Welcome back to Reading Wrestling, your encyclopedia on the art of pro wrestling. Today’s entry is on one of the narrative linchpins of wrestling, the promo. Somewhere between a Shakespearean soliloquy where a character exposes their inner thoughts and a homily of public address lies this very particular monologue.

As always, we start out with a definition, trying to agree on what a promo is and does. Noell talks about the role of the promo in getting the crowd hyped, providing for interactivity, and moving storylines along, which Dave connects with taglines and merchandising. Chris takes us back to a very early promo, Macho Man's 1982 "staring into a candle" piece, as a kind of soliloquy that exposes the psychological state of the character for the audience.

We go on to the question of iconic promos. Dave takes us to Ric Flair's "holding these gators down" promo, which has become a sports meme in the promo's afterlife. Noell takes us to CM Punk's legendary promos. Chris goes to Dusty Rhodes' "Hard Times" promo, which resonates to this current day.

Noell's History Corner takes us some of the earliest promos and swerves to boxing to talk about Muhammad Ali's bombastic brags. She connects a dimension of Ali's showmanship to  Gorgeous George and a chance meeting between the two.

We close with the question of bizarre promos. Noell takes us to the famous Macho Man "Cream of the Crop" promo. Dave discusses the baffling WWF incarnation of Dusty Rhodes as exemplified by his Butcher Shop Promo. Chris enlists Dave's help in attempting to solve the notorious Steiner Math Equilibrium.

Today on Reading Wrestling we’ll grapple with these plays within a play. Stick around, you won’t want to miss this, and make sure that you tune in next week and all subsequent weeks for even bigger surprise happenings!