10 Best Wrestling Threats Of All Time
Fear And Loathing.
Rarely has funny equalled money in WWE, but The Rock's constant threats to turn items sideways to stick up his opponents' a*seholes drew dollars and laughs alike during the company's turn-of-the-century creative and commercial peak.
It set in motion an unfortunate turn of events in the years that followed in which all babyfaces had to be inferior versions of the 'Most Electrifying Man In Sports Entertainment' whilst all heels had to cower under the not-that-brilliant banter of the pretenders to his throne.
WWE's 2008 move to PG removed the swearing and anal insertion, but couldn't be blamed for a profound lack of ingenuity infecting the way wrestlers spoke to one another to build matches. Like a Marvel movie or a modern horror plot, Sports Entertainment had seemingly ran out of peril in an unnecessary quest for endless glib snark.
Fortunately, there has been a return to form for finding ways to make the fake fights feel real in recent years. Some wrestlers are sharp themselves, whilst some simply have the ability to deliver the cutting barbs fed to them.
In the case of one record-breaking titleholder, it was the former 'People's Champion' that brought out the best of both in him...
10. Punk Punches Up
CM Punk didn't invent the phrase and wasn't even the first wrestler to introduce it into a promo, but "Your arms are too short to box with God" was perhaps the finest ever use of it in an entertainment medium.
The biblical prose had been dropped in to a TNA storyline by Samoa Joe shortly before Punk's 2013 deployment (and years after rapper Nas had lifted the line for 2001's 'You're Da Man') but the fighting words were necessarily exceptional as the 'Voice Of The Voiceless' pitted his verbal dexterity against one of the best to ever hold a microphone.
In The Rock, CM Punk was forced to look up to and stare down a man bigger than him in both size and status, in and out of wrestling. 'The Most Electrifying Man In Sports Entertainment' was a Vince McMahon pet project-done-good, but his Hollywood smile rattled the cage of the embittered Champion that still found himself clawing for respect 400 days into a legendary WWE Title reign.
He earned that at least, before he lost his beloved prize. The line was a knockout blow on the night, even if 'The Great One' rebounded when they came to blows proper at the pay-per-view. Few have ever entered Rock's rarified air in a promo battle - Punk punched his way in and fought his way to victory.