Who is to blame for the announcing we heard Tuesday night on ECW? Certainly Adamle himself. He's been with the company since the Royal Rumble in January and still doesn't know the names of the wrestlers, let alone their background. One could argue that he's been on the Raw brand, so maybe he hasn't worried about familiarizing himself with the Smackdown/ECW wrestlers.
I'm assuming Adamle had ample time to prepare though, as I don't know that this was a last-minute decision. Word got around the 'net Monday afternoon, but I'm sure WWE didn't bring him to England just to do a five-second cameo on Raw. They must have had it in mind that he'd be on ECW this week when they brought him on the tour.
Of course, WWE gets some blame too. It was completely unprofessional and downright embarrassing for them not to know how ill-prepared Adamle was to go on air. Things like that should not happen in a billion-dollar company.
So what can WWE do to remedy the situation? They can stick with Adamle and hope he gets better. But there are a few solutions (read: replacements) already on payroll they could conceivably choose from.
-Josh Matthews has received great reviews from most of the fans on the Internet, yet he's stuck hosting Heat with Todd Grisham. Matthews is young and has the face for TV - two pre-requisites WWE seems to have for their announcers. Why they haven't gone to him in a bigger role yet is unclear.
-Jonathan Coachman moving to ECW would kill two birds with one stone: It would solve both the ECW and Smackdown announcing problems. Coach is terrible as a color man but is decent as a play-by-play guy, where he would be on ECW. All they'd have to do is bring an ex-wrestler in to do color with Cole on Smackdown. How about Brad Armstrong, who already had a tryout as ECW color man? That's just one option, as the ex-wrestlers out there who would be willing to get a paycheck from WWE to do commentary is probably quite long.
-Todd Grisham is bland and has shown little personality, but he'd be an upgrade over Adamle. Who knows, maybe Tazz could bring out something in him. Of course, they'd have to get someone to take over his Raw backstage duties though. I'm sure they could find a pretty face to put in his spot.
-It's not too late to go back to Joey Styles. They could do it as soon as next week, pretending this week never happened. I mean, is Styles THAT bad, really? Probably not, but he's Vince McMahon's favorite whipping boy for some reason, so this isn't likely.
-How about a dark horse in Shane McMahon? He did commentary for Sunday Night Heat during its first few weeks and months, so he's got some experience. He knows the product and maybe Vince would go easier on him than someone not of his own kin. I know Shane has other responsibilities within the company, but I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to be on the road once a week for ECW.
***
Updated Saturday, April 12, 2008
Smackdown was a bit of a mixed bag on Friday night. It started off in an interesting way - a way that almost turned Great Khali face. His peace offerings to Big Show were physically rejected (how could you reject a goat!?!) when Show punched him right in the face. I don't know if we're to assume Khali had an ulterior motive, but Show came off as an ass here.
The opening tag match was fine, but it's a match we've seen a hundred times. Yang & Moore win the non-title matches (generally), and lose the bouts where the belts are on the line. Are there really no other teams (besides Jesse & Festus, who've had their share of chances too) to challenge for the tag titles?
It seems as if the Hornswoggle McMahon angle is over with, at least that's what Cole's announcing led me to believe. I guess the Finlay vs. Striker match was what we'll be seeing more of, with WWE catering to the younger crowd now. Nattie Neidhart's debut adds another dimension to the women's division on Smackdown and she should have some decent matches with the improving Michelle McCool.
I think we've seen enough face-to-face confrontations with Batista and Shawn Michaels already. Although, this week's seemed to transition from Flair being the major point of the heat to Michaels and his attitude. Hardy vs. Palumbo was okay, but the star was MVP on commentary. I could just imagine Vince in his headset telling MVP to bury Coach & Cole.
Festus vs. Undertaker was surprisingly decent. The story of Festus not knowing to tap out was interesting too. I guess the reason they gave for Vickie making this match made sense (that being she wanted to make Taker's life hell for beating Edge). But since Vickie and Teddy were out for the day, who was in the building in charge of Smackdown?
Greg Parks publishes his weekly "virtual time" review of Smackdown every Friday night on the Torch main listing. You can also hear him every-other-week in the post-Raw audio show Monday nights in the Torch VIP audio section.
LATEST PRO WRESTLING TORCH NEWSLETTER #1039 (17 PAGES)
This issue begins with a cover story by Wade Keller who attended Brock Lesnar's first UFC victory on Saturday night in the semi-main event in front of a record-setting crowd in his hometown. Keller's BBL looks at Lesnar's place in MMA and in what ways he seems more comfortable than ever... Bruce Mitchell's Memo examines the dilemma of Chris Benoit and the Hall of Fame... Sean Radican reviews the two latest TNA DVD releases... In-depth coverage of the TNA Hard Justice PPV including Keller's match report with star ratings and the newsletter-exclusive Roundtable Reviews... Jason Powell's "Page 2 Buzz" with scoops and insider analysis... WWE Newswire, TNA Newswire, and ROH Newswire with insider news, big story analysis, and notebook tidbits... Plus Keller's reports on Raw, Smackdown, and Impact, the Top 5 Stories of the Week, and more....
