Comments on: The SmarK Rant for WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event – August 2 2008

By: indyjeff

indyjeff — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 04:01:05 +0000

I think several of the replies to my first comment above sort of missed the point. I did end with the line about how the announcers supposed to “tell a story”, as opposed to calling the match, but my point wasn’t that they should be calling every single move. The comment was in response to Scott misunderstanding what the referee was trying to get across when JTG was trying to pin someone who wasn’t the legal man. It was kind of a crucial part of the match, being immediately followed by the finish, and it is sort of sad that the best play-by-play man in the business wasn’t able to make it clear to the fans what was going on, since as Scott said, he was too busy doing NBC plugs.

By: donthatebret

donthatebret — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 02:25:04 +0000

I know what you’re saying, but there is a fine line there. One of my pet peeves with bad TV sports announcers is when you’ll see a replay and they’ll verbally take you through every insignificant part of the replay step by step. It’s not necessary, and it’s something the best announcers don’t do. It’s a visual medium; there’s a time to let the images speak for themselves and a time to call the action and analyze it.

That said, I agree that the announcers leave a lot to be desired. Lawler was a perfectly good heel announcer when he first came to the company, but now he’s just another washed-up good guy. Heel announcers can be one of the best parts of the show, as Heenan and Ventura proved long ago, but now they don’t exist anymore.

I have no idea how Michael Cole has managed to stick around this long. He is horrible. Count how many times he says the word “hell” the next time you watch him. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but once you notice his constant use of the word, it will annoy you. Every two minutes he just casually drops in a “what the hell was that?” Not that I am offeneded by the word or anything. It just comes off sounding childish and unprofessional when he does it so frequently. Then when something major happens that actually does warrant a strong reaction, and he says, “What the hell was that?” it has no impact because he’s already said “what the hell was that” twelve times in the past hour in casual conversation. Michael Cole sucks.

By: Knighthawk

Knighthawk — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 01:32:30 +0000

I agree with the WWE not really letting us know that this SNME was even happening. I only caught RAW this week, but kept up with everything via the Internet and I totally forgot that SNME was on last night. I caught the last half hour of it from Jenny McCarthy coming out to the end of the show once I remembered that it was on.

By: chrisC

chrisC — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:29:13 +0000

Okay, I somewhat agree with that. I, too, would like to see another Ventura-style color man who disagrees with the play-by-play guy and has a slight bias for heels but is mostly fair.

Again, my original point was that I agree with the idea of commentators
“telling stories” and don’t agree with them merely telling me what happened 2 seconds ago when I saw it with my own eyes.

By: ChanseyWMU

ChanseyWMU — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:55:24 +0000

Whoops, that was meant to be a reply to the show review.

Jenny McCarthy had a kid with autism, her charity seems more like an attempt to resurrect her career than a real charity – if humping Jim Carrey didn’t do it, nothing will.

By: ChanseyWMU

ChanseyWMU — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:53:22 +0000

Remember kids, it’s only charity if a lot of people see you doing it.

By: manwithnolife85

manwithnolife85 — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:02:40 +0000

See I also agree that the announcers don’t need to call every single move, because it is TV, not radio. Absolutely 100% with you there.

BUT…

I honestly, truly don’t think that JR, the King, Cole, whoever, really… I don’t think that they even do a good job of “telling stories” the way people like Gorilla, Vince, and even JR himself used to.

I also really don’t like the fact that there are no more heel commentators. I’m not asking for another blatant heel like Bobby Heenan, but maybe more of a realist with a heel slant like Jesse Ventura?

Maybe I just need to get with the times.

By: chrisC

chrisC — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 18:07:04 +0000

One more reason I’m glad I don’t watch football, then.

I really don’t want to hear JR, Cole, or whoever call an entire match like this:

“Cena with the clothesline, Batista back up, another clothesline by Cena, Batista slowly gets back to his feet, Cena goes for the FU, Batista escapes, kicks Cena in the gut, goes for the Batista Bomb…..”

I can see that’s what happened. You don’t have to tell me. The announcers should try to bring up things that aren’t obvious. If someone is using their left hand to punch when he/she usually uses the right hand but can’t due to an injury (real or fake), mention it to the viewers rather just saying “So-so with a punch, there’s another, and another…..”

By: Heidenreich

Heidenreich — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 17:52:38 +0000

But the whole point of an announcer is to tell you whats on the screen. Al Michaels tells you what happens when you’re watching a football game.

Peyton Manning drops back, throws complete to Marvin Harrison for 12 yards. Sure, you saw that happen, but Al Michaels tells you that as well.

They tell the stories & bullshit during down times, time outs. Same as announce teams for every sport.

JR can call every damn move for I care. Save the stupid banter/stories for down time (ie, rest holds)…..

By: chrisC

chrisC — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:26:35 +0000

“And correct me if I’m wrong, but they put all the commentary in for taped shows like this in post-production, don’t they?”

It used to be that way but now the inserts are just things like the NBC plugs and the talk of what took place of the previous night’s Smackdown since it happened after SNME was taped. Outside of that, the commentary is done at the arena.