KELLER'S TAKE KELLER: If Vince McMahon gets off on criticism of Adamle, he's a little nuts Apr 18, 2008 - 12:35:37 PM

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By Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

Paul Heyman believes the more criticism Paul Adamle gets this week, the happier he'll be. Heyman, (as excerpted at prowrestling.net prowrestling.net this morning) said: "Do you really think Vince doesn't realise how incompetent this tra-la-la-goon-de-yay of an announcer is? The ECW show from the UK was taped. That means there was time for Adamle to grab a mic backstage and clean up the performance. Not the whole miserable, horrible, intolerable hour. Just the really obvious "branding" issues, like all three letters that identify World Wrestling Entertainment. Hey, that would be a start, don't you think?... Vince McMahon is not only keenly aware of just how bad Mike Adamle is, he's counting on it. That's why there was no editing done to clean up Adamle's embarrassingly bad performance."

I knew that eventually conspiracy theories would surface that McMahon and Kevin Dunn knew how bad Mike Adamle was and put him on the air as a joke of some sort. I also figured that whether anticipated or not, the reaction to Adamle would be spun as a "good thing" by some within WWE because it's got people talking. Both may be right.

Those who know about how bad Adamle was are probably more apt to tune in next week to see if he repeats his performance... or if he's even still with the company. And really, anything that gets people talking about ECW makes that show seem more relevant than before.

The problem is, Adamle wasn't hired to be incompetent. So his reported $300K salary was based on his presumed ability with his years of experience to be a presentable, competent announcer. Now, those who have seen his pre-WWE work know that he's anything but polished and reliable. And everybody knows now that he has not closely or even remotely followed pro wrestling. So the decision to hire him in the first place was based on his resume and slick appearance, not his actual meaningful skillset to communicate and connect with fans when getting storylines and matches over.

So if Adamle turned out to be a disaster, but WWE is going to spin his shameful performance into some sort of positive, so be it. It doesn't change that his hiring was based on a bad set of criteria and on Tuesday, it made WWE look bush league. There may be room to turn Adamle into an incompetent play-by-play announcer who Tazz mocks throughout each show. That's all well and good, until it comes time to get across the story the wrestlers are telling in the ring to try to get themselves over, or when it's time to sell a PPV to skeptical WWE viewers teetering on not purchasing this month. The goal of ECW is to draw ratings, sure, but it's also there to get wrestlers over and sell matches. If Adamle can't do that effectively, he's essentially car salesman who entertains customers with juggling but knows nothing about cars or closing a deal. He's essentially a chef who sings to hungry customers but burns their food.

Had ECW been taped hours before it went on the air, but Styles was available for voiceovers back in the studio in the U.S., that's one thing. But they were overseas, with limited access to post-production and a different schedule than usual. I don't buy that McMahon could have, but chose not to, edit Adamle because he thought it made for great comic material. If he did, though, and Adamle's not in on the joke, that's cruel, too. But either way, Adamle is making good money, so he's relatively insulated from losing on this deal. The fans have a reason to anticipate ECW next week, so that's good. But this act has a short shelf life, and stockholders want WWE selling PPVs, not turning the product into a virtual hour long SNL spoof of a bad wrestling show.

If McMahon felt Adamle doesn't prepare enough and wanted to shame him into cleaning up his act and improving his work ethic, and decided to sacrifice one hour of ECW's professionalism to prove that point, I applaud him for not having Adamle "clean up" some of his mistakes in post-production. Adamle, short of him having undiagnosed cognitive problems, deserves the criticisms he gets. He disrespected all pro wrestling fans with his performance on Tuesday. Turning it into an ongoing joke could be entertaining, but it demeans the hard work of the wrestlers to shine the spotlight away from their matches and to a goofball announcer and it doesn't take away the incompetence involved in hiring Adamle in the first place and promoting him to play-by-play announcer before he was ready.

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