Thanks to Mike Informer for article from Post-Standard

SU grad Cole calls play-by-play for wrestling broadcasts

SU grad Cole calls play-by-play for wrestling broadcasts

World Wrestling Entertainment television announcer Michael Cole was at an airport a few weeks ago when three teenagers approached him.

The excited wrestling fans just wanted his autograph.

He noticed others in the terminal just seemed puzzled.

"People were looking at me like: Who the hell is this guy?" Cole says. "It's weird. We have such a hard-core audience. You either watch our product or you don't. What we're trying to do is change that."

Cole, a 1988 graduate of Syracuse University, has been part of WWE since 1997 when it was still known as the World Wrestling Federation. In Syracuse, he spent time as an announcer for WAER-FM and WHEN-AM using his real name, Sean Coulthard.

He's been the play-by-play guy for UPN's wrestling show "Smackdown!" since it premiered in 1999. Cole says he's proud of his on-air style that narrates story lines with emotion and humor, yet leaves "nuts and bolts" analysis to his broadcast partner, former wrestler Tazz (real name Pete Senerca).

Recent arena attendance and TV ratings for WWE, while still good, are down from some past years when it was a phenomenon with such big-name wrestlers as Hulk Hogan and The Rock. owever, Cole believes WWE is poised for yet another of its patented moves back into the pop-culture mainstream.

He expects WWE to get a boost from the move of "Smackdown!" this month to a new time period of 8 p.m. Fridays on UPN station WSTQ-LP (Channel 14). (WSTQ has rescheduled this week’s show for 10:30 p.m. because the station is airing a New York Yankees baseball game at 7 p.m.)

Finally away from "Survivor" and the other tough Thursday night TV competition, Cole believes "Smackdown!" will pull new viewers while still attracting a key base of men ages 18 to 34.

"We’re hoping we can keep our core audience watching ... as sort of a happy hour to kick off their Friday nights," says Cole, interviewed by cell phone last week while on the road.

Cole never looked back.

"I had enough of that (covering news), eight years of doing that," Cole says. "I’m having too much fun. I get paid to do something I absolutely love."

As knowledgeable wrestling fans know, ring action at WWE is scripted entertainment. Results are determined in advance. Ring enemies are often good friends in real life. Wrestlers pull punches to try to avoid seriously hurting each other.

Having said that, Cole notes that wrestlers, like many gifted athletes, sometimes do get injured, partly because the wrestlers smack each other around a bit to keep it from looking fake.

While Cole hasn’t wrestled for the WWE, he’s seen action. He had a thumb accidentally broken by wrestlers Michaels, Triple H and Chyna when they shoved him during one broadcast.

On another occasion, wrestler "Stone Cold" Steve Austin knocked Cole out when the announcer failed, as planned, to protect himself as a punch was thrown at his chin.

"I was supposed to move away from it. He was just supposed to glance me. ... He knocked me out for about 30 seconds," Cole says.

Cole happily notes that, as of last week, he had missed announcing only one of the 317 broadcasts of "Smackdown!" Because new episodes air year- round, he says, his run on the show is equivalent to 25 years of calling "Monday Night Football."