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The best and worst wrestling announcers (from baltimoresun.com)

Fri, 11/30/2007 - 01:56 — webmaster

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Wrestling

My esteemed colleagues Ray Frager and Peter Schmuck are by no means pro wrestling fans, but they did indirectly give me the idea for this blog entry. In Frager’s sports media blog, Medium Well (I don’t get the title, either), he wrote yesterday about a poll in The Sports Business Journal on people’s favorite sportscasters. And last night on The Steve Davis Show on WBAL radio, Schmuck and Davis discussed sports.aol.com's Worst Sports Announcer tournament. As usual, my mind never strays too far from the squared circle, so the best and worst sportscasters topic got me to thinking about the best and worst wrestling announcers. Dividing the field into two categories – play-by-play men and color commentators – I have selected my three favorite and three least-favorite announcers in each. This is not meant to be a definitive list of the best and worst of all-time, just my personal opinion. There are plenty of wrestling announcers that I haven’t heard enough of to consider for the list. With that disclaimer out of the way, here’s the play-by-play announcers portion of the list. I’ll post the color commentators portion tomorrow. I look forward to your comments and your own best and worst lists: BEST 1. Jim Ross: With a vast knowledge of wrestling history as well as a passion for the business that comes across in his performances, Ross has set the standard for wrestling announcers for more than 20 years, whether he was working for WWE, WCW or Mid-South. Ross will always be remembered for being the voice of WWE during the biggest boom period in the history of the industry (the late 1990s to the read the rest of the story at baltimoresun.com » Webmaster

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Fri, 11/30/2007 - 13:00 — Dennis Rayburn (not verified)

Number two on the best wrestling announcers list is Gordon Solie. I spent many a Saturday night listening to him call the action for then Georgia Championship Wrestling and then WCW. He brought a skill to the job that stands as an example to any who aspire to that profession.

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Fri, 11/30/2007 - 07:32 — Teo Fernandez (not verified)

My knowledge of announcers is very limited to the periods I've watched (Mid-80's to current). With that said, you definitely are the best announcer I've ever listened to. It's funny too, because I recently watched some old Nitro clips and while Bobby "The Brain" is genius as a color commentator, Mike Tenay was hard to listen to at times. I don't remember when I was younger disliking Tenay, but I definitely was cringing at times watching some older clips. I've always enjoyed Joey Styles' work and I'm so glad he's a part of WWE because I think he's one of the better announcers out there today. Just like all good announcers, in my non-professional opinion, they add a value of excitement on top of the wrestling event. They keep you invested. You do it, Vince McMahon did it so well before going heel, and Styles brings that same attitude. That's probably the one thing I don't really enjoy about TNA. Tony Schiavone and Don West don't excite me enough. Tony can at times treat something like interference or a fantastic move the same as a headlock or arm bar, where as others will match their tone and volume to that of the situation, enhancing the event. I also feel there is no contrast between them, but I'll leave that to the Color Commentator post. Heh, this was much longer than I expected, off to work!