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WWE News: The reason Michael Cole might be bullet proof even through this Twitter/GLAAD controversy

Mar 29, 2011 - 3:23:50 PM
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By Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

Michael Cole might consider himself bullet proof because of his close friendship with John Cena. The two are well known to get along well. Crave's WrestleZone reports today that Cole sees his relationship with Cena like Jim Ross's with Steve Austin.

However, one WWE source tells PWTorch that he thinks Cole could be overestimating the power of the Cena friendship.

"I don't think his friendship with Cena will get him out of trouble, but he does name drop it a lot and him and Cena are tight. Funny huh, the two guys dropping homophobic slurs are best friends."

So Cole, says our source, might be more cocky behind the scenes because he has friends in high places, but he doesn't believe that if Cole screws up bad enough, even Cena can save him. Cole doesn't have anyone else who is considered really close to him. He was tight with former WWE creative team member Chris DeJoseph ("Big Dick Johnson"), but that's about it.

Multiple sources say that how Cole is portrayed at WrestleMania and on Raw on Monday will say a lot regarding how WWE management is truly feeling about his Twitter post.

Keller's Analysis: It's also worth noting for context that Cole is close with Josh Matthews in real life. His comment to Matthews was meant to be one pal ribbing another. It was his choice of word that was controversial, not the idea that he was "outing" Matthews as actually gay or even actually upset at him. That's why Cole at first seemed to think this was being blown out of proportion.

The fact that Cole's mistake was worse, but also similar to Cena's gay-baiting comments to Rock, could help Cole. Or, Cole could be the "scapegoat" who gets harsher punishment than Cena because what he did was more overt and more publicized, thanks to TMZ and GLAAD speaking on it. It also would give WWE a sense that it's taking the anti-bullying campaign with GLAAD seriously. Since Cena is guilty of what Cole is guilty of, Cena may see Cole as taking the brunt of heat for him, sparing him from getting the negative attention that could hurt his image.

Also of note, Jim Ross has been mentoring Scott Sanford, who is getting praised internally among those who care about this sort of thing for taking his job seriously. He's the closest WWE has to someone who has the look that Kevin Dunn and Vince McMahon appreciate and value while also learning wrestling holds and wrestling background. On WWE Superstars recently he has made references to WCW matches in the 1990, has called Japanese wrestling moves accurately, has talked about Yoshi Tatsu being trained by Yuji Nagata, and overall just comes across like he's doing his homework. He may, in other words, make Michael Cole expendable as Matthews could move into the lead Raw announcer role, when Superstars ends next month Stanford could move to Smackdown, and Cole can become the TV character he wants to be without having to play the lead announcer role.


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