Michael Cole: “I always say that 5% of the stars in the history of our business have gotten over on their own”
While speaking on Stephanie McMahon’s podcast, WWE announcer Michael Cole talked about the importance of announcers in professional wrestling…
“I guarantee you everybody sitting out there right now probably knows more about the history of what’s happened in the last 25 years than I do, because you guys are so close to it.
And listen, one match runs into another for me, and I can’t even remember what happened last night at this point.
But it’s a reminder that we have the hardcore fans that are passionate about our product, that know all the ins and outs, but we also have to balance that with new audience members—people that might be tuning into ESPN for the first time and don’t know who Seth Rollins is, or don’t know who Becky Lynch is, or don’t understand the history of Triple H or the history of John Cena.
So we need to be able to balance that where we’re explaining to the new audience who these characters are, but we’re not insulting our longtime fans. So that’s a trick.
And one of the ways to do that is to be able to take a story that may be going on for a few months and explain it to the audience in two or three sentences, where you’re not boring the longtime fans, but you’re getting everyone up to date who may be tuning into the product for the first time.
And it’s also the development of our characters. Who is Seth Rollins? Why should I care about Seth? Is he a good guy? Is he a bad guy?
It’s the same with Roman Reigns. They’re tweeners. Some of you guys love Roman. Some of you guys hate him. It’s the same with Seth Rollins.
So what is it about their characters that will make people want to invest their time in them?
I always say that 5% of the stars in the history of our business have gotten over on their own. The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, John Cena—very few have done it on their own.
The majority of them have needed the support of us at the desk to be able to tell their stories, to explain to people who they are, especially with so much young talent today.
Sol Ruca, who’s our Intercontinental Champion—why should you care about Sol? What is it about her? What’s it about her background that makes her interesting to us?”