YMMV / Michael Cole

• Arc Fatigue: Jerry Lawler vs. Michael Cole, which lasted half a-year; the feud started when Cole cost Jerry his victory against The Miz in a TLC Match all the way back in November 2010 and more or less ended at Over The Limit 2011. And unlike most wrestling feuds, because it was between commentators it was present pretty much all the time throughout the whole program.
• Broken Base: All over the place, especially after he became a heel in 2010. He's either overbearing or funny.
• Critical Dissonance: His segments with Jerry Lawler were also some of the most watched parts of the shows.
• Creator's Pet:
  • They seemed to be leaning into it by piling a bunch of different awards and titles on him. Winning several matches in a row, including at WrestleMania, giving him multiple Slammy Awards, and so forth. If it is something he can win and crow about for months after, he'll get it.
  • WWE 12 lampshades this. Two number one contender matches for Cole in the same episode of Raw. Two, no joke.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Ironically enough, Cole and Josh Matthews served as this for NXT, especially in season 3. The same doesn't apply to his commentary on Raw and Smackdown.
  • However, he was well liked during his original run on Smackdown showing passion and energy hasn't been seen since 2008. After when he was paired with Tazz in 2001, the duo made great chemistry as opposing voices during the Invasion and good Vitriolic Best Buds during the Brand Split.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Fans on Image Boards refer to his heel persona as "Michael Troll"
  • As well as "Frank Cole." He's covered wars, you know.
  • MAGGLE
• Growing the Beard:
  • 2002-2008 during the Brand Split.
  • Got a second one through the 2010s after his infamous heel run ended. By the end of the decade, he was considered at least decent.
• Hilarious in Hindsight
  • A long time ago, Michael Cole (alongside JBL) actually bashed The Miz when Daniel Puder won the Million Dollar Tough Enough and everyone resented The Miz for being hired in his place despite it.
  • In the SmackDown vs. Raw games, Cole's broadcast partner would usually bring up the idea of Cole wrestling to him, and Cole response was "I'm perfectly happy right where I am". Nowadays, players are laughing at these lines.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "The victim of Heidenrape", when Jon Heidenreich abducted Michael Cole and took him to some obscure part of the arena (presumably not the locker room since no one else was visible) shoved Cole face first into a wall and forcibly rammed him from behind while reading poetry. Either this was a Kick the Dog gone wrong or a truly spectacular Take That, Scrappy!.
  • BIG DOG EATS MY ASS^ExplanationFrom a 2006 episode of SmackDown!
  • IT'S BOSS TIME!
• Mis-blamed: When you watch the PPVs from the brand split, back when JR was calling Raw matches Cole was calling the SmackDown, there's not a huge difference between them. Cole was far better then than he is now. Check out Hogan v Mr. McMahon at WM19 (though obviously Vince was unable to be in Cole's ear during that one). It's probably a combination of Cole's youthful enthusiasm wearing off and greater micro-management of the commentators (thanks to a greater need to pimp WWE's many wares). Lending credence to the theory that Michael Cole was never the problem is the generally-agreed-upon massive improvement in quality in his commentary once notorious Control Freak Vince McMahon resigned from the company in disgrace.
• Never Live It Down:
  • He's been perceived as a loser ever since he was a dorky interview guy. He's never been able to overcome that, and his heel run made it worse. Seriously, it's a terrible look when your lead announcer is getting booed when making his entrance. Just think: one of the biggest pops of 2015 was Brock Lesnar destroying him with the F5 after 'Mania!
  • He's taken a lot of flak for reading the obviously-scripted "For the love of Mankind, Shane just exploded through our table!" at WrestleMania 32, especially as he was visibly doing so on-camera◊, script in hand.
• Replacement Scrappy: It took fans a while to forgive him for taking the desk from Jim Ross/Joey Styles. A mild "Oh my" doesn't get the blood running like Ross screaming "BAHGAWD BUSINESS IS ABOUT TO PICK UP!" or Joey's "OMYGAAAAAAAAAAAAHD!" Eventually acknowledged in-universe during his infamous heel run.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap/He Really Can Announce:
  • His Heel/Troll gimmick managed to win over Cole some fans. On the other hand, some believe this is the point where he became The Scrappy. Either this or until around the build up to TLC, where Cole's gimmick became less of him fanboying over the Heel and more fanboying over himself. This is where it got bad.
  • For what it's worth, the NXT Season 3 commentary - Cole included - was noted to be one of the bright and more entertaining spots of the show.
  • After Jerry Lawler suffered a (real) heart attack on the September 10, 2012 episode of Raw, Cole actually received a lot of praise for first managing to aid his friend whilst simultaneously continuing his job, and then electing not to continue with commentary for the remaining hour of the show out of respect to Lawler, only giving sporadic updates on his colleague's condition to the viewers at home.
  • His commentary at WrestleMania XXX was probably the best out of all three commentators, particularly during the main event.
  • Cole's commentary on the "Beast in the East" WWE Network special with Byron Saxton showed that, without Vince McMahon screaming in their ears during the show and JBL shouting over his broadcast partners, they can actually call a good wrestling show.
  • Ditto for his call of the 2017 UK Championship Tournament special. Not only was Cole very good in his own right, but his chemistry with Nigel McGuinness was amazing, particularly considering the two had never worked together before. It would seem as a general rule that his quality improves substantially when he's away from the heavily scripted and somewhat overcrowded environment of weekly TV.
