Adam Blampied counts down the 20 best talkers in wrestling history. Who's your favorite talker on the mic?
0:00 - Introduction
1:01 - #20
1:30 - #19
1:58 - #18
2:28 - #17
3:00 - #16
3:26 - #15
3:59 - #14
4:31 -#13
5:02 -#12
5:33 -#11
6:01 - #10
6:32 - #9
7:02 - #8
7:33 - #7
8:05 - #6
8:34 - #5
9:02 - #4
9:29 - #3
10:08 - #2
10:42 - #1
#WWE ##CMPunk #TheRock
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0:00 - Introduction
1:01 - #20
1:30 - #19
1:58 - #18
2:28 - #17
3:00 - #16
3:26 - #15
3:59 - #14
4:31 -#13
5:02 -#12
5:33 -#11
6:01 - #10
6:32 - #9
7:02 - #8
7:33 - #7
8:05 - #6
8:34 - #5
9:02 - #4
9:29 - #3
10:08 - #2
10:42 - #1
#WWE ##CMPunk #TheRock
SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/
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SportsTranscript
00:00Look, I had to do 20 because the achievement of whittling down an industry full of some
00:04of the most charismatic sumbitches in entertainment history to a lean 10 is just not worth all the
00:09comments of how did X not make the list? Six question marks. Unshrubcribe. See, wrestling
00:15matches are all well and good, but for a match to have true substance, you need to have compelling
00:19characters, an invested audience, and something, be it professional or personal, on the line.
00:24At the centre of that triforce is a microphone, and these are the best to ever wield one in a
00:28wrestling ring. The best English speakers. I mean, sorry, don't feel qualified to judge the quality
00:33of non-English promos. Sorry, Mexico. Sorry, Japan. Sorry. I'm Adam, hailing from Parts Fun Known,
00:39and here are the 20 best talkers in wrestling history. Before we start the list, we'd super
00:43appreciate it if you took the time to hit that subscribe button. Now, a lot of people who watch
00:47our videos actually aren't subscribers, and while it's easy to forget to do so, it makes a pretty
00:52big difference to the ad revenue we can pull in to keep making these, so hey, help us out. Thanks,
00:56you're the best. Unless you didn't just subscribe then, in which case, I hate you.
01:0120. Kevin Owens. It's insane that KO is as good on the stick as he is, considering English is his
01:07second language. C'est incroyable. Owens has mastered a style of promo which appears to be so
01:13easy, yet eludes 95% of wrestlers, which is the ability to make it look like he's just talking. That
01:18sounds super dumb, but it's true. He talks like a person, which in a generation of tightly scripted
01:23promos is super rare. Also, he's one of the funniest men alive. That helps. Watch his interviews with
01:28Michael Cole. They're amazing.
01:2919. Arn Anderson. Good old AA has always looked like a 40 year old dad who's having a difficult
01:35time getting the lawn mower to start, but like most dads, if you get him talking about something
01:38he really loves, he can tell a story that spellbinds you. Case in point, any time you ask Arn Anderson
01:44to talk about the Horseman, he's unbelievably compelling. A proper southern poet, infinitely more articulate
01:50than he looks. Watch his promo introducing a previously fired Ric Flair when he returned
01:54to Nitro in September 1998. It is phenomenal.
01:5818. Becky Lynch. It took a while for the man to come around, but the detour was worth it because
02:03by the time Becky Lynch arrived at the persona that would catapult her to the top of women's
02:07wrestling, she'd arrive with battle scars, a swagger in her step and an authentic bass in her voice.
02:12Finally getting to hear Becky Lynch be as cool as she could be to speak with the unabashed
02:17bravado that we knew she was capable of, it harkened us back to the dripping anti-heroic
02:22charm of Steve Austin. God I miss Becky Lynch. Children take everything good from us.
02:2717. John Cena. Oh man John Cena has delivered some of the worst promos in wrestling history.
02:33Not because he's a bad talker, he's the furthest thing from it, but because he was the poster child
02:37for the flip goofball corporate babyface that dominated WWE for a decade. Some fans were never
02:42forgiven for the days of mocking wrestlers nips, I mean who'd do that? But you can't deny that when
02:47Cena gets rolling on something serious, he is one of the most magnetic men on television. His work
02:52shoot promos on Styles, Bryan, Rock, Reigns, Miz, they are master classes to a man.
