Michael Cole has been part of the WWE commentary team for decades now, and at one point during his career he was working side by side with WWE Hall of Famer JBL as part of the SmackDown announce team.
Recently JBL was part of a Steel City Con panel with Kane, and during the panel he recalled his time working with Michael Cole in WWE. The former WWE Champion shared a story about how Vince McMahon specifically instructed the commentators not to mention that Deuce/James Snuka Jr. was Jimmy Snuka’s son.
Apparently Michale Cole was not aware of Vince McMahon’s request, and when he referred to Deuce as Snuka’s son that’s when the Chairman of the Board got heated.
“We were sitting in the back one time with Vince [McMahon] and Jimmy Snuka’s son [Deuce/James Snuka] and Vince said, ‘Be sure when you say he comes in, that’s Jimmy Snuka’s son.’ Now later we tried to say that but then Vince goes on to say, ‘Last thing you wanna say is he’s Jimmy Snuka’s son because he can’t live up to the fact that Jimmy Snuka was his dad.’ Now later they tried that because he wasn’t really — didn’t really work out and they tried. But Michael Cole took copious notes. So he’s writing down, ‘Jimmy Snuka’s son.’ I don’t even notice it. Soon as the kid tags in, Michael Cole says, ‘In comes Jimmy Snuka’s son.’ Vince had just told him don’t say ‘Jimmy Snuka’s son.’ Well when he says that, they’ve got the little God camera that can look at us. I start laughing because I realize Cole doesn’t know not to say that, Vince sees me laughing and thinks Cole is making fun of him in front of the whole entire company.
Vince’s response was, ‘Michael, I’m gonna come down there and I’m gonna fire you. No, I’m gonna come down there and I’m gonna kick your ass. Not I’m not, no I’m not’ and he’s debating with himself at this point. This is during a live show and he goes, ‘No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I’m gonna kick your ass, then I’m gonna fire you! That’s what I’m gonna do! I’m coming down right now’ and Michael’s just looking at the camera like — and I’m dying laughing and there’s no commentary and then by the time the commercial comes around, there was no commentary in the match. Vince realizes what happened, that Michael did it by mistake. He goes, ‘Haha, I lost it a little bit there didn’t I? Ha, yeah.’”
Luckily for Michael Cole it appears that cooler heads prevailed on this day, and Vince McMahon didn’t kick his ass, or fire him, so things worked out.
H/T Post Wrestling
