Josh Matthews

**The Hit Man** · 05-13-2013, 12:03 PM

Just watched last Friday's Smackdown there and during the main event match between Ryback and Jericho I noticed something a bit different from Matthews' commentary. He usually comes across as the guy who sits on the fence and calls it fairly down the line with occasionally defending the face. But he seemed to take on almost a heel persona when he called out Cole on being a 'homer' and likening his favoritism of Cena to JR's of Austin and then when Cole asked will Ryback win at Extreme Rules he gave an emphatic 'Damn right he will!'

Maybe I'm reading too much into this but do you think this is possibly a sign of a Josh Matthews heel turn? Are they possibly planting the seeds where Matthews makes some interference in the Last Man Standing match causing Ryback to win?

I know this seems pretty far fetched but this is the sort of unpredictability that has been lacking in WWE for some time now and could potentially be a great idea if done right.

**SouthernBlood** · 05-13-2013, 12:09 PM

YES! I saw this the other night too and was thinking the same thing, I for one like the idea, could be some kind of manager mouthpiece kind of thing even?

**ToiletBowl** · 05-13-2013, 12:13 PM

Maybe they want to go with a storyline where the newer guys are going to rise up against the old guard or something... Matthews over Cole, Ryback over Cena, etc... the change CM Punk was talking about?

**hiphopjunkie** · 05-13-2013, 12:25 PM

I loved it. hes always getting shut down by JBL. But i think they were just trying him as a heel commentator. good for josh.

**DK Wrestling Savior** · 05-13-2013, 12:48 PM

Originally Posted by ToiletBowl

Maybe they want to go with a storyline where the newer guys are going to rise up against the old guard or something... Matthews over Cole, Ryback over Cena, etc... the change CM Punk was talking about?

Not a bad idea...but the wildcard is...where would CM Punk fit in? He's not exactly new blood anymore, but he's sort of anti old guard. they could seriously build something nice with this.

**The Hit Man** · 05-13-2013, 12:59 PM

Originally Posted by SouthernBlood

YES! I saw this the other night too and was thinking the same thing, I for one like the idea, could be some kind of manager mouthpiece kind of thing even?

Yeah that's what I was thinking. Only thing is though, does Matthews have the charisma to pull off the heel manager role?

**Playboy Stevie V** · 05-13-2013, 01:22 PM

I'm old school and miss the lost art of Managers. I grew up where Heenan, Albano, Cornette, Gary and Jimmy Hart, Paul E, Akbar, Paul Jones, Freddy Blassie etc were running rough shot around their promotions and pushing talents without the best mic skills to the top and the Managers actually drew the majority of storylines and crowd reactions. I miss it.

It looks like the WWE is trying to revive this somewhat with AJ, Heyman, Zeb and Ricardo. I wouldn't mind seeing Matthews or even Striker be given some sort of managerial role. Matthews is young and can still wrestle from what I've heard. He can take bumps. Now can he rile up a crowd, I don't know. But I can totally see if he could a Johnny Fairplay type persona being placed on him, if the WWE wanted to push it.