentary wasn't super memorable but I was never annoyed by it like I was with a lot of WWE commentary.
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Post by OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 on Jul 29, 2018 1:46:24 GMT -5
For the most part complete garbage, I wish Tony would've called the shows by himself he was the only one with talent before he stopped giving a f***.
Heenan I think tried early on but realized how stupid management was and how the company was so out of control that he stopped caring. Apparently he showed up drunk to work and he still did commentary, nobody told him anything.
Jesse Ventura I think treated the company like an inferior brand, and just wanted to get himself over.
I always found Mike Tenay annoying and geeky.
I don't really remember Larry Zbysko as announcer.
Mark Madden was one of most annoying announcers I've ever heard in my life.
I already quit watching when Scott Hudson came in.
Edit: oh yeah I forgot about Dusty, he's in my top five worst announcer ever list.
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Post by OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 on Jul 29, 2018 1:50:06 GMT -5
When Schiavone gave a shit, he could be great. But man, that company drained the life out of him like a vampire. Hudson and Tenay were as good as they could possibly be in the latter days of WCW, considering what the shows had become. Bischoff is actually better than he's given credit for as a commentator, I think. Tony himself admitted that he quit like a year and a half before the company croaked. That he was tired and he was losing his voice.
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Post by Oh Cry Me a Screwball on Jul 29, 2018 1:54:10 GMT -5
I liked when during the cruiser matches the announcers would really put over the athleticism and be blown away by what they were seeing in the early days of the international cruiser influx. Just don't ever watch the "Mexican Hardcore Match" where they do the exact opposite and treat it like a joke while the luchadores are doing insane shit to each other like the Chris Benoit at Royal Rumble 01 suicide dive into chairshot bump.
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67 more
King Koopa
He's just a Sexy Kurt
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Post by 67 more on Jul 29, 2018 2:31:52 GMT -5
Mongo was an awful commentator, but god, was he entertainingly bad. And while he was incompetent, he at least tried to put everyone over and always sounded enthusiastic and that goes a long way.
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Pushed to the Moon
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Tony Schiavone in Disguise
Working myself into a shoot
Posts: 15,819
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Post by Pushed to the Moon on Jul 29, 2018 5:53:59 GMT -5
Tenay as an additional analyst for international talents was always good value. Yeah in this Ultimo Dragon match he was reeling of the story of how Ultimo Dragon means the "Last Dragon" and that meant he was the last student of Bruce Lee. Even though the gimmick is made up the other commentators were like WHOA NO WAY!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2018 8:03:41 GMT -5
I liked Mike Tenay. The guy always did research and it showed.
Tony was good up until 98.
The rest became white noise after all the nonsense they'd spout off about over the years.
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Post by CMPunkyBrewster on Jul 29, 2018 8:17:04 GMT -5
Mongo was an awful commentator, but god, was he entertainingly bad. That comment was appropo, and that doesn't you're digging in the dirt with farm implements, baby. If I live to be a million, I don't think I'll ever understand what in the exact f*** he was driving at with that statement.
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Post by Clash, Never a Meter Maid on Jul 29, 2018 9:23:09 GMT -5
When Schiavone had a good show to work with, he was one of the best. You could tell when he was getting burnt out, and some of his hyperbole could be a bit much, but I've always enjoyed his commentary generally (he's still good on the MLW shows). Tenay was a pretty good analyst, though maybe not an ideal guy to carry a show.
I loved Dusty on commentary, he was my guy. He was just having fun out there, and it was infectious- especially at Uncensored 1997. Heenan had his moments, but outside of marking for Goldberg and Flair, you could tell at a certain point he just didn't give a crap anymore. Mongo wasn't very good, but some of his banter with Bobby was cute. I'll second him being "entertainingly bad". I liked when he'd get on heels like Jimmy Hart, "that guy just makes me wanna spit!"
Zybysko just put himself over all night, and Mark Madden was flat-out abysmal. It was painful listening to him try to be Lawler-lite.
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Post by brown bricks on Jul 29, 2018 10:20:44 GMT -5
Their commentary teams could be hit or miss, that’s for sure. Heenan has his moments, but he did such a half-assed job later in his run that it definitely soils the whole thing. Mongo and Madden are the only two I thought were flat-out awful.
I think Schiavone is extremely underrated and catches way too much shit. Yes, he clearly had checked out by the end. However, when he was “on” I think he surpassed Jim Ross as a commentator.
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Post by héad.casé on Jul 29, 2018 10:50:16 GMT -5
I remember one show - The Nitro after War Games '97 where Hennig turned on the Horsemen to join the nWo and slammed the cage door on Flair's head. Mongo was WCW U.S Champion, and put his title on the line against Hennig to get some payback. It's the first time i've heard Larry Zbyzsko just so invested in the angle that was playing out - so desperate and genuinely pleading for Mongo to get up and beat Hennig up. The one time I vividly remember hearing him putting over what was going on and the story of the match, a genuine anger welling up as the match went on. He felt Mongo's anger at what happened to Flair the night before and put it over better than anyone. You'd have thought Larry was a Horseman himself.
