10 Best WWE Insults Of 2017

It has been said before that words, unlike sticks and stones, can never truly hurt you.

That may be true for the majority of the population, but in the world of professional wrestling, the ability to humiliate your opponent with what is colloquially referred to as a "sick burn" is pretty much a prerequisite of making it to the top. It's especially important in WWE, where much of the three-hour Monday Night Raw running time is taken up by mere talking as opposed to action. If you can't come up with some zingers - or at least deliver the ones the creative team write for you with confidence - you're in big trouble.

Last year, and in particular the autumn feud shared by John Cena and Roman Reigns, perhaps illustrated this point better than ever. In 2017, the loudest and most excitable reactions elicited from the crowd were less likely to be in response to a jaw-dropping move, than they were a mic-dropping put-down.

The purists will probably find that a little depressing, but this is the so-called "reality era" after all - and nothing feels more real than watching wrestlers go below the belt.

To most fans, the feud shared by John Cena and The Miz at the beginning of the year was a forgettable one. The sneaky suspicion we all held that it amounted to little more than a vehicle for Cena to propose to Nikki Bella at WrestleMania just couldn't be shaken (with good reason, as it turned out).

But there were one or two memorable moments in the build-up to The Grandest Stage of Them All, most of them coming courtesy of Big Match John, who appeared to be afforded a freedom on the mic that his normally razor-tongued counterpart simply wasn't.

In a way, that makes the inclusion of this one on the list a little unfair, but we're going there anyway. Cena telling Miz that his films are just "bootlegged copies of movies [he] already made" is just too funny - and, frankly, too accurate - to ignore.

Contained within that line is also a pretty good point. WWE's franchise player has taken a lot of flak for moving to a part-time schedule because of external filming commitments, but a whole host of his colleagues - Miz included - have done the same in recent years.

Cena just gets offered more roles.