WWE's Micromanagement of Promos Holds Its Superstars Back

When handling Superstar promos, WWE acts like a mother who guides her daughter's hand for her as she tries to paint. You can't make art like that, and you can't expect Superstars to grow with heavily scripted promos.

Roman Reigns' struggles are proof.

As fans have seen in flashes, there is a charismatic, likable guy there. He just has a hard time coming out with management's thumb pressed against him.

Reigns is no mic master, but having someone else craft what he'll say word-for-word doesn't help him. It's no wonder that he sounds unnatural so often. It's hard to be anything other than that when the words on the page don't match who you are.

Daniel Day-Lewis would have a tough time pulling off the lines featuring "Sufferin' succotash," Superman and beanstalks that WWE has handed Reigns. Rather than let Reigns be himself, WWE has tried to shove him into a persona that doesn't fit.

Not until Monday's Raw did we see an onscreen character more befitting of him. Facing off against Brock Lesnar, he was intense, focused and brooding.

As WrestleMania approaches, fans are going to need to see more of that side of him. Easing the grip on his speeches going forward will aid him there. The more he lets his true self show, the more he will connect with the audience.

That's not something WWE has let him do in the past. He has sounded like he is memorizing lines, not opening himself up, because...well, he is in fact memorizing lines. That has gotten in his way.

Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported (h/t Wrestle Zone) a few weeks ago that there is a feeling backstage that Reigns' scripted promos are hurting his progress.

It's hard to disagree with that. That's not a Reigns-specific problem, though. Being stifled can't help any of his peers either.

In an interview with Pro Wrestling Illustrated (h/t Wrestling Inc), former WWE champ Alberto Del Rio recently provided a glimpse into how things are done in terms of promos. 

Del Rio said of his WWE experience, "If, for some reason, I changed one line, they were all mad and would be fining me. So people need to understand, when you work for that place, you are like a robot. You need to do exactly what they say and how they say it." 

He later noted that wrestlers are terrified of trying something new.

Steve Austin noticed that vibe as well. When "Stone Cold" had Vince McMahon on his podcast, he said that he felt like the wrestlers backstage were "walking on eggshells." McMahon famously attributed it to "lack of ambition."

The last thing WWE should want its performers to be is terrified, as Del Rio describes. A fear-filled environment is not conducive to creativity.

In the process of finding one's voice, a wrestler needs support, advice and direction. Hammy scripts are not on that list.

WWE's move from bullet-point promos to scripted ones is not one Austin is a fan of. In an interview with Chris Hughes of Bright House Sports Network, The Texas Rattlesnake said the following:

"

I disagree with (scripting). I think the nature of a promo has to come from your heart and your guts and you have to mean everything that you're saying. Now is the perfect time to go back to that formula. You learn to sink or swim. And guys and gals will start to learn to swim again. That's what's going to make the product feel more organic, more spontaneous and more real.

"

Austin knows firsthand the power of a more organic environment. When ECW brought him in, it allowed him to play on the mic, to slowly morph into what would eventually be the "Stone Cold" character.

Let loose, Austin thrived.

In a tremendous performance, he bashed WCW for keeping him down and crafted a moving, personal piece of pro wrestling trash talk. 

Nobody could have written that for him. That speech came directly from deep within him. That's a big part of why it resonated so much.

That element is too often missing in WWE right now. 

At times, the product feels sterile, whitewashed. The raw aura that powered the Attitude Era has been cleaned up and left less interesting. 

If the picture Del Rio paints is accurate, that's no surprise at all. Robots don't make for great performers. Apprehensive wrestlers don't discover the kind of untapped magic that Austin did. 

Jim Ross believes that WWE should trust its personnel, not micromanage their words:

He's right. WWE has always been built around big personalities. The company muffles those personalities if it forces Superstars to stay within the lines all the time.