DROP THE MIC: A look at best and worst promos of the week including Kevin Owens, The Miz, Alexa Bliss, Tomasso Ciampa, Mojo, more

Come one, come all and gather round for the latest instalment of Drop The Mic! Once again I’m your host Chris Deez, (@RuRuBayBay) here with my own personal rundown of this weeks best and worst pontifications from WWE’s resident orators! So, who had the gift of the gab this week, and who had even less of a brain than Psycho Sid?

The Miz/Bludgeon Brothers/Daniel Bryan

As standard as a Sin Cara match full of botches or a Roman Reigns main event, The Miz was once again on top form during this weeks episode of Miz TV. Inviting two strong and silent types like the Bludgeon Brothers onto the show was an interesting move, and one which The Miz thrived in. It meant he got to cut almost the entire promo himself and remind everyone of just how damn good he is. The Miz doesn’t just deliver promos like they’ve come off a production line. He tells a story, perfectly displayed here as he took the script of Daniel Bryan’s downfall and made it into his own personal blockbuster movie. His outstanding visual and expressive work was on show as he cowered away from the two behemoths, but he continued to berate Bryan in true slimy heel fashion.

Although WWE is now going down the route of Team Hell No vs. BB for the SDLive Tag Team Championships, you can fully expect The Miz to keep his feud with the bearded one going in the background. It’s been a very long time coming and I for one can’t wait. Bryan was decent on the mic here, I’m just struggling to care about him anymore. His promos are filled more and more with cringey catchphrases and words of wisdom. For me, the GM role has made it impossible to see him as a wrestler who can pull out a great promo anymore. Hopefully The Miz can bring that back out of him.

Aleister Black/Tomasso Ciampa/Johnny Gargano/Candice La Rae

I’ve had to bunch these ones together as it was such a great night for the black and gold brand. Aleister Black was cutting the same old promo that he usually does, fade to black etc., with the crowd hanging off every word, when all of a sudden, the Anti-Christ himself Tomasso Ciampa entered to a chorus of boos. Ciampa went on to challenge Black for his NXT Title, interrupting Black along the way and even mocking his trademark phrase and cross-legged sit much to the chagrin of the champ. Ciampa is without a shadow of a doubt the best heel in all of professional wrestling right now. He regularly hits it out of the park and attracts nuclear heat. Expect more scintillating verbal sparring between these two in coming weeks.

Nicely tying in to the Ciampa vs. Black storyline, Johnny Gargano cut an impassioned promo backstage while speaking about his Takeover loss to Ciampa. He made his intentions very clear. Ciampa had crossed the line, and Johnny Freaking Wrestling would not rest until there was a clear and decisive winner. With the scores tied at one a piece, the third and final act of this incredible rivalry could be the match to end all other matches. Candice La Rae was once again brought in to the mix after her victory over Lacey Evans. She is great at putting across how much of an emotional impact the feud has had on her, her husband and their relationship. It gives the feud a very human feel by having friends and family affected. It’s something we can relate to and keeps us invested. Stellar work by all three involved.

Highlight Of The Promo: Ciampa to Black – You stood face to face with adversity. Now it’s time you stand face to face with The Devil

Kevin Owens

A short but sweet segment here for KO, and it was as exemplary as always. He does OTT better than anyone else, brilliantly displayed here as he complained about having to team with Braun Strowman. The best part of this was him exaggerating the height of the ladder which Strowman threw him from at Money in the Bank. It almost felt like he was mocking Michael Cole and his fellow commentators nonsense, who regularly refer to a ten-foot ladder as being 20 foot in the air. Later in the show we saw Owens play the snivelling coward role to perfection, running from Strowman and hiding in the locker room. He eventually scurried away with security guards in tow, only to find the Monster Among Men waiting for him in the parking lot with a little surprise. Exasperated, KO hurried the valet into bringing his car around, only to find it flipped upside down by Strowman himself. He does scared, conniving, snivelling, slimy, cocky, funny all with such conviction that its impossible to not rank Owens as one of the best in the entire business.

Highlight Of The Promo: Owens – That ladder was 20… 30… 40 feet tall!!!

