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#1 Michael Cole vs. Jerry Lawler (WrestleMania XXVII)
This match. This storyline. I just can’t. Michael Cole began a heel turn when he started making snide remarks about Daniel Bryan being a loser during Bryan’s original run on the terrifyingly bad NXT television show that replaced WWE’s ECW in 2010.
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He was grating and annoying on commentary, continually badmouthing Bryan, and eventually started going after all of the good guys and siding with all of the heels, most especially The Miz, who was Bryan’s “pro” in the first season of NXT. Miz would win the WWE Title in late 2010, and in early 2011 Cole helped him defeat Jerry Lawler in a TLC match on RAW, during the feud that led to this match.
A top AEW star just called one of his colleagues 'spoiled' and 'narcissistic' HERE.
The whole thing was a result of a terrible storyline. Cole was miserable to listen to on commentary, and nothing they did with his heel character was fun, entertaining, or enjoyable in any way. The whole thing should have culminated at WrestleMania, but after a nearly 15-minute match (unbelievable…) he ended up getting a DQ victory over Lawler due to referee Stone Cold Steve Austin’s interference.
The storyline would continue for nearly two more months (!!!!) before Lawler properly defeated Cole at the Over The Limit PPV (Cole and Jack Swagger defeated Lawler and Jim Ross at the Extreme Rules PPV the month prior), and it ended the way it should have at WrestleMania, in about 3 minutes.
It was awful PPV, and all-around just bad. And then, when it was all over, Cole apologized, Lawler accepted and it was water under the bridge. Just one big, giant waste of time. I don’t know who was responsible for the idea for not only Cole to be a heel commentator for two and a half years, but also for him to have three consecutive PPV matches, and actually winning two of them.
You’d think that they would close the chapter at WrestleMania. It still would have been a pointless match because there was no money to be made since nobody was paying to see Michael Cole get beat up, but it’s even more pointless because the outcome of the match made the whole rotten thing last even longer.
Horrible. I’m sorry that I’m writing this right now because I’m having to live it all over again. I’m sorry for making you read this, and hopefully, you were able to miss this all when it happened. Ugh.
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