Remove Don West from the Announce Table

TNA Entertainment, LLC,

It has come to our attention that your color commentator for TNA Wrestling programming, Mr. Don West, has become a problem and is diminishing the quality of the product.

A color commentator is placed in the announcing booth to improve the quality of the show. He is there to announce what is going on, while analyzing what is going on and entertaining the viewing audience. Don West does the total opposite. Don West degrades the quality of the show. Don West rarely announces what is going on in the ring, he never analyzes what is going on in the ring, and he certainly does not entertain the viewing audience.

If anything, he has drawn fans away from the TNA Wrestling product. Ask many of the current TNA fans. Ask them what they think of Don West. Ask them about what has happened when they have shown friends and family TNA Wrestling. Many times, I have read that TNA fanatics have shown the product to their friends and family, and a major concern of the new viewers is "Who is that man commentating?" It's not solely the current fans of the product, but the potential fans who are being drawn away as an effect of Don West's announcing. Don West is anything but knowledgeable, professional, or entertaining. If an announcer isn't any of the above, he's simply a pain to listen to.

One of, if not the biggest reason viewers see Don West as a pain, is the tone of voice he commentates in. Every single move, every single action that takes place, Don West screams into the headset. He screams and yells, and he doesn't stop. He never tones down. Not only is this annoying, but it takes away the importance of events. When Don West screams at a simple event like a clothesline, it takes away the importance of a huge event like one competitor turning heel on another, or when somebody debuts or returns to TNA. The fans get confused as to which events are major or minor because Don West acts as if every moment is the biggest moment in the history of professional wrestling.

Does Don West know anything about the wrestling business? From what we have seen, evidently he does not. Listen to him call a wrestling match. Very rarely do you hear him call an actual maneuver. When he does, 99\% of the time it is a finishing maneuver, like The Styles Clash or The Black Hole Slam. The other 1\% is usually a simple kick or elbow. Often, Don West mixes up moves, and calls them the wrong names. For example, AJ Styles recently hit a spinning heel kick, and Don West called it The Pele - a totally different variation of a kick that AJ Styles has made famous. A wrestling announcer should be able to know the moves that the competitors are performing in the ring. Don West does not. Those times he does not (very often), he usually screams the same exact words/phrases to back up his lack of knowledge. Let's take a look at a few of them.

- "You've got to be kidding me!"
- "Holy cow!"
- "Wow!"
- "Did you see that?!"
- "Look at that!"
- "What a move, Tenay!"
- "Unbelievable!"
- "Oh, man!"
- "That's how you do it right there!"
- "That's academic!"

A lot of the time, Don West doesn't even call the match going on in the ring. It seems as if he repeats himself every week with the same comments about each wrestler, for one thing. For example: whenever "The Alpha Male" Monty Brown is in the ring, Don West always raves about his physique, his power, and his Pounce finishing maneuver. Whenever AJ Styles is in the ring, Don West always comments about how he's never seen anyone like AJ Styles, and how he has amazing athletic ability. Whenever Abyss is in the ring, Don West yells about his size and his strength, and about how agile he is for a big man. Whenever America's Most Wanted is in the ring, Don West talks about how they're the most dominant tag team in TNA history. Whenever Raven is in the ring, Don West comments on how sadistic and crazy he is. I could go on and discuss every single wrestler in TNA, but the point has been made. Not only does Don West repeat himself about each wrestler, he always "shills" the next Pay-Per-View. He ventures away from the match going on in the ring, and hypes the next Pay-Per-View. He talks about certain matches on the show, how feuds got built up to result to that match, and much more, including screaming out the Pay-Per-View's name, the location, and the date. As a wrestling fan, we would like to be focused on the match at hand, not a show weeks away. As a whole, Don West tends not to focus on the match, yet everything else. Like stated above, we would like to be focused on the current events, not something weeks away.


After commentating along "The Professor" Mike Tenay for three years, you would have thought that a man like Don West would "learn his way around the ropes", and know a thing or two about the business. Don West has proved that theory wrong. Fans have been driven away from TNA Wrestling because of Don West. Fans are being forced to mute their television sets because of Don West. TNA Wrestling's quality, as a whole, has dropped because of Don West.

Bring in an announcer who knows his way around the business. Fans have stated that the "face and face" combination of Mike Tenay and Don West has begun to bore them. Bring in a "heel" or "tweener" to spice things up. Doing such would add a dimension to the show where we could see situations from a "heel's" perspective. Having two "faces" gets old, with two guys cheering on the same people and never arguing. Having a "face" and a "heel/tweener" allows for much more dimension, including comedic relief (which is desperately needed in TNA) and oppurtunities for arguments and disagreements, which are great for commentary. Some people have even suggested introducing a three-man commentary team, like WCW used to have. Who could TNA bring in? The possibilities are endless. Names thrown around by the fans as possible announcers to replace Don West include the likes of Shane Douglas, Larry Zybysko, and Joey Styles. The choice is yours, TNA.


With hopes of making it on primetime television in the near future, changes have to be made to improve the product. Removing Don West from the announce table is a *priority*. TNA Wrestling, realize this. Don West is ruining the product. There are tons of other commentators who could bring so much to the announce table and improve the product by leaps and bounds. Don't continue to allow Don West to diminish your product and turn fans away. TNA Wrestling, we urge you... Remove Don West from the announce table.