Why do people enjoy promos so much?

[zephyrs]

This is pro wrestling, not debate club.

I prefer storylines to be told in the ring, not so much on the microphone. Don't get me wrong, it helps when a guy can explain his thoughts or actions, but I find 10 minute segments with guys just talking each other down pointless.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Without promos to build up the matches, the action can come off sometimes as random or, even worse, meaningless. Promos are essential to a wrestling feud telling a story. Otherwise, it's just two guys going in there and putting on a choreographed match. That's not to say that the wrestling action isn't essential, because we all know it is, but there has to be an underlying reason why these two, or however many men there are, are "fighting" against one another. People like to hear the "smack talk", they want to be able to root for one wrestler over the other, they want to be able to see the differences in who these two men are to some degree. Without the simple story of good vs. bad or like vs. dislike, then you really have no story no matter what else you do.

Also, promos are essential to helping wrestling fans make a connection with the wrestlers themselves. Without a personality to connect with the wrestlers who are in the matches, there's not a lot of incentive to watch. Sports that are 100% legit with outcomes that aren't pre-arranged don't necessarily have to rely on whether or not the athletes have a captivating personality or charismatic presence. What matters most are the results of those 100% legit sporting events. That's not to say that charisma is in any way a negative, not at all. However, take MMA for example. I'm not a huge MMA fan or anything but I know that, when it's all said and done, it's all about ultimately kicks whose ass. For instance, why do some consider Anderson Silva to be the greatest MMA fighter of all time? Because he keeps on winning. He's a completely legit fighter in completely legit fights. As long as he keeps on winning, droves of people will continue to support him and want to see him do his thing.

Stories told in the ring are important as well but, as I said, wrestling stars are ultimately made by fans connecting with said wrestlers. It wasn't necessarily always that way, but that's how it is now because of the changing tastes of fans. Back in 1982 and 1983 in the AWA, for instance, fans wanted to see Hulk Hogan come out there and do his thing with his bigger than life personality & charismatic presence rather than watch Nick Bockwinkel trade side headlocks for 20 minutes.

 

[LascoX]

I think Jack Hammer pretty much nailed it on why promos are essential to wrestling but I wanted to say I sort of see where Zephys coming from. Often some of the WWE' promos do seem to drag out far beyond their usefulness. It use to be promos were more direct and to the point and connected with the fans. Now we often get long drawn out ordeals in the ring that result in "Boring" chants. Sometimes the writers need to adopt the "Kiss" rule -( Keep it simple stupid ) instead of just drawing out long winded promos that we have seen time and time again. I am not saying we don't need promos by any means, just that sometimes we need more concise promos that serve their purpose and then get back to the action in the ring.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Promos are a crucial part of pro wrestling. Sure it is all about what happens in the ring in the end, but the promos make you CARE. Without promos how would you know going into the match who to root for? Faces try to gain support from the fans while the heels try to make the fans angry enough to pay money to see them lose. It isn't just about knowing who to root for, it's also a matter of generating interest in the upcoming match too. Without promos, why are they having a match? How do we as fans know what the conflict is? Why should I pay money on some random match that's just happening for no reason? Even if it's a title match if there are no promos it's nothing more than "hey you're the champion and I want your belt". To me that's BORING!

WWE, TNA, and all of the other wrestling federations are out there to make money. They have to make the fans care about the wrestlers and have a desire to purchase their merchandise or PPV events. Without promos there would be a significant drop in the interest of fans. Granted some promos do drag on a bit sometimes, but they do serve an important purpose and I have always enjoyed analyzing promos. Sometimes even more than the actual matches. Look at it this way.... in-ring ability can always be taught. Great promo skills are tougher to find. A wrestler could be as good in the ring as Bret Hart in his prime, but if he sucks at promos and does not have someone on the mic giving me a reason to care, then I'm sorry but I'm not going to. I need both promo skills (or a manager) AND in-ring ability.

 

[TBK]

Before I answer this, you wouldn't happen to be EVOLVE booker Gabe Sapolsky, would you?

In all seriousness, promos exist to help build up the match and because sometimes they're much better than the actual match. Really, without promos, all wrestling really would be are matches, and I guess some may like that, but personally I'd just find that boring. I enjoy storylines because they help me keep my attention sometimes. Just my two cents.

