Scripted Promos

[Guest Three minutes]

A lot of times we hear that WWE promos today are heavily scripted. For example the torch said during Keven Nash's ill-fated WWE run last year that he was hampered by having his interviews scripted. Nash aside, what do you guys think of the promos being so heavily done by writers today. Especially when you consider veterans liks Steve Austin are against this trend and when you consider that in my opinion you should really let these guys sink or swim on their own. Austin himself said that the promos done between himself and Vince McMahon in the heyday of their rivalry were improvised. I think personally, the old format of the wrestlers being given bullet points and going from there would be better, even if the argument that could be made is "it's all about the delivery". That can be tru, but I would feel better if the words came from the wrestlers themselves. On that note, since I don't know, anyone care to guess who is not scripted or who is scripted less today. My guesses would be Austin, Foley, HHH and Cena.

[Papacita 0]

The idea of scripted promos has always been one of my main problems in recent years, because nine times out of 10, the writers don't give the wrestlers any dialogue that's unique to their character, and as a result, the majority of promos (outside of the top tier guys) come off bland. That's one reason why none of the new guys (aside from Cena, and that's mainly because he writes his own stuff) are able to get over, because they don't have a distinct style that allows fans to identify them.

 

Another consequence of this is that writers tend to take wrestlers out of their element and give them promos that really don't fit their character...for instance, RVD's Flair imitation from 2002 (haven't seen it, but I heard it's horrible).

 

Scripting isn't necessarily a bad thing, because at least when you've got something concrete, you're less likely to screw it up, but if they're gonna script promos, they should allow wrestlers themselves to have more imput on what's said.

[haVoc 0]

Plus, to cut down on politics and shoot style promos. Some wrestler begins to get too over with their own stuff and others get paranoid and jealous. Including the actual writing team who feel like their the puppeteers and the wrestlers are their puppets and toys. They need to show their power.

 

Or, X wrestlers cuts a promo on Y wrestler and X takes it a little too far then Y throws a fit and runs to Vince.

[Guest Three minutes]

I agree with both Papacita and Havoc. It also seems to me that the WWE wants its television shows to be like "real tv shows". Meaning like a sitcom or a drama and that's why they've been interested or hired soap opera writers. On those shows all the lines are written for the characters and that's what WWE is going for too. But, when I'm watching Raw for example, I'm wondering how much of a Randy Orton promo is his own words. Maybe a sentence a week? Maybe? Again delivery is important too (not to say Orton always delivers great-he's ok), but the words should be his own or more his own. If he had more words of his own last week he would have seemed as upset as he should have been when Foley brought up the AWOL deal

[razazteca 0]

Randy Orton can read cue cards as well as Trish can fake cry.

[Guest Goodear]

I think the talking in WWE took a real nosedive when they went away from the "Superstars" style of show. As I'm sure some of us might remember, those shows were chock full of wrestling promos that were designed to get people to head out to the local arena and buy a ticket. Everyone on the roster from Hulk Hogan to Thw Warlord got to blab for a bit about their opponent for the week for a few minutes before they got back to the jobber squashing. This is not to say that those promos were really all that important, but they gave the guys a chance to talk in front of a screen and work on their ability to talk. Nowadays, you sit someone the crowd doesn't care about and have them try to talk and you're sentencing them to death. The boys simply need to learn how to talk just as much as they need to learn how to work. The scripting would be such a smaller issue if guys like Brock and Orton had gotten a chance to develop their voices outside of doing it in front of a live studio audience.

[Guest Loss]

Something that could go a long way in this would be to do taped promos to air on the weekend shows, and once they master that, they can talk in front of a crowd.

 

Not to mention that it would be a good way to hype upcoming bigger matches the following week, thus not making the weekend slots recap shows with jobber matches.

[Downhome 0]

The more of the business that you take away from "the boys", the more the business as we know it dies.

 

That's my opinion on it.

[iamsherm 0]

I think personally, the old format of the wrestlers being given bullet points and going from there would be better, even if the argument that could be made is "it's all about the delivery".

I learned in Advanced Public Speaking last semester that this type of extemporaneous delivery is best. The theory is if a speaker memorizes a presentation word for word, you run the risk of disaster - should you be distracted - because it's very hard to get back on track and remember what you needed to say. Obviously, in wrestling, the crowds are a very big distraction with the chants and boos and what not. A wrestler can certainly try and ignore the crowd, but of course, the lack of interaction would soon equate to a silent crowd.

 

In an era where "reality" TV dominates ratings largely based on the fact that the characters don't have a script to work with, one would think this would be common sense.

[Guest JumpinJackFlash]

HHH definately doesn't do scripted promos. What writer would be caught dead backstage writing this?:

 

Hello, Hello Hello, Doo Doo, Hello, HELLO! HELLOOOOOO! HELLOOOOOO! Hello, hello, hello, Hello, Hello! Hello, HellOOOOOO, Hellooooo, Hello! Hello, Hello! Hello! Hello! HELLO! Hello! Hello, Hello, Hello! I didn't know Goldberg made microphones! They don't work either!

[Guest Corino 1000]

Wrestlers should be given an idea on what they say. Not totally scripted! Wrestlers should say what they think about the situation like Austin did in ECW.

[Guest Loss]

One of the main problems is that creative spends more time scripting lines and doing sketches for skits than they do thinkingfabout who should win, when it should happen, and how they should get there. They'd make things easier on themselves by letting the wrestlers do their jobs.

Edited February 18, 2004 by Loss

[Austin3164life 0]

It is a big problem in the business today, because with scripted promos, like Papacita said, the script does not come straight from the character of the worker usually, and they come of as completely uncharismatic. I believe Cena gets to do his own material when he raps, and look where that's taking him. They need to just go over what the main guidelines are, and have the wrestlers try and improvise the details as to how to get those guidelines over. At least that way they'll feel more comfortable on camera, and perhaps they'll get the storyline, and themselves, over.

[Guest JumpinJackFlash]

I give wrestlers mad props, though, for getting in front of thousands of people, and talking. They're surrounded, not like when you give a speech and no one is behind you. I've been thinking of what I would say if I were a pro wrestler. It's pretty hard for me to do so, so I guess I think it's a big accomplishment to just go out there, like Garrison Cade, and say 10 words on "dedicating this match to the troops."

[Guest Three minutes]

Actually Scott Steiner can be seen as a poster boy for both arguments. Steiner is obviously at his most effective when he is allowed to be the loose cannon and say what comes to his mind, even if it's not the most polished or technically good promo there is. On the other hand when Steiner is left to his own devices we get statements like the one he gave to HHH in December of 2002 when he said something along the lines of "You don't have the longest arms in the world and you will never have the largest arms in the world as long as I"m around." That was kinda out of nowhere and if I'm not mistaken was edited out of every recap that was done of that whole promo. So it can be argued that Steiner needs a specific every word written outline of his promos although I would disagree