More of the best and worst wrestling announcers
Before I get to my thoughts on color commentators, I wanted to thank everyone who posted a comment or sent me an e-mail on their favorite and least favorite wrestling announcers.
One announcer who was mentioned by several people as a favorite was the late Gorilla Monsoon. He’s an interesting case. A lot of people have fond memories of him from the 1980s boom period in WWE, especially his work with Bobby Heenan. The “smart” fans, however, always hated Monsoon as an announcer. He was voted Worst Television Announcer six times by the readers of The Wrestling Observer.
Personally, I liked Monsoon. Had I made a top five list of favorites, he certainly would have been on it. The things about him that irritated newsletter readers – making comments such as “The fans are literally hanging from the rafters,” and repeating clichés such as “He doesn’t know a wristlock from a wristwatch” and “A pat on the back is just 18 inches from a kick in the butt” – are what made him fun to listen to in my opinion. In addition to being entertaining, he sold the angles well and got the characters over. But I digress.
Here’s the list of my favorite and least favorite color commentators. As I said yesterday, this is not meant to be a definitive list, just my personal opinion:
BEST
1. Jesse Ventura: As a wrestler, Ventura’s gift of gab exceeded his skills in the ring, so it wasn’t surprising that “The Body” became such a fantastic commentator. With his deep, distinctive voice and boorish persona, Ventura set a new standard for heel announcers when he was in WWE. He worked well with Monsoon, but he was even more entertaining when playing the adversary of play-by-play man Vince McMahon.
2. Roddy Piper: The first heel commentator that I ever saw was Piper when he worked alongside Gordon Solie on Georgia Championship Wrestling on TBS in 1981. One of the most entertaining talkers of all time, he sometimes would be over-the-top in insulting the babyfaces, and at other times he would be subtler and actually make some keen observations. Even though Piper was a heel and Solie favored the babyfaces, the two were not adversarial and Piper treated Solie with respect. One of my favorite angles was when Magnificent Muraco attacked Solie, and Piper turned babyface and came to his rescue.
3. Bobby Heenan: His quick wit and weasel-like persona had fans hating him and laughing at the same time. “The Brain” had tremendous chemistry with Monsoon, and much of their hilarious banter was ad-libbed.
WORST
1. Steve McMichael: The former Chicago Bears star was supposed to be a babyface commentator on WCW Monday Nitro, but his obnoxious personality made him ill-suited for the role. Everything about him was annoying, even the Chihuahua named Pepe that he brought with him to the broadcasts. The only thing worse than McMichael the commentator was McMichael the wrestler.
2. Rob Bartlett: Several years before the failed Dennis Miller experiment on Monday Night Football, WWE brought in Bartlett, a comedian, to be part of the original broadcasting team on Monday Night Raw along with McMahon and Randy Savage. Like Miller, Bartlett wasn’t funny and he added nothing to the broadcast. He was dropped from the show after just two months.
3. Don West: His constant yelling on TNA broadcasts gets old quickly. He should stick to shilling baseball cards.
Comments
Prime Time Wrestling hosted by Bobby and Gorilla was a classic. I enjoyed it more than Raw.And who can forget the spinoff " The Bobby Heenan Show"? The only drawback was Jason the sidekick. Where in the world did he come from?.
Did Monsoon coin the term
'three-peat' as in Demolition or whomever winning a belt three times?
Posted by: david elzey | November 29, 2007 7:53 AM
Kevin,
I know its a little late now, but I really think David Crockett was more of a "color" guy than a play-by-play guy. I realize its hard to know that considering the fact that he would have been terrible as either one. He was paired with Tony Schiavone for so long on WCW Saturday Night that it seemed he was supposed to be there to provide commentary. Its amazing after all these years remembering that I thought Schiavone was a good announcer until Turner brought in Bobby Heenan. Heenan's stuff was still good but it fell flat because Schiavone had no personality at all. After years of working next to David Crockett, I suppose anyone might just mentally checkout and never come back.
RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: When Schiavone and Crockett worked together it seemed like they did not have clearly defined roles. Sometimes Crockett added color and at other times he was calling the action.
Posted by: Lee | November 29, 2007 8:55 AM
My top color commentators are definitely the Brain and Jim Cornette. I always enjoyed his interviews when he managed the Midnight Express, even though I hated them because they were heels.
I've been hit or miss on Jerry Lawler. There were times when he was really funny, but other times when his act was dreadful. I wasn't a big fan of Tazz either, although there were times when I preferred him over Michael Cole.
