Promo Cutting Ability-Can it be improved upon???

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

So I just saw that I had made 60 posts but I hadnt made a thread as yet so here goes

I have heard this many a time,usually about great indy wrestlers."Oh so and so is a great wrestler but he will never be pushed by the wwe coz he is not good on the mic" or something like "He wasnt good but they should have given him more chances to cut promos.I'm sure he would have improved."

I have always been befuddled by this.I have always believed that cutting promos is just as much of a natural talent as being good in the ring.But I believe that the IWC always treats beind good on the mic as a secondary thing. For them if a guy is great in the ring he should be pushed no matter what.I have always believed that promo cutting is just as important as in ring ability.Its just as bad to suck on the mic as it is to suck in the ring.

Also people talk about improving their promo cutting ability.I for one have only seen one guy improve his promo ability.His name is CM Punk.But I think that with Punk it was more of a case of finding his character just like The Rock.Earlier too it wasnt like he was bad but he just wasnt special like he is today.No one else though.I have seen no one from Chris Benoit to Shelton Benjamin improve his mic skills.

So my questions to you are?????

Can mic skills be improved?If so give an example of a guy who has

Why does the IWC orgasm over a guy with great in ring skills but shitty mic skills but bash the guy with shitty ring skills and great mic skills?

I'm not gonna ask if mic skills are just as important as in ring skills because i know they are and I watch wwe each week as proof.

AND THATS THE BOTTOMLINE COZ THE RATTLESNAKE SAID SO

 

[Reddannihilation]

Can mic skills be improved?If so give an example of a guy who has

Yes, mic. skill can be improved. It's all about confidence and fluency with speech. You just need to take an acting class or a speech class. I do a lot of work that involves public speaking, althroughout school I was in plays, productions and I looked for opportunities to talk infront of an audience, that sort of thing builds confidence, it makes you comfortable when speaking out loud to large groups. More wrestlers need to attend acting classes or anything that makes them speak for extended periods of time infront of an audience, they need to learn to do it confidently and effectivley.

As for speech, fluency is important. Look at guys like The Rock, he himself credits his promo ability to his communications degree. Dusty Rhodes had a very noticeable lisp yet he cut fantastic promos because he knew how to use his voice effectively. Compare to a guy like Jack Swagger who hasn't taught himself to get around his lisp, with Dusty it never made you cringe when he got to the letter S, Swagger is down right awful at times.

You asked for examples, Steve Austin, Kurt Angle and John Cena. Steve was always good, from his days on A Flair For The Old to his ECW promos to his move to the WWF. But if you look he got more comfortable and better as time went on, same for Angle, showed up and was a tad bland, a few years later he was one of the best, John's another great example, his first mic segments sucked, "ruthless aggression" then he developed a way to communicate, he had his rapper gimmick which lead to his style today. Mic. Skill can be improved, but most guys are either too lazy or to dumb to do it.

Why does the IWC orgasm over a guy with great in ring skills but shitty mic skills but bash the guy with shitty ring skills and great mic skills?

Because they're dumb, wrestling is about characters if you don't have characters there's no reason to watch. There's a reason every major company in history has built themselves around guys who can speak well, it's the only way to build major fanbases. You can be the best submission wrestler ever, but if no one has a reason to cheer you beyond that, expect golf claps from a 500 person audience.

Honestly, why do people like in ring skills over mic skills? I don't know, being good in the ring is great, it's entertaining but it gets old very fast, looking at history the best guys never went overboard in the ring. Sure you've got your Angles and your Harts but they were just as good entertainers as wrestlers. A lot of people enjoy in ring work out of respect for the athleticism, that's great it's important to understand the work that goes into wrestling, but it's also important to realize that a lot of people can't just look at that and develop interest in you, beyond hardcore fans most people don't care how many suplex variations you can do, how many degrees you can turn in mid-air or how many holds you can transition into, they want to see who wins, who loses and who makes them care.

The only big reason I've ever found for people who claim ring work > character are people who only watch Japanese Pro-wrestling and ROH because the other brands are "too mainstream" those people are the wrestling equivalent to hipster douchebags.

 

[Coco]

Also people talk about improving their promo cutting ability.I for one have only seen one guy improve his promo ability.His name is CM Punk.But I think that with Punk it was more of a case of finding his character just like The Rock.Earlier too it wasnt like he was bad but he just wasnt special like he is today.

Shit example. Punk's always been special on the mic. His promo with Randy Orton in St. Louis was top notch. And how about his gem:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x65icm_raw-after-the-bell-71408-cm-punk-ta_sport

They should have aired that on Raw. Punk's always been great. People just have a moronic attitude about good guys. I can't explain that and it's a discussion for another day. Point: Awful example. It wasn't an overwhelming improvement.

Can mic skills be improved?If so give an example of a guy who has

Just about everyone improves on the mic. Guys like Jericho and Eddie who were always good got better over time. Kane's grown more comfortable over his recent push. Miz stopped sounding so forced on the stick eventually. Very few people remain where they started, skill-wise.

Why does the IWC orgasm over a guy with great in ring skills but shitty mic skills but bash the guy with shitty ring skills and great mic skills?

I can't speak for everyone else, so I'll speak for myself. Ring skills are part of what hooked me on wrestling. Seeing Shawn Michaels or Owen Hart throw the odd high flying move into the mix was the shit when I was growing up. Given that the majority of time on major shows (ie: PPVs) is spent on wrestling, ring skills stayed important to me. I need to care about guys to care about their work most of the time (which explains why I don't go crazy for puro; I just am not emotionally invested), so mic skills are important. But if they can't close the deal come match time, I'm not going to pay to see them or going out of my way to see them. Mic skills sell feuds that are often settled in a wrestling ring. You can be great at building a match, but I need someone to deliver when the bell. Otherwise, they're great mic skills are just being used to sell me garbage.