For someone who'd heard him put himself over & only half pay attention to what was going on in the ring most of the time, it was a commentary performance by Larry that blew me away.
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Post by BD Punk AKA SUSPENDED! on Jul 29, 2018 14:39:53 GMT -5
Watching early 90's WCW on the network, I was blown away on how good the Jim Ross/Tony Schiavone pairing was. JR was PBP and Tony was color, and Schiavone actually gave good reasons for why a wrestler was doing something in the ring or what a good potential strategy for a certain match was. I don't think Schiavone gets enough credit for that. As a PBP guy he was good, especially pre 1999.
Dusty was always great entertainment on commentary
Heenan was good too, not even close to his brilliant WWE run though
Tenay was good at giving us info on the international talent
I thought Scott Hudson was good for the relatively short time he got to do PBP
Bischoff was ok
Mongo, Madden, Stevie Ray, Zbyszko all sucked
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Post by somsta on Jul 29, 2018 16:14:36 GMT -5
I always liked how high Tony’s chair was. Made him seem so much better than whatever scrubs he was at the booth with.
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Post by OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 on Jul 29, 2018 17:31:10 GMT -5
The only time I liked Dusty was when he said "Who be bad now boys" I also popped when Heyman and Cornette would fight and he yelled "Catfight! Catfight babeh!"
Then there was the night Heenan killed Hacksaw's career...COLLEGE? HAHAHAAHH
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Pushed to the Moon
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Tony Schiavone in Disguise
Working myself into a shoot
Posts: 15,819
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Post by Pushed to the Moon on Jul 29, 2018 17:47:46 GMT -5
Now I just watched Guerrero vs Malenko at the start of Starrcade 97 and my god they will NOT shut up about the nWo. STING VS HOGAN TONIGHT. WHERE'S KEVIN NASH? STING HOGAN. Oh nice move. KEVIN NASH?!!!! BISCHOFF VS ZYBISKO. HOGAN STING. Nice move. HOGAN STING STILL TO COME DON'T GO ANYWHERE! I mean I know it was a huge storyline but still. Do you need to advertise something we've already paid for? Relax guys! Such a contrast from the year before. Crazy.
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Post by CMPunkyBrewster on Jul 29, 2018 21:30:49 GMT -5
Now I just watched Guerrero vs Malenko at the start of Starrcade 97 and my god they will NOT shut up about the nWo. STING VS HOGAN TONIGHT. WHERE'S KEVIN NASH? STING HOGAN. Oh nice move. KEVIN NASH?!!!! BISCHOFF VS ZYBISKO. HOGAN STING. Nice move. HOGAN STING STILL TO COME DON'T GO ANYWHERE! I mean I know it was a huge storyline but still. Do you need to advertise something we've already paid for? Relax guys! Such a contrast from the year before. Crazy. This was probably my biggest complaint about WCW commentary. It hit a point where all they did was talk about what was going on in their big angle (essentially the NWO). They basically just stopped calling matches altogether after 1996.
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Ben Wyatt
Crow T. Robot
Are You Gonna Go My Way?
I don't get it. At all. It's kind of a small horse, I mean what am I missing? Am I crazy?
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Post by Ben Wyatt on Jul 30, 2018 6:59:49 GMT -5
Tony Schiavone, when he was "on", was better than anyone. Yes, including JR. Tony called it like a sport, and behaved like a sports commentator would. Yeah, he stopped giving a shit after 98... but can you blame him? He's criminally underrated, and I blame the Monday Night Wars and whoever got into his ear and forced him into shill mode for ruining the guy's legacy as an announcer.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2018 10:22:05 GMT -5
I liked Ross and Cornette when I was rewatching some of Muta's old matches
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Post by corndog on Jul 30, 2018 10:31:41 GMT -5
Not a big fan of their commentary. Heenan was past caring and his disdain was obvious. Schiavone was actually a better commentator than he gets credit for but his ridiculous hyperbole overshadows it (although most of that was probably Bischoff in his ear telling him what to say). Tenay was good but was never really used consistently. Then there’s Mongo, dear f***ing Christ. Zbyszko was too busy marking for himself most of the time. Towards the end I actually quite liked Scott Hudson but he was commentating for a company that was dying on its arse. Mark Madden was absolutely woeful, I get that he was meant to be sucking up to the bosses but any heat he got was from him being f***ing awful. This is the truth. Schiavone was actually a very good commentator, love his work in JCP and it was even better when he went solo. But once he had Bischoff in his ear, it really dumbed him down. Heenan did not give two shits in WCW. I liked Tenay's added knowledge for the cruiserweights/luchadores, I don't know what happened to him in TNA, but he was good in WCW. I didn't watch WCW after early 1999, but I always liked Scott Hudson on the B shows and I wonder what happened to him.
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