Let's talk Charlotte/Sasha/Bayley's promo ability

[EoE: Well There's Your Problem]

Jan 18, 2017 7:53:11 GMT -5 RIHT said:

I find it funny that Becky probably had the most low key career in NXT out of the Four Horsewomen, but she's easily the best performer on WWE TV out of all of them. She has had more experience, though.

And she was written off for a long time as the worst promo of the four, which was mostly down to either the thick accent or the puns.

[The Trashman]

Charlotte is good but seems to get flustered. Sasha needs work though. Bayley is best in backstage skits.

[The Kevstaaa]

I think part of it is bad material. However, even with good material, they each have their flaws. Sasha is not comfortable as a babyface and it all feels forced, Bayley hasn't felt as believable as she did in NXT and Charlotte has the worst promo delivery in the history of time.

[Slanted and Enchanted]

I never understood the Charlotte hate, at least the still prevailing current hate based on her mic skills. Her promos are definitely solid and she's a great heel. At least within the context of the 4 Horse Women she's the best. In terms of female wrestlers overall it's Alexa Bliss by a country mile.

[Push R Truth]

I thought most of the Charlotte hate had nothing to do with her promo ability. I like her on the mic. I like watching her wrestle. I like watching her get everybody pissed off. She's a natural at that.

I disliked her (not in a 'she's a heel' way) because for the longest time they treated her like she couldn't win anything without her dad or dana stinkin' up the joint. It's one thing for a heel to have cronies that help. It's another thing when said cornies are terrible, and unable to do anything interesting. If she had a buddy that didn't suck I'd probably have enjoyed it.

That, and I'm sick of the Charlotte/Sasha/HOLY SHIT GUYS IT'S HISTORIC BEHOLD THE HISTORY DAMMIT

[Error]

With Sasha and Bayley, I don't think the Raw team gets their characters. They know they were popular in NXT and people want to see them but don't get why. As I said about Bayley's promo on Monday, she should not have hesitated to stand up to Charlotte and be proud to be a fan, to be like the people seats because that is who she is. To the Raw team, that makes zero sense because the WWE universe wants to be WWE superstars so why would anyone want to be a member of the WWE universe when they are a WWE superstar?

With Charlotte, I think she has succeeded because they have turned her into a new character, one the Raw team created which makes writing for her much easier. Her delivery of that work can be suspect at times and I can see why some don't like it but it works for me.

[Bo Rida]

Charlotte's an odd one. She's mastered making things uncomfortable but I'm not sure that's a good thing. It can work but she often ends up shutting down reactions for the faces or even her own boos.

It's also quite one note. A Miz promo has his rants, uses Maryse, targets Bryan, has interactive parts that encourage jeers and all that is usually used to build to the face getting their moment at the end. Whereas Charlotte often starts with that uncomfortable atmosphere and the segment tends to stay there without much variation or it building to anything.

It's hard to judge Sasha and Bayley in that atmosphere. Sasha's decent as the boss and Bayley is good in backstage segments but lengthy in-ring promos with Charlotte don't play to their strengths.

[mrbananagrabber]

Sasha sounds like she's reading the back of her hand, Charlotte seems to know when she's boring people and floundering and so then SHOUTS TO GET BACK ON TRACK. Bayley is hard to judge, because she's stuck in this "omg ME on Raw with actual stars" humble shit so hasn't really had much else to do.

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

All three are pretty bad and hard to listen to. Charlotte is robotic and boring, Sasha comes off as forced and unlikeable despite being a face, and Bayley always seems timid and nervous although I guess that fits with her character even though I don't think she's intending to come off that way. Of the four horsewomen I would say Becky is by far the best despite being merely solid as a talker. At least she comes off as genuine which can't be said for the other three. To be fair though there really isn't many good promos in the women's division despite the drastic improvement in the in ring aspect in the division over the last year or so. The only ones in the division who I would consider above average as talkers are Becky, Dana (bad wrestling aside), Alexa, and Carmella with the latter two being the best which is kind of funny considering the fact that I believe they're the two least experienced girls on the roster. I guess maybe that was an area they focused on more when they were in NXT while it wasn't given as much emphasis when Charlotte, Sasha, and Bayley were starting there.

[Juice]

Dudes did Hogan, Warrior or Macho Man ever spund loke normal people? Flair or Dusty? No.

I think C flair is pretty good on the mic. And both bayley and sasha sound terrible. Like they forget wvery other sentence and briefly struggles for the next line.

[Magic knows Black Lives Matter]

Well, the main roster is way more promo oriented and they don't get to do practiced pre-taped promos all the time. They got over from their wrestling in NXT and got exposed on the main roster.

I actually think Charlotte has turned into one of the best heel mic workers in the company in the sense that she can get actual heat but man, they write the worst shit for her sometimes. Monday night was atrocious. Like, how did that even make it into the final cut?

[Manute Bol]

I never would have predicted that Becky Lynch would be the most well-rounded talent of the Four Horsewomen. I find her light years ahead of the other three in every way conceivable.

[xxshoyuweeniexx]

Jan 18, 2017 16:38:24 GMT -5 Magic knows Black Lives Matter said:

Well, the main roster is way more promo oriented and they don't get to do practiced pre-taped promos all the time. They got over from their wrestling in NXT and got exposed on the main roster.

I actually think Charlotte has turned into one of the best heel mic workers in the company in the sense that she can get actual heat but man, they write the worst shit for her sometimes. Monday night was atrocious. Like, how did that even make it into the final cut?

I think she was alright at the start. She's gotten way better and more comfortable on the mic, so that's a plus. If the segment was like 5 or 6 minutes then it would have been fine. But Raw loves trying to kill 3 hours by dragging promos on and on and on and taking way too long to get to the point. Neither Charlotte, Bayley, or Sasha need to talk for 10 minutes individually. Just keep it short and sweet.

