Are WWE's Scripted Promos Ending?
Jerry Lawler suggests Paul Heyman is making significant changes.
Of the litany of charges levelled against WWE's modern-day product, perhaps the most vociferously sounded is that of the dreaded scripted promo. For years, it's been the same desperate refrain: allow wrestlers to let their natural charisma shine through, rather than the inhuman words of a room of writers, and maybe, just maybe, some of them well become stars. You know, in much the same way the industry was built.
Well, that may finally be happening. According to Raw announcer Jerry Lawler, speaking on Steve Austin's podcast, Paul Heyman's backstage stewardship of the red brand is seeing the scripted model gradually eroded:
"Now that Paul Heyman is sort of in charge of RAW, it's so much not the characters that are being predetermined by the writers or creative. They're giving the guys a chance to be themselves."
He concluded:
"Nobody was telling you, 'oh, this is how it [has] got to be.'"
Of course, tearing up the scripts won't end dud promos once and for all; not every member of the roster has innate talent on the mic just bursting to be exposed. But some embarrassing failures for the sake of a raft of potential new stars has to be worth it.