WWE Using Less Scripted Promos On Raw And SmackDown?
Are the company finally letting go of this much-criticised practice?
Scripted promos remain one of the most prominent complaints surrounding the modern WWE product, but it sounds like the company may finally be softening their policy.
This comes from Dave Meltzer in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, who writes that the promos prepared for Sasha Banks, Bayley, and Rey Mysterio for this week's Raw weren't done with the usual word-for-word scripting.
Rather than being handed a script to be read verbatim, WWE did it the old way, providing wrestlers with a list of key bullet points to hit in their own words. Meltzer notes that this has been the case for Kevin Owens and Daniel Bryan on SmackDown for a while.
Though there's no indication that WWE are set to abandon scripted promos outright, the writeup notes a movement within the promotion to adopt the bullet-point approach for as many wrestlers as possible. Raw gave them plenty of supporting evidence. Banks and Bayley both came off more natural on the stick, though Rey's interview was easily the biggest highlight, with the veteran sounding more convincing than ever through his impassioned spiel.
Let's see if this continues on television going forward.