Michael Cole

Sean Michael Coulthard (born December 8, 1966), better known by his ring name Michael Cole, is an American professional wrestling commentator and journalist.

Sean Michael Coulthard was born on December 8, 1966, in Syracuse, New York.

Coulthard began his career in journalism in 1988 for CBS Radio before being hired by the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1997 (WWF was renamed WWE in 2002).

He has performed multiple on-screen hosting and commentary roles across his two-decade-plus-long career.

He attended the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, graduating in 1988 with a B.A. in broadcast journalism.

Coulthard began his career in the media as a journalist, working for CBS Radio.

His first high-profile assignment was to cover the 1988 US presidential campaign of Democratic Party nominee Michael Dukakis.

In 1992, he reported on the presidential campaign of Bill Clinton.

He also covered the 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in 1993, and the following year, spent nine months covering the Yugoslavian civil war.

In 1995, he was also selected to cover the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing.

He returned to the presidential campaign trail in 1996 to cover the campaigns of Steve Forbes and Sen. Bob Dole.

Coulthard came to the World Wrestling Federation in mid early-1997 after being recommended to company officials by Todd Pettengill, and started using the stage name "Michael Cole".

He provided voice-overs for promotional videos and later became the host of the LiveWire show.

Cole first appeared on screen at the June 30, 1997 episode of Raw is War, interviewing The Legion of Doom and replaced Todd Pettengill as a backstage interviewer after SummerSlam.

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 in mid-1998.

In December 1998, Cole became the regular play-by-play announcer for Raw is War, subbing for Jim Ross when Ross was ill with Bell's palsy.

He continued in this role until WrestleMania XV in March 1999.

When the promotion's new SmackDown! television program debuted later that year, Cole was chosen to be the show's play-by-play announcer.

His broadcast partner was originally Jerry Lawler, but when Lawler briefly left the WWF in 2001, he was replaced by Cole's WWF Sunday Night Heat broadcast partner Tazz shortly before the WWF vs. WCW/ECW invasion storyline.

After the WWE Brand Extension, Cole worked exclusively for the SmackDown! brand, cutting down to doing play-by-play on SmackDown!-only pay-per-views, while Raw-only pay-per-views were announced by Raw's announce team.

Cole was rarely involved in storylines; however, he has had minor roles in storylines involving Heidenreich, Stephanie McMahon, Vito, and D-Generation X (Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Chyna, and Rick Rude).

His 2004 angle with Heidenreich became infamous due to an implied scene where Heidenreich "Heidenraped" him in the arena restroom; in a 2008 interview, Heidenreich explained that the Cole rape angle was McMahon's idea and that Pulp Fiction came to mind when Stephanie McMahon approached him with the idea.

He called play-by-play at the 2006 Royal Rumble match because Jim Ross, who had commentated the last two Royal Rumble matches with Tazz, had been (kayfabe) "fired" and replaced by former ECW play-by-play man Joey Styles, reuniting the original SmackDown! team of Cole and Jerry Lawler.

On February 3, 2006, it was announced that Cole and Tazz were starting a radio show on Howard Stern's Howard 100 on Sirius Satellite Radio, but the show was a trial run that only lasted a couple of weeks.

On the June 9 episode of SmackDown!, Cole's broadcast partner Tazz left SmackDown!

to ECW, leaving Cole at that moment without a broadcast partner.

At ECW One Night Stand, John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) announced he would replace Tazz as color commentator.

This proved true five days later when JBL appeared on that week's episode of SmackDown! as Cole's new broadcast partner.

After JBL left the broadcast booth and returned to wrestling action on Raw, Jonathan Coachman became Cole's new partner on the January 4, 2008 episode of SmackDown!.

Coachman was then replaced by Mick Foley beginning at Backlash on April 27, 2008.

As a part of the 2008 WWE Draft, Cole was drafted to the Raw brand as Jim Ross was drafted to the SmackDown brand, ending Cole's nearly 10-year run as a play-by-play commentator on SmackDown.

On the July 7, 2008 episode of Raw, Cole was attacked by Kane, who repeatedly asked Cole "Is he alive or dead?"

before Cole was saved by Jerry Lawler.

Cole made his in-ring debut as Lawler's partner against the tag team of Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase; a match for the World Tag Team Championship.

Cole and Lawler lost after Cole inadvertently tagged himself in, and was quickly pinned by Rhodes after a lariat.

At the 2009 Slammy Awards, Cole won The "Oh My God" Moment of the Year award for vomiting on Chris Jericho at SmackDown's 10th Anniversary show on October 2.

Cole was the lead commentator for WWE NXT for its first three seasons, and during the first season in 2010, Cole began showing signs of arrogance and cockiness towards face wrestlers and WWE fans alike, turning heel for the first time in his WWE career.

He also began to belittle Daniel Bryan and took a liking to The Miz, leading to confrontations with Bryan throughout the season.

He is currently signed to WWE, where he serves as the play-by-play commentator for the Raw brand and as the vice president of announcing since 2020.