Michael Cole

Michael Sean Coulthard (born December 8 1968), better known by his stage name of Michael Cole, is the current play-by-play announcer for World Wrestling Entertainment's Friday Night SmackDown!.

Journalism career
Prior to becoming a WWF announcer, Coulthard was a journalist with CBS Radio. In 1993, he was sent to the Branch Davidian church in Waco to cover the entire 51-day siege and resulting conflagration.

In 1994, Coulthard was sent to Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina for what was supposedly a six-week assignment covering the war-time siege by Serbian forces. It turned out to be a nine-month stay, which would change his life. He reported daily from the city, narrowly escaping bullets and bombs. His documentary, titled Voices of Bosnia, has won several awards.

Experienced in covering tragic events, Coulthard was sent to Oklahoma City after the 1995 bombing by Timothy McVeigh at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which took the lives of 168 people.

Michael Cole was a well respected reporter for KTRH 740AM in Houston. Was the go to guy on political issues.

WWF/WWE career
Coulthard came to the World Wrestling Federation in 1997 and started using the stage name "Michael Cole." He became the host of the old LiveWire show alongside Jim Cornette and a backstage interviewer. In late 1997, Cole became one of the three announcers for the first hour of Monday Night RAW, alongside Jim Ross and Kevin Kelly. Eventually Cole was permanently replaced by Jerry Lawler later in the year. In 1999, Cole became the regular play-by-play announcer for Monday Night RAW subbing for Jim Ross when Ross became stricken with an episode of Bell's palsy. When the promotion's new SmackDown! television program debuted later that year, Cole was chosen to be the show's play-by-play announcer. Originally his broadcast partner was Jerry "The King" Lawler, but when Lawler left the WWF, he was replaced by Cole's Heat broadcast partner Tazz shortly before the WWF vs. WCW/ECW invasion storyline. Cole also had a stint doing commentary on SmackDown!'s former sister show WWE Velocity.

As announcer, Cole was rarely involved in storylines; however, he has had minor roles in storylines involving Stone Cold Steve Austin, John Cena, Heidenreich, Stephanie McMahon and D-Generation X (Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Chyna, and Rick Rude). His most recent angle involved getting kissed by Vito. He also appeared in the Taxi Driver parody trailer in promotion of WrestleMania 21.

Cole called play-by-play at the 2006 Royal Rumble match because Ross, who had commentated the last three Royal Rumble matches with Tazz, had been "fired" in the storylines and replaced by former ECW play-by-play man Joey Styles, reuniting the original SmackDown! team of Cole and Lawler.

On February 3 2006, it was announced that he and Tazz were starting a radio show on Howard Stern's "Howard 101" radio station on Sirius, airing Thursday through Sunday at 8 pm, but he show was a trial run that only lasted a couple of weeks.

On April 26 2006, WWE announced that Cole would become the Managing Editor of WWE.com. Shortly after, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon told shareholders in a meeting held on September 14 that he believes that the website "sucks". In response, Cole replied on WWE.com about updated content for the website: a broadband network with original web-only shows have been scheduled for October, with a new mobile offering, a re-vamped subscription site and more exclusive videos and photos. Cole went on to say, "So in summary, the web site does suck, compared to where we are going to take it, but it won’t suck for long. Wish I could say the same for the boss." Whether Cole's final comment about McMahon was either kayfabe or legit is unclear. 

On the June 9 edition of SmackDown!, Cole's broadcast partner Tazz defected to ECW, leaving Cole at that moment without a broadcast partner. At ECW One Night Stand 2006, John "Bradshaw" Layfield announced he would replace Tazz as color commentator. This proved true five days later when he appeared on that weeks edition of SmackDown! as Cole's new broadcast partner.