#4 Is ‘play-by-play’ commentary dead in WWE?
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Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate had the night of their careers at NXT Takeover. Not only did they steal the show, but they also had their match called by Jim Ross, the greatest wrestling commentator of all time. Even now, almost 20 years since the end of the attitude era, hearing Jim Ross commentate on a match propels you back to your childhood when your love of pro wrestling transcended everything else in life.
One of the many reasons why fans used to love JR was his ability to deliver play-by-play commentary that followed the action and added another layer of believability onto the storytelling. If there are indeed many things the WWE just doesn’t do as well anymore, one of them is undoubtedly the commentary. Michael Cole, perhaps unfairly, has become the scapegoat for this.
We associate modern day commentators with using their air time to either plug other WWE related content, or have petty bickering matches between themselves, rather than calling the action. When I saw JR come out for this match, I was hoping it was going to be called appropriately. But even with his involvement, the commentary still felt too ‘PG-era’.
This is not a criticism of JR. We all know, if it were still WWE’s style, he would have given a fantastic running commentary on the action in the ring from bell to bell. The sad truth is that this just isn’t what WWE is about anymore.
Being such a large publically traded company means you need to always have one eye on marketing and PR reputation. This is why things are so restricted and controlled at the commentary table in 2017. Even JR is not bigger than that, apparently. It was great to hear the legend; however, it’s just a shame that we now live in different times.
