Michael Cole

Sean Michael Coulthard (born December 8, 1968), better known by his ring name Michael Cole, is an American professional wrestling commentator. He is currently signed to WWE, where he serves as the play-by-play commentator for the Raw brand, color commentator for the SmackDown brand, and as the Vice-president of Announcing since 2020. Coulthard began his career in journalism in 1988 for CBS Radio before being hired by the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1997. He has performed multiple on-screen hosting and commentary roles across his two-decade-plus-long career. Early life and education Sean Michael Coulthard was born on December 8, 1966, in Syracuse, New York. He attended the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, graduating in 1988 with a B.A. in broadcast journalism. Journalism career Coulthard began his career in the media as a journalist, working for CBS Radio. His first high-profile assignment was to cover the 1988 US presidential campaign of Democratic Party nominee Michael Dukakis. In 1992, he reported on the presidential campaign of Bill Clinton. He also covered the 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in 1993, and the following year, spent nine months covering the Yugoslavian civil war. In 1995, he was also selected to cover the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. He returned to the presidential campaign trail in 1996 to cover the campaigns of Steve Forbes and Sen. Bob Dole.