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Promo styles that changed the game

By Scott Keith on 17 April 2025


We talk a lot about how the wrestling industry and various promotions have changed based on wrestling styles (lucha-libre, brawling, indie) and characters (Hulk Hogan, SCSA, Cena) – but what about promo styles that change the game?

For example, for almost two decades after The Rock, every top wrestler had to trade “funny” insults like a 13-year bully on the playground (Cena's poopy jokes), with zero consideration to whether that made sense for their character (Reigns' “sufferin succotash” bit), or the fact that's a tough promo to pull off, and even The Rock has come up short lots of times.

Now it seems we're in a more authentic, character-driven era, thanks to the influence of guys like Rhodes, Punk, McIntyre, and Reigns.

Can you think of other examples of promo styles that changed the industry?

And do you have a preference?



The Road Warriors’ promos were game changing stuff, where they would basically no sell their opponent and talk about destroying them. You didn’t get a lot of that in wrestling on TV at the time.