For this weeks column, I decided that it was time to get into another part of the creative aspect of wrestling, specifically the promo. What makes a promo great? If that question could be answered easily we would have a hundred Rocks running around making everybody wet their pants with laughter. Unfortunately it is not that easy to answer. If I may paraphrase a line from the great Roddy Piper, just when you think you have all the answers, the questions are changed. Because WWE, TNA, and most every other wrestling organization comes across on television as a variety show (go to TSL #5 for more on that), the promos will also be just as various in their tone, objective, and interactivity. Whether Triple H is telling Vince McMahon to suck it, or whether Samoa Joe is telling it like it is to the TNA audience, every promo has its own unique style and approach that fans will either love or hate. The ones we love will live on forever in the annals of Youtube while others will be forgotten the very next night. Ironically, sometimes the worst promos are the ones that we remember the most just because of how stupid or incoherent they were at the time. I still get a laugh every time I hear Sid Vicious or Scott Steiners old in ring promos. Whether the comedy was intentional or not (probably not), promos like that gave me a reason to watch wrestling. I dare say that sometimes a promo can suck in a wrestling fan better than the actual wrestling!

Blasphemy, you say? Maybe, but lets not forget that when most of us started to watch wrestling in the days of our youth, we were nothing more than marks who believed everything. Ignorance is, and always will remain, bliss. Back in those days we were not analyzing specific moves, and we were not discussing who had the most political power in the company. Instead we watched in awe as extravagant, charismatic men stood beside the interviewers and told us why they were the best and why we should cheer for them. When Hulk Hogan told me to eat my vitamins and say my prayers, I did so without question. When Randy Savage said he was [too hot to handle and too cold to hold] I thought he was the coolest cat in the wrestling business. And when I heard Ric Flair insult not only his opponent, but the fans in the arena, I waited in anticipation for someone to beat the jerk out of him. Over the years I grew out of this phase, and now all that remains is a cold empty shell that is cynical about anything that WWE or TNA produces. But enough about my sad adult life. Lets keep the focus on the promos.

Much like how the times change, so too did the promos. For awhile there was a time where the promos and backstage vignettes were getting riskier and raunchier with the content. Austin and DX were the guilty parties behind this explicit content in the late 90s, but as a result WWE had some of the highest ratings to date. It was a second golden age in wrestling, and I loved every immature minute of it. Sure, it was nice to see a good wrestling match from time to time, but if you had to choose between that and watching DX drive a tank to the headquarters of WCW in broad daylight, which would you pick? Exactly. Of course, promos like that can have their flaws as well. While it was perfect for the fans at home to watch, the fans in the arena bought tickets to watch actual wrestling, not to watch a screen for minutes at a time. Why pay for what you can get at home? Sometimes these vignettes went on for way too long and even divided into parts throughout the show. Remember the Brian Pillman vignette where Austin went to Pillmans house and Pillman tried to shoot him? Good television, but not so good arena entertainment. Still, sometimes you just had to take what you could get, and for what it was worth, at least the vignettes old had attitude (no pun intended) and a style of their own. It was interesting, and it made me want to watch more. That is not the case now.

When you think about it, WWE has not really done anything extreme with their promos and vignettes. Sure you have the occasional backstage chat, or the attack from behind, but for the most part everything is done in the ring. I will admit that it is rather hypocritical of me to criticize vignettes mostly taking part in the ring when I had just earlier talked about the fans in the arena not getting the full advantage of a vignette. I guess it is all about give and take when it comes to what a company can deliver in a certain period of time. More time in the ring is good, but when it is live you really have to try and pack everything in the span of a few minutes. Whereas in a multi part vignettes you could take your time and pace out the story throughout the program; one could even bring it into the next week. The fans need something to be distracted by while the ring crew sets up for the next match, and trailers do not always cut it.

Lately the creative team at WWE has been at disadvantage because of Raws guest hosts each and every week. While the idea sound good on paper, and even a few of the guests were fun to watch, most of them bombed and their appearance in a WWE ring makes me cringe. I cannot help but remember when Russo brought in the KISS demon to WCW because he wanted KISS to perform at his shows. It did not matter if the guy sucked in the ring as long as there was a KISS concert playing on Nitro. It is that same formula that is dragging down the quality of Raw. It feels like forever since there was a stable Raw GM, and because creative is limited when it comes to what certain hosts can and cannot do, the product suffers. But that is another column for another day. For now, let us go back to the promos.

