Michael Cole
Ring name(s)	Michael Cole
Billed height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Billed weight	176 lb (80 kg)
Born	December 8, 1968 (1968-12-08) (age 41)[1] Syracuse, New York[1]
Resides	McAllen, Texas[2]
Debut	1997[3]

Michael Sean Coulthard^[1] (born December 8, 1968),^[1] better known by his stage name Michael Cole, is a play-by-play announcer for World Wrestling Entertainment. He is best known for announcing WWE SmackDown for nine years, from its launch in 1999 until 2008. Cole is an American former news journalist and the current play-by-play announcer for WWE Raw.^[3]

[edit] Career in Journalism

Coulthard began his career in the media as a journalist, working for CBS Radio.^[4] His first high-profile assignment was to cover the 1988 US presidential campaign of Democratic Party nominee Michael Dukakis.^[5] In 1992, he reported on the presidential campaign of Bill Clinton.^[5] Coulthard covered the 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in 1993.^[4] The following year, he spent nine months covering the Yugoslavian civil war.^[5] In 1995 he was also selected to cover the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing.^[5] He returned to the presidential campaign trail in 1996 to cover the failed campaigns of Steve Forbes and Sen. Bob Dole.^[5]

[edit] WWF/WWE career

Coulthard came to the World Wrestling Federation in 1997 and started using the stage name "Michael Cole." He became the host of LiveWire show alongside Jim Cornette as well as a backstage interviewer.^[3] In late 1997, Cole became one of the three announcers for the first hour of Monday Night Raw, alongside Jim Ross and Kevin Kelly.^[3] Eventually Cole was permanently replaced by Jerry Lawler later in the year. In 1999, Cole became the regular play-by-play announcer for Monday Night Raw subbing for Jim Ross when Ross became stricken with an episode of Bell's palsy.^[6] One of the most infamous moments of Cole's WWE career came at WrestleMania XV where, while telling fans to tune into the Home Shopping Network after the show to buy WWF related items, he accidentally gave away the winner of the main event between the Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin by saying that the "new WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin" would be a guest on the show.^{[citation needed]}

When the promotion's new SmackDown! television program debuted later that year, Cole was chosen to be the show's play-by-play announcer.^[4] Originally his broadcast partner was Jerry "The King" Lawler, but when Lawler briefly left the WWF, he was replaced by Cole's Heat broadcast partner Tazz shortly before the WWF vs. WCW/ECW invasion storyline.^[3][7] Cole also had a stint doing commentary on SmackDown!'s former sister show WWE Velocity.

As announcer, Cole was rarely involved in storylines; however, he has had minor roles in storylines involving Stone Cold Steve Austin, John Cena, Heidenreich, Stephanie McMahon, Vito, and D-Generation X (Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Chyna, and Rick Rude).^[8] He also appeared in the Taxi Driver parody trailer in promotion of WrestleMania 21.

Cole called play-by-play at the 2006 Royal Rumble match because Ross, who had commentated the last three Royal Rumble matches with Tazz, had been "fired" in the storylines and replaced by former ECW play-by-play man Joey Styles, reuniting the original SmackDown! team of Cole and Lawler.^[9]

On February 3, 2006, it was announced that he and Tazz were starting a radio show on Howard Stern's "Howard 101" radio station on Sirius, airing Thursday through Sunday at 8 pm, but the show was a trial run that only lasted a couple of weeks.^[10]

On April 26, 2006, WWE announced that Cole would become the Managing Editor of WWE.com.^[4] Shortly after, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon told shareholders in a meeting held on September 14 that he believes that the website "sucks".^[11] In response, Cole replied on WWE.com about updated content for the website: a broadband network with original web-only shows have been scheduled for October, with a new mobile offering, a re-vamped subscription site and more exclusive videos and photos.^[12] Cole went on to say, "So in summary, the web site does suck, compared to where we are going to take it, but it won’t suck for long. Wish I could say the same for the boss."^[12]

On the June 9 edition of SmackDown!, Cole's broadcast partner Tazz left SmackDown for ECW, leaving Cole at that moment without a broadcast partner.^[3][13] At ECW One Night Stand 2006, John "Bradshaw" Layfield announced he would replace Tazz as color commentator.^[14] This proved true five days later when he appeared on that week's edition of SmackDown! as Cole's new broadcast partner.^[3][15]

After JBL left the broadcast booth and returned to wrestling action on Raw, Jonathan Coachman became Cole's new partner on January 4, 2008.^[3][16] Coachman was then replaced by Mick Foley beginning at Backlash on April 27, 2008.^[3][17]

As a part of the 2008 WWE Draft, Cole was drafted to the Raw brand as Jim Ross was drafted to the SmackDown brand.^[18] This effectively ended Cole's near 10 year run as play-by-play commentator on Smackdown in which he called "every episode except for two."^[18] On the July 7, 2008 edition of Raw, Cole was attacked by Kane.^[19] He repeatedly asked Cole "Is he alive or is he dead?" before Cole was saved by Jerry Lawler.^[19] Cole made his in-ring debut as Lawler's partner against the tag team of Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase; a match for the World Tag Team Championship.^[20] Cole and Lawler lost after Cole inadvertently tagged himself in, and was quickly pinned by Rhodes after a lariat.^[20]

In July 2008, co-worker Jim Ross reported on his website that Cole's house in McAllen, Texas had been damaged during Hurricane Dolly.^[2] Ross went on to explain that the damage was only minor; however, Cole was without power or water for a lengthy period.^[2]

[edit] Job titles

• Former WWF/E Backstage interviewer
• WWE SmackDown! play-by-play announcer (1999 - 2008)^[3]
• WWE Monday Night Raw play-by-play announcer (2008 - present)^[3]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Professional wrestling portal

• WWE profile
• Michael Cole at the Internet Movie Database