Alright, so I’ve been wanting to talk about this little project I took on recently. It’s about Michael Cole from WWE. Yeah, the voice you hear pretty much every week on SmackDown. Now, I watch a lot of wrestling, always have. And you hear Cole all the time, right? Sometimes folks give him a hard time, sometimes they praise him. I got curious, like, what’s it really like doing that job? Could I even try to mimic it?
Getting Started – The Idea
So, the idea popped into my head while watching some old pay-per-view. Cole was doing his thing, and I thought, “This looks kinda straightforward, but is it?” I decided I wanted to try and actually do commentary, using his style as a sort of baseline. Not to become a pro or anything, just to see what it takes. My goal was pretty simple: watch him closely, figure out his patterns, and then try calling a match myself, kinda like he would.
The Deep Dive – Watching and Taking Notes
First thing I did? I watched hours and hours of WWE programming. But this time, I wasn’t just watching the matches. I was listening. Really focusing on Cole.
- How does he start a show?
- What words does he use over and over? You know, the “Vintage!” stuff, “Oh my!”, how he sets up his broadcast partner.
- How does he react to big moments versus smaller ones?
- How much does he talk about storylines versus the action in the ring?
I grabbed a notebook and started jotting things down. Phrases, timing cues, how he builds drama. It felt like homework, but wrestling homework, so it was kinda fun. I noticed he’s got a certain rhythm, especially when things get chaotic. He also has to juggle promoting stuff, talking about social media, and calling the action. Way more complex than just saying who punched who.
Time to Talk – The Actual Practice
Okay, notebook full, head full of Cole-isms. Now what? I needed to actually try it. I didn’t have fancy equipment. Just my laptop and its built-in mic. Good enough for a test run, right?
I pulled up some older matches on the network, muted the sound, and hit record on my computer’s voice recorder. And man, let me tell you, those first attempts were rough. Really rough. I sounded super stiff, totally unnatural. I’d either talk too much and miss stuff, or I’d go quiet because I couldn’t think of what to say.
I tried focusing on specific things. Like, okay, this match, I’m just gonna focus on calling the moves, even if it sounds basic. Next match, I’ll try adding some emotion, some “Oh mys!” even if it felt forced. I practiced trying to tell the story of the match, like Cole does, connecting it to past events or rivalries. It’s hard to keep all those threads going!
Doing it alone was also weird. Cole always has a partner to bounce off. I didn’t have a Pat McAfee handy, so I was just talking into the void. It made it harder to sound conversational.
What Was Tough?
Plenty of things, actually.
- Keeping up: Wrestling moves fast. Trying to call everything accurately while also adding personality? Super challenging.
- Sounding genuine: It’s easy to just parrot phrases, but making it sound like your reaction in the moment is tough.
- Thinking on your feet: You can’t script everything. When something unexpected happens, you gotta react instantly. My brain froze up a lot.
- Stamina: Just talking for 15-20 minutes straight, trying to stay energetic, was surprisingly tiring. Imagine doing it for 2-3 hours!
What I Learned – The Takeaway
So, did I become the next Michael Cole? Obviously not. Not even close. But I learned a ton. The biggest thing? Respect. Seriously, commentary is way, way harder than it looks. Cole’s been doing it for decades, and while fans might nitpick, keeping that show rolling, hitting all the cues from producers, telling stories, and calling action live is a massive skill.
I got a feel for the basic structure – setting the scene, calling holds, highlighting big spots, wrapping up. I understood why they use catchphrases – it helps fill space and create recognizable moments.
Mostly, it was just a fun experiment. It made me watch wrestling differently, paying more attention to the presentation and not just the bumps. Gave me a new appreciation for the guys and gals behind the commentary desk.
So yeah, that was my little adventure trying to walk a mile in Michael Cole’s shoes, or rather, talk a mile in his headset. Didn’t nail it, but definitely learned something. It’s easy to critique from the couch, much harder to do it yourself.