Posted by: ScottyB | November 29, 2007 9:19 AM
Amen on your choices for best and worst color commentators. Bobby Heenan was a genius behind the announce desk from his time with Monsoon to his quick banter in WCW. He was the only thing that saved Nitro from being a disaster, especially considering their long line of horrible announcers such as "Mongo", Bischoff, Zbysko and (OMG!) Mark Madden.
Posted by: David | November 29, 2007 9:44 AM
I liked this post Kevin. Thank You for sharing with us your "ranking"
I was wondering...what do you think about the commentators from now a days? I mean Cole, Lawler, JBL... etc? Because it would be interesting to know your opinion about all of them (wwe and tna)
And also the announcers... what do you think about them? This guy who appeared in ECW at first and then was moved to Smackdown. I like him a bit more than Jillian.
Posted by: Gaston | November 29, 2007 1:32 PM
Who could forget Pat Patterson's call of Jimmy Snuks's debut into the WWF and challenging Sgt Slaughter to break the cobra clutch!
Posted by: Matt Crow | November 29, 2007 4:20 PM
Don West is so bad it makes me laugh sometimes. He's one of the reasons I just can't watch TNA. I try to watch every so often, but West or someone else ends up making a stupid comment that makes my head hurt.
I'm surprised that John Hennigan and Mike Mizanin didn't make the list of worst color commentators. Their terrible work on ECW a few weeks ago was so bad that they did owe everyone an apology. It's just too bad JBL didn't give them each a black eye for acting like twelve-year- olds.
Posted by: Sean | November 29, 2007 4:30 PM
Tony Schiavone is the worst and most over-rated announcers of all time. Watch all the replay of great early to mid-card matches at pay per views and Shiavone will not even be calling the play by play and instead talking about the "Greatest Main Event in Pay-Per View History Later Tonight." Hennan and Rhodes masked his awful announcing skills.
Posted by: Max (Miami) | November 29, 2007 8:28 PM
Good get on Piper! Underappreciated!
Posted by: JTK | November 30, 2007 8:24 AM
I agree with your lists completely, I would just add Brain to the top of the favorites.
Greatest Heenan line ever - Wrestlemania 8 I believe - right before the first match which was Tito Santana and Shawn Michaels - Heenan shouts out "It's Arriba McIntire!" after Reba McIntire sang the National Anthem.
How about on another blog you do your favorite angle and or promo? I still can't get out of my head the night on Nitro in 97 when the NWO made fun of the horseman with Sean Waltman dressed as Flair, Konnan as McMichael, Bagwell as Mr. Perfect and Nash as Arn Anderson, funny stuff.
Posted by: Eric in PA | November 30, 2007 1:46 PM
this list is much better then the first one. Ventura, Piper, and Heenan, are all spectacular picks, and would put ANY color man in wrestling today to shame. ANYONE.
As far as the worst goes, WHERE IS MARK MADDEN???? This guy was the definition of bad commentating. I liked Bartlett and Mongo, for the simple reasons that they broguht new comments to the table. Because they had no wrestling backgrounds, they put new life into the color role. although neither lasted to long, they still had some freshness to them. I would rather see Don West or Bruno Sammartino in the worst list.
My favorite memory of Rob Bartlett is, on one of the first episodes of Monday Night Raw, probably the third or so, i remember becuase i taped it because there was a retirement match between Flair and Hennig on it. But anyway, I think it was during a Repo Man segment or something of that nature. Bartlett said something ridiculous (I havent seen the tape in at least 10 years, so I dont remember) but what I remember was Heenan sort of whispering to Vince, asking him "where did you find this guy???! Vince replied with something like............ well i dont know, we saw him on the subway and we got him. PURE COMEDY!!!
Posted by: 1989 | December 3, 2007 8:37 PM
an't argue with your top 3, they were my favourites too.
But in the bottom 3 I would have to find somewhere for Billy Graham. His call at Wrestlemania was embarrassingly amatuerish and bad, and even having Monsoon alongside couldn't save him. I've never seen a commentator be so at loss for words and keep repeating the same ridiculous lines. Worst wrestlemania broadcast ever.
Posted by: aussie fan | May 7, 2008 10:59 PM
as i think these announcers do not play their role so clearly... they always make some players so much angry on each other...
i don't know why but they always enjoy player's fighting during their interviews. which should not be done.
Posted by: consultency | March 27, 2009 12:48 AM