William Regal Is Coming Into His Own As A Broadcaster

I am going to save my thoughts on NXT Takeover for our podcast that will be out tonight. It is a big show for us as we welcome former ROH T.V Champion Matt Taven to our show. It is a very good interview and Matt has some really cool things to say about ROH heading to PPV on June 22nd. I really like Steve Corino who does commentary for ROH. I think he is growing into his role as commentator. He like many, not just in wrestling, but in sports was a former competitor in the ring. Not every former wrestler or pro athlete is cut out for broadcasting.

This all leads me to the point of this blog to talk about William Regal and the tremendous job he did last night and has been doing for awhile lately down in NXT. I have made it no secret that I am not happy with commentary on the main roster. I may have much more critical opinion having studied broadcast journalism. Still, I think the average person can tell the difference between good and bad. It isn’t rocket science but it isn’t as easy as people thing it is either. One of the things you can try if you think you can do it, mute your T.V and call the action you’re seeing and record it. Listen back and evaluate if you did a good job at describing and adding to what you were seeing visually. It isn’t easy for the average person it is truly a craft.  This is a skill that you always are looking to constantly evolve in. Each time you do a broadcast, or have a chance to interview someone it is a new chance to improve and grow. If you fall into a rut and just start to mail it in the results in that will show. That is what I feel is happening with the main broadcast crew on Raw.

One of the things in that little experiment that I failed to have you experience was having people talking in your ear as you talk. That is what happens during a real broadcast with director and in case of WWE a producer named Vince McMahon in your ear. That is a jarring experience the first time you do a real broadcast to both listen and talk at the same time is a unique skill. Add in the fact that it is Vince, which I have never experienced, I would think that only amps up the pressure.

William Regal has both an entertaining way about him, but a brilliant way of mixing that and telling the story of a match. He can have you laughing one moment about how he talked with Tyler Breeze and comes up with some ridiculous things his fur or feather jacked is made from. In the next moment he can get across the gravity of the match Breeze is about to compete in for a chance to be NXT Champion. He describes things in the ring and really sells the import aspects of a hold or point in a match. He does something that J.R was oh so skilful at and still is. He makes you get emotionally invested in the product and people you are watching.

Where wrestling separates from traditional sports is that it is a wrestling announcer’s job to get over the talent. While there is some of that in pro sports especially in hometown broadcasts, at the end of the day we expecting objectivity. While in wrestling we have no real expectation of that and in fact sometimes it is great if it is totally irrational thinking. You can play favorites, as wrestling announcer especially in a heel role on commentary. Jessie Ventura and Bobby “The Brain” would lay the verbal smack down on the babyface wrestlers. Jessie use to go to town on Tito Santana to the point I wonder if Jessie was owed money by him.

William Regal really has grown as commentator and is truly reaching the peak of his skills at it. When Bray Wyatt took out JBL I hoped for a brief second that Regal would come out and replace him. No such luck in terms of this happening.

I love him on NXT and he does a wonderful job getting the new talent over, but he is needed far more on the main roster. Where some of the people he has put over so well in NXT, are having a difficult time adjusting to things on the big stage. A big part of the reason for these failures of recent arrivals from NXT happening falls at the feet of Cole, Lawler and Bradshaw. They have failed in their role to get these new talents over. It takes the talent and writers as well, but commentary is a big part of that.

William Regal we need you on Raw or Smackdown to help bring your brilliance to a larger audience. You would be shocked how much better an average match can become with great commentary. It is not all that different from how a great crowd can make a show seem better and bad crowd can make a decent show seem terrible.

So save us William Regal, you maybe our only hope to save commentary from the evil trio of liars that Bray Wyatt has pointed out.

Raw Notebook: Realism and Proper Babyface Booking

In my transition into writing on wrestling I have tried to not fall into the typical stereotypes of what I see out there. Doing blogs or podcasts after Raw is the standard thing to do if you cover wrestling. I am not saying I will never fall into that standard type of things, but at this point I am focused on building myself an audience for this.

With that all said last night’s Raw in San Antonio had me compelled to talk about it a bit. From an in ring point of view the show wasn’t anything special at all.  Although I thought a couple of things on this show for me caught my attention that was different from the standard stuff we have come to expect from Raw.