02:5916. Mick Foley. Mrs. Foley's baby boy is a man of split personalities and amazingly,
03:04all of them were super good at promos. Cactus Jack's unhinged Kane Dewey promo is different to
03:10Dude Love's cheesy swagger, is different to Mankind's dangerous manchild, is different to the
03:15Commisher's easy charm, is different to anyone in wrestling. Foley's always been more than a
03:20punching bag. His falls may have made him famous, but his personality on the stick made him beloved.
03:2515. Bray Wyatt. And talk about a lunatic of many faces. It seems like for the longest time fans have
03:31been upset with the way WWE treats Bray Wyatt and that's not because he's the best in-ring wrestler
03:36and we want to see him wrestle loads. It's because he's one of the most inventive and original voices
03:41of his generation and WWE keep getting in the way of his stories. From the children's TV presenter,
03:47to the southern gothic poetry, to the funhouse, which is the best movie WWE has ever made. He has
03:52a hypnotic, smoky cadence and new thoughts to express and those things are diamonds in WWE's rough.
03:5914. Bobby Heenan. Wrestling managers have provided us with some of the best talkers of all time,
04:04which makes sense because that's what they're there to do. Talk for the guys who can't or shouldn't.
04:09Jim Cornette was amazing. Sensational Sherry was sensational, but few could hold a candle
04:15to the weasel. One of the sharpest, quickest minds in pro wrestling history. Hilarious when he needed to
04:20be. Diabolical when he needed to be. Heenan was the master of promo mechanics. He put over the match,
04:26the date, the heel, the face, the story without ever feeling like a salesman.
04:3013. Hulk Hogan. Like Cena, Hogan's star has been dimmed by the sheer wealth of crap he's been a part of
04:36during his career. His current persona as the Huckster, the bloated, ego-driven nonsense of
04:40late-stage NWO, the Dungeon of Doom, Cheeseball Tosh. He's dropped a whole bunch of Mike-Amplified
04:46turds on us over the years. But even then, it's hard to deny that when Hogan got a promo head of
04:50steam going, when that Terry Boulder started to roll down the hill, nothing could stop it. During the
04:56Golden Era, he simply couldn't resist being caught up in his eye-popping, sweat-drenched fury.
05:0112. Randy Savage. This is Ricky Steamboat's cup of coffee in the big time. F*** yeah, Randy Savage.
05:08No one talked like him. No one has ever since talked like him, except maybe Jay Lethal. He
05:14was fluent in gravel jazz. He was a demented beat poet and the beat goes on. Did everything that Randy
05:22Savage say make sense? No. Was it impossible to forget his signature barks and growls, those crazy eyes and
05:29unsettling rolling tempo? Oh hell yes.
05:3311. Chris Jericho. Y2J can do everything on the mic. From dorky comedy, to braggadocious rock and
05:40roller, to quiet intensity, to the festival of friendship, to whatever he was with the hat and
05:46the spikes. I want to say if the tyrant from Resident Evil 2 did cabaret, he made them all work. And
05:51that's because he's got one of the most lucrative brains in the sport. He is a catchphrase machine,
05:56he's brilliant at working the room, and his endless career speaks for itself.
06:0110. Vince McMahon. The madman who says mad things. I think the saddest thing about seeing Vince today
06:08is not just those eyebrows, those mad thin eyebrows. What's going on there? It's that Vince can't go on
06:14the mic like he used to. Because honestly, in his prime, he was the best promo on his own roster. The
06:20sheer tonnage of madness that Vince has said and said with such demented relish that you can't help but
06:25enjoy it. Whether he was cussing out Austin, the fans, or God himself. I miss that insanity.
06:31I really do.
06:329. Jake Roberts. Everyone shouted in the 80s but in a land of sound and fury signifying nothing,
06:39Jake Roberts whispered louder than anyone. He spoke with such careful deliberation, such poise
06:45and such precise menace. And the fact that in an era of flag waving, insane ramblings and
06:50screamed catchphrases. The fact that there were also wrestlers like him, dropping bombs like
06:54you will be a victim of your own greed, wallowing in the muck of avarice. It's just, that is perfection.
