During a recent episode of Grilling JR, Jim Ross spoke on why he wasn’t a fan of turning Michael Cole heel as an announcer. Here’s what he had to say:
I thought it was a philosophical mistake. You have to trust your play-by-play guy. The play-by-play guy is like the point guard of your broadcast team. It’s his job to get talent over, but he’s also to feed lines, scenarios, opportunities to the antagonist on the team. People have got to trust him. How can you trust a heel who lies or embellishes or exaggerates? Is he telling me the truth or is this part of his character? I think that’s kind of what that was. I think Michael got put in a very daunting situation, and truth be known, he wasn’t comfortable with it either. But that was the assignment.
I’ll say this for Michael Cole, he works his ass off. He’s worked through a lot of hardships with his wife’s physical illness over the years. He’s a good family man. But he was in a position where Schiavone followed Solie. You can’t win it. I think Cole was in a scenario where he was following JR and The King, and it was tough on him. I thought philosophically, it was the shits. I don’t know if he’s ever gotten over it, and to this day, I don’t know if people fully trust him or not. I have a lot of respect for his work, and I like him. I think it was a mistake. It was Vince trying something different, and sometimes in his world, doing something different is always better.
You can listen HERE.
Credit: Grilling JR. H/T 411Mania.