The Anatomy of a Promo: How R-Truth's Bad Delivery Ruined Good Content

Nope, still not feelin' him
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Call me a hater. Go ahead. You won't be the first. However, while certain portions of the Internet are gushing over themselves to praise R-Truth's promo from last night, I remain unimpressed with him, even as his character has been refreshed and tweaked over the last couple of weeks. I will admit the content was good. It really was. I also thought that him opening by saying "RALEIGH, NORF CAROLINA... SHUT UP" was a great way to kick the segment off. However, it went downhill from there, and quick.

You can have the best promo material in the world, but if the delivery is off, then it's going to come out bad. That's exactly why I thought it went downhill how it did. It's not really what he was saying, but how he was saying it that always had me vexed with him. Those problems were never fixed. He's still mealy-mouthed. He still rambles. And for a guy whose gimmick it is to be a rapper, his dancing is absolutely the worst. All three of those were there last night.

The biggest detraction can be argued not to be his fault. The crowd started chanting "WHAT?" at the beginning of his promo. While this has been a problem for years, notice it rarely ever happens to guys who are good at delivering promos. I can't remember the last time CM Punk got a "WHAT?" chant. Why? Because he is a master of delivery. He makes people want to boo him, not chant things at him out of boredom.

It takes a lot more than good content for me to get into a promo. Truth rambled on and on, and I tuned out. Sorry if that makes me a hater, but I'm not going to lie and go with the new hotness just because the guy did the same thing he's been doing forever now with a different set of lyrics coming out his mouth.

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