One of the biggest complaints from fans about the current WWE product is the fact that promos are written for superstars to memorize and repeat when they come into the ring. It never sounds natural and often sounds scripted.
In the past, wrestlers went to the ring with directions on what they needed to say and then they cut their own promos, getting the point across on their own. Wrestlers today might reach their audience better if they cut their own promos, or at least that is what many fans believe.
WWE Hall of Fame superstar Road Dogg disagrees with that sentiment. The former writer of SmackDown Live is now working with wrestlers in NXT and said that there are some wrestlers who still cut their own promos.
However, many wrestlers who only read scripted promos are ones that Road Dogg said that WWE can’t trust to do so on their own.
In an appearance on X-Pac’s podcast, Road Dogg said that a wrestler has to earn the trust of management to cut an original promo.
“I think it becomes a trust issue with who can cut a good promo, and who can’t cut a good promo,” Road Dogg said. “Do I have to script out the promo for the individual and then kinda be a stickler for sticking to the verbiage that was written, or do I trust the guy to give him bullet points and the message he needs to deliver, and then trust that he can go out there and make that verbiage his own, make that message his own but still stay on story?”
This is interesting because one of the things that Jon Moxley (Dean Ambrose) complained about since leaving WWE was that writers would script the dumbest things for him to say and he was told he couldn’t change the script.
From what Road Dogg said, that meant WWE did not trust Dean Ambrose to cut his own promo.
"I'm taking over the world, Jimmy"
This promo was my FIRST exposure to Jon Moxley and by far my favorite Mox promo. Possibly my favorite promo from anyone of all time. pic.twitter.com/UCHEe2eOKN
— The Boozerweight 🍻 (@KingSuplex93) June 18, 2019
On the other hand, Road Dogg said there are people who WWE trusts to go out and cut their own promo.
“You can tell Daniel Bryan the message you want conveyed and he can go out there and deliver that message,” Road Dogg said. “And do it in his character.”
Road Dogg said that if wrestlers don’t want a writer and want to cut their own promos, they “should get better promo-cutting skills.”