Commentators - Will You Stop It!

Reading Wrestling

Following on our episode on entrance music, we move on to the voices of wrestling, and for some, the voices of our childhoods. Commentators like Tony Schiavone, Gorilla Monsoon, and early Vince McMahon are the omniscient narrators of wrestling. Their job is both to guide the viewer through a story and also to describe the action in all of its lush detail. As we say in the episode, "It's the grain of these voices that shapes wrestling, just as much as any feat of athleticism done in the ring."
This is the first episode where we open with a sketch featuring our wrestling alter-egos, Miss Noell (cf. Miss Elizabeth), Ravin' David, and Chris as the Matcha Man. If you can make it through this intro without rolling your eyes, then you are the true champion.
You'll enjoy Noell's History Corner, where she tells us about the very beginnings of commentators during televised wrestling matches of the 1950s, including a sketch of the earliest, commentator-less wrestling broadcasts of the 1940s, which were early technical experiments in broadcasting.
Chris talks about how the Macho Man, in his role as a commentator, narrated one of the most harrowing events of Chris' childhood, the Ultimate Warrior's visit to Paul Bearer's Funeral Parlor.
You won't want to miss this brawl down memory lane, as we discuss commentators like AEW's Excalibur, Mid-Atlantic's Bob Caudle, WWF's Jesse "The Body" Ventura, and several others. Hang out with us for another episode, and we promise to see it like we call it.