  • For whatever reason, whenever Cole calls a match that features Brock Lesnar (including Lesnar's original 2002-04 WWE run), he announces as if his life depended on it and if everything that had to do with wrestling hinged on what happened in that match. Seriously, it's like he hits another level. Go back to his calls of Lesnar's matches with Eddie Guererro, Zach Gowen on SmackDown in 2003 (where Gowen did an extremely graphic blade job to where his entire face was bloodied), John Cena, Triple H, and others. Even in the heel role, Cole has a knack for making a Lesnar match feel like a big freaking deal. JR did a good job calling a Lesnar match, but Lesnar became the first big talent that Cole genuinely got over with how he commentated any match he's in.
  • By 2019, he was actually getting some praise for being among the announcers who would act as the Only Sane Man and call out nonsensical situations during matches (such as a rope break during matches with no disqualifications, such as the one that occurred during a Steel Cage match at Money in the Bank 2019).
  • Experienced a massive turnaround in terms of fan perception in 2021 when Pat McAfee became his commentary partner on Smackdown, as it became obvious that Pat's enthusiasm for wrestling has managed to rub off Cole and make his calls a lot more authentic. Come 2022, and with the resignation of Vince McMahon from his duties as WWE chairman and an overseer of Cole's commentary, it has allowed the man to be heard less as a shill for the product and moreso the passionate babyface commentary he was praised as from the mid-2000's; his work during Summerslam 2022 - the first major WWE event since Vince's resignation - received a lot of critical acclaim as a sign of this rejuvenated direction.
• Strawman Has a Point:
  • Doubles with Hypocritical Humor, he's quick to call out the Double Standard when faces cheat to win. Of course, he also makes a double standard because the heel usually did that beforehand with him loudly defending them.
  • During the Kane and Edge feud, where Edge abducted Paul Bearer and kept him strapped to a wheelchair for nearly a whole month, Cole saying that Edge had taken it too far is probably what a face commentator would say if Kane were a face.
  • After Christian won the WHC at Extreme Rules, Cole pointed out that the only reason why Christian was in the match in the first place was because of Edge's forced retirement. This was technically true, and the fact that Christian would go on to lose the title two days later (OK, five if you count tape delay) makes it Harsher in Hindsight, although less so after he won it back later that year.
  • Called out Daniel Bryan as being a Hypocrite for cashing in his MITB briefcase against a KO'd Mark Henry, when Bryan made it clear from the outset of winning MITB that he would cash it in at WM 28. Some of the IWC, while they may despise Cole, agreed with him. It does make sense to test the waters with Bryan as a potential champion, but under the context of him waiting until WM 28, it paints him as a desperate opportunist to do what he did.
    • Cole turned out to be somewhat correct in a way. Not only did Bryan admit it (as well as explain that plans changed when Henry tried to take him out and make WrestleMania a moot point), but he later went on to cash in on Henry again (successfully this time) and turn heel from the Acquired Situational Narcissism and the pressure of trying to keep the belt away from two hungry giants.
• Tear Jerker: When Jerry Lawler suffered a (real) heart attack on the 09/10/2012 edition of RAW, Cole breaks character to address the audience. Michael actually sounds like he's on the verge of tears explaining everything.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic:
  • Cole, considering that he's been a Butt-Monkey for years to just about everyone Heel or Face, it's not so surprising that he decided to Take a Level in Jerkass knowing how far he's been pushed around.
  • His Face–Heel Turn coupled with his hatred of Jim Ross is Fridge Brilliance if you remember back to 1999 when J.R. was antagonizing Cole (which was an ultimately futile effort to make Jim Ross a heel).
  • And on the June 4, 2012 episode of Raw, after calling John Cena out about the whole situation with The Big Show and John Laurinaitis (in which Cole actually did raise a few good points), Cena managed to earn a match against Cole in the main event of the night, which consisted of Cole getting the snot beaten out of him, being covered in barbecue sauce and blasted with a fire extinguisher. While to many casual fans it may have come across as a Kick the Dog moment, many others are calling hypocrisy on Cena's part, given that Cole, while having competed in several matches, is still not a wrestler and definitely not in Cena's league, and Cena is supposed to be the face of WWE's anti-bullying campaign.
• Vindicated by History: Cole used to be almost near-universally despised for being a robotic WWE shill and seen as an inferior successor to the beloved Jim Ross. This opinion only began to change over the course of the 2010s, thanks to several one-off shows such as "Beast in the East" where he proved he's a decent commentator when he doesn't have to deal with Vince McMahon in his ear, and the occasional iconic call such as when Daniel Bryan won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XXX. Then he got paired with Pat McAfee in 2021 and his commentary saw a tremendous uptick in quality. These days, the general agreement is that Cole is actually one of the best commentators of the modern era and arguably all time, and that he's been held back from reaching his full potential thanks to having to deal with Vince micromanaging him. Further proving the point, when Vince was forced into retirement in 2022 and replaced as head of creative by the far more easygoing Triple H, people noticed an immediate improvement in the quality of Cole's commentary.
• X-Pac Heat: He was well-liked as a backstage personality (the guy has seemingly been around forever and interviewed everyone), but things took a turn when they stuck him behind a commentary desk. Heel Cole was painfully distracting: two hours of a non-wrestler with less talent at playing a heel than most of the roster trying to get himself over. Him and Jerry "PUPPIES!!" Lawler seemed to be playing a game to see who could derail the show the most.

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