September 2, 20178 yr comment_5812812 Yeah the 3 man booths didn't work well back in the day either. Adding Neidhart in 91 to Heenan/Moonson did nothing and Piper/Heenan/Monsoon at SS 91 saw Piper step all over the two for the most part. Even Mcmahon/Ventura/Bruno had Bruno as the weak link.
September 2, 20178 yr comment_5812813 Does JBL leaving open up the glorious return of David Otunga? (I see him fitting in better on Raw with Booker taking the 'veteran' role on SmackDown. Or does Nigel McGuinness get an unexpected early call up?
September 2, 20178 yr comment_5812848 I don't know why Otunga got so much hate in his first go around because Mauro was clearly the one dragging that team down not Otunga. I wouldn't mind seeing them give him another shot this time as a heel color commentator instead of what he was doing before.
September 2, 20178 yr comment_5812857 Did Otunga commentate a single Raw? IIRC he was drafted to Raw in the last draft.
September 2, 20178 yr comment_5812860 Mauro is good in his niche, and his niche is not mainstream North American wrestling. He was good calling New Japan with Barnett, he was listenable calling MMA and boxing, and I enjoy him calling NXT. I think he'd be a good fit in ROH about two years ago, so I think he might be in the right spot, as he's not bad with Nigel right now, but he's no great shakes. I think people liked him so much because he was so totally different than anyone on WWE programming had been in eons.
September 2, 20178 yr comment_5812862 I like Mauro because he isn't a soulless robot. Yeah, he has his crutches but everyone does. He seems to actually care about what he's watching as well. With Tom Phillips especially, that guy just seems like he would rather be doing anything other than calling a wrestling match.
September 2, 20178 yr comment_5812864 Just because someone isn't YELLING THE ENTIRE MATCH doesn't mean they don't care. I find that criticism of Tom Phillips very strange.
September 2, 20178 yr comment_5812865 Well, he gets the names of a lot of moves wrong. If a match is bad the commentary gets very disinterested really quick. I don't need the guy yelling but it's obvious when he's zoning out.
September 2, 20178 yr comment_5812866 That's a small part of my dislike of Phillips though. His complete lack of personality is my biggest issue with him.
September 2, 20178 yr comment_5812868 I am really ok with JBL stepping down from this position. I liked him a while back, but he has become a parody of himself (much like Jerry did at his worst) and just feels very transparent to me. They are all telling stories, playing their part, and selling the product, but JBL doesn't feel like he is trying to do anything other than that. Anyway, on the whole, I generally have a positive opinion of him, but I think his contribution ran dry a while ago.
September 2, 20178 yr comment_5812869 I like that he genuinely seems to love wrestling in every shape and form. But that stopped coming through awhile ago with him.
September 2, 20178 yr comment_5812870 Phillips needs Graves. Ideally my dream commentary teams would be Cole & McGuinness, Phillips & Graves for main roster. Not sure who'd be Ranallo's best partner... Lenny Leonard? That'd be a bit of a throwback to the Prazak & Leonard tandem.
September 2, 20178 yr comment_5812874 Not sure who'd be Ranallo's best partner... Lenny Leonard? Good Lord. If I had to listen to that, I'd... Well, I just couldn't listen to that. EDIT: Anyhow, I thought Lenny Leonard was Gabe's on air persona, wasn't it?
September 2, 20178 yr comment_5812876 I always felt Ranallo was at his best when working for Showtime Boxing 'cause it was obvious that he knew his limitations there, and was learning on the job. He wasn't going to act like a big boxing expert with Al Bernstein next to him. I don't hate Mauro, it's just that with pro wrestling and mixed martial arts, it felt like (and still feels like) he always wants you to know how much he knows, and it can get annoying.
September 2, 20178 yr comment_5812878 Especially because he makes it very obvious that he really doesn't know that much outside of a very specific bubble.
September 3, 20178 yr comment_5812907 EDIT: Anyhow, I thought Lenny Leonard was Gabe's on air persona, wasn't it? No. Gabe used the aliases Chris Lovey and Jimmy Bauer while doing ROH commentary, but Lenny Leonard is somebody else entirely.
September 3, 20178 yr comment_5812910 Thanks for the tip. I was always curious about who those guys were and why they didn't pop up anywhere else and then, I find out it was Gabe all along lol
September 4, 20178 yr Author comment_5813004 So what's the deal with a bunch of folks in the biz going off on Twitter about internet rumors about JBL leaving?
September 4, 20178 yr comment_5813024 JBL's departure was supposedly in the works since October 2016, before the Mauro situation began. https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2017/09/04/jbl-quits-commentary-wwe-smackdown-live Graves is replacing JBL on Smackdown And Nigel is replacing Graves on 205 Live and Main Event.
September 4, 20178 yr comment_5813025 So what's the deal with a bunch of folks in the biz going off on Twitter about internet rumors about JBL leaving? Please expand. Although, as soon as this story broke I thought it smelled highly fishy. I wouldn't at all be surprised if this actually was a result of the Mauro Ranallo situation - like Vince asked for his resignation at the time but agreed to put it off for a couple of months so it didn't look like they were caving to pressure from the outside. At the very least, I don't think he's really quitting to devote more time to charity. I think he's quitting or being forced out for reasons we don't yet know. Just my opinion.
September 4, 20178 yr comment_5813026 JBL's departure was supposedly in the works since October 2016, before the Mauro situation began. https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2017/09/04/jbl-quits-commentary-wwe-smackdown-live Graves is replacing JBL on Smackdown And Nigel is replacing Graves on 205 Live and Main Event. Hmmm. So it that story is to be believed, JBL quit because they were pressuring him over making his own travel arrangements and not wanting to spend as much time on the road? Plausible. So this means RAW will be Cole, Graves and King Bookah, and SDL will be Phillips, Graves and Saxton? They're really going to be working Graves into the ground. Which from a selfish perspective is great, because he's excellent. I especially enjoy he and Phillips working together. I have no issue with Nigel working 205 Live because Graves was wasted there anyhow. Your #1 color guy shouldn't be on your C show.
September 4, 20178 yr Author comment_5813031 Just seeing people like Taz going off about not believing what the mean internet people are saying about the reason JBL is leaving and I haven't heard anything other than what WWE put out,
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