The biggest thing I noticed was the treatment of Daniel Bryan. While on the surface it seemed the standard way Daniel Bryan has been treated on the program since Summerslam.

But look a little closer and it was different. Michael Cole who I have never praised for his commentary to any large degree at any time I can recall did a good job on this show. He drove home a theme of the night about Daniel Bryan causing problems between all the various heels on the show.

The show began with a promo by Triple H in which he would be interrupted by both Batista and Randy Orton. Batista and Orton were to say the least upset about HHH granting Bryan a match that could see him be a part of their main event match.

This caused HHH to be angry with them doubting his abilities to beat Bryan. In reality everyone does expect HHH to lose to set up the main event match that people want to see. HHH cut a great promo that actually was attacking both Orton and Batista using actual feelings of the fan base on both. 

Than he dropped the bomb on Batista and Orton but more in reality the fans watching when he declared there will be a triple threat match for the title at Wrestlemania 30 but it will not be Bryan in the match it is going to be him. In other words the winner of the Bryan vs. HHH match regardless of the outcome will put the winner in the Main Event for the title.

Brilliant because now fans that feel HHH is out to bury people now have a concern that maybe he just might now win his match with Bryan. This match lacked any drama to it and now it has some for people that question HHH’s desire be it in storyline or in reality to put over Daniel Bryan.

Cole did a good job selling the fact that Daniel Bryan was the cause behind all of this drama between the three. Fans are fully aware of the history of the three in evolution and in reality most are fully aware of the friendship between the three. Daniel Bryan even in storyline causing a riff between them makes him seem more important.

During the body of the show the riff also extended to between HHH and Stephanie. This again was sold by Cole as being caused by Bryan. In the end this tension was proven to be just a work that would get revealed in the final segment.

Still now it took people plotting to destroy or set-up Bryan which makes him important. In the end the show ended with HHH and Stephanie being on the same page. Steph would come out and call for the cops to arrest Daniel Bryan for his actions last week disrupting Raw. As it turned out the Cops were fake and had cuffed Bryan while Steph and Hunter were fighting outside of the ring. HHH enters the ring and at first looks like he is going to call off the cops but instead reveals the cops are phony and a beat down of Bryan commences. The fact Bryan is handcuffed makes him seem again important and a threat. HHH if he was so confident he could handle Daniel Bryan why go to the extent to have him handcuffed to beat him down.

The combination of Cole getting it over and the storyline made Daniel Bryan feel like he was being treated by the company as a top baby face.

While many will leave the show more concerned than ever about Daniel Bryan getting to the finish line at Wrestlemania the subtle seeds have been planted that he will.

What I also liked on this show was all the subtle jabs of the reality we had mixed in the program. From the opening segment we talked about to Bray Wyatt’s promo on John Cena to Christian on commentary. The WWE on this same show introduced a show for kids called Slam City that is basically the cartoons on the net that are a modern version of the old Hulk Hogan’s Rockin' Wrestling.

The Attitude Era is dead but for fans of that era if you can add more of those “Real Life” lines into promos it will be something that will appeal to that older Attitude Era crowd but sill stays in the WWE’s PG world. If you think about Jake” The Snake” Roberts  mainly existed in that kid friendly WWE era with Hulk Hogan and still did his thing. Bray Wyatt often draws comparison to him and can have that same amount of success. In the Attitude Era we likely see Bray Wyatt not just subtle reference to Nikki Bella but he likely kidnaps her and does God knows what. Back to Jake “The Snake” Roberts and his feud with Randy Savage. He would just intimidate Elizabeth and never cross that line too far. There is no reason to think Bray could not do something similar in his current situation.

There is a way for everyone to be somewhat happy at the end of the day. WWE just has to work extremely hard at doing that. Regardless of if people will believe it or not the exit of CM Punk might have served as a wake up call for folks in the WWE to work harder at reaching that goal. It seems like at least a legitimate theory as you can’t argue that Punk’s absence has not had an impact on the company having to alternate plans and re-evaluate.  This along with the continued strength of Bryan and the lack of strength of Batista has led to the most winding road to Wrestlemania we have seen in some time perhaps ever.

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