Michael Cole was recently a guest on Corey Graves' podcast 'After The Bell' in which he talked about a number of topics concerning his career in WWE. Below are the key highlights, transcribed courtesy of dogryan100:

Assuming he doesn't get hit by a bus beforehand, the Royal Rumble will be the 4th decade that Michael Cole has commentated a WWE PPV in.

Michael Cole initially wanted to be a sports commentator. His first job out of college was working with former WWE commentator Todd Pettengill to do local news, then moved onto radio, then ABC, then CBS, the rest is history.

Michael did some huge stories at ABC and CBS which included 3 Presidential campaigns, the Waco siege (ALL 51 days), 3 tours in the Bosnia Civil War, the Oklahoma City Bombing.

Michael misses doing news, in his final tour in the Bosnia Civil War he spent 9 months there, because it was meant to be 6 weeks but the Serbian rebels had shut the airport down so they were effectively hostages. To get water, every day they would have to take a gallon jug of water to the city centre where they would only turn the water on for one hour every day and they had to try and get as much as they could.

In his first year in WWE, Michael went to every single house show that year just so he could learn more about what the business is all about.

The first person that he worked with was Michael Hayes. He learned a lot from him. And then they stuck him in a car with JBL, Ron Simmons, Teddy Long, The Godfather.

When he first started, Kevin Dunn said it would take him 10 years to find his footing. He was correct.

It was when he moved from SmackDown to Raw (2008) that he finally felt like he understood it all

Says that for the period of time when they tried to make him the babyface and JR the heel commentator in 1999 is one of the worst cast decisions in WWE history.

Talking about how there is a subset of fans that don't like Cole, he feels like there were a lot that think that way because they see him as a replacement to JR and also because they didn't want him as a babyface over JR.

Vince McMahon decided that after his move to Raw in 2008 that well, Michael Cole is a sarcastic prick in real life, so why not capitalize on this backlash from the WWE Universe in him replacing JR and make him a bad guy.

About 10 years ago, Vince McMahon held a promo class at TV Tapings. Basically, he would have people come up and cut a promo. One day, he threw Michael up there with R-Truth. Apparently they stole the show, from this Vince realized that Cole is a prick and that he needs to do something with this.

When it was first decided to do the match with Lawler (which ended up with the WrestleMania match), one of the reasons they turned him into a major heel was that King through his entire career in WWE had never had a match at WrestleMania, and they wanted it, but they weren't sure how.

In order for him to learn Swaggers ankle (an-cole) lock, he needed a sparring partner, someone to practice. He practiced on a very young Matt Polinsky, also known as Corey Graves.

Now back onto the WrestleMania match against Jerry. Earlier in the day he and Jerry were in the ring going over some parts of the match, for some reason CM Punk comes running across the ring and delivers a knee lift that knocked out his front tooth. This was 4 hours before the match, there was blood everywhere, Punk started saying that he was so sorry he'll pay for the dental work he didn't know what got into him.

The moment that the glass broke for Stone Cold's entrance he realized that it was all real, and he was about to have a match at WrestleMania.

Cole was actually knocked out for a very brief amount of time after Jerry threw him head first into the anonymous GM laptop podium.

When he woke up he was in the ring thinking oh my god, what's happening, he looks up at Steve Austin and he's laughing his ass off. He asked Steve how much longer and he said "35 Minutes, son." Cole said "35 Minutes??? I can't breathe" so Austin handed him a piece of gum. Cole asked what the hell is he supposed to do with a piece of gum, Austin said chew it, it'll make you feel better.

Later on when Jerry is making his comeback, Jerry went to the top, delivered a drop kick, and knocked out his other front tooth next to the one that Punk knocked out.

When it all finished and he walked into the back, he went up to Vince and said "I think that went pretty good!". Vince's reply: "That is the worst thing I have ever witnessed in 60 years."