Reason Why The Announcing Was So Off At Greatest Royal Rumble

The Greatest Royal Rumble event included plenty of mess-ups both in the ring and on commentary. Apart from announcing Sgt Slaughter was dead, Michael Cole, Corey Graves, and Byron Saxton really flubbed up when calling a few spots and they didn’t know how to really handle some of the action on the show either.

There were a lot of new elements to this event that had to be kept in mind, and who knows what kind of direction they were constantly receiving in their headsets during the night?

Dave Meltzer commented on Wrestling Observer Radio saying that it could have been the jet lag or the fact they were afraid to say something wrong that hindered the announce team as well. It was a different type of environment for the WWE announcers as well and they had to constantly put over Saudi Arabia in what Meltzer called “a commercial” instead of a house show.

“WWE announcing is always kind of fake but this was a different level of fake. They were basically afraid of what they were saying they were afraid to say something wrong. They had to put over Saudi Arabia constantly. I think i don’t know if they were uncomfortable with it, it’s just really hard to say. But overall it’s partially their fault and a lot of it could be jet lag too. As far as missing stuff or Sgt Slaughter being dead.”

“There was a lot of that stuff during the show so there was that it was really uncomfortable.”

Meltzer said the longer he watched the show the more uneasy he felt about it. How do you guys feel after the GRR is over?

If you use the quotes in this article please credit Wrestling Observer Radio with a H/T to Still Real To Us for the transcription