Did The WWE make the right decisions with Announce team changes?
Yesterday, twitter went insane as the WWE announced the changes happening to the announce teams for both RAW and Smackdown. The changes are pretty dramatic with new guys debuting on the announce team, some getting axed from their previous positions and a lot of moving over. I will quickly list bellow who will now be doing what and then I will go into what I think of the changes and what I would of done personally.
The RAW commentary team will now consist of: JBL, Michael Cole and Booker T
The Smackdown Commentary team will now consist of: Michael Cole, Jerry and Byron Saxton
Now I'm always talking about the WWE commentary team. I have made several blog post and tweeted about it over the past year and I will leave some links bellow to some of those posts. I along with so many other people have highlighted the fact that the WWE have a great set of up and coming broadcast talent and I have mentioned time and time again that a change needs to happen with the announce teams and I'm so glad they have listened the WWE universe and realised its time for a change up. However, the changes are not what I expected at all.Some are really good and I really agree with them but some literally makes me want to throw something at my TV! But I'm just going to have to suck it up and deal with it. Now, I'm going to take you throw some of the changes and what I think and what I would of done and what I think would of been the right changes.
Changes to RAW Commentary team:
For the past couple of years the RAW commentary team has consisted of JBL, Jerry and Michael Cole and their voices have become very common. We're all so used to hearing their voices but pretty much every week there is complaints on twitter and other forms of social media about the three guys and how they do their job, I myself am a regular complainer.However, we now have Booker T taking the place of Jerry every week. This past week Booker took on the job for the first time and he didn't do too bad. It was nice not hearing sexist comments when a WWE diva came out but he did say some things that made me so mad I never even knew I could get that angry! Yes I'm referring to the comments about the Ascension, but he wasn't alone in that bad five minuets of commentary so I'm not going to go into that. I think he's going to be a great addition to the show. It's nice hearing a new voice and shaking things up a little. I understand that RAW is the WWE's biggest weekly product and dramatic changes are a risk, however I would of still liked to have seen slightly bigger changes, for example Tom Phillips. I'm going to be talking about Tom much more in this post so I won't go too into detail but I have expressed my displeasure for JBL and he's commentary, I know so many people will argue with me but I want him gone form commentary full top. Adding Tom would of been such a good idea and move or the product. He doesn't have a majorly different voice that the WWE universe would struggle to get used to. He would of easily moulded into the role and changed up RAW for the better. However, I do think Booker is a great addition I just think we needed younger guys on the show. If you have the young, up and coming talent, use them! Keeping them down in NXT for no reason is not good enough, the WWE do need to take these big risks and hopefully later on in the year there will be another change around.
Changes to Smackdown Commentary team:
It was also announced that there would be big changes to the Smackdown commentary team as the announce team will now consist of Michael Cole, Jerry and Byron Saxton. The first thing I want to discus is why the actual f**k has Michael Cole been put on both the RAW and Smackdown commentary teams? It's bad enough hearing he's voice on one show let alone two. If everyone else gets one show why doesn't he? I get they want to keep the show sounding similar and not have too many dramatic changes but come on. seriously? If they wanted an older announcer to take the role alongside Jerry they could of had William Regal or Jason Albert, two amazing commentators that really could of brought something new and exciting to the show. I honestly think they could of changes Smackdown for the better and brought in new viewers. As for Jerry, I actually think it's a great idea. I do think that Smackdown should e used to showcase the younger, up and coming broadcast talent but I think adding Jerry to the Smackdown announce team is really going to help the product. It's no secrete that Smackdown has been struggling for years now but with the show moving to Thursdays and also having a new announce team, we could be in for a big big change. Finally, Byron Saxton. I'm sick and tired of hearing the Byron hate. He's a great young commentator. He did really well in FCW, NXT and Main event I think he more than deserves a place on the Smackdown announce team. He's worked he's ass off for years in this area of work and he's great at what he does. I think the problem a lot of people have is the fact he is replacing Tom, witch I hate too, but guys come on if there's anyone we should be accusing of taking Tom's place it's Cole.I seriously don't get why they would have Cole on both shows and Tom on none. It would of made so much more sense to have Byron, Jerry and Tom do Smackdown and would of saved a lot of controversy. Despite the Cole and Phillips issue I do think the changes to the Smackdown announce team are really good and are going to seriously help re-build the Smackdown product.
Tom Phillips...
Last night Tom Phillips spent a lot of time trending on twitter as he was not included in any of the changes to the RAW and Smackdown commentary teams. I think moaned about this all nigh. I just don't understand getting rid of your best young commentator and replacing him with Jerry. There was a clear space for him on Smackdown. Michael Cole does not need to be on two shows what so ever and why they have him doing the show instead of Tom I have no idea what so ever. It makes no sense at all and I'm still seriously mad. They could of even had him on RAW taking JBL's place. I really hope they change that in the new year. I take it he will still be doing Superstars with Renee and what I'm hoping is they will have him also do Main event with Renee and maybe Alex Riley or Corey Graves closer to the end of the year when he's gained more experience.
What I would of done:
Raw announce teamTom Phillips, Michael Cole, William Regal or Michael Cole, Booker T and Tom Phillips
Smackdown Announce team:
Byron Saxton, Jerry, William Regal or Byron Saxton, Alex Riley, Renee Young
I think it's all about realising the young talent. I would love to see more changes to Main event as well as RAW and Smackdown. Renee Young is another huge talent who was not involved in any of the changes and hopefully she is added to the Main event announce team because she more than deserves it. The same goes for Alex Riley. I know he is retuning to the ring but I really don't think that's the best move for him and he's best at commentating and he could of really brought a lot the Smackdown team. It's also about looking at the older talent who are just as good as Cole and Jerry such as William Regal and Jason Albert.
What do you think about the announce team changes? Leave a comment bellow letting me know.
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