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WWE needs to keep Rousey away from the mic

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WWE needs to keep Rousey away from the mic

Postby Messiah » Mar 28, '18, 10:43 am

It made sense at first to have Rousey talk. She needed to introduce herself and establish what kind of character she was going to be. But she is terrible at speaking to a live audience. Either that or she's insanely awkward.



The tone of her voice nor her facial expressions ever seem to match what she is saying. It is almost as if she is reading directly from a script. To compound that, she always takes long pauses between what she is saying. Not in a mid to late 2000s Orton kind of way either. More of a "what do I say next?" kind of way.

Side note: Angle used to be one of the best promos in wrestling. Very underrated. Now he's horrible. Like he is just going through the motions. I'm not sure he likes being a general manager much.
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Re: WWE needs to keep Rousey away from the mic

Postby The Legend » Mar 28, '18, 11:06 am

It's not just promos for Rousey, she did a circuit of shows on ESPN to promote Mania yesterday and was pretty much awkward and uncomfortable on each of them. The worst case was her show on Golic and Wingo, look it up if you haven't seen it, totally cringeworthy.

As for Angle, the drugs and injuries I think are taking a toll on him as well, he's just struggling as he gets older.

However, back to Rousey, it's a growing trend for WWE that's a problem. They need more than ever a re-introduction of managers designed to help promote stories, because the elite athletes they have almost all suck at promos. Here's a list of people in WWE I hope never cut a promo again and the WWE finds managers for ASAP:

Akira Tozawa
Alicia Fox
Asuka
Baron Corbin (He kinda gets away with it with his character though)
Big Cass
Brock Lesnar
Charlotte (I find her pretty uncomfortable, no matter her character)
Harper/Rowan
Kalisto
Lince Dorado
Mandy Rose
Natalya
Nia Jax
Rousey
Rusev
Sarah Logan
Nakamura
Sin Cara
Tamina

That's almost 1/5 of the roster that sucks on the mic and has significant limitations when it comes to telling a story, including a significant portion of performers that WWE would like to be the top stars in the company. They need new ways to get these stories over and managers might just be the trick.
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Re: WWE needs to keep Rousey away from the mic

Postby Str8Shooter » Mar 28, '18, 11:21 am

^^^

Most of the people you mentioned are minor players who barely even speak as it is. And several of them English isn't their first language. Those workers are going to struggle having to speak any sort of longer dialogue until they learn the language and it becomes second nature, which could take years.

Disagree strongly with Rusev as well.

Back on point, Rousey isn't used to speaking words written for her in front of a live audience. Doing a movie with numerous takes to get it just right is much different. She shouldn't realistically be on TV anyway, she isn't ready in the ring or on the mic. But they signed her in part to use her fame and her brand to hype Mania and the company, they can't exactly have her working at the Performance center and doing the Florida NXT house show loop.
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Re: WWE needs to keep Rousey away from the mic

Postby PorkChop » Mar 28, '18, 2:44 pm

She reminds me of John Morrison on the mic. Momentary bouts of amnesia, awkward facial expressions and a crippling sense of self-awareness.

I can't remember what movie it was (probably as it was shite) but her role was re-cast as she was basically a terrible actress. If she can't get that right, I'm not sure what WWE were expecting when putting her in front of a live audience and millions of viewers at home.
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Re: WWE needs to keep Rousey away from the mic

Postby The Legend » Mar 28, '18, 2:53 pm

Asuka
Corbin (WWE would love for him to be a major player)
Big Cass (after injury return see Corbin)
Brock Lesnar
Charlotte
Nia Jax
Rousey
Rusev
Nakamura

That's 9 or 10 guys and girls that either are a major part that gets time on TV every week or the WWE wants them to be and they can't talk.
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Re: WWE needs to keep Rousey away from the mic

Postby Str8Shooter » Mar 29, '18, 11:56 am

Lesnar is always with Heyman who is a great talker so I don't see why he's even on there.

