The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 WWE Commentary Teams

WWE has seen its share of different commentary teams over the years, representing different strengths and weaknesses. There have been three-man-plus teams that have felt unfocused or like the third man was undermining the other two’s chemistry. There was the Jerry Lawler-Michael Cole debacle that reached its nadir with the program between announcers overshadowing the action they were calling.

For all of these low points, however, there have also been some real highs. The quality of a commentary team is largely subject to personal taste, so I won’t make any claims to this list being objective or definitive, but it is a look at my picks for the best announce teams, with a focus on the best work a pair did. To put a finer point on it, for some of the longer standing pairs in particular, they’d have rough patches, so the focus is on the best work they did together.

#7. Vince McMahon and Bobby Heenan

There may be no more polarizing figure in WWF commentary than Vince McMahon who, before he came out as an on-air authority figure, often slotted himself into the play-by-play role. While there are certainly more consistent commentators, McMahon had the benefit of knowing precisely what story he was trying to sell and, particularly for his era, his overwrought commentary could be entertaining.

McMahon did some good work with Jesse Ventura (that pair just missed the countdown), but was at his best paired with Bobby Heenan, arguably the best heel color commentator in wrestling history. Heenan’s comedic shtick complemented McMahon’s tendency to hyperbolize nicely for an entertaining duo that clearly communicated both sides of the face-heel coin for any given match.

#6. Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura

While Gorilla Monsoon was far from the polished professional broadcaster WWE would gravitate toward years later, he combined the credibility of a wrestling star with a folksy demeanor. He was all too eager to defend faces and condemn heels, and as such was a keen fit for the WWF product of the 1980s, before they’d celebrate any shades of gray.

Jesse Ventura was a fine match for Monsoon, representing similar credentials, but from a heel perspective, with the added intrigue that he was a bit of a logician, readily pointing out when Monsoon contradicted himself or was clearly favoring the good guys. As a kid, I didn’t put much thought into their discord beyond its obvious comedic value, but when I rewatch this era of WWF programming now, it can also be amusing to acknowledge how often Ventura was right and caught Monsoon in a moment of bias or outright error.

#5. Michael Cole and JBL

Michael Cole and JBL was a particularly difficult announcing pair to rank for this countdown. On one hand, the team gave some of the most lackluster, largely generic commentary work WWE’s ever heard at times—particularly the longer they spent working broadcasts together. There was a time, however, when Cole had hit what was more or less his prime as a face announcer, and when JBL first started commentating, when the two made magic together.

For this brief period, JBL was a genuinely fresh voice who combined the credibility of his own WWE success with a folksy wisdom and a desire to put over talent to feel like a breath of fresh air on commentary. Add that to Cole doing straight man play-by-play and you had a pair that nicely balanced WWE’s more professional aesthetics with some old school wrestling charm. JBL would end up leaving the team before long, and when he came back, he was largely more obnoxious and repetitive in his heel color commentator role, often theorized to be a pretty direct mouthpiece for what Vince McMahon was thinking. The pair had lost their magic and is, unfortunately, better remembered for this less impressive tenure together.

#4. Matt Striker and Todd Grisham

Matt Striker is a bit of a polarizing figure on commentary, who arguably errs too much toward wrestling nerd vocabulary and playing to the Internet crowd. Whether you love him or hate him (and I have to confess my bias that I do, by and large, really like his broadcast work) he stands out for being a distinctive voice on WWE commentary. Add in Todd Grisham, playing a straighter play-by-play man but with some nerdy accents as well, and you have one of WWE’s most distinctive broadcast teams.

The team worked together well for WWE’s ECW in 2008 and were later reunited on SmackDown from 2009 to 2010, before Michael Cole was added to make them a three-man team and take a lot of the edge off of their less conventional style. Unfortunately, the pair felt largely hamstrung by Cole, before Striker was replaced with Booker T. For as great of a wrestler as Booker was, I for one never understood why anyone liked his commentary, and his arrival unfortunately marked the end of Striker as a featured voice on commentary for WWE. Striker would, fortunately, find a better fit home when he ultimately landed with Lucha Underground, a promotion that welcomed him to nerd out as he saw fit.

#3. Jim Ross and Paul Heyman

Jim Ross is widely respected as the best pro wrestling play-by-play man of his generation, and maybe of all time depending on how you evaluate him relative to Gordon Solie. Paul Heyman would end up teaming up with Good Ol’ JR in the Attitude Era’s final days and was a great fit for the period as a sharp talker who wasn’t afraid to say something controversial.

The pair may never have had enough time to fully gel as a WWE broadcast team, but it’s a testament to their skills that many fans honestly believed they didn’t get along. The two may not have seen eye to eye on everything—including an oft-cited moment of Heyman making lewd joke referencing President Bush in an early appearance. Just the same, Heyman and Ross have both made it clear in more recent years that they’re actually very close and have a great deal of affection for each other. Their on-air tension had far more to do with two professionals knowing how to riff off one another in a confrontational style than any actual hard feelings.

#2. Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan

As we get into the top two selections for this countdown, it’s a bit of a toss up and things come down to nostalgia and personal taste.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, WWF transitioned Bobby Heenan increasingly away from his role as a manger and into a role as color commentator. While his body was aging and he couldn’t take bumps as regularly as he once had, his voice was still golden and he quickly translated his heel manager shtick to becoming the best heel color commentator of all time. Gorilla Monsoon was his perfect counterpoint, as an unabashed supporter of the face talent. The two would bicker heatedly, but never at the expense of the talent in the ring, staying focused rather on the issue on the mat. The pair had a unique gift for both adding legitimate heat to a match via their back and forth, while also entertaining the listening audience via Heenan’s comedy, offset by Monsoon playing the straight man with righteous indignation.

While Heenan and Monsoon may have gotten a little hokey at times, and may well not have translated well to Attitude or to the current era of WWE programming, in their time, they were absolutely perfect narrators for the WWF landscape of their time.

#1. Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

When it comes to combining storytelling, the credibility of calling a real sport, and the touch of comedy wrestling all but demands, there are few announce teams that can compete with the comprehensive package offered by Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler, particularly in their prime.

The Attitude Era combined immature antics and serious violence in unique ways. As such, The King and JR were uniquely equipped to provide the soundtrack. Some of the magic, too, came from the way this pair organically came together. From their beginnings as a more traditional face-heel and comedy-straight man duo, the fans could organically see them grow as friends up to the point of Lawler defending Ross and Ross lending Lawler a hand against rivals like Tazz.

Sure, Lawler would go too far in his dirty old man shtick and with the passage of time come to force puns over paying attention to the action. While the fall off was less steep for JR, he wasn’t as sharp as the years went by, up to the point this team was a bit of a shell of what it had once been. Even at their worst, however, the duo was still better than most WWE broadcast teams and gets my vote for the best ever.

Which teams would you add to the list? Let us know in the comments.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.