#3 Commentary
This is a somewhat close one, but the problem is JBL. He was dominating RAW when he was there, talking over everybody else and interrupting everything. And he was spewing the same few sentences over and over about each wrestler. That doesn’t happen with the Graves/Cole/Saxton team.
Graves is the mean one who brings the wrestling knowledge. Saxton is the excited one who just wants to have a great time and call some good wrestling matches. Cole is the straight man, calling everything down the middle but skewing more toward Byron’s happy-go-lucky face characteristics.
Even though it looked like JBL was going to calm down at his new home, it was a short-lived fantasy. After a few weeks, he went right back to his old ways. It’s still toned down a bit from RAW and he’s less repetitive, but he’s still annoying and distracting. Gets in some funny lines at Mauro, though. That was rare on RAW with Cole and Saxton.
The ideal team for SmackDown would be Mauro Ranallo and David Otunga. Two hours, two commentators! Otunga has gotten better in his role every week and benefits from Mauro’s exceptionally professional demeanour. Alas, that is not the direction WWE is going, so RAW still takes the victory.
