Promos have been an essential part of professional wrestling. If the actual wrestling is the steak, the promos and interviews add much-needed sizzle and put the "entertainment" in "sports entertainment." They are what separates professional wrestling from competitive sports. That's why being able to cut a good promo is so important developing "rasslers" into superstars. A good promo can give the fans a glimpse into the character of a wrestler, and possibly launch a career into superstardom. Just look at what amazing promos did for Steve Austin and CM Punk. They were good wrestlers with cult followings, but all it took was a single great promo to bring them to that next level where they were given opportunities to reign at the top of the company. Heck, even John Cena got his start by his amazing promos in his rapper persona. There's a serious art to delivering a great promo. It's extremely difficult to do public speaking in front of tens of thousands of people on live television with no second takes. This could lead to flubs or bombs. It's also very difficult to get the fans to keep hating you. Sometimes wrestlers step a bit over the line when they try to turn the crowd against them. So for every amazing promo, WWE has had a slew of awkward promos over the years, be they offensive, racist, boring, or just plain awful.
10. John Morrison And R-Truth Bomb - Raw April 8, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87kiq-V2XhE Today's wrestlers take a lot of flack for giving pre-scripted promos written by the creative team, but there are definitely some instances where a writer or two may have helped. Nowhere was this more evident than on Raw on April 8, 2011, in London England, where John Morrison and R-Truth went out there and completely died for four minutes straight. It was obvious they were ad-libbing as Morrison was trying to tell R-Truth that he is out of shape and a smoker. He gave such zingers as, "You got to hang out with Lady Luck, if you know what I mean." And after R-Truth said he was in the best shape of his life, followed by him going "bow bow bow bow-bow," Morrison delivered as monotone as he possibly could, "If that's the best shape of your life, I'd hate to see you at your worst." And when he dropped the bomb that R-Truth smokes cigarettes, Truth was interrupting him, and Morrison couldn't even get the verbal finishing blow in. The segment ends with R-Truth asking the crowd for a bottle of water and a cigarette. It may have only been four minutes long, but it felt like an eternity.
