Ah, the good ol' promo.
The same thing that will make or break a match or a feud. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that being able to cut a good promo is just about on a par with being able to wrestle a fantastic match. The truth is that you need to make people care about why you are fighting and cutting a world class promo is the most efficient and the most effective way of doing that. Make no mistake, there are good promos and there are terrible promos. And in much the same way as a good promo can make a match better, a terrible promo will often make the fans not care about the result of said match.
The wrestling world has seen so many great talkers that it is hard to pick just one to be my favourite but that's what this thread is going to look at. From Dusty Rhodes to Paul Heyman, from The Rock to Randy Savage: the wrestling world has been privileged to contain some of the most charismatic people to work in any level of entertainment.
So, in the fourth in my series of threads, I'd like to examine just what everyone thinks is the perfect promo. For me it is none other than this...
Yep, it's none other than the Pipe Bomb promo by CM Punk from 2011.
Like I said, there were tonnes of promos that I could have picked but I don't feel as though any come close to matching this. I remember watching this live and being thoroughly entertained. This promo was the thing that made CM Punk a breakout star. And I think there are a couple of things that make it the perfect promo. First of all, it was a shoot. A shoot against the WWE that aired on the flagship show of the WWE. Vince McMahon must have had a lot of faith in himself and in CM Punk that this would be handled correctly or it would never have happened.
Second of all, it came at exactly the right time. Punk had complained over and over that he was the best in the world and was getting no reward for it. His feud with John Cena around this time make him the biggest face in the company and the biggest face emergence since that of John Cena all those years ago. Punk went from being one of the most hated guys on the roster to being the biggest face in the business with a 5 minute promo. If that isn't a testament to just how effective a promo cam be in getting you over, then I have no idea what is.
Third, there is no one else in thus business that could have did this promo any better than CM Punk. It's a bit like the Full Metal Jacket mantra "without my rifle, I am nothing. Without me, my rifle is nothing". Instead, it is "without this promo, CM Punk is nothing. Without CM Punk, this promo is nothing". The content of the promo could only have been accepted by the fans under the right circumstances and from the right person. CM Punk was, undoubtedly, the right person. He hade made enemies in the wrestling world, that much was true. He was loud, outspoken and not afraid to burn a few bridges to get what he wanted. So when Punk started ragging on the WWE and all of the things that they were doing, it was just accepted that this was a shoot. Truthfully, this was the most perfect work.
Finally, this promo had the added dimension that people legitimately thought that it was Punk getting g his aggression out and going off script. People were talking for about this promo for weeks and what it could possibly mean for the world of wrestling. Little did they know that it was all orchestrated by the WWE to get people talking. Mission accomplished.
But what about you, what's the perfect promo?
The same thing that will make or break a match or a feud. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that being able to cut a good promo is just about on a par with being able to wrestle a fantastic match. The truth is that you need to make people care about why you are fighting and cutting a world class promo is the most efficient and the most effective way of doing that. Make no mistake, there are good promos and there are terrible promos. And in much the same way as a good promo can make a match better, a terrible promo will often make the fans not care about the result of said match.
The wrestling world has seen so many great talkers that it is hard to pick just one to be my favourite but that's what this thread is going to look at. From Dusty Rhodes to Paul Heyman, from The Rock to Randy Savage: the wrestling world has been privileged to contain some of the most charismatic people to work in any level of entertainment.
So, in the fourth in my series of threads, I'd like to examine just what everyone thinks is the perfect promo. For me it is none other than this...
[YOUTUBE]2OS9wZGb_3g[/YOUTUBE]
Yep, it's none other than the Pipe Bomb promo by CM Punk from 2011.
Like I said, there were tonnes of promos that I could have picked but I don't feel as though any come close to matching this. I remember watching this live and being thoroughly entertained. This promo was the thing that made CM Punk a breakout star. And I think there are a couple of things that make it the perfect promo. First of all, it was a shoot. A shoot against the WWE that aired on the flagship show of the WWE. Vince McMahon must have had a lot of faith in himself and in CM Punk that this would be handled correctly or it would never have happened.
Second of all, it came at exactly the right time. Punk had complained over and over that he was the best in the world and was getting no reward for it. His feud with John Cena around this time make him the biggest face in the company and the biggest face emergence since that of John Cena all those years ago. Punk went from being one of the most hated guys on the roster to being the biggest face in the business with a 5 minute promo. If that isn't a testament to just how effective a promo cam be in getting you over, then I have no idea what is.
Third, there is no one else in thus business that could have did this promo any better than CM Punk. It's a bit like the Full Metal Jacket mantra "without my rifle, I am nothing. Without me, my rifle is nothing". Instead, it is "without this promo, CM Punk is nothing. Without CM Punk, this promo is nothing". The content of the promo could only have been accepted by the fans under the right circumstances and from the right person. CM Punk was, undoubtedly, the right person. He hade made enemies in the wrestling world, that much was true. He was loud, outspoken and not afraid to burn a few bridges to get what he wanted. So when Punk started ragging on the WWE and all of the things that they were doing, it was just accepted that this was a shoot. Truthfully, this was the most perfect work.
Finally, this promo had the added dimension that people legitimately thought that it was Punk getting g his aggression out and going off script. People were talking for about this promo for weeks and what it could possibly mean for the world of wrestling. Little did they know that it was all orchestrated by the WWE to get people talking. Mission accomplished.
But what about you, what's the perfect promo?