07:018. Eddie Kingston. Eddie Kingston might just be the best promo currently wrestling. We've talked about
07:07Kevin Owens and his natural delivery. Eddie Kingston has supernatural delivery. I believe
07:13Eddie Kingston. I believe every single thing he says, one mouthful of glass at a time. He's made
07:19Jon Moxley better than he ever was before. He dismantles wrestling promo etiquette and lots of
07:25people can make a crowd yell. It takes a special talent to make them silent. He's wrestling's Al
07:30Pacino and he scares me.
07:327. Dusty Rhodes. The dad of the grandson of a plumber,
07:36Dusty Rhodes has ascended to promo godhood. He became the gatekeeper for WWE's next generation of
07:42storytellers. The engineer tinkering with some of the finest characters NXT has ever seen because
07:47Dusty knew how to make that connection, that ability to reach out and take the hand of those
07:52watching and make them follow him. When you talk about a wrestling promo as poetry, Dusty was the
07:57king of knitting fragments of the working class American story into something touching, real and
08:03galloped at a bewitching speed.
08:056. Roddy Piper. Hot Rod was charisma in a kilt. He was able to delicately thread the line between
08:12funny and scary, ready to switch on you at any moment. That unpredictability is what made him
08:17such a fantastic promo, made Piper's Pit the best and never ever topped wrestling interview segment
08:23and also explains why he's one of the best wrestler turned actors ever, with They Live and his role
08:27as the maniac in Always Sunny being works of genius. So many great Piper soundbites. He was the best.
08:345. Steve Austin. F**k the Watt chant though. Steve Austin is lowkey one of the funniest promos of all time.
08:40The dude's comedic timing and his ability to pop a crowd is insane, but that's probably not the
08:44reason that people herald Stone Cold as one of the all time greats. It's because he was quite simply
08:49very cool all the time. He commanded the room, the strut, the head tilt. From the moment 316 was born
08:55at King of the Ring to the bottom line and all the hell yes in between, Austin was a master of crowd work.
09:004. CM Punk. You can dispute a lot of the reasons that CM Punk used to proclaim himself
09:05the best in the world, but one thing you can't is that he is one of the best mic workers ever.
09:10When you can drop a promo that single handedly sparks the most interest in wrestling that there's
09:14been in years. When one promo escapes the WWE echo chamber and starts bringing lapsed fans back.
09:20When you can hang with The Rock in a promo segment and still walk away with a split decision.
09:25That is a once in a lifetime talent. No arguments.
09:283. Ric Flair. Talk about wonderful freewheeling nonsense. On paper, Ric Flair really shouldn't be
09:35a good promo. He screams incoherently like a man with sunstroke chasing kids off his lawn,
09:40but he also has that incalculable charisma. It's borderline alien. He's just so there, so right
09:47there and meaning. Every single thing that he says with total, if overpowering emotion that you can't
09:54help but get excited when Ric Flair talks. And way back at the start when we mentioned that episode of
09:58Nitro where the nature boy returned. Watch Flair's promo from that segment. It is a world beater.
10:05Fire me. I'm already fired.
10:082. Paul Heyman. A good promo is designed to sell you something. Even indirectly,
10:14it's designed to sell you a match, a story, a concept, a place in time that you need to be.
10:20Paul Heyman is the greatest salesman in wrestling history. And the fact that he has been for over
10:2620 years and maintained consistent quality, it's miraculous. Whether selling Brock Lesnar, Roman
10:32Reigns, the Dangerous Alliance, or being part of the all-time great WWE commentary team of Heyman and
10:37JR, how can one man be so good for so long? And number one, The Rock. Yeah, obvious, almost to the
10:46point of anti-climax, but he is. He is, isn't he? A man so good at trash talk that he's killed pushes
10:52dead. Sorry about that, Billy Gunn. And the man who's launched a thousand disparaging catchphrases.
10:57You know those promos that wrestlers do directly before a match, when they're hopped up on adrenaline
11:02and ready to go? The Rock is the greatest person at those promos that has ever lived. He called
11:08Goldberg a whisker biscuit, bald-headed bitch. So yeah, he's number one. End of story.
11:15And that's our list. Did we miss anyone? Of course we did. Shut up. But do also let us know your
11:20favourite talker in the comments. Click that like button, share this video around, and most
11:23importantly, subscribe to Parts of Unknown for more silly wrestling content. Jam that Jam.
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