In the 1980s, with professional wrestling reaching newly elevated levels of television success, it was more important than ever to be able to speak well on camera. Know as ‘mic skills’, it meant that you could take the microphone and roll. You had to be able to elicit an emotion or a response from the crowd – both in house and watching on television.
The WWF was the premiere wrestling organization of the decade and had most of the premiere wrestlers at the time. Those who could shine both in ring and on the mic were able to rise to legendary statuses. Here are the five best mic-skilled wrestlers of the 1980s (in reverse order).
5) Ravishing Rick Rude. His mic skills were specifically targeted at one demographic – women. He was perhaps the only wrestler to do this. He would seductively walk to the ring, creating lust in the hearts and minds of all the ladies. Then he would take the mic and run with it. He would tell all the fat, lazy, out of shape, beer drinking, slobs/men of the crowd to sit down while he disrobed and showed all the women what a real man looks like. It was pure genius. The camera would always pan to women wooing, ooohing, and drooling. Thankfully he had the physique to back it up.
4) Jimmy ‘Mouth of the South’ Hart. Technically a manager but can anybody argue with his ability to run at the mouth? Always talking a mile a minute he was a verbal steamroller of nonsensical proportions. With megaphone in tow it literally and figuratively amplified his personality. The WWE of today desperately needs a Jimmy Hart shot of poison to help it out.
3) Hulk Hogan. He was the greatest wrestler of all-time. He was the best good guy and the best bad guy that the sport has ever known. Nobody will deny that he was one of the best at mic skills. The only reason he isn’t higher on the list is because it was the same thing every time he spoke. He is the AC/DC of the wrestling world. His tune was short, sweet, and repeated every time you heard him. Can’t fault him for that. He knew the formula for success. In the 90s, when he joined the nWo and turned heel, he only improved.
2) Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage. Ooooh yeah! Macho Man had a rough, gravely, Cookie Monster-esque voice that was real and not an act. He was a bad guy and did deplorable in-ring acts – remember how he’d pull Miss Elizabeth in front as a shield? But when he had the microphone in hand you just had to listen. His siren voice lulled you into his act like tuna into a net. A lesser wrestler would not have been believable doing his schtick. It took the greatness that only he possessed to make it work. And did he ever make it work.
1) Rowdy Roddy Piper. Not only was he the best mic-skilled wrestler of the WWF in the 1980s, he was one of the best of all-time; regardless of organization. Piper, the heel of all 80s heels, could speak like he was born with a microphone in his hand. It was second nature to him. Whether he was manning the helm of Piper’s Pit, cutting a TV promo, or in the ring, when Roddy Piper talked you listened. He was the E.F. Hutton of the sporting industry. He would start out perfectly sane and he went from verbally sane to out of control psychotic man in mere seconds. His calm to crazy time was faster than a Porsche’s 0-60 speed. Piper was the mic standard by which all wrestlers to come have been judged.