Often times on this blog I've praised the color commentary of one Matt Striker, and for good reason. He's probably the best color man in the company right now, adding a depth of knowledge and insight that no one can even think about doing in either of the other brands or even in TNA. Still, something has seemed off about the broadcast as of late, and it doesn't have anything to do with the wrestling. Since Todd Grisham has left, it seems like the quality has dipped, and this week, it was actually dreadful.
At several times during the broadcast, there were stretches of dead air during key stretches of the match. It almost seemed like both Striker and Josh Matthews were playing the color commentary. No one took the lead on PBP. It was awkward sounding.
It was no real fault of Striker's, but if he were more seasoned, he'd know to take the lead. He's not. All he really does right now is try to fill the broadcast with his witticisms, his nuggets of info, his insights. That's alright if he's working with someone he can work off, like Grisham or even more ideally, Jim Ross. However, Matthews is proving to be going through growing pains at the very least. He's not a PBP guy, at least not yet. You could argue that he's on the right program to grow into the role, since ECW is their rising-star brand, but at the same time, ECW needs their stars to get the same treatment as their "major" brand counterparts, especially because it is the "wrestling" brand.
For Striker to have to carry a broadcast in that capacity this early in his career is a challenge for him. While he carried Grisham, Grisham at least tried to call the action. He was fairly serviceable at it, and he and Striker had a slight rapport, rudimentarily channeling the adversarial vibe that Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan had in the late 80s/early 90s. Striker needs someone to feed off of. Whether Matthews isn't used to being a PBP guy, whether he's not good at listening to his feed in the headset and talking at the same time or whatever, he's not that guy.
That's why it baffles me that the WWE wouldn't at least try to bring someone in that's trained at doing sports PBP. Again, the announcer's booth is an area where you need to emphasize the sports part of sports entertainment. The booth is pretty much the most sports-intensive out-of-ring setting in the business. Without it, you might as well just mic the wrestlers all the time and have them say lines even in the ring as they're wrestling.
And what even makes it more baffling for the WWE not to do this is the shift in sports announcing away from calling the game and towards selling storylines during the action. Sports networks, exemplified by ABC/ESPN putting guys like Dennis Miller and Tony Kornheiser in the booth for Monday Night Football, aren't interested in having guys go monotone about the action. It's not radio anymore. You have to think that in the training phase, people realize this and are teaching announcers to look for storylines rather than monotonously calling action.
So, unless Matthews improves a lot over the next couple of weeks, it's clear that the WWE needs to get Striker off that island and into a situation where he can shine like the announcer everyone knows and loves.
And with that, I'm out for the week. I'll be heading off to Miami to embark on a Western Caribbean cruise. I won't be back until next Sunday, and there's a good chance that the next entry here won't be until next Tuesday. So please, have a great Memorial Day, and if you get bored, go back and do the Friday Fives I've posted.
See you in a week!
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