Matt Dawgs
STOP - Promo Time
By Matt Dawgs
Oct 20, 2005, 16:47

Promo (n.): 1. A speech, statement, or interview by a wrestler or other performer to try to sell his match to the viewing audience. 2. A vignette or short video hyping an upcoming match or highlighting a certain wrestler.

A promo is an essential part of a professional wrestler’s repertoire. Without them, a wrestler is useless. If someone cannot deliver a money drawing promo. A promo so fantastic, they can sell a feud with a bitter rival on that alone and draw money because fans want to see the match they are promoting, then they aren’t a successful wrestler. Sure you need other talents to get by in this business. Charisma is an essential one too. But without being able to tell a story verbally and connect with the audience on a visceral level, then you aren’t going to draw as much money as your potential. A current example of this is World Champion Batista. He is a man who is oozing charisma. He is a man who has an incredible look. He is a man who is solid enough in the ring to get a passable main event match with the right opponent, under the right circumstance. But unfortunately for him, he isn’t able to deliver that one money promo. The who’s who of all time great draws were able to. Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, The Rock, Ric Flair. They can all deliver that one promo that makes you say wow. A promo so good, it gets etched into your brain and you remember it for as long as you live. Whether it is an excerpt from the promo that you use with your other wrestling friends or a promo that comes up in discussions when you talk about some of the all time promo men in the business. My best example, and in many eyes, the best promo delivered in wrestling is right below. Enjoy.

It came from ECW right after Mick "Cactus Jack" Foley turned on friend and student Tommy Dreamer and joined Dreamer's arch nemesis RAVEN.

CACTUS JACK: "I'm going to take you back to a very deciding point in my life-A time where I believed in something. A Time when my face, I thought my face and name made a difference. Do you remember the night Tommy Dreamer, because it’s embedded into my skull, it’s embedded in my heart, and it’s embedded into every nightmare that I will ever have.

As Terry Funk took a broken bottle and began slicing and dicing Cactus Jack, the pain was so much that Tommy, that I wanted to say I quit Terry Funk, I give up, I wave the flag and I'm a coward-just please don't hurt me anymore. "Then I saw my saving grace.

You see Tommy; I looked out in that audience and, my adoring crowd and I say two simple words that changed my life.

"Cane Dewey"

Somebody had taken the thought to make a sign that said, 'Cane Dewey". And I saw other people around as every moment in my life stopped and focused in on that sign and the pain that shot through my body became a distant memory-replaced by a thought which will be embedded into my skull to my dying day! Cane Dewey! Cane Dewey!

Dewey Foley is a three-year old little boy-you sick sons of bitches!!!!

You ripped out my heart, you ripped out my soul you took everything I believed in, and you flushed it down the damn toilet. You flushed my heart-you flushed my soul-and now it sickens me to see other people making the same mistake. You see, Tommy Dreamer, I have to listen to my little boy say every day, 'Daddy, I miss Georgia', and I'd say, 'That's too bad son', because your dad traded a Victorian house for a sweatbox on Long Island. Your dad traded in a hundred- thousand dollar contract, guaranteed money, insurance, respect, and the name on the dotted line of the greatest man in the world-to work for a scumbag who operates out of a little pissant pawn shop in Philadelphia'.

You don't expect me to be bitter? Tommy, when you open up your heart, when you open up your soul, and it gets sh*t on it tends to make Jack a very mean boy. And so I say to you-before I take these aggressions out on you, take a look at your future and realize that the hardcore life is a lie, that these letters behind me are a blatant lie, that those fans who sit there and say," He's Hardcore, he's hardcore, he's hardcore, wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire, you selfish son of a bitch!

But I want you to understand, Tommy, though he's hurt you time and time again, Raven wants you to understand that the hatred I have in here is not for you. No, far from it. You see Tommy, I'm not doing this because I hate you, I love you man! I only want the best for you, but when I hear that WCW called up your number and you said, "No thank you" well it makes my blood run cold, as cold as that night in the ECW arena.

And so I have a moral obligation you see Tommy I'm on the path of righteousness, and righteous men wield a lot of power. So if I have got to drag you by your face to that telephone and dial collect and say, "Hello Eric, it's me, Cactus, and though I know I've burned my bridge, and I'll never be taken back with open arms, I've got a wrestler who would gladly trade in his ECW shirt for a pair of green suspenders. Tommy, just think of that sound in your ear when Uncle Eric says, "Welcome home, Tommy Dreamer, Welcome home."

That my friends is a money promo. That is a promo that is never forgotten and places Mick Foley, the man who said it, in the upper echelon of people who can cut promos in wrestling. Now a little homework assignment if you are willing to accept it. In my section of the message board, I would like you to discuss your top 10 promo artists of all time in wrestling as well as a partial transcript (doesn’t have to be word for word) of your favorite all time promo. To the best of your memory. Have fun and see my list of my top 10 below.

1. Mick Foley
2. Ric Flair
3. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin
4. Arn Anderson
5. Jake the Snake Roberts
6. Paul Heyman
7. The Rock
8. Jim Cornette
9. Taz
10. Raven

E-Mail Matt at:

Matt@WorldWrestlingInsanity.com

RETURN TO THE MATT DAWGS PAGE