The Ten Count 9.06.13: Top 10 Promos of All Time

A little background to this promo….Shawn and Bret started to not get along back in the Kliq days as Bret thought that Shawn and friends were taking all the prime spots. At WrestleMania 12, they wrestled for a little over an hour and Shawn walked out the new WWE champion. Bret left to go try to be a movie and TV star while Shawn bombed as the champion. Bret came back, Shawn lost his smile, and the fans decided that Bret’s persona is not something they want to cheer anymore. Bret wrestled Stone Cold the night before and got booed out of the building setting in motion this night.

Bret walks out and tells the fans he doesn’t respect them, that Austin is a hyena, and planted the seeds for the Canada vs. USA program during that insanely hot summer of 1997.

Shawn is the cherry on top basically bringing out all the things that he has been saying in the locker room. Bret is obsessed with his legacy, does it for the wrong reasons, and is the biggest fan of Bret Hart. This was the initial promo that set in motion the series of events that led us to Montreal and the #9 promo.

Vince McMahon was slowly transforming into the Mr. McMahon character during 1997. I think it really started in 1993 during a feud with Jerry Lawler in Memphis but most people didn’t see that. In 1997, he was shoved on his backside by Bret Hart, got into a “fight” at ringside with Bret, and was stunned by Steve Austin. The character was really born in Montreal but the understanding of him being the man in charge (on TV) was during this interview.

“Bret Screwed Bret” became the most played out phrase in the WWE in the time since but saying that in 1997 was a big deal. “Time honored tradition” was another phrase you never thought you would hear on WWE television.

The biggest heel in the business at that time was born and the WWE would not look back in the Monday Night War.

Speaking of selling tickets….93,173 (or something like that)!

The biggest heel turn of all time (until the Hogan turn in 1996) and this was the moment that started it all. Andre walking out there with Bobby Heenan was shocking for me as an 8 year old (yes, I was born in 1978).

The previous week, Andre was presented with a trophy for being a “champion” and of course Hogan came out to congratulate him but Andre took that as him trying to steal the spotlight.

Then came the moments, the tearing of the shirt, and the ripping of the crucifix, Hogan bleeding from his chest. Everything made sense. Andre never got a title match, he was a huge threat to the title, Hogan and Andre were great friends, and Bobby Heenan hated Hogan. Great, great, old school wrestling promo that did its job.

This promo is from the SmackDown right before the Survivor Series as the Alliance was facing the WWE in an elimination match for total control of the business. This might have been one of the most poorly executed storylines in the history of the business but this promo was awesome.

Probably one of my personal favorite promos as it laid out the scorched earth left by Vince McMahon in the 20 years since he took over WWE in the early 80s. Paul Heyman was the perfect man to deliver this as he was the last individual promoters in 2001.

In the end, the purpose was to sell the Survivor Series and it definitely did. It also was the final straw in the firing of Paul Heyman which led to him being paired with Brock Lesnar, and so on, and so on, and so on.

Probably the promo that gave Mick Foley his chance to make it to WWE. In theory, I could pick any number of his promos from that summer of 1995 in ECW but this one stands out above the rest. The promo was filled with emotion, reality, pain, and a perfectly framed way to explain why he acted the way that he did. This promo did the impossible:

It made Mick Foley a bad guy in the eyes of the bloodthirsty ECW fans.

The 1st time I saw this, I lost my mind. MIND BLOWN. How can this be on a wrestling program? Did he just go off and no one noticed? That guy is married with a kid?????

Also, the entire promo came from someone holding up a sign in the front row….impressive, creative, and got his character over in a different and new way.

Yep, that promo. The launching pad for CM Punk as a big time, main event superstar.

The idea was that he was leaving the company and wanted to take the title with him. I don’t know how true that really was even though everyone says it is. My feeling is that 99.9% of the stuff you see on TV is a work and if it is said you have to take it with a grain of salt.

The level that CM Punk has reached in WWE can be traced back to this promo. Yes, I know that he did some of the same stuff in IWA and ROH but whether you like it or not, WWE is the major league and if you don’t do it there it’s like you never did it.

Also, even though we didn’t know it at the time this promo foreshadowed the return of Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman so there’s that too.

This promo falls does both of the things that I mentioned earlier, it sold tickets and PPVs but on a 2nd level which we didn’t know until at the event that Steve Austin was going to do anything to become the new champion.

I also think that the AWESOME “My Way” video package for this match has made this interview much bigger as well.

Who was going to be the 3rd man? There was a tension in the air that night in Daytona Beach and in my mom’s house while I was watching it.

I remember jumping out of my chair when Hogan walked out mostly because I thought he was going to be the 3rd man. (Even at 18, I could see that one coming once he walked out)

Then came the promo…..telling everyone to shut up, saying the fans can stick it, all the trash in the ring, Hall and Nash doing the Hogan poses, Mean Gene having the exact right tone (“look at all this crap in the ring), and Tony telling Hogan “he can go to hell, straight to hell”.

Great work by all and launched WCW to being a real threat to the WWE until….well, you know the rest.

In my mind, the 1st true reality based promo on national television and made Mick Foley a star in Vince McMahon’s eyes. This was must see television for 4 weeks in June, 1997 as we learned about Mick Foley’s journey through life and finally ending up in WWE. Jim Ross was the perfect interviewer as he came off as sympathetic, disgusted, perplexed, and finally judgmental of the choices Foley made.

Keep in mind as you think about this promo is that this is before DVD Documentaries, WWE.com doing behind the scenes stories, or autobiographies welcoming us into the lives of our favorite superstars.

This was ground breaking television and started the transformation these are just characters on TV to these are people playing characters on TV that are just natural extensions of themselves.

I don’t think there is much more I can add but there is 1 more to go:

Let’s see…..

2 of the biggest catch phrases in the history of the business

The biggest selling T-shirt of all time

The official launch of the greatest WWE Superstar

To me, the best part of this promo was that apparently it was not scripted. It was a just a guy who won the biggest match of his career to that point and had a little something to say. This promo touched the crowd and started the ascent of Steve Austin to heights not even he could have imagined.

So there you have it, the top 10 Promos of All Time! What is your opinion?

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I appreciate you taking the time to read to this point and I hope that you enjoyed my 1st column. Next week, the Top 10 Free Television Matches.

Until then, remember it’s all entertainment and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. And I’m out.