WWE: Michael Cole on Netflix WWE Because “We Are A Storytelling Entity First” & Not Pro Wrestling Company, Jade Cargill Injury Situation & WWE Return Plans Update, More News

Michael Cole Comments on Netflix Wanted WWE Because “We Are A Storytelling Entity First” & Not Pro Wrestling Company

A recent episode of the Impaulsive podcast featured Michael Cole as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Cole’s thoughts about his belief that WWE’s emphasis on storytelling over pro wrestling for shows being the reason why Netflix wanted the company’s product on their service.

“That’s why Netflix wanted us. Netflix understands we are a storytelling entity first. We’re not professional wrestling anymore, we haven’t been for many years. We’re an entertainment product. We need stories so our fans can emotionally invest in our characters. Why do they hate Logan Paul? Because he’s a cocky prick, right? As a character.

We’re an entertainment product. It’s the emotional connection, whether you’re a bad guy or good guy. It’s one of the reasons we’re on Netflix now. I tell people all the time, I’ve never pretended in 28 years to be a professional wrestling announcer. I’m not. I’m a narrator, I’m a storytelling, I’m a pitch man, I’m a play-by-play announcer, somewhat. I embellish stories, I create characters. I’m a jack of all trades. That’s one thing, when I first started my career here, now of the reasons fans hated me, because I wasn’t a professional wrestling announcer. I think over the years they’ve come to respect the work ethic and they also understand that I’ve been a soundtrack for a couple of generations. Not only in the business, but for fans watching at home. I think people are beginning to understand now, ‘You don’t have to call every single move in a wrestling match.’ You make sure you call the big spots and big moments, but it’s more important for me to explain to our audience who [the superstars] are. Especially with Netflix, we have so many new viewers tuning in now. I hear all over the country, no matter where we travel, people coming up to us and saying, ‘I’ve never watched WWE before. I never understood what it was. I thought it was a bunch of old men running around in tights.’ Now they understand that it’s actually a television show, episodic, each and every week. One of my jobs now, which I love, is being able to educate this new audience on who you guys are. Who is Logan Paul? Who is John Cena? Who is Roman Reigns? But do it in a way where we’re not insulting the old school fans.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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Jade Cargill Injury Situation & WWE Return Plans Status Update

As noted before, Jade Cargill has been out of action for WWE following an injury angle on the November 22nd WWE SmackDown show in Salt Lake City, Utah. The situation with Cargill’s injury status has led to conflicting reports over it being genuine or just a storyline injury. During this past Friday’s WWE SmackDown show, SmackDown GM Nick Aldis had provided an update showing footage to Naomi & Bianca Belair that potentially implicated Judgement Day’s Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez as Cargill’s attackers.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that Cargill returned to WWE’s Performance Center this week for additional training.

Johnson reported that those spoken to stated that WWE officials is close to finalizing creative plans for her return.

Johnson also reported that the excat date for Cargill’s return is currently not known.

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WWE News & Notes

Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that his sources stated that TKO Group recently ended a stock purchase program for WWE employees for TKO stock. Thurston reported that this used to be a long-time program in the company that offered a 15% discount for employees purchasing WWE stock pre-Endeavor purchase. Thurston reported that those who contacted TKO’s Human Resources department were informed that the official reason was due to TKO’s corporate structure. Thurston also reported that employees were also told that TKO shares would be granted to eligible employees in their Long-Term Incentive Plan but this was revealed to be available mainly for high-level employees.

WWE recently provided an update on the broadcast status for their upcoming new WWE EVOLVE television series. It was announced that WWE EVOLVE will be available to watch on Tubi in the United States and on their YouTibe channel for international viewers.

WWE also recently released three new videos to their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was a “Terry Funk Mixtape: Full Matches, Wild Promos and Found Footage.” The second new video was a WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match of Carlito vs. Chris Masters vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Kane vs. Kurt Angle vs. John Cena (c) from WWE New Year’s Resolution 2006. The third new video was a Vacant WWE Championship Four Corners Survival match of Bret “The Hitman” Hart vs. Stone Cole Steve Austin vs. Vader vs. The Undertaker from WWE In Your House: Final Four event in 1997.

WWE also recently released one new video to their NXT Vault channel on YouTube. This new video was the full August 14, 2013 episode of WWE NXT.

Tuesday’s WWE NXT show at the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida featured current TNA X-Division Champion making his surprise debut appearance in WWE. Following his appearance, WWE held a digital exclusive backstage interview with Moose discussing his thoughts about his surprise appearance on the show. Moose stated “It’s been awesome. Great, great feeling. It’s been a long time coming, and I’m happy I’m finally here.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

Tuesday’s WWE NXT show also featured Moose interrupting current NXT Champion Oba Femi’s promo segment and him wanting to see a match between the two take place in the future. Following the show, WWE held a digital exclusive backstage interview with Femi discussing his thoughts about Moose’s appearance and his challenge for a match. Femi stated that “Moose invaded my territory. I think its time I invaded his.“

Shayna Baszler recently reflected on Twitter about her not being given a chance to qualify for the Women’s Elimination Chamber match at next month’s Elimination Chamber 2025 event in Toronto, Canada. Baszler stated “I am the only person in history to eliminate EVERYONE in the #EliminationChamber . I didn’t even get a shot to be in it this year. I don’t think these things are unrelated.“

In a recent interview with The SPEAKEEZY podcast, Michin gave her thoughts about her issues with still trying to figure out her character and her struggles with connecting with crowds in WWE. Michin stated “That’s a good question because I don’t even know my character. I’m really bad with — I can wrestle my ass off but I know that my biggest hindrance is I have a problem connecting with the crowd because I’m still trying to figure out what my character is because in NXT, I was the gangster, hood rat chick, right? In wrestling, you want to have you, just accelerated times 100. So they really wanted that character and I guess I dove right into it whereas now, I’m a gamer. I just wanna go home and just hang out with my dogs. I’m very low-key and chill.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)

In a recent interview with the Geeking Out with Matt Serra podcast, Karrion Kross gave his thoughts about his feeling that he can be “the guy” in WWE and his belief that a lot of the audience knows that for him. Kross stated “I don’t know (why pushes aren’t happening as fast as some people think they should) and it’s such a dangerous question to answer… This is what I will say: I don’t envy the position of creative or booking the show because you have this company and it’s worth billions, right? And you have public shareholders and you don’t want to hire anything less than the best of the best. So now you have a whole roster full of people that are incredible. I mean, some people, for lack of better words, they get cast as background, some people get cast as supporting actors and then some people are leads. Now if you pay a lot of money out to the leads, those are gonna be the people you’re really going to run with and the rest of the cast and wrestling kind of supports the leads, right? There are some people that are in the supporting actor background or just background that could be great leads. But you kind of have an obligation. Once you’ve cast certain people as leads in the show, you have to run with them and maybe they’re just… maybe they’re just trying to get the most out of their leads right now. But, I don’t f*cking give up. That’s not my f*cking thing so, I’m gonna stick it out and every single opportunity that I get, I’m gonna show them I could be that guy because I can be and a lot of the audience knows that. In terms of getting the opportunity to demonstrate that, I stay ready for it. Yeah. I train for it, I eat for it. I don’t get complacent whatsoever. Any Monday that comes around, the way I look at it, Monday Night Raw tonight could be that night that changes the direction of your career but you need to be ready for it. You have six days at home. You can’t just be hanging out on the couch. You need to be ready. Things change very quickly, so that’s just kind of just the way I approach it… To directly answer your question, I can’t, I’m not in control. I’m not in control of that process, you know what I mean? But I’m ready for it, and I’d like to think that they know that.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)