[Final Countdown Jones]

Jan 18, 2017 17:22:14 GMT -5 xxshoyuweeniexx said:

Jan 18, 2017 16:38:24 GMT -5 Magic knows Black Lives Matter said:

Well, the main roster is way more promo oriented and they don't get to do practiced pre-taped promos all the time. They got over from their wrestling in NXT and got exposed on the main roster.

I actually think Charlotte has turned into one of the best heel mic workers in the company in the sense that she can get actual heat but man, they write the worst shit for her sometimes. Monday night was atrocious. Like, how did that even make it into the final cut?

I think she was alright at the start. She's gotten way better and more comfortable on the mic, so that's a plus. If the segment was like 5 or 6 minutes then it would have been fine. But Raw loves trying to kill 3 hours by dragging promos on and on and on and taking way too long to get to the point. Neither Charlotte, Bayley, or Sasha need to talk for 10 minutes individually. Just keep it short and sweet.

It takes a higher caliber of mic worker than WWE has ever had an entire roster full of to be able to make the these ten minute segments work. They're hurting their own talent with these expectations.

[zappa]

They're all terrible. Yes the material is bad but if you have good delivery you can get past that and they all have awful delivery.

[Dave the Dave]

Charlotte is fine. Then again Sasha is really bad so I may be grading on a curve.

[Lt. Palumbo]

Charlotte confounds me. I thought for a while she'd improved greatly. Then there was this week where it feel like she was struggling to figure out what she was going to say as she was saying it.
"That...just...belongs in dreams...or Highschool English Class!"

I'm paraphrasing but, the fact that she said the last part like it was some zinger, when she'd already clearly stated that the poem came from a highschool english class made her sound like an idiot.

[Abdullah]

Jan 18, 2017 17:51:22 GMT -5 Final Countdown Jones said:

Jan 18, 2017 17:22:14 GMT -5 xxshoyuweeniexx said:

I think she was alright at the start. She's gotten way better and more comfortable on the mic, so that's a plus. If the segment was like 5 or 6 minutes then it would have been fine. But Raw loves trying to kill 3 hours by dragging promos on and on and on and taking way too long to get to the point. Neither Charlotte, Bayley, or Sasha need to talk for 10 minutes individually. Just keep it short and sweet.

It takes a higher caliber of mic worker than WWE has ever had an entire roster full of to be able to make the these ten minute segments work. They're hurting their own talent with these expectations.

What do you do, then?

RAW used all of its active storylines Monday, threw in some backstage segments and interviews, minimized the use of someone like Sasha and kept authority figures off the show. It was actually pretty varied in that respect.

What do you do in place of stretching out a promo? Does it become like some RAWs in 2014 where there's very little mic time and a lot of needlessly long matches? I think the answer is something WWE, and some fans here, hate: use your lower card consistently in the place of adding more time to talents that get plenty of it.

But that's like, the closest thing to a good answer I have. It's kinda hard to do a three hour show without some stretching. (And again, WWE would rather add seven minutes to Roman's segment than think of a weekly arc for Primo.)

[Final Countdown Jones]

Jan 18, 2017 17:55:35 GMT -5 zappa said:

They're all terrible. Yes the material is bad but if you have good delivery you can get past that and they all have awful delivery.

Not good delivery; great delivery. Give Robert De Niro Nia's promo this week and I'm sure he'd find a way to make it work, because he's Robert De Niro. But not everyone can. It's like with ring work; there's the great guys who can drag an good match out of the most lumbering, incapable stiff you've ever seen, and then there's the guys who can do great work all on their own, but aren't quite at the level to make even the bottom of the barrel look good. Being able to redeem garbage material isn't something everyone can do, and it's not necessarily a mark on them being terrible that they can't. The Rock didn't get dumb shit over because he was a good talker, he got dumb shit over because he was one of the best talkers wrestling has ever seen. John Cena is a great talker, but sometimes he spouts material that really doesn't work, and when it goes poorly, it goes poorly.

Jan 18, 2017 18:41:14 GMT -5 Abdullah said:

Jan 18, 2017 17:51:22 GMT -5 Final Countdown Jones said:

It takes a higher caliber of mic worker than WWE has ever had an entire roster full of to be able to make the these ten minute segments work. They're hurting their own talent with these expectations.

What do you do, then?

RAW used all of its active storylines Monday, threw in some backstage segments and interviews, minimized the use of someone like Sasha and kept authority figures off the show. It was actually pretty varied in that respect.

What do you do in place of stretching out a promo? Does it become like some RAWs in 2014 where there's very little mic time and a lot of needlessly long matches? I think the answer is something WWE, and some fans here, hate: use your lower card consistently in the place of adding more time to talents that get plenty of it.

But that's like, the closest thing to a good answer I have. It's kinda hard to do a three hour show without some stretching. (And again, WWE would rather add seven minutes to Roman's segment than think of a weekly arc for Primo.)

I'm totally in agreement about using the roster more. Giving mic time to people other than the ones in the top couple storylines going. Use the lower card more. Hell, put on more lower card stories. Put shit on that isn't going to come to a head on PPV, but which they can still build and run with for a few weeks or months. Give the guys you're paying money things things to do. The third hour is killing Raw, and the easiest way to redeem it isn't to stretch two hours of content into three hours, it's to make an honest goddamn effort to write three hours of content. They have an army of writers and there's no goddamn excuse not to make sure people have things to do when the roster is that thin and you're stretching every episode out to fill time.

[Andy Martin]

I think Charlotte is alright to good, Sasha's not very good, and Bayleys horrific(though admittedly, I wasn't fond of her work in NXT, either.)