I agree with some and disagree with others. But most of the people you just mentioned are pretty over, despite you're accusations of poor mic skills, so something is being done right. at least it doesn't seem to be affecting them.
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Re: WWE needs to keep Rousey away from the mic

Postby The Legend » Mar 29, '18, 12:14 pm

Str8Shooter wrote:I agree with some and disagree with others. But most of the people you just mentioned are pretty over, despite you're accusations of poor mic skills, so something is being done right. at least it doesn't seem to be affecting them.


It's one thing to be over, it's another to be able to convey an interesting and entertaining story and angle that explains why you will eventually have a match with someone. Nakamura can't live off of just saying knee to face as the only story he can tell. Asuka's only story can't be if X is ready for Asuka. Charlotte, Jax and Rousey as three of the prominent women have stories that suffer because they can't convey anything successfully. I don't care if they can have a 4* match every time in the ring from an action stand point, if they can't hook me from week to week and get me to buy into the emotion of their match they won't stay over long.
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Re: WWE needs to keep Rousey away from the mic

Postby Hanley! » Mar 29, '18, 1:06 pm

Rusev is great on the microphone, I completely disagree there. I'm baffled as to how he's made your top 10 worst list. The guy has natural comedic timing and is, if anything, underused in a speaking role.

I agree on everyone else. Asuka is great when you give her two lines to say, but when you give her a proper in ring promo it just doesn't work. She's the last person in the company who needs to cut in-ring promos to get over anyway, so I don't know why they make her do it.

Not everyone needs to be a great talker. Not if they have other skills to bring to the table. WWE focus too much on long in-ring promos these days. Wrestlers can get over through their matches, through angles, through backstage segments. You don't need to be able to cut a Triple H 20 minute opening promo to make it as a star in wrestling.
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Re: WWE needs to keep Rousey away from the mic

Postby The Legend » Mar 29, '18, 3:42 pm

Hanley! wrote:Rusev is great on the microphone, I completely disagree there. I'm baffled as to how he's made your top 10 worst list. The guy has natural comedic timing and is, if anything, underused in a speaking role.

I agree on everyone else. Asuka is great when you give her two lines to say, but when you give her a proper in ring promo it just doesn't work. She's the last person in the company who needs to cut in-ring promos to get over anyway, so I don't know why they make her do it.

Not everyone needs to be a great talker. Not if they have other skills to bring to the table. WWE focus too much on long in-ring promos these days. Wrestlers can get over through their matches, through angles, through backstage segments. You don't need to be able to cut a Triple H 20 minute opening promo to make it as a star in wrestling.


Rusev isn't in my bottom 10, I put him in my bottom 20, the 10 was just showing how many are guys that WWE want to really push that can't talk. I mean WWE thinks so little of his speaking they attached Aiden English to him. As for his comedic timing, maybe you're right, although comedic timing should be way down the list of skills his character should have.

As for Asuka and Nakamura, you know what I think I'd do with them, I'd make it a more professional setting, every time they need to talk I'd have them in an interview/press conference setting and just have them speak Japanese with English subtitles. It'd be something completely unique that I don't think WWE has done before, would allow them to be more natural and complex in what they are saying and get the point across better.

As for everyone not needing to be a great talker, you're right you don't have to be great, but you have to be some level of competent and compelling. WWE sells their matches on stories, you need to be able to tell the story, there's plenty of guys that were great in the ring whose ceilings were limited thanks to their talking. Bottom line is you need to be dynamic and if all you've got is matches the WWE audience will tire of you.

