In North American pro wrestling, promos are a crucial part of the sport, as it’s a way to not only advance storylines but also create hype for upcoming matches by having the wrestlers (or their managers) speak to one another and interact. Taking up a lot of television time, many promos have opponents sharing the ring and delivering some choice trash talk.RELATED: 10 Highest Rated Wrestling Promos On Cagematch.net, Ranked Over the years, WWE had made an art out of the promo battle, but occasionally some wrestlers are too good at it, and end up outclassing their rivals. Let’s take a look at 10 instances where notable wrestlers got totally schooled.
10 Kurt Angle Out-Raps John Cena
In mid-2002, John Cena made his WWE main roster debut as a fired-up generic babyface challenging Kurt Angle in a now legendary segment. Cut to a year later, and Cena had become a heel who cut promos via freestyle rap, and once again shared a ring with Angle.
Playing Cena’s game, Angle decided to battle rap the rising star, enlisting a referee to beatbox while Angle cut a surprisingly fun, competent rap to the cheers of the live crowd on SmackDown.
9 The Miz Goes Off On Daniel Bryan
While it lasted, SmackDown’s post-show Talking Smack — hosted by Renee Young and then-SmackDown authority figure Daniel Bryan — was a highlight for many fans, presenting the show’s roster in a far less scripted format, leading to some unforgettable moments.
The most infamous moment saw Bryan criticize The Miz for “wrestling like a coward,” prompting The Miz to cut the fieriest promo of his career. During his speech, Miz ended up taking shots at Daniel Bryan for having to retire due to injury, resulting in Bryan walking off of the set.
8 The Rock Can’t Box With God
CM Punk’s 434-day reign with the WWE Championship came to an end at the hands of The Rock at Royal Rumble 2013, but not before Punk managed to take it to Rocky in a promo on an early January episode of Raw.
RELATED: 10 Best Promos Of CM Punk's Career
As stated, The Rock is tough to beat in a promo battle, but Punk cut through all the catchphrases and putdowns to drop a hot line on the movie star part-timer. Proclaiming that Rock’s never faced a foe like him, CM Punk said “Your arms are just too short to box with God.”
7 Drew McIntyre Tells Ricochet To Shut Up
In April 2019, Alexa Bliss — hosting a Moment of Bliss segment — hosted a segment revealing who was going to take part in the men’s Money in the Bank bout, which included Drew McIntyre and Ricochet, prompting the men to cut promos about the upcoming ladder match.
After McIntyre said his piece, Ricochet jumped in with a shaky promo that included the phrase “I didn’t come here to talk.” Drew immediately interrupted him with, “Then shut up. Stick to the high-flying,” which totally cut Ric off at the knees.
6 AJ Lee Obliterates The Total Divas
In 2013, WWE produced a reality show called Total Divas, which followed the lives of a select group of WWE’s female roster in and out of the ring. As a result, the stars of the show got a notable push on WWE’s in-ring shows, resulting in AJ Lee cutting a promo on them.
While it may not have aged that well, the Divas Champion went for the jugular, accusing the women of being interchangeable mannequins and products of either nepotism or casting couch behavior. It was a completely one-sided affair, as the Total Divas did nothing in response but shout ineffective taunts in response.
5 “It’s Called A Promo”
About four years before John Cena was yet another notch in Roman Reigns’ win column as Undisputed Universal Champion, the two had a “passing of the torch” kind of feud going into September 2017’s No Mercy. Roman won that one as well but had a notoriously poor showing in a promo battle weeks earlier.
With his turn, Cena effectively dressed down Roman who fans still hated at this point. As Reigns struggled through his rebuttal, the veteran Cena delivered a fatal blow by saying “It’s called a promo, kid. If you want to be the big dog you're gonna have to learn how to do it.
4 “Tofu’s Ready?”
Not even an icon like Hulk Hogan was totally impervious to The Rock’s ability to verbally destroy most of his opponents. The two had a classic at WrestleMania 18, with a rematch happening nearly a year later at No Mercy 2003.
RELATED: No Way Out 2003: Revisiting The Rock & Hulk Hogan's Forgotten Rematch
On the road to the match, Hogan cut a promo in the ring, with The Rock — then a fame-obsessed heel — responding on the video screen. In addition to making fun of the Hulkster’s tired promo shtick in a hilariously disrespectful fashion, Rocky cut off any rebuttal upon finding out that his tofu meal was ready to eat.
3 Adam Cole Buries Karrion Kross’s Whole Gimmick
Ever since his NXT days, Karrion Kross has been a strangely controversial wrestler among many fans despite having an awesome presentation — and fellow NXT star Adam Cole managed to break through the mystique over a year before Kross attacked Drew McIntyre on SmackDown.
Ahead of their five-way match at TakeOver: In Your House 2021, Adam Cole asserted that Kross’ music, fog machine, and valet Scarlett make him seem special, while all they need to do to make Cole special is ring the bell. Kross didn’t have much of a response to that, which actually was by design.
2 “Get Over It!”
The 7/2/2019 episode of SmackDown opened with Kevin Owens hosting his talk show segment The Kevin Owens Show, to help set up the big Extreme Rules tag team match between Shane McMahon/Drew McIntyre and The Undertaker/Roman Reigns. However, Dolph Ziggler interrupted the proceedings, prompting a supremely annoyed Kevin Owens to loudly tear into Ziggler before “The Show-Off” could even finish a sentence.
From there: Owens succinctly and sarcastically summed up the wasted potential that was Ziggler’s career: “It should have been you eight years ago, and it was — kinda — and then it wasn’t… and it’s not gonna happen. Just get over it!”
1 John Cena Calls Out The Rock’s Notes
WrestleMania 28 boasted quite the dream match of a main event as John Cena took on the previous face of WWE in The Rock. It was a record-breaking ‘Mania, and the build to it had the two stars trading countless barbs on Raw.
Focusing on Rocky’s part-timer nature and supposed lack of passion for wrestling, Cena pointed out that The Rock had scrawled notes for his promo on his wrist, punctuating the reveal with a “Nice tattoo.” Even though The Rock was a gifted talker, it was undeniable that Cena had gotten the verbal advantage over his rival.
