Opinion: Why Michael Cole's shot at the Ultimate Deletion was baffling
The Ultimate Deletion match between 'Woken' Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt took place as the main event of WWE Raw this past Monday, and so far it has received generally positive reviews. It has also proven to be a success for WWE, as the match took in more than 3 Million viewers, and was the number one trend on Twitter for two hours, a new high for WWE in 2018.
One person who didn't seem to like it however, was Raw's lead announcer Michael Cole. As we were about to tune into the match, Michael referred to it as "obnoxious", and he didn't do so during the match on commentary, as it featured none, but chose to say it right as we were tuning in. What a perplexing decision.
Remember back in 1999 when WCW announcer Tony Schiavone commented about Mankind winning he WWE Championship as "That'll put a lot of butts in seats", well that is essentially what this was, only it wasn't making fun of the competition, it was aimed at WWE's own product. Seriously, was he trying to make viewers tune out? Did he think it was going to be so stupid that he thought everyone watching would agree with him and thus felt the need to say it beforehand? Or maybe it was Vince McMahon speaking through Michael, as he often does. It has now been revealed that Vince thought the segment would bomb.
Could Vince have been the one to say it, as a last minute way of not coming off looking stupid, and prove that fans would hate it? Maybe.
I don't know if we will find out the real reason behind this "obnoxious" comment, but I do feel it was a beyond ridiculous thing to say to promote the show's main event. I mean, a lot of fans respect Michael Cole, what if some actually heeded his warning and tuned out?
I imagine Vince McMahon's opinion may have changed now, in light of the success of The Ultimate Deletion, but I would hate to see WWE take cheap jabs like this again, as they are literally belittling a match they are presenting to us fans for our enjoyment. It is just completely ridiculous!
The success of The Ultimate Deletion may now see Matt Hardy produce more content like this again in the future. Could Michael Cole even be a part of the next one? WWE has now picked this up as a story of their own, highlighting Michael's "obnoxious" comment, and Matt's 'Woken/Broken' responses to him on Twitter. Maybe we could even see Michael Cole take a swim in the Lake of Reincarnation.