10 Wrestling Promo Masters Who Never Needed A Script

7. Jake 'The Snake' Roberts

This list has already seen a couple of figures renowned for their rambling inconsistency, but one figure among them was handling the microphone in an entirely different, groundbreaking way. Jake 'The Snake' Roberts came onto the scene in the late 1980s, the heyday of Hogan, Macho Man and more, yet broke the mould with his dark, quiet charisma. Whereas heels of the era generally intimidated by emphasising their typically monstrous size with loud promos, Jake spoke in an unsettlingly low tone, coming across as far more dangerous than many of his larger contemporaries. He inarguably paved the way for every subsequent heel billed as 'intelligent', including Triple H, CM Punk, the latter-day Chris Jericho, and countless others. The gradual (arguably overdue) shift of emphasis from the volume of heel promos to their actual content can certainly be traced back to the innovation of Roberts. Although off the radar for many years while recovering from a great deal of personal demons, Jake returned in 2014 for his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame, and proved he hadn't lost an ounce of charisma with an incredibly moving speech. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzE9UgLGjWs