Michael Cole Talks About His Career, Lawler’s Heart Attack, Working for McMahon, and More

WWE commentary talent Michael Cole recently sat down with Wrestling101.com to talk about his career in professional wrestling, Jerry Lawler’s heart attack on live TV, what it’s like to work for Vince McMahon and more. Here are some of the most interesting comments from the interview.

On getting into the business: “I worked at CBS news for eight years in radio and I covered a lot of stories from around the world and I was on the road for about 300 day a year, and I wanted to spend a little bit more time at home with my wife and family, the WWE had an opening I applied and got the job.”

On working for Vince McMahon and if he ever gets yelled at by the boss: “He is one of my hero’s in this business and even in life, I’ve grown up in this business, I’ve spent 16-years here, I started as a fairly young kid, I’ve raised my family being a part of the WWE. Vince is like a second father to me and he has helped me throughout my career and I hope to spend the rest of my career with the guy, he’s just been an unbelievable mentor. (Laughs) Yeah it happens every week, the thing is you can’t take it personally. Vince is very obsessive about his product because he should be, he has built the WWE into a global phenomenon, this is his baby and he acts that way because he wants his product to be the best. You have to understand it’s not a personal attack, it’s him wanting his product to be the best in the world and once you can understand that you’re going to be better than ever and you’ve got to understand it’s a way to motivate you.”

On Jerry Lawler having a heart attack beside him on live television: “My news instincts kicked in, it was just one of those things where Jerry had a heart attack next to me and being a news reporter kicked in. I had to report what was going on in the ring, then I had to report what was going on with Jerry, it was all instinct, there was nothing premeditated about it. Jerry had a match that night but it was business as usual, he came back and went to work nothing changed. Whatever match it was we were calling, I thought he was snoring and I turned around to look at him and he was passed out on the table and we went from there. It was a surreal thing and I’ve never watched that moment back, I don’t want to but I’ll never forget it for the rest of my life. He was passed out under the table and luckily doc Sampson was three feet away and they got to him quickly and got his heart going again but it was a bizarre time, I didn’t know for the last hour of the show if I was going to have to report that Jerry had passed away or if he was surviving and luckily we got the news right as we were going off the air that he was surviving, it was a really tough time. Obviously it all came out the way we wanted it to, and it is great having Jerry back on the commentary table. It changed me personally but it also changed me professionally because at that point I became a babyface again and I think for the best, I was a bad guy for a while but it was time to change. Obviously Jerry’s heart attack changed history as we look at it.”

Cole goes on to talk about highlights from his career, working with JBL, and more. You can read the entire interview here.

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