Michael Cole recently spoke with ESPN to discuss calling WWE’s tournament to crown the first-ever WWE United Kingdom Champion in January. Below are some interview highlights”
On Working with Nigel McGuinness:
“I cannot wait. I’ve been trying to get Nigel here for a long time. And this just worked out to be the perfect venue to bring him aboard. He’s gonna start his career off as part of this tournament, but he’s gonna be with WWE full time going forward. We have a lot of plans for Nigel, and I think fans are going to be excited seeing what he has coming in his career. There’s not a better person to be able to do this.”
“I’m gonna be able to learn a lot from him over the next few weeks. He’s wrestled a lot of the talent in this tournament, so he has the opportunity to bring some unique stories about them that no one else will. He has the flavour of wrestling in the United Kingdom; he did it for many years. This is his country, his homeland, he’s very proud to be a part of this, and I’m very proud to have him by my side because I wouldn’t be able to pull this off without him and his knowledge of what goes on here.”
On Raw’s three-man commentary booth:
“I know a lot of critics don’t like a three-man booth, but I enjoy it. The main reason is because it allows me to be right down the middle. I can just be an unbiased play-by-play guy, and let Corey have his views, and Byron have his views, and they can go back and forth and debate and argue with each other while I can just do what I do, which is call a match and tell stories. That’s why I like the three-man booth. I think sometimes when you’re in a two-man booth, I get bogged down having to be the good guy a little bit too much, or the bad guy as it used to be. It’s tough that way, but just having that straight play-by-play guy to tell your stories, be unbiased, and have your two guys playing off each other, it’s perfect.”
On working with Corey Graves:
“We knew he was gonna be good, I just didn’t know he was gonna be this good, this fast. We gave him a chance and he really worked hard at it. This didn’t come to him easy. He put a lot of time in at the Performance Center, and hours and hours of work. We put him on Raw, and he took off. He’s the new guy, he’s the new heel. He’s the next JBL, the next Jerry Lawler. He’s got a unique presence, he’s got sarcasm and he’s got wit, and he also has the experience of being in the ring, being a former NXT tag team champion. He has everything. A good looking young kid – he’s the future of what we do here.”
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
