Announcers you can't stand

[neilc]

With KP being switched off Smackdown and the hatred I've read for Matt Striker, I figured this would be a good time to start this thread.


Booker T-What the hell is he talking about half the time? Goes to the well too often on his pet expressions, even when they don't fit the situation. Only like him when he talks about Roxanne.


Daddy Magic-I think he acts like a crack-addled Muppet any time, but doesn't help the AEW product. Jericho was fine when HE WASN'T YELLING ALL THE TIME!!


I'm glad Austin Idol isn't on commentary anymore for the Shell of NWA, he was just irritating and made it all about him. I think Velvet wasn't in character when she got annoyed with him.

Your picks?

[ace]

Jim Ross for the last…forever

People are just kidding themselves. He’s been atrocious far longer than he was great.

[Rave]

I started watching Impact again after Josh Mathews got kicked off commentary.

Booker T on commentary was one of several reasons why I stopped watching NXT.

[XaviersSS2015hair]

Michael Cole has topped this list since the first time I saw his douchey little face in 1997. Hopefully now with Kevin Dunn gone his little puppet Cole will FINALLY get shit canned.

Excalibur is awful. His forced excitement and announcer voice for lack of a better term (you all know exactly what voice I'm talking about) while he's calling nonsensical horse shit is grating. And him screaming random Japanese and Spanish words while referencing feuds and histories between people that even the most in the bubble wrestling fans like myself have never heard of makes him sound like the most basement dwelling of Neckbeards.

[ayumidah]

Booker is just horrible. I feel bad for Vic having to try to reign that in week after week.

Kevin Kelly is up there. His lecturing the crowd or wrestlers when they can't even hear him is so annoying.

[DragonMasterP]

I said in the “Characters You Can’t Stand” thread that I don’t like JBL in the least bit, and that goes for his announcer run, too. Never actually calls anything and spends 99% of every show yelling about nothing and insulting the other commentators ad nauseum.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

I will NOT stand for Daddy Magic slander in these here parts.

Serious answer: any time Joey Styles wasn't calling ECW. That was very much his wheelhouse and what he obviously enjoyed. All of his WWE and MLW work sounds super cringey and forced to me, whereas in ECW he was a good voice of reason among all of the mayhem.

[neilc]

One I forgot to list: Nigel McGuinness. He was good at the start, but he started to lose me when he was pro-Jay White during the whole stupid stolen belt saga. And his digs at Bryan got old fast, unless it leads to a match where he gets his ass kicked. Just a try-to-hard to be a heel, almost as bad as Corey Graves at his worst.

[tafkaga]

I'll second JBL. Can't stand him.

Jerry Lawler grates on me, and even though he's funny sometimes, overall he's just shrill and grating.

Matt Striker is as cringe as cringe gets.

Booker T is kinda lol at first but after a while it's "please shut up".

[OGBoardPoster2005]

Michael Cole is still hard to listen to. Playing the moral PBP announcer trope that was tired 25 years ago. Jim Ross had morals but his made sense and didn't sound like a whiny bitch. Cole is the kind of guy you'd have to run away from because he will not stop going on about it.

Kevin Patrick while I do think he has a great voice for the job doesn't work with me as a lead announcer for an American based promotion. Not being xenophobic, it just doesn't translate the same. Maybe thats an odd quirk but it would be like if Joe Buck was calling Premier League. That too would just be odd to me.

Corey Graves still isn't funny.

Kevin Kelly wasn't good in 1996 and I still don't think he's good in 2024. Never got the hype. He was as bad as Michael Cole to me.

[Brood Lone Wolf Funker]

Vampiro was one of the worst parts on announce team even when farting on air

[Fade is a CodyCryBaby]

Striker minimally could be good, but guy was absolute cringe a lot of the times.

I don’t like Tony shiavone. As the third man on Dynamite I thought he was atrocious. As the dude on collision..it just sounds tired.

I use to like Kevin kelly but good lord does he feel out of place in AEW.

Ex is early 2000s Michael Cole to me, but workrate-wise. It actually bothers me how “on rails” or autopilot he feels at times. He doesn’t get across the actual essence of what’s going on.

[Jaws the Shark]

I'll be honest, I'm at the point where I struggle to tolerate the majority of them now. There's just too much shouting and melodrama and soundbytes, everything just sounds overly sincere and contrived and it annoys me. Modern commentary is often sort of the aural equivalent to a spotfest match, people who've heard stuff on other commentaries and tried to emulate that without understanding how and why it worked, and/or just trying to get their shit in.

[DiBiase is Good]

Mark Madden.

[chrom]

I know he's considered sacred, but I never liked Joey Styles. He comes off as smarmy and arrogant like that one kid in school who brags about having uncensored sub anime

[Big BosskMan]

Not to speak ill of the dead, but Corey Maclin in the USWA was just unlistenable.

[Bo Rida]

Alex Riley was one of the worst, he actually bragged on air about doing zero research. It was so bad HHH had to assure people in shareholder calls that Riley wouldn’t be doing upcoming events.

Matt Striker is awful now, but like many others he at least had a period where he was tolerable.

Actually it's kind of amazing that it seems to be a role so many gradually get worse at. Schiovanne seems to be one of the few that has got better, apparently Cole has too but they're exceptions.

[tafkaga]

Jan 24, 2024 11:49:32 GMT -5 Jaws the Shark said:

I'll be honest, I'm at the point where I struggle to tolerate the majority of them now. There's just too much shouting and melodrama and soundbytes, everything just sounds overly sincere and contrived and it annoys me. Modern commentary is often sort of the aural equivalent to a spotfest match, people who've heard stuff on other commentaries and tried to emulate that without understanding how and why it worked, and/or just trying to get their shit in.

Yeah, some of them like Michael Cole, are hard to rate just because I feel like there are such different expectations for announcers now.  In olden times, even bad announcers like David Crockett were tolerable just because they were authentic and came off as fans of the product.  Now, I almost feel like even if they had someone who was really good, the producers would turn them into something barely tolerable.

[Jumpin' Jesse Walsh]

Watch one of WWF's house shows at the Sam Houston Coliseum to experience the unmitigated horrors of Pete Doherty on commentary.

[thirteen3]

That f***ing guy who announces for GCW. KG I think his name is? he's f***ing terrible. One of the reason I don't really follow Game Changer much anymore.