Big Pete
Referee
- Messages
- 29,246
Hmm, I disagree on Batista. For the bulk of his career I'd agree, he was cutting Sid Vicious esque promos, but as soon as he turned heel he was cutting these awesome promos that almost made me feel bad he was leaving. Similar story with Henry, when he was just being the smiley big guy, nobody outside of his family and maybe Vinny Mac cared about him, but when as soon as he turned heel he's become one of the most respected personalities on the show from all markets - it's amazing to think the IWC has accepted him, but they have and he deserves it.
And then you see guys like Jack Swagger, there's some real potential in Swagger, he's cut some funny promos in the past, but over the past 12-18 months he's given very little mic. time to really establish himself. I also think that's true for a guy like Ziggler and Orton who have impressed me outside of the WWE. Even within the company though, Orton has impressed me on the few off occasions, his Orton updates in late 2002/03 made him stand out and I recall back before HHH ruined his momentum at Mania, he was cutting promos that were being heralded as some of the best in years.
You bring up a guy like Venis, and I definitely disagree. Don't get me wrong here, Venis had personality but the wrestler who portrayed him, Sean Morley, had little. Outside of cutting his generic shallow gimmick promos, can you remember one decent promo he had?
Heck, even D-X post Michaels only really had Road Dogg. Even Triple H, is fairly limited. He might have 1-2 decent lines, but the rest of the promo comes off as filler or damages the company and if you think about it, his best promos were usually carried by somebody else (Michaels, Dogg, Steph, Flair) , or was against somebody else (Rock, Austin, Foley, Punk etc.) who could carry the promo. The likes of X-Pac, Chyna and Gunn were carried in that group, promo wise.
But getting back to Venis and gimmick promos, they don't prove you have personality. Case in point, John Morrison. His Shaman of Sexy gimmick had everybody convinced he was the next HBK but when they were trying to loosen the gimmick to broaden his appeal; suddenly people realised how boring he really was.
And then you see guys like Jack Swagger, there's some real potential in Swagger, he's cut some funny promos in the past, but over the past 12-18 months he's given very little mic. time to really establish himself. I also think that's true for a guy like Ziggler and Orton who have impressed me outside of the WWE. Even within the company though, Orton has impressed me on the few off occasions, his Orton updates in late 2002/03 made him stand out and I recall back before HHH ruined his momentum at Mania, he was cutting promos that were being heralded as some of the best in years.
You bring up a guy like Venis, and I definitely disagree. Don't get me wrong here, Venis had personality but the wrestler who portrayed him, Sean Morley, had little. Outside of cutting his generic shallow gimmick promos, can you remember one decent promo he had?
Heck, even D-X post Michaels only really had Road Dogg. Even Triple H, is fairly limited. He might have 1-2 decent lines, but the rest of the promo comes off as filler or damages the company and if you think about it, his best promos were usually carried by somebody else (Michaels, Dogg, Steph, Flair) , or was against somebody else (Rock, Austin, Foley, Punk etc.) who could carry the promo. The likes of X-Pac, Chyna and Gunn were carried in that group, promo wise.
But getting back to Venis and gimmick promos, they don't prove you have personality. Case in point, John Morrison. His Shaman of Sexy gimmick had everybody convinced he was the next HBK but when they were trying to loosen the gimmick to broaden his appeal; suddenly people realised how boring he really was.
