Promoing 101 ((Off Camera))

It was a cold snow covered day in Indiana. The cars slow destroyed themselves as they ran over the salt and sand covered roads, but, from our sky view over the interstate one particular vehicle stands out from the rest�?A long black Hummer limo with some green trim. As we pan down we eventually switch to a view inside the humor limo. WallStreet’s sitting in the far back with a lap top in his�?erm�?lap.

"Hey You! Ya Look like an Idiot in those shoes!"

"What?! I bet you don’t say it again!"

"Heh�?I told him... But that guy challenged me so I’m gonna go back�?

"Don’t Say it�?

"You STILL Look like an Idiot in those shoes!"

"Heh�?I’m so great! I should be president!"

WallStreet, "GAHAHA! Ah man�?I love this show! I can’t wait for episode two. You ever see this Gabe?"

Apparently Wally’s not alone.

Gabe, "What is it?"

WallStreet, "The Dave and Jeff Show."

The shot changes so we can see a chubby guy with dark hair.

Gabe, "Nah."

WallStreet, "Oh man. It’s a Youtube exclusive right now. Go to you tube and look it up under DaveAndJeffShow -All one word- and then click on Ep 1.1 The Pilot... it’s fantastic. It’s the next Seinfeld. I’d go invest money in it but the real dough’s in Reality TV right now."

Gabe nods, "Hey, you mind if we get started?"

WallStreet, "Ah, if we start now I’m just gonna end up repeating myself to the guys and you’re gonna get the same lecture twice."

Gabe, "Nah, I want to start on a different edition. What we shoot in Indy will just be Promo stuff. I was thinking maybe you could go over workin face or heel, or maybe do a deal on Ettiquite�?You know, basically the same shit we had Scotty do, just another perspective."

WallStreet, "Nah. I really have the promo thing on my mind. Beside, we’ve gotta be about there. We can shoot the other stuff some other time."

Gabe shrugs, "Alright."

____________________________________________

When we reopen WallStreet’s walking through a door and Gabe’s following with a camera in hand, although it isn’t recording. When they walk in we can quickly tell that it’s a wrestling school and in no time we recognize David Van Dam who’s wearing a pair of dress slacks and a tan polo. Van Dam heads over as WallStreet’s tossing his coat on a chair.

The two shake hands as Van Dam says, "Hey Street."

WallStreet, "How’s it goin Champ?"

David nods, "Good�?Good. They’re ready anytime you are."

WallStreet nods and looks at Gabe, "David, this is Gabe Sapolski�? Sapolski, this is David Van Dam."

Gabe nods, "We’ve met."

Dave nods, "I worked some Honor shows. I got Gabe to start bookin Whysper after everything fell through between him and PWT too."

WallStreet nods, "Well, he’s here today to film a Secrets of the Ring lecture. He’s gonna tape my Promo lecture if that’s straight with you."

David nods, "Sure."

Gabe, "Ya know, maybe sometime you guys could both come to Philly an do some lectures at the school that we can tape?"

David and WallStreet look at each other, shrug, and nod.

WallStreet notices the action in the ring has concluded so he decides to go in and start as Gabe gets his camera set up.

((Still off ICWA Camera, But Available on ROH DVD))

Gabe hit’s the recording button and begins speaking, "Welcome to ROH Secrets of the Ring. It is February fifth and today we’re actually on location at the Van Dam Wrestling Acadamy in Indianapolis Indiana where Taylor "WallStreet" McCallister is going to let us sit in as he takes some students through the art of promoing and character related stuff."

WallStreet nods.

WallStreet looks at a Student and says, "You�?What’s your name?"

Kid, "Joshua."

WallStreet, "Josh�?tell me what you think the purpose behind a promo is."

Josh, "To out insult your opponent? Kinda show that you can get it done with your mouth as much as ya can with your actions?"

WallStreet sighs, "It’s gonna be a long day. (Looks at a girl) You�?What’s your name?"

"Jessica."

WallStreet nods, "Why do we promo Jessica?"

Jessica, "To……�?Umm…�?Come across like we’re witty? An outlet to flaunt our charisma if you will?"

WallStreet, "To a small extent, but you guys are really missing the bigger picture. We promo for the same reason we do ring work�?To tell a story. But even bigger then that, we tell a story -Whether it be with ring work, promos, or whatever- to do what?"

Everybody has blank stairs so David interjects, "To sell tickets."

WallStreet, "YES! To Sell Tickets. Why do we sell tickets? So I can make money and don’t have to give em away for free like they did in Atlanta for years and still do in Chicago. And why is it good for me to make money? Well, if I make money you make money. Pretty simple don’t ya think?"

Nobody moves so WallStreet nods his head slowly and says, "Yes Taylor�?That makes sense. Relax guys, the people who buy this DVD are well aware you’re living breathing humans and not punching bags. You can talk. Now Josh, back to you�?What do you never ever want to do in a promo?"

Josh gets a smile, he thinks he knows this one! :D

Josh, "Put your opponent over!"

WallStreet, "I’m sorry?"

Josh, "You never want to put your opponent over! Bury the crap out of em, make the promo seem as shootish as possible, and get across that you’re leaps and bounds beyond your opponent."

