10 Best Mic Workers

As much as I enjoy the athleticism involved in professional wrestling, the ability to work the microphone is a skill that cannot be taken for granted. If you ever watched a match featuring Enzo and Cass without seeing their entrance, you'd be wondering not how they made it onto the main roster, and I'd still be getting lessons from the guy down the street who promised to help me with my G certification.

Whether it's through power moves, look, aerial acrobatics, technical prowess, or speaking circles around the opponent, a wrestler's main objective needs to be connecting with the crowd and making them feel invested in the match. Here are my ten favorites at doing this simply by opening their mouths. (For the purpose of this list, I did not include Paul Heyman, Vince McMahon, etc. as their main purpose was to speak, rather than to compete in matches.)

10) Jay Lethal - Jay Lethal is one of the best in the world in the ring. While I believe he was held back in TNA, Black Machismo was responsible for some of my favorite moments from the time, which is especially impressive given how amazing the TNA roster was. Remembering the time he mumbled "Snake Roberts ruined my wedding" under his breath will forever make me laugh, and Lethal's back and forth promo with Ric Flair was so many of the things I love about wrestling rolled into one interaction.

9) The Dudleys - When I say the Dudleys here, I mean vintage ECW Dudleys. Sign Guy, Bubba Ray, D-Von, Dances With, Big Dick, Joel Gertner, the whole family. If Heyman sent them out, the crowd was about to be treated to a long, vulgar introduction from Gertner, a litany of insults from everyone else, and new favorite babyfaces in whoever came out to attempt to shut them up.

8) The Outsiders - Hall and Nash were so much different than everything WCW was doing when they first debuted. What can almost be seen as a compliment to their ability, the reason they started to lose their magic came from everyone attempting to bite their style. In a world of loud, nonsensical, screaming promos, The Outsiders came out and told you quite plainly they came to change the wrestling world. The difference in tone really separated them from everyone else and made every word they said feel that much more important.

7) Macho Man Randy Savage - Savage promos were the polar opposite of what you get from The Outsiders. He shouted and shouted, whispered very intensely, and spoke nonsense, but somehow it worked. If you saw Mean Gene standing next to Macho Man on your screen, you knew you were in for a treat. 

6) The Miz - Coming from the world of reality televison( The Miz may have come in with a bit of an advantage in promos. Seeing him do charity work and being interviewed for fluff pieces, it's hard to believe that this is the same man that you instantly hate every time he appears on your tv screen. In his eyes, he is Lebron James, Barry Bonds, and Muhammad Ali rolled into one. Or probably more accurately, they all wish they were him. There's something about how he carries himself that instantly makes you want to see him get beat. His feuds with John Cena and Daniel Bryan are two of my favorite feuds in recent memory and he had just as much to do with it as these two legends.

5) CM Punk - Whether he was being the voice of the voiceless or the straightedge savior, Punk could have the crowd eating of his hand. Heel, face, it didn't matter, when he spoke, the crowd bought in. While people will always speak of "the pipe bomb" when making arguments about his mic skills, I loved the Straight Edge Society days as well as his feud with Jeff Hardy.

4) The Rock - The Rock is a catchphrase machine. Everything about him feels larger than life, and his promos have a lot to do with that. This ability to talk has launched an unparalleled Hollywood career. The man simply oozes charisma. He made the word jabroni cool twenty years ago, and I still hear non-wrestling-fans use it to this day.

3) Dusty Rhodes - Dusty was a believable challenger to 16 time world champion Ric Flair, even though his gimmick was always that he was just a guy like you or I. Not only that, he was arguably Flair's greatest feud. This isn't possible without the ability to get the crowd behind him. Dusty was so good on the mic, and at conveying who his character was, after retiring, he taught promo classes for the NXT performers. If you haven't seen the "hard times" promo, you owe it to yourself to look it up.

2) Chris Jericho - Remembering back to my post about WCW's cruiserweight division, the majority of the competitors got over with their movesets and unique look. Chris Jericho had a decent enough moveset, and I would argue a pretty average look at the time. The one thing that he had that set him apart was his ability to speak. His "man of 1,004 holds" promo is one of my all-time favorites. His feud with Goldberg was one of the best of Goldberg's career. In his WWF debut, he started out on the mic going one on one with The Rock. Throughout his entire WWF/WWE run, he became such a spectacle on the mic, he couldn't help but be cheered for his delivery. What did he do when he was still getting cheered as a heel? Well he completely changed that signature delivery, leading to another legendary feud, this time with Shawn Michaels. His most recent run with Kevin Owens sealed his status as one of the greatest in WWE history, if not all around, certainly on the mic.

1) Ric Flair - Ric Flair promos are simply timeless. The arrogant playboy persona was perfected by Ric Flair, and to this day, people still rave about The Nature Boy. Rick Ross, Pusha T, Cam'ron, and plenty of other rappers have referenced Flair, or even named tracks or mixtapes after him. Simply put, Ric Flair is one of the most quotable wrestlers of all-time. With his signature WOO(oooooooo), there are very few wrestlers as easily recognizable, purely from the sound of his or her voice. At the age of 68, he can still command a crowd. Say what you will about his in-ring skills towards the twilight of his career, but his career lasted over 40 years, and his promos from the tail-end of his career are just as memorable as some of his early work in the 1970s.

Who do you think is missing from this list? How would you have ordered your own? Let me know in the comments and, until next time, stay (too) sweet!