Good Ol' JR's Return: Should We Get Our Hopes Up?

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So, any sane person after watching the conclusion of the Michael Cole/Jerry Lawler match last night would come to the conclusion that there's really no way that Cole or Lawler could coexist anymore, right? After getting his catharsis on Cole, Lawler turned around and spilled beer on the canvas in celebration, only to find out that he lost on a technicality, that his WrestleMania moment on paper would be forever tainted. I mean, Cole Mine, edicts over job security and the like aside, don't you think YOU'D want to go and beat the shit out of Cole the next time you were within a 10 foot radius of him if all that went down? I know I would, especially with the WWE's lax standard on fired employees still basically showing up and harassing contracted employees (see, Cena, John in reference to Nexus, The).

SO yeah, the logical thing would be to bring back Jim Ross and team him with Jerry Lawler in the announce booth. I mean, Ross came back and aside from his mic being turned off for a large portion of the Lawler/Cole match (that's the only logical explanation I could think of for him letting Josh Mathews and Booker T banter back and forth instead of taking charge like the MAN that he is), he sounded like he had not missed a beat. Ageism what, Vinny Mac? I think the fact that he and Lawler were the announce team for the rest of the night, which included The Streak Match, Snooki-Mania and the largely unsatisfying main event proved that he can still go. If he's up for the travel schedule, he would be a vast improvement over the current PBP options in terms of putting the product over and making it feel important again.

I think there's a strong possibility of that happening. I mean, the folks in Stamford can't be deaf, right?

Well, yeah, I think that the template of last night's booking patterns show that WWE likes making bad decisions. My gut feeling is that Ross was pulled out of mothballs last night because it was WrestleMania and they knew they made a mistake last year by not having Ross call the Taker/HBK match at the very least. But do they want him on the road? Vince wants to create new stars, not just in the ring but in the broadcast booth it seems. Why else would Cole have been given his meltdown gimmick (Which is somewhat similar to the one JR was given in the late 90s if you think about it)? Why else would Mathews be given prominent roles on RAW and Smackdown in the booth? The problem is, stars aren't supposed to be made in the booth. The iconic voice is iconic because it helps you remember the guys in the ring, not because they're the star of the show. Or at least that's how it's supposed to be.

In my view, Cole can't ever sit back in the announcer's chair, because he's gone HAM. He's transformed, and there's no easy way they can put him back in the booth. Besides, as a fully actualized, promoing character, he's way better than he was as a weaksauce shill for everything John Cena and the like. Jim Ross needs to be in the announce booth if they want to create new stars because he knows how to get the action over and he knows how to get new stars over.

But I don't think we should be getting our hopes up. What the WWE seems to think is the announcer's role anymore is different than what it's traditionally been. While there are other tenets of tradition that they've abandoned that I think might be good for the future of wrestling going forward, this is not one of them.

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