Bobby Lashley/Roman Reigns/Kurt Angle/Baron Corbin/The Revival

Well this was a nice surprise… a decent promo from Bobby Lashley! When I say decent I mean he didn’t completely screw it up, fluff his lines or say horrendously cringey things. It was a pretty straightforward affair, focusing on Roman Reigns failings against Brock Lesnar, hyping himself up to be the only real competition etc. There was fire, passion and it actually got him quite the positive reaction the attending fans. How times have changed eh? Roman wasn’t too bad either actually (what is going on here? Have I gone insane?), it’s just a shame he cuts the same promo every single week without fail. Against John Cena he relied on the part timer crap. Against Brock Lesnar it more of the same but he can get away with it because Brock, or should I say Paul Heyman, isn’t around to shut him down. Right. That’s enough Roman and Lashley compliments for one week!

The Revival came out and cut a similar promo to last week, but its just nice to see them being used properly. They should be Top Guys (pun intended) in the tag team division, but I would argue this is doing even more for them. They may not have gold around their waists, but they’ve competed two weeks in a row against main event calibre opposition and even picked up a pinfall victory over WWE’s perceived poster boy. They’re good on the mic, they’re cocky, they’re great in the ring. If WWE let them run with it more often they could be on to a real money maker here. 

Finn Balor/Baron Corbin

Just a quick one here. This was another short but sweet segment, and it did a good job showcasing how smarmy and funny Finn Balor can be. Constable Corbin is really working for me. My first impression was one of disdain, I wasn’t feeling it at all. The WWE career of Corbin has been a real mixed bag, very up and down, but he has been given a ball and seems to be running with it pretty well. The dynamic of Kurt Angle having someone constantly undermining him on behalf of Stephanie McMahon is working really nicely so far.

Highlight Of The Promo: Balor to Corbin – Does your manager at TGI Fridays know you stole that vest?

Alexa Bliss

So, has the once great Mickie James been reduced to nothing more than a sidekick now? Such a shame, though at least she works well with Alexa as a smarmy bitchy heel. Bliss once again powered through a hostile crowd doing its best to throw her off course, she’s far too good for that and fights back with such aplomb every time. The promo was doing a great job of building towards the champions upcoming defence against Nia Jax, she was gaining some great cheap heat from the crowd, when all of a sudden, the charisma vacuum Natalya ruins the whole thing.

It frankly astounds me that at this stage of her long and storied career, Natalya has never ever improved on the mic. She instantly kills off any momentum, interest and investment that I previously had in a story. Every single line she utters is embarrassing and genuinely hard to watch/hear. She simply doesn’t have any charisma and has no chemistry whatsoever with any woman on the roster. Put it this way, Alexa has brought out the best of everyone she has faced so far and helped them improve on the mic. This includes both Nia jax and Ronda Rousey who were at one point utter trash, but even the Goddess of WWE can’t help Natalya.

Highlight Of The Promo: As the fans chanted WHAT?, Bliss responds – I’ll tell you what – without breaking stride.

Mojo Rawley

Remember when Mojo was feuding with Zach Ryder shortly after the split of the Hype Bros? He was cutting short promo videos on social media and it was like nothing we had ever seen from him before. These videos were full of intensity, fire, passion and did absolute wonders for what was a particularly uninteresting feud. Then this new and improved Mojo seemed to just… disappear for a while. This past Monday night however he was back to his intense best while taking No Way Jose down a peg or two. Hopefully this promo helps get Mojo back on the radar of WWE’s top brass. He has all of the tools necessary to become a strong mid card guy, though I think he would do better on SDLive.

Mojo hit the nail perfectly on the head with one line which nicely blurred the lines between WWE and reality. He said what we, and I imagine a lot of the locker room, were all thinking by telling Jose that he simply hadn’t earnt his spot on the main roster. He’s 100 percent right. I see no point to Jose. We live in a world where guys like Finn Balor and Elias still aren’t being used properly, yet a man whose gimmick is a conga line is getting prime TV time. Did it work for Adam Rose? Nope. Will it work for Jose? No way.

Follow Chris Deez at @RuRuBayBay for the best Twitter wrestling hilarity, cynicism, and musings!

NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S COLUMN: DROP THE MIC: Debut feature looking at best and worst promos of the week from Bliss, Owens, Bo & Curtis, Sasha and Bayley, Angle, more