Exclusive: Jim Ross Stabs Michael Cole In The Leg With A Pencil

The following is an excerpt from an editorial from former WWE announcer Kevin Kelly:

Raw's Breath of Fresh Air
07/01/2008 by Kevin Kelly

After watching Raw last night, I realized two things. One, Michael Cole is a damn good PBP announcer and I don't miss Triple H at all. A "feel good" show for a company that needed one, last night's Raw was also a treat for the fans that have sat through so much dreck over the past few years.

I don't watch SmackDown. Never have, never will. There's no juice on the show for me because I know it's taped and I get the results mid-week. Therefore, I never get to listen to Michael Cole's work and after hearing him last night, I am happy he has improved. He sounded comfortable, confident and didn't try too hard to be the guy who replaced JR on Raw. Sorry JR, you aren't coming back. Cole's come a long way from getting a pencil jabbed in his leg from JR during a live Raw back in 1998 during the ill-fated three man booth experiment.

Yes, I was on Raw... a couple of times to be exact as the PBP guy. In hindsight, I wasn't as good as I could have been because it was only later on that I learned how to prepare for a live show. During my time on Raw, it was JR, KK and Cole or "the Hat, the Heater and Todd Jr." as Vince Russo called us in Raw Magazine.

One night, in an effort to get a point across, JR jabbed Cole in the leg with a pencil. No pun there... literally poked him with the pencil. Cole and I laughed about it for years afterward. JR could shoot poison pencils like blowdarts and he couldn't get Cole out of that chair now. Cole deserves to be the lead guy on Raw....