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If there’s one thing WWE fans have learned over the years, it’s that being a good wrestler alone will never be enough for a Superstar to succeed in the company.
Someone can be the greatest in-ring performer in the world but if they can’t captivate an audience with their character or their words, there’s a very good chance that they’ll end up on the WWE scrapheap.
In 2017, largely thanks to shows like Raw Talk and Talking Smack, more and more Superstars have been given a chance to elevate their characters by showing what they can do on the mic.
In this article, we take a look at five performers who have impressed us the most with their promo improvement in 2017.
#5 Big Cass
As is the case with many WWE Superstars, we don’t know how good they really are, whether it be as an in-ring performer or as a believer promo-deliverer, until they’re given sufficient television time to show what they can do.
In 2017, Big Cass stepped out of Enzo Amore’s promo shadow and we finally saw how the 7-footer fared on the mic as a singles Superstar rather than as one-half of a tag team who did 10 percent of the talking.
If there was any doubt if Cass would be good on the mic by himself, those concerns were quickly quashed when he turned against Enzo in June 2017 and delivered his best promo to date.
Cass made fans like him as a good guy and did a brilliant job at making fans despise him as a bad guy, so expect him to receive more and more promo time when he returns from his ACL injury in mid-2018.
#4 The Miz
The Miz has never been shy to get on the mic throughout his WWE career, but the seven-time Intercontinental champion took his talents to new heights in 2017.
While the one-time WrestleMania main-eventer has always been good when it comes to promos – why else would he have his own Miz TV talk show? – he had never been given the credit that he deserved from fans until this year.
In the second half of 2016 and the whole of 2017, he has shown on Talking Smack, Miz TV and countless promo segments on Raw and SmackDown Live that he’s not just ‘good’ on the mic – he’s one of the absolute best that the company has to offer.
“The A-Lister” has feuded with John Cena, Dean Ambrose, Jason Jordan and The Shield over the last 12 months and all four of those rivalries, especially the build to the WrestleMania 33 match with Cena and Nikki Bella, were made to feel even more important thanks to The Miz’s awesome promos.
#3 Mojo Rawley
Anybody who saw Mojo Rawley’s promos in the week leading up to his Clash of Champions kickoff show match against Zack Ryder will know exactly why the former Hype Bro is included in this list.
Rawley had received very little meaningful promo time on television in 2017, with the exception of an appearance on Talking Smack earlier in the year, and decided to take to social media to hype his match with his old tag-team partner.
The intensity and believability he showed in the short clips he posted on Twitter earned him plenty of fans and reportedly impressed the higher-ups in WWE, leading to talk that he could be in line for a big push as a heel in the next few weeks.
The Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal winner still has to win people over with his in-ring skills, but nobody can question his ability on the mic.
#2 The Usos
Not only are Jimmy & Jey Uso among the most improved talkers in 2017 but they’re also among the absolute best at promos in all of WWE right now.
Ever since turning heel in 2016, they have gotten better and better as performers, both in the ring and on the mic, and their rap battle with The New Day on SmackDown Live was one of the most talked-about segments of the year.
As the villainous yet likeable SmackDown Tag Team champions, The Usos have had a career resurgence since moving to the blue brand in the WWE draft in July 2016 and we can expect to see them feature in more high-profile feuds in the next 12 months.
And who knows, if they continue to receive as much fan support as they’ve been getting recently, maybe they’ll feature on the WrestleMania main show in 2018 for the first time in their careers.
#1 Roman Reigns
There must have been something in the Anoa’i promo water in 2017. With The Usos finishing runners-up on our list, their cousin Roman Reigns just sneaks in ahead of them to take the top spot.
While some may say he’s not the finished article when it comes to promos, “The Big Dog” has still improved leaps and bounds compared to previous years and has a totally different aura about him now to when he first struggled on the mic.
You only have to watch the “suffering succotash” quote from 2015 and compare it to the promo battles he had with John Cena in August and September to see how much Reigns has progressed when a mic is in his hand.
Besides, how can a previously derided Superstar deliver the most memorable line of the year – “This is my yard now” – and not top this list?
