Interviews/Promos
 

I'm presently making my way through the 1997 RAWs' and I am struck by the fact that most promos are cut with the presence of an announcer, be it Vince, JR, or Kevin Kelly. With these guys leading the segments, the durations are cut down and streamlined, they're is minimal rambling (except for HBK and Bret, of course), and the entire process is much better to watch and listen to.

Today, each show opens with an epic, long winded promo, and throughout the show the wrestlers are in charge of grabbing a mic, summarizing entire feuds and weeks'-worth of action, and try to win over a bored crowd. Part of me thinks that it is why Renee Young has such a good reputation: she is good at this job and the segments are much more enjoyable when they are to the point and anchored by a pro. Plus they seem much more natural and less contrived in this environment.

Thoughts?

I've done a lot of meditating on what a good promo should be, and I think I've pinpointed what misses the mark with a lot of modern talking segments in WWE: They're not promoting anything. What are they trying to achieve? What are they trying to sell?

It's bland enough that RAW always opens with a talkie segment now, but it was only a few weeks ago ("The Night of Firsts") when I realized -- "Holy shit, all of this is actually redundant." All of it. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon announcing the matches could have been done with bumpers at the start of the night. Seth Rollins would end up cutting a fine backstage promo with Renee Young about breaking Cena's nose. NONE of it needed to happen. It chewed up twenty minutes of television time with nothing, and anyone will tell you that is bad television. Not just bad wrestling; but bad television.

Guys will often do "storytime" now, instead of selling you on themselves, their opponent, their hatred for said opponent, a match or an event. Ambrose can talk, but it seems he spends most of the mic time he gets rambling instead of putting over the shit Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper are putting Roman Reigns through and have put him through in the past. Let him sell SummerSlam as a place that people will stop believing in Bray Wyatt two years after he first made his appearance.

The WWE wants its contracted talent to all be TV stars, and as a result, a lot of them lose their mystique as killers. Sheamus can talk comfortably and eloquently, but he sounds like a guy auditioning for a role in Smallville as opposed to a killer who is literally seconds away from becoming THE top guy in professional wrestling. He doesn't need to be sitting out there on commentary trying to refute Randy Orton's barbs.

And, on a related note, I sometimes wonder about the things we are conditioned to as wrestling fans that would simply be off-putting to a casual viewer switching over for a few minutes. It used to be things like there being two World Champions running around on both shows. It can be things in matches that don't make any fucking sense. Or it can be INVISIBLE FUCKING CAMERA MEN THAT CATCH EVERY DETAIL OF A PRIVATE MEETING!!!

This one has really begun to piss me off, and it's something that I just overlooked for years. But if I'm Micky Regular and I switch over to seeing Triple H and Stephanie McMahon plan with Seth Rollins on how to kill Brock Lesnar in front of television cameras, it can come off as bad Shakespeare. I'm going to think "That's stupid," and it actually insults my intelligence. That's why you have talent like Renee Young, Rich Brennan and Byron Saxton under contract -- so you can have guys walk in front of a camera and knowingly talk about what their plans are.

The exception to this is possibly Lucha Underground. Rules are meant to be broken, I guess, and they do a fantastic job of creating this mystical universe around their grungy wrestling. It's a part of the aesthetic of the entire product. I think that when the WWE does it (even though they probably innovated it), everything seems instantly hokey and those fans you are desperately chasing aren't going to waste their time with it. Where does reality end and reality television begin with WWE?

Managers returning would be a great thing. I know they want all their top stars to be able to talk, but it's going to make those amazing talkers stand out less. It doesn't fit the gimmick of certain guys to talk, and talk, and talk anyway. Having managers will have a lot of guys with motor mouths who CAN talk people into buying a show around who can punctuate a show and prevent too many guys from throwing words into the abyss.

I noticed the same thing re-watching all the Nitros on the Network a couple months back. Having Mean Gene there to corral Flair and Hogan and Hall and Nash went a long way to keeping promos on point and you very rarely had one guy/team/stable going on a long, pointless rant.

<font color=goldenrod>Yeah, having an announcer try to lead the promo is something I wish would come back. I feel like you can safely tune in to Raw 20+ minutes late and not miss anything except a promo.</font>

...that will then be played three more times during the course of the show.

It's some brutally archaic shit. Vince thinks "well this worked for me since 1998 so let's just keep it this way because fuck doing anything else" it is legit painful, and I don't understand how anyone can think it as even passable television, and as a man who takes pride in his product, how that's how you choose to present it.

I really enjoy the Michael Cole sit-downs.

They really need to do away with the opening promo and just have a dance number with all the rasslers. Darren Young can lead them all in dance.

An interviewer to lead the promo smoothly helps but I think the issue is more the writing and micro-managing of promos. Everyone sounds the same because there's some writer putting down the same basic thoughts for every guy instead of everyone letting their own unique personality come out. So boring.

Oh come on Shisen... Will you stop!

Excellent idea! He could trip the lights fantastic with Fandango. :D