I also agree that the WWE needs to modernize the way they tell stories and utilize promos. They have basically been using the same weekly format for RAW since the Attitude Era, most of their opening 20 minute promos would be better served being chopped and mixed into 3-4 small segments throughout the show. They also should do more things where it's more than a promo, have the characters do something that's visually interesting, instead of standing in the ring, more often. The best and most memorable promo moments of my time watching wrestling, pretty much all involve some sort of activity to go along with the words (IC belt being thrown off a bridge, HBK throwing Jannetty through the Barber Shop window, etc).
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Re: WWE needs to keep Rousey away from the mic

Postby Hanley! » Mar 29, '18, 4:19 pm

Not only do you not have to be a great talker, I don't think you have to talk at all. The only thing that's really consistently important is being able to get your character across and tell stories. If you can do that, then it doesn't matter how you do it. If it's in long promos then great, if it's something a little different that's even better.

Asuka is a good example of someone who doesn't need promos to get over, because she has tons of personality without having to speak, and can tell a story based on body language alone. Pete Dunne is another guy who's great at this.

I couldn't agree more about WWE freshening up their promos and segments though. Too often it just feels like they're filling time. Segments should feature some type of action more often. Those are the segments that we tend to remember, because something tangible was taking place.

There are a hundred ways you could make talking segments more visually interesting too. Like you said, foreign performers could speak at press conferences and use translators. They could show training footage for some of the more athletic guys. Use unique locations for particular characters. Splice together recorded footage for other characters (like the old nWo promos). Have some of the larger than life guys cut 80s style promos directly into the camera.

Anything would be better than wrestlers standing side by side, facing the same direction while having a fake emotionless conversation, with a robotic interviewer hovering around at the side of the frame. The long in-ring promos aren't much better either.

I was home from work on Tuesday morning so I skimmed Raw for the first time in a long time. Heyman - who many would call the best talker in the company today - opened the show with a long talking segment. It bored me almost to tears. Heyman's delivery is really good, but when you spend 20 minutes saying what any normal person would have said in 2 minutes, it doesn't matter how good the delivery is. It's going to drag.

He wasn't even using that promo time to tell a story. He didn't say anything that added a hint of dimension to this feud going into Wrestlemania. He literally was just filling time. He was prattling on about how Reigns wasn't going to be there that night, and eventually Reigns just showed up. Literally nothing was achieved until the beat down that concluded the segment.
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Re: WWE needs to keep Rousey away from the mic

Postby KaiserGlider » Mar 30, '18, 10:01 pm

Concerning Ronda on the mic: the problem stems from the fact that they've been presenting her too much as the happy, smiling girl who is "just happy for this opportunity". There's been couple segments now where she has had to cut a promo in front of a live crowd where she says that she's been a WWE fan all her life and just wants to prove that she deserves this spot. So she smiles and laughs awkwardly and tries to interact with the fans, and it often ends up just looking like she's trying too hard - which she is, because she's new at this.

But there was this segment a few weeks ago where Ronda just stormed out to the ring with a scowl on her face and called Stephanie out and told her to apologize for slapping her or she was gonna rip Stephanie's arm out of her socket. It was short and concise, the crowd popped at the lines, and Ronda looked serious and convincing. It worked. That's how they need to book her - as a total badass. In the beginning of her run it did make sense to explain that she is a WWE fan and was grateful for the chance, but it quickly became obvious she didn't have the mic skills to be cutting those kind of babyface promos all the time. What made Ronda a badass in the first place and makes her unique now is that "I'm gonna fucking kill you" look she can put on her face at the drop of a dime.

Outside the ring, on talk shows or whatever she can still be nice and to play with the crowd, but on the shows she needs to be the female Goldberg (WCW version) that is all business and destroys people in 30 seconds. Someone that is truly feared and/or respected by every female on the roster. Cause I don't think anybody else has that kind of character now. Asuka is the best badass they have, but she dances and likes to put on a show too. Nia Jax is supposed to be a dominator but she hasn't made much of an impact in the women's division. I think if they book Ronda as total destroyer most of the time, they can play to her strengths while still letting everybody know that she's one of the good guys and approachable - which is clearly what they have been wanting to establish.
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