Broadcast journalist and
professional wrestling announcer.
Michael Cole is a native
New Yorker and a 1988 graduate of The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at
Syracuse University. At Syracuse he did the
play-by-play for S-U football and basketball games. After graduating from college, Cole worked in radio news in
Albany, New York, and then spent six years at KTRH radio, a
CBS affiliate in
Houston, Texas.
While in Texas, Cole covered local news at KTRH and traveled around the world for CBS radio. Among the highlights of his career: Coverage of the 51-day
Branch Davidian standoff in
Waco, the
Oklahoma City bombing, Hurricane Andrew, the war in
Bosnia, Haiti, Mexico's elections,
NASA and the space shuttle program, covering the 1992 Presidential campaign trail with
Bill Clinton, republican and democratic national conventions and countless other stories which shaped America in the 1990's.
In 1995 Cole moved back to
New York to work for WCBS, all-news 88AM and the CBS radio network. While in New York, Cole covered the 1996 presidential campaign, the
TWA Flight 800 disaster, The Valu-Jet crash, the
Million Man March and other headline stories. In June of 1997, Cole realized his life-long dream to work in the
WWF when he was hired as an announcer.
After being the
PPV pre-game host, Cole got his big break when
Jim Ross fell victim to
Bell's Palsy. For six months, Cole was the main play-by-play man for WWF programming, and when JR returned, Cole was given first
WWF Sunday Night Heat and then Smackdown to host.
Cole currently hosts
WWF Smackdown, is a backstage interviewer on
WWF Raw, and present WWF LiveWire, along with international programming. He is responsible for numerous other behind-the-scenes work in the Titan TV Studio.
For storyline purposes, Cole has been soundly beaten up by
Stone Cold Steve Austin, as well as being ridiculed by
The Rock on a regular basis. Personally, I love Michael Cole. He's just the sort of nice guy the WWF needs to act as a foil for the likes of his Smackdown co-host (and now firm friend off-screen),
Tazz.