10 Things WWE Did When It Was Huge (And Need To Do Now)
2. Afford Performers More Freedom
It's not going to happen. Vince McMahon cancelled Talking Smack, thus reinforcing the cynical notion that he is a control freak sitting atop his lonely castle growing increasingly more detached and bitter. The logic behind why it doesn't happen is impossible to parse. Really, there are only three possibilities resulting from handing a talent a live microphone.
1) Talent with genuine star potential grabs the brass ring through delivering searing promos.
2) We are treated to hilarious, immortal botches.
3) Nothing at all memorable is spoken...life goes on unaffected...much like what happens on most TV shows in 2017.
For how long must we endure patently scripted and unfunny zingers in contrived, staged segments? Is Naomi citing Bugs Bunny really going to help her forge a bond with the audience? The soliloquy method of addressing the crowd has become totally ineffective. Most every promo is penned with the same verbiage. Rotten cliches abound, but it's fine; as long as they are lampshaded with the words "You know what they say...", they're fair game.
To use a cliche of my own, "they say" a monkey, given enough time, is capable of rewriting the complete works of Shakespeare on a typewriter. The turgid ramblings on RAW confirm you can't say the same thing about WWE creative and Ric Flair's seminal 1980s studio interviews.