 

[e3mrk]

I always enjoyed Roddy Pipers promo's as He was really entertaining.
Rick Flair was good back in the day also I liked Dusty Rhodes.
Good Promo's seem to be a lost art anymore.

 

[The Butcher]

I'll give the OP the benefit of the doubt and assume he knows why promos exist. The question was why do people like them so much. Speaking for myself, I enjoy a good promo because it entertains me. Simple as that, and isn't that the point of the whole affair? I'd imagine most fans feel similarly. If all promos were boring, droning filibusters, I'd feel much differently, but that just plain isn't the case. Chris Jericho's face-off with Paul Heyman from Raw this past Monday was hands-down one of the high points of the show, IMO. If you can't get into a war of words like that, then I don't know what to tell you. Watch something else, maybe?

 

[miz2676]

Promos are a major part of the storyline it is a very important spot in a fued sometimes promos do run a little too long and go over board but most promos make or break a fued. Just using an example is Jericho and fandango there promos went from pretty good to very awful making their fued completely horrible but now Jericho is feuding with punk and the promo on Monday has already made this match a can't wait match

 

[The Boss]

I always enjoyed Roddy Pipers promo's as He was really entertaining.
Rick Flair was good back in the day also I liked Dusty Rhodes.
Good Promo's seem to be a lost art anymore.

That's because today's promo's are scripted. The old school guys had to speak from the heart. They had to play off the crowd when they spoke as well as when they wrestled. Their job was to keep the crowd involved. Today's guys (with a VERY few exceptions) don't know how to ad lib. They have to follow scripts (both talking and wrestling) and just hope the crowd will be into it.

It's for this reason that I still enjoy going to independent show to see the old guys. Because they know how to keep a promo short yet still say everything that is needed, keep the crowd involved and tell a story in the ring. Even if their in ring skills aren't what they used to be, their story telling abilities are often still far superior to today's guys.

 

[The Boss]

Chris Jericho's face-off with Paul Heyman from Raw this past Monday was hands-down one of the high points of the show, IMO. If you can't get into a war of words like that, then I don't know what to tell you. Watch something else, maybe?

That's exactly when I turned the channel. That promo went way too long. The boring chants were clearly justified. They talked about too much unrelated stuff. They could have kept that short and sweet instead of making more filler out of it.

And then of course there was another Kane/Bryan Danialson backstage segment were they talk about absolutely NOTHING to do with wrestling just so grey haired Hart can show up and whisper a few words that I couldn't understand.

All night (or at least until I turned the TV off for good) I kept saying, "Can we just get on with the wrestling?"

 

[Radical]

Promos are an important part of pro wrestling but they can a lot of times be over done.

That's why I like NXT so much. They have SHORT and SIMPLE promos and very basic storyline elements (like attacks in the back or after a match) and then they get on with some wrestling and tell the rest of the story in the ring.

To me a good promo a lot of times is when two guys scheduled for a match and the heel comes out and as they walk to the ring they start talking trash. That builds the 'heat' for the match in short and simple way.

Promos are important but long promos are a lot worse to watch than a long match. Fans would much rather a long match than a long promo so that's why fans chant "Boring" a lot during promos that drag on. They are saying "Ok, just get your trash talk in and get to the point where you make match, fight or make you final statement and get to the back again so we can get on with some wrestling!"

Wrestling fans needs promos to connect with the Superstars and make matches more interesting but most fans are smart enough they don't need a to hear a lot of trash talk to know two Superstars don't like each other. They just need to hear a few good jabs and then get to the point!

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

It's how your further your agenda as a character. The promo is how a wrestler's personality is judged. If a muscular, Ryback-looking guy goes into the ring, and destroys everyone, then he ends up talking about how he can't wait to hit the town and go shopping afteward, where does that take his character? He's certainly not a tough guy is he?

A good promo can convey how good or bad a feud or story will be. I looked forward to Stone Cold, The Rock, and others because they're best asset was their skills on the mic. Guys like John Cena, Ryback, and others are passe and sound generic compared to the previous era.