Anyhow, enough of this anti-smark devil's advocate bullshit. It's so played.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

first of all thank you for your comments.though it does make me a bit sad that only two people have ccommented so far.

@Reddannihilation

kurt angle is a good example.i agree kurt was a bit bland when he started out.austin was always pretty good imo but later it was just a case of finding his character.same with cena.he became the rapper and got the audience to finish off his raps.but i guess you are right when you say he was bland to start with.

@Coco The Monkey

first of all my attitude to smarks is not forced or an act.there are plenty of guys that smarks worship whom ive always found as ordinary.three names at the top of my head are chris benoit,shelton benjamin and tyler black.

second is i mentioned that punk was always pretty good on the mic.but some of his face promos felt forced to me.just check out his promo when mysterio was on sd with his daughter.he may have been good but after his recent work i am tempted to say that he may be among the top five heel promo cutters of all time.that was not the case before.i must mention though that i found him as very funny on nxt so i think he can be great as a smart talking babyface.

thirdly its not a case of favoring heels.the best promo cutter imo is a babyface ie the rock.so is the second best imo ie stone cold steve austin

fourthly from the time i have seen jericho and guerrero they have both been pretty good.ive seen them from wcw days and i dont see any drastic change in their mic skills

and lastly i never said ring skills are not important but that to me mic skills areequally important.why should i feel interested in two wrestlers who have no reason to fight.the story has to be there.if you want to just see two people showing off there athletic skills then you are better off seeing something like figure skating or gymnastics.

P.S.=hbk was great on the mic too and owen was okay as well.none of them were wooden so to say.

 

[Ultra Awesome]

Can mic skills be improved?If so give an example of a guy who has

Obviously, yes. Mic skills can always be improved. The more a wrestler gets exposed to the mic, the more practice they have. Practice, of course, leads one to get better. This applies to just about evereything in life. The more you practice at the given subject, the more you will improve over time. Ultimately, even [possibly] becoming one of the best.

When we look at it through a mic-skill perspective, the same effects apply. Wrestlers who are generally exposed to the mic more, often improve in their promos both in-ring and backstage. A perfect example of this can be [just as Coco The Monkey pointed out] the Miz. Miz wasn't all that special on the mic when he first started (his Tough Enough days and early WWE days prove my point). Granted, over time, he eventually reached the level he is at now, [arguably] gold.

Of course, Miz isn't the only one that has improved over time. Infact, just about everyone improves on the mic over time. If you want a more recent example, than I give you Kaval. When this guy debuted in NXT, he was horrible. His words that he spoke seemed so rough and forced. But as he got more mic time and exposure, he began to improve on the mic; even to the point where his words sounded more calm---the words easliy flowed right out of his mouth without much struggle. Sure, he still isn't exactly phenomenal on the mic. But in time, he'll get better; just as everyone else has.

Why does the IWC orgasm over a guy with great in ring skills but shitty mic skills but bash the guy with shitty ring skills and great mic skills?

This is where you are wrong. Just as people orgasm over guys with shitty mic-skills, they just as easily orgasm over wrestlers who have shitty in-ring ability compared to their mic skills. Want me to prove that? Alright, two words, the Miz. People mark out for the Miz a great amount---yet, in reality, he isn't all that special in the ring. Don't get me wrong, I am one of them, the Miz-Marks. I don't really care that his in-ring ability isn't that great; I am entertained with just about everything the Miz does. Eventually, over time, the Miz will get better in the ring, the Night of Champion's match of Bryan vs. the Miz proves my point.

To be a great wrestler, especially in a place like the WWE, you need BOTH great in-ring ability and decent mic-skills, because if you don't, you won't make it very far...

 

[Wade's Public Transit Bomb]

Mic skills can be improved. Confidence and content can always be improved. A more recent example for me has been Justin Gabriel. The guy admits that his English isn't the best and that he has stage freight when it comes to talking. His promos on NXT were pretty much nervously smiling and chuckling (which is very endearing as a babyface lol). On Raw, his first promo made him look like a Parkinson's victim. However, his last promo (which was 9/6/10 edition), his hands stopped shaking and his flow seemed better.


However, if the person doesn't have charisma, what is the point? Michelle McCool doesn't screw up her lines, but that doesn't mean she has good promos. It just means she remember her lines.

 

[The Crock]

Of course mic ability can be improved. You have to give the guy some significant mic time at house shows and events though. Mic ability is a hard one though, because even if a guy improves he'll never be as good as someone who is a natural on the mic, i.e. Chris Jericho or The Rock. The thing about those guys is that they were always good on the mic, they just improved a bit over time.

I'll agree with Coco on the second part, in ring skills are what got me hooked onto wrestling. In ring ability is pretty much the bulk of the product, or rather, was pretty much the bulk of the product. Nowadays there are many more "balanced" performers.

 

[Dr. Stinger A. Zoidberg]

Anything can be improved on, and that includes Mic Ability. I think the main way that a superstar can improve is by cutting promos at house shows. Not only will it give superstars the experience that they need on the mic, it will also give the fans at the house shows an opportunity to see something unique. People like John Morrison, Just Gabriel, and even Chris Masters could all use this opportunity. They can only benefit from it.

Although, some superstars get better over time. Much like The Miz, I was watching a video on Youtube a few days ago. It was when he made his first appearance on RAW as the host of the Diva's Search Competition. Poor Miz was making so many mistakes, and was so horrendous at cutting promos, that he was actually getting booed. Look at him now. He's one of the WWE's top stars, and rarely makes mistakes on the mic.