For me, nothing comes close to Randy's "Cream of the Crop" bit.
There's just this savage intensity where at ANY MINUTE you feel like he could just go nuts.
Don't tell @marino, but I quite like Shawn Michaels in Montreal in 2005. That man had legit heat, knew it, and took advantage of it. If only the match it led to wasn't a complete disaster.
Another one I think people forget about is Paul Heyman's promo against Vince in 2001. It was ahead of its time and while Heyman was the heel, he was 100% correct.
Jay Lethal and Ric Flair were gold too. I think ZombiePie introduced me to this one.
Anything with Terry Funk yelling and shouting and Dory Funk standing behind him looking like a used car salesman.
It's Scott Steiner doing math and nothing anyone here says can upend that promo's biblical magnitude.
As someone who hasn't really gotten back into wrestling as an adult, I do still watch old promos now and again. As posted above, Dusty Rhodes "Hard Times" promo is a prime example of the artform.
A little more obscure, is this incredible video of Roddy Piper breaking a beer bottle over his own head for a promo that looks like it's for a show in a high school gym. It's insane. And it's clear that he's trying to wrap his promo up but the crowd doesn't react, so he kind of doubles back?--it's nuts. Maybe they're mesmerized and freaked out by the whole stunt.
Seems appropriate even today.
Talk about suffering for your art. It's crazy to see this comparatively young Dusty Rhodes still have visible cutting scars on his forehead, despite the makeup. What a fucking hero.
@sombre: somehow I had never seen Savage's Cream of the Crop promo. What a treasure.
David Starr is a recent favourite of mine - this is the buildup to the cancelled Scrappermania match with Jon Moxley in OTT.
OTT in general have fantastic video packages
@halfpastwhenever: OTT has really come a long way since it's early days.
@jesus_phish: definitely, I've been to a couple of shows live and it's an experience.
@halfpastwhenever: I haven't been to any myself but I've some friends who frequently go. It was real nice to see people take refunds from the recently cancelled show and immediately donate it back to them.
Cream of the Crop is... well near the top for sure.
I also love this one for Macho Man. So fucking funny.
I love Stone Cold's Austin 3:16. It's when I fell in love with Stone Cold and obviously it's maybe the pivotal moment to setting up one of the biggest wrestling characters of all time in Stone Cold (my favorite for sure).
The delivery is so good. And the lines stick with me.
Also love this Jake Roberts one. The calm delivery of this still gets me. Love Jake and this angle. The man worked avarice into a wrestling promo.
Jake was maybe my favorite wrestler when I was a kid (even when he first started in WWF as a heel). He was the only guy that wasn't always screaming during a promo, and I loved that. Being a smart kid who watched wrestling didn't give you many role models, but Jake was always crafty and in control. He would get beat by guys because they were stronger, but he very rarely got outsmarted.
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