Speaking of character development, WWE has handcuffed its talent in the past decade or so by meticulously scripting their promos. The promo was once a great way for a worker to get over with the audience by connecting with them or making them angry. These days, the promo has become a lost art because so few workers are allowed to excel. The issue here is that you have the same group of writers writing everyone's promos, so all of them come off sounding exactly the same. You can't expect a failed soap opera writer to channel the spirit of Dusty Rhodes or Roddy Piper and turn that into something that Roman Reigns would say...it's impossible. If I were to ask you to think of the best promo guys of all-time, I highly doubt any of you would pick someone from the last ten years. The only exception would be Paul Heyman but he's given freedom that very few others are granted and has years of experience from the unscripted 80s, 90s and early 2000s. Think of how valuable the promo is in getting guys over with the audience. During The Rock's rise, he was average in the ring at best but it was his promo work that made audiences care. John Cena originally struck a chord with audiences with his battle raps which undoubtedly weren't written by some creative team made up of over-the-hill wrestlers and cheap entertainment writers. Let guys be themselves, it really is that simple.
