Wrestling Thread 6: It's Poppy • Page 847

His big mistakes aren’t even the problem. I’d take him calling it WWE Dynamite every week if he could actually call a match.

He’s been doing it nearly two years and it still comes across that he doesn’t have a clue who half the roster are. He constantly says the stupidest fucking shit during matches and entrances that make no sense. The worst, I think, is when Excalibur says something interesting about a move or a guys indie career JR acts like it’s a joke and blows it off with some stupid one liner. In addition to that, his insistence on talked about money during every single title match kills me.

 

JR has been terrible for years now, even when he would come back to WWE within the last 10 years or so, he's been bad. That problem just gets exacerbated when AEW keeps insisting on running a minimum of a three man booth + a guest commentator long stretches. The absolute worst is when they let Jericho just run wild on commentary shouting incessantly.

 

Jericho is miles better than JR to me, but he really shouldn’t be commentating while being a wrestling character. The fact he has to keep up his IC character while commentating makes him unbearable at times, but if he calmed down he’s decent.

 

It’s quite sad. He also has these moments were his memory isn’t there and he stumbles. It even happens on his podcast quite often and it’s hard to listen to at times. Don Callis would be a great replacement and could play the heel announcer role that they are lacking. There’s no need for JR when you have Tony.

 

I think JR as a part time commentator might work. Have him do Cody matches lol

 

I listen to his podcast and hear what you mean about forgetting, but I'd never have guessed he wouldnt be able to call a match on a regular basis, esp with others to help with the job. I know hes lamented a 3 man booth many times on his pod in the past.... interesting he works one now

 

He's truly awful and needs to hang it up. It's a detriment to the product.

 

Yeah, he shits on a lot of stuff AEW does on his podcast weirdly. Always talks about the style of wrestling that they highlight in a negative light (flips, dives, etc). I can’t see how this is even enjoyable for him other than being a paycheck.

 

He shits on it during the show itself sometimes.

 

I don't get the impression that he shits on the product on air, I feel like he's always effusive in his praise of the talent and what they can do. I mean, he consistently talks about Fenix being one of the best high flyers of his generation whenever he wrestles.

 

I hate how WWE botched Keith Lee

 

I'm confused about what's going on with Lee. Is he dealing with a major health issue or is Vince just keeping him off television because Vince is an awful human?

 

Didn’t some dirt sheet say it was something outside of the ring going on?

 

Yeah that's what I've seen

 

Apparently John Cena was a big clash of clans player lmao

 

Heck, he kind of did this during Tommy End's debut. Excalibur with that line about wrestling him a 15 years ago, but thats not the same guy...and JR says "Tommy End or whatever he's gonna be called" right before Excalibur reveals his actual name. Really ruins the mystique.

He occasionally drops a great line or sells a moment well, but, most of the time its like hes waiting for a line from the production truck.

 

I know there was a trademark issue with his name; WWE tried to trademark it and he wasnt consenting. And then presumably he also had some COVID side effects, but that was 6+ months ago.

 

That’s the exact line that spurred my posts. It was ridiculous.

 

Agreed completely with the JR takes here, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that I thought he did a great job with the killer sit-down promo he had with Darby and Ethan Page last night.

I think he needs to move into the John Madden role of more pre-tapes, and occasional commentary for things like Main Events.

 

I sure hope things improve for Raw when fans return. Just skimmed through this weeks show. It is unreal how bad things have gotten.

 

And it’s time for JR to hit the ol’ dusty trail.

 

I think he’s always been much better with backstage sit-down/pretaped stuff. Even in WWE, I largely enjoyed his sit-down stuff more.

 

JR is a detriment to the product at this point, but I do wonder if having him as the voice of the product is still a net positive in trying to garner the attention of lapsed fans. Of course, this falls at the expense of the people who actually have to listen to him be a shell of his former self every week. He was a huge get for AEW, perhaps one of the biggest in a string of really big gets in the promotion's infancy. His voice is iconic, but yeah, he just doesn't have it anymore.

On a positive note, I'm absolutely thrilled to see what Tommy End can do in AEW. Few wrestlers have captivated my interest in recent years the way he has.