Is Mike Hogewood underqualified?

[Mr. Socko's Brother]

I've never been very impressed with him, but on last week's show he didn't know what to call the Koji Clutch and he referred to a leg lariat as a dropkick. It was Botchamania-worthy, if ROH allowed footage to be used in Botchamania.

[i.Sarita.com]

I only watched maybe the first five episodes of ROH on HDNet (or whatever channel) and that guy was just awful.

[Mozenrath]

That's often been a weak spot of ROH's to me, commentating, but yeah, just not into this guy's work.

[slasher911]

He's one of those guys that tries really really hard, but still kinda sucks.

And I hate his accent.

[thesam07]

I like the combination of Prazak and Hog.
But like Bradley said, ROH has never been known for it's commentating.

[Deleted]

I do not particularly care for the guy, but I still don't know what his "Slap the porpoise" catchphrase is supposed to mean.

[Spankymac is sick of the swiss]

I'll say this for him: He brings a TON of enthusiasm to the task of commentating. But the problem is, his knowledge of the moves and the wrestlers can't keep up with his enthusiasm.

[Bald Bull]

Dec 28, 2010 3:56:42 GMT -5 @desertassassin said:

I do not particularly care for the guy, but I still don't know what his "Slap the porpoise" catchphrase is supposed to mean.

It pretty much means "I'll say whatever I want and HDNet will never fire me, no matter how horrendous of a job I am doing because HDNet is too under the radar to have enough fans to file enough to complaints to get me off the air."

[sweatpants]

I think it's a situation very similar to Don West in TNA; they wanted a guy that speaks more to casual fans or non-fans and just marks out over the more spectacular moves.

[Steveweiser]

He has improved over time, but says a lot when he doesn't do the DVDs and iPPVs.

[BxB]

Dec 28, 2010 3:36:01 GMT -5 @thesam07 said:

I like the combination of Prazak and Hog.
But like Bradley said, ROH has never been known for it's commentating.

I don't know, I thought Leonard/Prazak combo was getting pretty decent until they decided to drop Leonard for no apparent reason.

[So Called Wrestling Fan]

He sounds real and doesn't call every move inverted or scoop slam.

[Steveweiser]

Dec 28, 2010 10:03:36 GMT -5 BxB said:

Dec 28, 2010 3:36:01 GMT -5 @thesam07 said:

I like the combination of Prazak and Hog.
But like Bradley said, ROH has never been known for it's commentating.

I don't know, I thought Leonard/Prazak combo was getting pretty decent until they decided to drop Leonard for no apparent reason.

My guess is that since Leonard called DGUSA, ROH still has something against Gabe, so they held that against Leonard and quietly replaced him with Hero, and then with all the other guys, including Kevin Kelly.

[Ultimo Chocula]

Hogewood's trying, and you can tell he really wants to get the matches over. The problem is Prazak, who's bland, uninteresting, and uses his indoor voice for big spots.

[Brandon Walsh is Insane.]

I enjoy Hogewood's enthusiasm for the matches.

I cannot stand how dry Prazak is. Just very, very boring.

I also think that the level of enthusiasm of Hoge is great and at the perfect level, when compared to someone like Don West that is/was too over the top.

[Square]

I didn't realise the Hog was such an important topic on the board!

[FHgrad99]

Mike Hogewood isn't new to announcing but wrestling isn't his background. He used to announce various forms of auto racing on a couple of different channels. I've never heard him as a wrestling announcer. He was a decent auto racing announcer.

[Mozenrath]

How long has he been at it? Hopefully he'll shape up.

[Deleted]

Dec 29, 2010 1:00:19 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

How long has he been at it? Hopefully he'll shape up.

When we assume, he began when ROH on HDnet started, it must have been now over 1 1/2 years by now.