By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

During a radio interview promoting WrestleMania 29 this week, WWE announcer Michael Cole acknowledged that his run as a heel TV announcer went too long.

Cole added that he felt Raw was missing the "voice of reason" before Jerry Lawler's on-air heart attack in September of last year, which opened the door for him to turn face, although he wishes it were under different circumstances.

"I remember on Wednesday, two days after it happened, I was actually in the gym at my home in Texas and I got a phone call from Jerry's girlfriend, Lauren, and she said, 'Michael, I’ve got somebody who wants to talk to you,' and it was King. I was like, 'Holy cow, King, how the hell are you calling me two days after you basically died on national television?' I guess he had been reading some of the press and stuff and he said, 'Michael, I’m so sorry.' I asked why? He goes, 'Well, I killed your heel heat.'

"So, I guess he had watched stuff that was said and everything else. So after that I became babyface. I think it was the right time, the heel run had run its course, I think it went on much longer than it should have."

Cole continued: "The company collectively said, 'If we're going to turn you this is the time to do it.' Since JR (Jim Ross) had been taken off Raw and I became a heel, the one thing I thought the company was missing was that straight guy who was able to deliver the show the way that it needed to be delivered, like the Jim Ross and the Gordon Solie's, Gorilla's, they didn’t have that voice of reason in the booth. This was the perfect opportunity to allow them to do that and as a company we collectively said, 'Let’s run with it,' and we did. It’s been fairly successful. I still have a lot of detractors out there, a lot, but it’s getting a little bit better."

As for wishing his on-air character would have changed under different circumstances, Cole said, "I really would have liked to have that face turn and done something like save somebody in a match or one of those cool things you always dream of. This is quite the way I wanted the face turn to happen, but I’m also glad it happened this way because I think it added some legitimacy to what I do."

Also during the interview, Cole recalled the events of September 10, 2012 when Lawler suffered the on-air heart attack and was temporarily lifeless before his life was saved by WWE's medical staff. Most notably, Cole said that during the final hour of Raw, he was informed to prepare for the worst in-case he had to deliver the news that Lawler had died.

"I've got my producers and Triple H and others telling me and giving me updates in my headset," Cole recalled. "I would come back on the air and say, 'Hey, this is the latest we heard,' and so on and so forth and then at about 10:30 EST, about a half-hour before we went off the air, I remember somebody came in my headset, I can’t remember who it was, and they said, 'Michael, you need to prepare for the worst.' I’m like, 'Okay,' and they said, 'You need to be prepared to deliver the news.'

"But when we went off the air on Raw we had got an update that Jerry's heart started beating on its own and I was able to deliver that (good) news going off the air and that was such an emotional moment."

[ FYI: Busted Open with Dave Lagreca and Doug Mortman airs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on Sirius 92, XM 208, and on SportsZone, which is an App. ]

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