WWE Raw: Biggest Losers; John Cena Sure Does Whine a Lot
By Bryan Heaton
Photo Source: WWE.com
Michael Cole
I’ve been writing about Raw for Daily DDT for a little more than a year. The “Biggest Losers” column started last fall. In all that time, I’ve done my best to keep things focused on those performers who step into the ring. Whether wrestler, advocate, valet, authority figure, whatever, they’re the ones we’re tuning in to watch.
But between this week and last week, Michael Cole has once again forced me to look at the broadcasters. It all boils down to the Ultimate Deletion – though there’s a lot more Cole talks about or says that makes me incredibly frustrated.
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Prior to the Ultimate Deletion a week ago, Cole called the affair “obnoxious.” In fairness, if anyone knows obnoxious, it’s Michael Cole. But despite WWE doing something different (for them, at least – wrestling fans who watch promotions other than WWE had an idea as to what to expect here), Cole had to put it down before it began.
Trying to turn lemons into lemonade, WWE and Matt Hardy played along. Hardy tweeted out his displeasure with Cole’s comments, threatening to delete the broadcaster. He even got Vanguard 1 in on the action.
So on Raw this week, did Cole back down? Nope – in fact, he doubled down. Even though Corey Graves (and, to a lesser extent, The Coach) tried to convince Cole of how impressive what they saw was, instead Cole decided to continue to put down Hardy, the Ultimate Deletion, and everything connected to it.
When Michael Cole first became the lead Raw announcer many years ago, I wasn’t a fan. When the whole storyline with Jerry Lawler resulted in a WrestleMania match, it was bad. But over the years, I’ve come to appreciate what Cole can do – I’m still not a huge fan, but he’s better than he used to be, and I get that a lot of his trouble comes from being forced lines to promote things other than the match at hand. But this was a clear step back, and with WrestleMania looming we can’t have that.
Next: WWE Raw: 5 Takeaways from March 26
Who else came out of WWE Raw as a loser this week?