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DEJ District's Jeremy: Does Vince bite the bullet and bring back the bad Joey Styles or does he stick with the atrocious Mike Adamle?
Apr 21, 2008 - 2:45:00 PM
So is it officially over now? Now that Joey Styles has been removed (for the time being) from the ECW announce desk, will the outcry of “This isn’t ECW!” finally cease? From day one of ECW’s return there have been rumblings and ill-feelings about WWE using the ECW initials. The last remaining wrestlers from the previous ECW are Tommy Dreamer, Nunzio, and Stevie Richards. There may be more, but the only person regularly featured is Tommy Dreamer. The aborted push of Stevie Richards relegates him to the also-ran status ion this equation.
It has gotten to the point now that anything resembling ECW rests in the hands of Tazz, but he is in the announce booth as well. He has become WWEized (trademark) in his demeanor and commentary. He is not the same and has not been the same wrestler or man since going to the announce position. In a few years he has gone from badass wrestler to shimmy and shaking wrestling announcer without a hint of irony.
Someone has to make a video for YouTube featuring a split screen of old Tazz and current Tazz. The contrast is stark and some people may not believe this is the same man. This is not a criticism, though. Tazz smartly parlayed his injury status into a position where he can make good pay and still hang around the industry. Sure, there was a momentary flirtation with radio, but as an outside observer, it would be hard for me to fathom him being satisfied with a gig away from wrestling.
Tazz’s choice may have been made for him due to injury and a need or desire to stay around the business, but Joey Styles returned of his own accord.
He was brought in for the initial One Night Stand PPV. He was allowed to be the ECW Joey Styles and it built up that hope with ECW fans. It was a hope that ECW would return and kick WWE in the balls even though it was now a “brand” of WWE.
Styles was placed in various announce positions and even called Raw for a bit and he just never clicked. He had to share the airwaves with Tazz and Jerry Lawler at different times instead of calling all of the action on his own. He drew the ire of Vince backstage and he soon became the whipping boy on the headset and backstage.
This all apparently led to the past few months of Styles’s atrocious announcing on ECW. ECW has been a decent show at best. There are enough barely-there storylines to keep bringing the people back to the show. There has also been enough action on the show to showcase newer wrestlers in between the mix of established wrestlers. It is far from a great or even good show but it has been passable. At this point in time though that is all WWE is probably going for.
During this time Styles has been barley noticeable on the broadcasts. Tazz has carried the bulk of the commentating when he is supposed to be adding the color commentary. Styles was reduced to calling and armbar here and there and then either had his mic shut off or he was pouting off camera. Dusty and I talked about this on “The Audio Experience” this week. The feelings haven’t changed. WWE was placed in this position due to Styles lack of improvement.
Styles had become a detriment to the broadcast. When he started calling the action he did so with no fervor and no vigor. It was clear he had lost interest. There were pronounced periods of dead air that killed the show. Tazz did his best to fill in some of this but he is not responsible, as the color man, to call the action. This was Styles job to get across the match, the upcoming angles and what is coming up for the rest of the show and even for next week.
Instead, the broadcast was filled with wrestlers who are not over wrestling in front of crowds who are a still filtering in to the building or are worn down after a Smackdown taping. Whatever the reason, the crowds are silent and there is a need for the announcer to cover this up. Styles failed regularly to do this. He has been in the WWE system long enough that he should have adapted. This should have never happened. The WWE should have never been put in the position to replace him but they had no choice.
TNA is regularly bashed due to the terrible over announcing of Tenay and West. WWE had the exact opposite problem with Styles and action needed to be taken.
They also had Mike Adamle in the wings collecting a handsome paycheck for very little work. Adamle is making a rumored $300,000 a year for what was essentially ten minutes of work a week. This could not have sat well with anyone in management as that is the price an actual wrestler can pull in for a year.
Of course, Adamle’s debut at the Royal Rumble got his stint off to an ominous start. He stumbled through his scripted lines and managed to botch the simple name of Jeff Hardy calling him Jeff Harvey. He was mercilessly and rightfully ridiculed for this, but it could have been dismissed as a once off event.
Unfortunately for Adamle his first night was just a sample of what was to come. He has not shown signs of improving. Each time he was on a live broadcast he stumbled over his lines and continued to show his lack of preparation. So this clearly means he was ready for a primetime job as an announcer.
Adamle’s first run as lead announcer on ECW was embarrassing. If he has a shred of professionalism he will watch this show over and over so it burns into his head. He needs to use this show like a shock collar. This way, whenever Adamle goes for the same fake enthusiasm and or tries calling a dropkick a leg kick, his head will shake violently as the electrical synapses fire off uncontrollably to prevent this from happening.
The criticism may be unwarranted seeing how this was his first run with the job he can improve. He can become a better announcer if he applies himself. He may not have applied himself up to now, but after last week's spectacle Vince has to be all over his case.
There is no way Vince will allow this to happen again even if it is on ECW. ECW still falls under his company’s banner and he has an obligation to provide reasonably good content. He cannot endorse bringing Joey Styles back so soon, but if Adamle does not improve in a few weeks, he may not be given a choice. As bad as Styles has been in the last few months, he was not this bad. Vince could also bring in someone else; a certain Josh Matthews is still sitting on the sidelines.
Regardless, Adamle has to be given a chance before the plug gets pulled. He will need to show signs of improvement, though, to warrant the chance. Vince can pull him in and tell him he is on a week-to-week basis now and another poor performance like that and he will be gone. It will ratchet the pressure, of course, but another terrible showing cannot be tolerated.
At the same time Adamle may actually be so bad that people will tune in to hear him. The thought would be that Mike Adamle is like "CSI: Miami"; they’re both great for the wrong reasons. Be certain though that Vince doesn’t want this to be the case. He wants his announcers to mold into his idea of an announcer. He already has one failure with Coach on his hands and he cannot allow another to grace the airwaves.
Vince has himself in a horrible position now. Does he bite the bullet and bring back the bad Joey Styles or does he stick with the atrocious Mike Adamle? Regardless of his decision, ECW may have just become a show to catch every week.
Jeremy Maes is the “J” of the DEJ Audio Experience. You can listen to that group of organized crime perpetrators every Wednesday night on the member’s portion of PWTorch.com. You can read Jeremy’s thoughts every Sunday on PWTorch.com. You can even contact Jeremy or any member of the DEJ faction on the PWTorch VIP Forum, or by email at theaudioexperience@gmail.com.
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