Promo's are essential to making wrestling entertainment and not just a soap opera with stunts.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

There is nothing wrong with preferring the actual matches to watching a 15 minute promo, and with the wrong guy on the stick a long promo can indeed get boring.

But wrestling is storytelling, and there is only so much of a story that can be told in the ring. The storylines are not always related to "i want to beat you for that belt", there are alot of personal touches and personal issues used as storylines, which can only be established through promos and the wrestlers talking to each other and the crowd.

Look at the Austin v McMahon feud, they only had an actual match after months of trash talk and promos, the famous Raven v Sandman feud in ECW where Raven stole the Sandman's wife and kid away- that wouldn't have worked at all without promos. Wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan would never have got to where they were without being able to show their charisma and crowd-working abilities on the mic.

Promos help the fans become emotionally attached on interested in a wrestler/storyline, and it helps to draw fans to the product and tv show. If wrestling was all about what happened in the ring without any promos many fans would lose interest in the product and the business would probably die out.

 

[Canadas Greatest]

I love a good steamy promo to build the tension between two burly men. It helps set the stage for the final encounter where they "leave it all in the ring". I'm excited just thinking about it.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

It's part of the story. I feel a story ends in the ring but promo's coupled with in ring work is what makes the story as a whole work, without promo's a story just isn't gonna work as well. You can't explain everything in the ring but you can explain everything in a promo.

Promo's help give the fans more of an emotional connection to storylines and characters in general. Since entertainment is such a huge factor in wrestling promo's are one of the things that help make things more entertaining. When you take a look at a feud like Dusty Rhodes vs. Ric Flair the only reason that feuds worked was because of the mic work in said feud. The matches themselves weren't that great (I love Dusty but not so much his in ring work) but the promo's were so awesome it grabbed the audience's attention and made that audience give a shit that these 2 were fighting.

What would Ric Flair be without promo's? Hogan? Piper? Heenan? If these guys weren't good on the mic they would never be talked about, they wouldn't be used as Avatar's and signatures on these forums, it would be as if they never existed. Promo's are the #1 tool for most wrestlers to get over. In order to become a big name solely on in ring work you got to be an absolute master in the ring, and even then it may not work out without promo's.

Think about going to a mall and someone from a kiosk and walks up to you trying to sell you a magnetized bracelet, the better that salesmen is the more likely you are to buy that magnetic bracelet, even though chances are you had no interest in buying it in the first. Promo's are essentially the salesmen of wrestling.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Well, without promos how would you would you know why these two are facing each other, or for that matter, why would you care ?? MANY more people will watch John Cena vs Chris Jericho for instance if we get a month of great promos back and forth promoting the match, explaining the basis for the rivalry, and setting up any pre match confrontations that may take place as a way of promoting the match itself.

Now take the same match up and elimninate promos which essentially eliminates all build up and promotion. Randomly match them together on TV. Watch millions of people watch another channel. And those two are legit name guys with fans who also could potentially put on a really good match.

Heck, back in the Attitude days, most RAWS were so heavy on Promos and backstage segments they hardly had time for wrestling matches, and most of the time when they did they were boring, predicable, and exceedingly short with no clear winner. If it wasnt for the promos no one would have been watching.

It reminds me of the story Ive posted before concerning one of my all time favorite Brett Hart matches, when he faced the guy known originally as Van Hammer on Nitro. Smooth, good pace, good selling, nice combo of technical wrestling and reversals alongside some brawling and more stiff moments, lasted over a half hour and was never boring. Unfortunately people tuned away in droves as Nitro's ratings bottomed during the bout. It wasnt because the match was bad, it was actually quite good. It wasnt because of the "Hart cant draw" excuse because even if he wasnt Hulk Hogan Hart was a very big name with a significant fan base. Remember how well the Jan 98 Souled Out PPV did, without Hogan, STing, or DDP, no major titles, hardly any noteworthy matches other than Savage-Luger which was a throw away feud, except Hart was making his WCW PPV debut in a well promoted match against Ric Flair. Even with all that going against it and competition for the wrestling fans money from the Royal Rumble that month, one of WWE's biggest shows every year, the event still drew very strong numbers, mostly because of Hart-Flair. Hart could draw in the right context, but this match vs Hammer was a viewership dud. Why ?

