Since he emerged as a full-blown heel character in 2010, there has been quite the controversy surrounding announcer Michael Cole in the commentating booth.

While the former war correspondent wasn't exactly Gorden Solie as an announcer to begin with, after his turn during the first season of NXT and his ensuing emergence as a main character on Raw (He even worked a major match with Jerry Lawler at WrestleMania in a storyline which dominated WWE's flagship show earlier this year.), many fans have complained about how much of an irritant and turn-off to the product he has become. 

In particular, Cole has been frequently criticised for how he systematically trashes and denigrates babyfaces like Daniel Bryan and CM Punk, often disparaging them for being "geeks" and "losers." 

Make no mistake about it: Cole is not a heel announcer in the vain of Lawler or Don West. He isn't just rooting for the heels and cheering on their duplicitous tactics, he is actively burying the babyfaces.  

In fairness to Cole, he is simply doing what he is asked and Vince McMahon has always been a strong supporter of the current Cole character, likely using him to vent out some of his own misgivings about former Indie wrestlers and the IWC.

So the long-term WWE announcer cannot be blamed too much for merely following orders. If anything, he is probably playing his annoying character too well.

Regardless, many fans and critics still detest his current commentating style and feel that if young guys like Punk and Bryan are to ever get over as massively as WWE hope, they should be presented as cool and successful, not constantly buried and berated on WWE screens.

 This is a very valid point.

After all, how many fans are going to want to get behind a pair of nerds? Would The Rock or Steve Austin have gotten over in the Attitude era with Cole constantly reminding the viewers at home what losers and underachievers they were? Probably not. 

As Bryan Alvarez notes in this week's edition of the F4W Newsletter, after the disastrous main event rating of last week's episode of Raw people in WWE management have recently been asking themselves these very same questions about Cole. 

In addition, they have since instructed the announcer to tone down his overbearing character, hence why he has been far more low-key recently: 

There was a meeting last week after the rating came in where Michael Cole's commentary was discussed. Based on ratings patterns, fans have little interest in seeing anyone on television aside from the tippy top stars, and consideration was given to it perhaps being the result of Cole burying many of them for the last year straight. Yes, they finally considered this after everyone else had been discussing it for months. At least for this week, he was greatly toned down on commentary, particular his burials of talent.

While Cole's awful and counterproductive play-by-play isn't the sole problem facing Raw these days, this is encouraging news and it is nice to hear of WWE making some attempts to improve their substandard product rather than blaming everyone else.

Certainly Daniel Bryan will have more of a chance of getting over as a credible World Heavyweight Champion if he's not having his legs cut off by commentary constantly.

Now, if they can just stop booking him to look like a coward all the time.