Michael Cole comments on when he plans to retire from WWE as an announcer

During an appearance on the Sports Media with Richard Richard Deitsch podcast, Michael Cole talked about when he plans to retire wrestling WWE as an announcer…

“People ask me all the time, ‘How long are you gonna do this for?’ I’ll tell you one thing, you know, 30 years would be a really cool goal. That’s four years from now. But I can promise you this, I will get out before I slip. I’m not going to be, and no disrespect to anyone else, but I’m not going to be a 75 or 80 year old man doing this week in and week out. I busted my ass. I made a really good living and I want to be able to get out while the going is good and still be able to enjoy the rest of my life. I don’t want to be a shell of myself. I don’t want to be that, ‘Man, that guy used to be good. He’s not good anymore.’ I don’t want to be that person.”

Cole also discussed his longevity in the business…

“I think one of the reasons that I’ve survived as long as I have here, is I have never, with the exception of maybe one or two people, I have never become close personal friends with anybody in the ring. I’ve always kept an arm’s length’ distance. I’m friendly with them. We talk, exchange texts, do whatnot, but I’m not the type of guy that’s gonna go out for dinner with him. I’m not the type of guy that’s gonna go sit in the bar with him for the most part. It’s the same thing as being a journalist in a weird sort of way even though what we do is scripted television. You know, you really have to separate friendship from our profession, and so for the most part, I’m friendly, but I’m not friends with the guys I work with, and that’s done by design. I’m a very private person. I don’t have that public persona. You’re not going to read about me in the dirt sheets. You’re not going to read about me on social media. I have a life away from our company and I’ve had the opportunity to be able to separate those things for 26 years. My wife’s not a wrestling fan. She doesn’t watch the product. My kids aren’t wrestling fans. They don’t watch the product, I go to work and I do my job and I go home and we talk about the world and not WWE. I think that’s helped me as a performer and it’s helped my longevity here as well.” (quotes courtesy of WrestlingNews.co)