I love heel promos. In fact I mark for them more than any babyface promo just because of the freedom the heel promo is allowed to have. The heel can speak his mind more and does not have to side with the fans on everything. When a heel cuts a promo, you are getting a character that you love to hate. Right now, my favorite heel characters are The Miz, Chris Jericho, and CM Punk. All three have their own version of the heel promo, yet they are all related to one another as well; they can all piss off the fans. And I do not mean that in a [switch the channel] way either. I am talking about wanting to see those three get their butts whooped from one side of the ring to the other by the baby faces.
The faces, meanwhile, are pretty boring. Cena, Triple H, Big Show, Morrison, and even Randy Orton to a smaller degree are not nearly as exciting as we want them to be. I can understand Cenas predicament since he is the unofficial spokesman of WWE and needs to keep himself at a family suitable nature. Could you imagine a rapping heel Cena going to charity events? As funny as that would be, it will never happen. Bad P.R. is not what Vince needs right now. The others, though, are just falling into the old fashioned ways of being a face that gets monotonous after awhile. Part of me blames the PG rating while another part blames Vince for being old fashioned and not fully understanding what the new generation wants.

TNA seems to have WWEs old formula for face/heel interaction and promo cutting, but their approach is also a bit bizarre. Sometimes I think they do certain storylines and have people say certain things just because they know they can and WWE cannot. It is their own way of saying [Hey! Look what we can do that WWE is unable to do! We are crossing the line!] Crossing the line of decency perhaps, but otherwise it all feels out of place. I know TNA is trying to get people to watch their product, but what about the loyal fans who have stuck around for so long? Do they not deserve credible (of the Justin variety) storylines with awesome wrestlers that at the very least satisfy the basic credentials of storytelling? A beginning, middle, and end is all I am asking for.

Boy, things got a bit depressing for The Silver Lining this week. Let me swing things on a more positive note. While both WWE and TNA have not had the best promos and vignettes as of late, I have to say that I am very impressed with the production teams, specifically WWEs production team. I do not know who they hired to create the storyline vignette that hype up the pay per view matches, but that guy needs a raise and a promotion. The Shawn Michaels/Undertaker videos alone are some of the best work I have ever seen, even going as far back at the Attitude era. They even got me excited for John Cena and Batista. Part of me even got excited when I saw a recap of the Hogan/Abyss/Flair/Styles storyline set to music. Granted, the quality was about as good as a Youtube video, but I liked it. I do not know if it is the music, of the clips, or just a little of both, but someone on that team has a good head on their shoulders, and I fully support the [music video] concept of hyping matches. Please sir, I want some more!

Alright, time for some main discussion points.

-The promo, and the vignette, are the most important means of hyping up characters and matches.

-The way a promo or vignette is carried out has changed over the years due mostly to the change in the company demographic.

-Guests hosts are losing their flavor. Hopefully a new GM will be placed on Raw and the guest shows will be at a minimum.

-Heel promos have more of an impact than face promos. Currently, I cannot face of anything memorable coming out of the mouth of a face. Also, [the mouth of a face] is really weird to write.

-Big props to the production team. I hope those hype videos never go away. Ever.

My final statement: While the wrestling is what we all came to see, the promos are what brought up into the shows to begin with. They create characters with personalities and they make us either love or hate him. Hopefully one day there will be a third golden era in wrestling that will return to the excitement that both promos and vignettes once brought us.

Well that finally wraps things up for this week. Again, I apologize for my absence as of late, but I promise that I will be writing up a new column every week for your entertainment. At least until I reach column twenty where life will once again kick my ass. Twenty columns? I will be shocked if I still have an account after this travesty of words. Oh, and if you have any ideas for what my next Silver Lining should be, or if you just want to SPEAR! SPEAR! SPEAR! me, e-mail me at tagibbs4@yahoo.com

And remember, every ring is bound to have a Silver Lining.