WallStreet sighs, "It’s too bad MSN’s closing up shop, You’d fit right in with the vast majority of those Promo-tards. The answer is the exact OPPOSITE of what you just said. You never ever EVER want to bury your opponent. Look, if I’m workin you Josh and I have a promo for the match and I come out and I say�?"I’m workin that skinny fuck Josh? What the fuck? Look at me�?I have the body of a Greek God. I’ll break that skinny fuck in half. Josh has never been anywhere he’s never done anything. He’s some punk kid who had a few grand to kill on wrestling school and still hasn’t graduated. I’m a seasoned Vet, I’ve ended more careers then you’ve had PRACTICE matches, let alone professional matches! You’re a nobody, a nothing, a putts, and you don’t belong in the ring."�?What have I effectively just done?"

David chimes in again, "You just killed the match, maybe even the town."

WallStreet, "Killed it? I killed it, skull fucked it, and buried it in my basement. Think about it. I just made you see like a complete waste of space. I buried you so deep that Moses might as well of parted a wading pool by comparison to the depth I just buried you. Well why the fuck should anybody watch the match now? I just told everybody that you’re a complete Jabroni, I made valid points as to why you’re a complete Jabroni, so now the match ends one of two ways�?Either I beat a pisson so, who the fuck cares? You’re just a piss on. Or, I get beat by a piss on which now in turn means that you STILL don’t have any credibility despite beating an all time great because I sold everyone on you being a putts, and now on top of that I just got beat by a putts so I look twice as bad. I can understand in todays environment why you’d think you should bury the opponent but do not watch MSN to learn how to promo, they do NOT know what the fuck they’re doing. At least most of em don’t anyway. You wanta know how to cut a promo you go and you watch Flair promo. Flair’s the greatest promo in the history of our business and he’s never buried anybody on the stick. Now in contrast to that, let’s say I have the same match�?It’s me and you Josh�?And I say, "Josh�?You’re a Hell of an athlete. I’m Stronger but I’ll give ya your due kid, You’re faster. You train hard, you work hard, and you’ve got the heart of a lion. You’ve got all the tools to be an all time great in this sport and one day Josh�? One day you just may be in that ever so small, exclusive club of people who had what it takes to step between the ropes with the Corporate Icon and get the job done, One, Two, Three�?One Day. But that day’s not today! You’re good�?You’re damn good, but I’m the definition of what Great is in this business. I am the unadulterated, absolute best that there has ever been. You’ve got a good start but I have sweat and bled and paid the price of a Wrestling LIFETIME! There’s things you simply can not get in this business without picking it up with experience. Tonight Josh, You’re gonna push me and I don’t expect anything less�?But�?I’m gonna push back and I’m gonna push harder and when I do it’s going to lead to one end result and one end result only�?You staring at the ceiling as Tommy Young raises my hand in victory. But take it in stride because while you may not beat me, You will pick up a boat load of knowledge that if you apply it correctly will be the start of your run in this business�?When our match is over, if you take everything you can from it, then kid�? The Sky’s the Limit."

WallStreet looks out at one of the trainers, "Hey brother, can you grab me a water?"

The trainer nods and heads off as WallStreet looks back at Josh, "Now, in that promo I got you over, I got myself over, and most importantly, I got the match over. You look credible, but I’m still telling the people why by my view I’m gonna win because, you have to get over that you believe in your mind that you’re gonna win. I mean, if you don’t believe you’re gonna win then nobody else in the house is gonna buy it either, but, it’s important to do it in such a way that they believe you believe it, but, they still believe you’re fighting someone credible and that it might go the other way. Now with that promo if I beat you, You’re gonna be super over. If I shook your hand after the match with that promo heading into it you’d be the top baby face instantly. I could go back to New York or Carolina, never come back to do the job for ya and you would still be a credible top guy because I showed you that much respect. Of course if you beat me�?Well holy fuck�?WallStreet said you were the future but you couldn’t beat him�?You did�?Well I don’t lose anything because I told everyone you were damn good, but now you look really fuckin good because you just beat WallStreet. No matter what happens we both look like a million bucks."

"What if you’re a Heel?"

WallStreet glances toward the camera as we’d all but forgot about ol�?Gabe.

WallStreet, "Huh?"

Gabe, "What if you’re a Heel? That promo was a great baby face promo but you couldn’t really do it that way if you were a heel could ya?"

WallStreet, "I don’t know, look at Flair. Flair always put his opponents over. (Looks back at Students) Look, you do promo a little differently as a Heel, but, the popular belief amongst guys today is that if you’re a Heel the Shoot like burial promo suddenly becomes the right way to promo. It’s not, and depending on who you’re doing it on you may go into some dangerous territory. If ya start pulling that shit on me, I’m gonna take your legs out from under ya. If a guy starts doing that bullshit shoot shit on me I’m gonna bury em deeper than a porn star’s twat. Because at that point what happens is that you have to go into "Kill or be Killed" mode. If a guy tries to ruin the fans perception of you as a worker and try to bury you then ya gotta bury em back to take out their credibility and keep yourself over. Unfortuantly, when someone goes into business for themselves your options become limited. That’s why it’s good to be capable in that area but you hope you never have to use it. It’s the same as back in the day when guys would be trained in how to shoot and hook and stretch guys�?You hoped you’d never have to use it, but, if anything ever happened where a guy wouldn’t do business ya needed to know it so you could make em do business. It’s the same thing here. I promise you, if the booker wants me to go over there’s nobody who’s gonna stop me from doing that even if I have to do it for real. (Motions to David)�?/FONT> David’s underrated by the sheets. Right now David’s on top in the ICWA and he’ll admit that sometimes he puts it on cruise control and doesn’t always produce at his very best, but, when I need him to make sure he protects his spot and legitimately out does somebody, he does it. So it’s good to be able to do that."