10 Legendary Wrestlers Who Couldn't Cut A Promo
6. Chris Benoit
An easy entry but an essential one, Chris Benoit was, to many, the archetype of a prodigious in-ring talent whose phenomenal wrestling ability wasn't reflected in his other performance skills.
Benoit's deficiencies are perhaps overstated. This is largely a consequence of how he was presented, as "no gimmick necessary" types who brag about being "the best d*mn technical wrestler" above all else will always attract such criticisms. Regardless, they weren't unwarranted. A natural between the ropes, Benoit was often robotic on the microphone, seemingly only capable of conjuring true emotion through his ring work or via stunning, cathartic moments like WrestleMania XX's conclusion.
As far as pure wrestling ability goes, Benoit was a worker without flaw. So ahead of his time that he would have stood out in any era, he was an intense, adaptive, and smart wrestler capable of drawing something memorable out of any kind of opponent, thanks to the same absurd dedication to his craft that would eventually contribute to his descent into monsterdom.