No promotion before hand, no promos setting up any reason these two should be in the ring. Worse, Hammer wasnt a major player in WCW so there was little doubt in anyone's mind who would win. Maybe WCW could have gotten strong numbers with an un-promoted thrown together match between Hart and another established Main Event Star like Savage, Luger, Sting, etc just on the basis you wouldnt know what to expect but the combo of no promos, no promotion, only one main guy, and 30 minutes later millions of wrestling fans had missed probably the best match on either Raw or Nitro all week.

Honestly guys, it's the storyline that makes you watch, and the promos set the ground work for that. The only thing the match does is provide a pay off to the storyline or provide a segue into the next story. Take that away and just have random guys wrestling each week for no reason and Raw's ratings will be lower than ever, by a wide margin!

 

[LSN80]

Promos are how we get into the heart of a character. We often know his motives, and reason for behavior, with logic.

Take CM Punk, for example. People praise his mic skills, and for good reason. But when he won his Slammy two years ago, and then attacked Randy Orton at the Rumble, how would we have understood his behavior without the actual promo? As a whole, wrestling fans have short memories, and many may not have remembered when Orton, a heel at the time, punted Punk, a face at the time, and cost him his first championship.

So what do promos add? They add the story to the storylines. Often times, what's done in the ring tells a great story, but the promos tell the 'why' as to what they're fighting for. Sometimes, it's as simple as one man has a championship and the other has it, but other times, it's a deeply personal issue. Imagine how different some of the great feuds of recent, let alone all-time, would have been different without promos to sell them.

Wrestling is Sports Entertainment. When done right, such as with the CM Punk's, the John Cena's, and Chris Jericho's of today, it's a big part of the entertainment value of the sport.

When you watch the NHL, NBA, MLB, or the NFL, teams hold (some)pre and post-game interviews and sessions with the press. What are they doing? Adding depth and character and connecting with the fans of their city. Often times, especially with teams that are rivals, they say things about each other to further that rivalry. Often times, they're used as bulletin-board fodder for their opponents. How is that different from wrestling, other then being real? While we have our hometown favorites and such, promos help us establish our favorites and those we revile. Actions and words, actions and words, they're what shape us as human being, correct? It's simplistic, but its the basic logic of who we are.

It's the same thing with wrestling. It's both the actions within the ring and the words they use that shape them as characters. And that's where the enjoyment of promos come in. They help provide motives into actions and depth into characters.

While there's no cure for an ailing product then wrestling matches itself, having a reason as to why they're fighting explained well through promos provides the complete product of entertainment within context of wrestling, and when done well, makes it so enjoyable.

 

[HBsam31]

Promos really help to get the story across. I, like the OP, like to see the story told in the ring too, but promos are absolutely need to get people invested more into the story being told. A lot of people hate the video packages before a big match, and those like promos if not used to excess can be really helpful in getting people pumped for the actual match. Think back to when The Rock was in his prime. When he and Austin were feuding those promos were top notch, and they only got me more excited for the match. I think they can be overdone, but if there were not promos I think wrestling would be very bland. Promos give the sports character that you don't get in other "real" sports.

 

[LoudClearVoice]

As others have said, promos help to build the feuds, stories, and characters themselves. Matches would just be too random if no one ever talked and two guys just randomly fought. What makes pro wrestling interesting and unique is the entertainment aspect both in and outside of the ring. Promos build our interest for the feud and match so that we're so excited to see how it plays out in the ring.

If there were no promos, how would it be any different than say, olympic wrestling?

 

[MCMG]

To be honest, I couldn't watch two hours of straight wrestling or in ring action. I just couldn't. PPV's are bearable but the matches are generally of higher quality and importance. Promos give the viewer something different and can be entertaining.

Of course generic wrestlers become boring when they speak but the majority are very good. I would rather watch 10 minuets of The Rock, Austin, HBK etc. speaking a random match between two ordinary guys. Look at the current program: guys like Cena, Sandow, Punk are able to deliver great promos and makes the program more enjoyable and gives a nice break to the actual wrestling.