Sports entertainment is, at it's heart, storytelling. It's what makes wrestling so successful. Sure, we can all enjoy the obvious athleticism and appreciate the wrestler's in-ring talents, but the storylines are what keep the audience coming over time. "These two guys are wrestling each other tonight because their names were drawn from a hat" is not as interesting as "Wrestler A cheated to beat Wrestler B for the championship and punched his girlfriend after the match, and now Wrestler B wants revenge". We want the story of good guy vs bad guy, it's why we keep watching over weeks and weeks in the run-up to pay-per-views, where the storyline reaches either a milestone or its culmination. WWE has proven to be the best in the industry at this aspect, and more than anything else, they are the best at pre-match promo videos. Promo videos help to sell the story more than anything else. They sum up the events leading up to the match, explain the wrestler's motivations and hype up the audience to the point where they can't wait to see the good guy and the bad guy go at it. Here, we look at some of the best promo packages WWE ever put together. In some cases, the actual feud leading up to the match might have sucked, the match itself might have sucked. But if the promo is good, if it sells the storyline, if it builds the action, it can STILL get you excited to see it.
Stephen Maher has been a rock star, a bouncer, a banker and a busker on various streets in various countries. He's hung out with Robert Plant, he was at Nelson Mandela's birthday and he's swapped stories with prostitutes and crack addicts. He once performed at a Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras by accident. These days, he passes the time by writing about music, wrestling, games and other forms of nerdery. And he rarely drinks the blood of the innocent.
