While a good chunk of being able to survive in the professional wrestling depends on one's physical ability, it's often just important to talk a good game.

 

Why? Because if you can get behind what a wrestler is preaching (or conversely, be so disgusted by what they're boasting about), it helps to boost television ratings, sell tickets to live events and increase pay-per-views. The masters of the mic in wrestling aren't just talking, they're effectively selling you a product.

 

For this week's Top 50 list, we looked at wrestlers and managers from the past 30 years or so that could cut a decent promo under the following criteria:

 

• How likely were fans to buy a ticket after hearing them talk?

• Could they mix in humor as well as a serious points?

• Did the interview change your opinion of the wrestler or match?

• Over the course of their career, could a wrestler cut a good promo as both a heel and a babyface?

 

The only people disqualified from this contest were those who were strictly color commentators or announcers their entire career, because they're already being paid to talk (and thus, they're probably better at it than the average wrestler).

 

Ready? Here we go!

Trish was better known as a wrestler and Diva than she was a talker, but her microphone skills have been surprisingly strong. Her ability to talk bolstered feuds with the likes of Mickie James, Molly Holly and Lita, and her brief heel run solidifed that she can talk smack as well as she could wrestle.

Jimmy Hart has always had boundless amount of energy, both at ringside and during interviews, so that when someone was facing off against clients of his such as The Hart Foundation or The Honky Tonk Man, you truly believed The Mouth of the South was talking about a matter of life and death.

While Kevin Nash could probably let his appearance do most of his talking for him, he's always scored points in his interviews as well. Sometimes soft-spoken, sometimes angry and sometimes cracking one-liners and attempting to be a standup comedian, Nash has always been confident on the microphone.

When Brian Pillman truly embraced the Loose Cannon persona in the final years of his life, it also brought about some of his best promo work. Pillman's trademark raspy voice was perfect for convincing you that something wasn't quite right in his mind and that he was just as dangerous as he appeared to be.

Bret Hart began extremely nervous on the microphone - so much so that he put on his trademark sunglasses to hide his shyness. Eventually, though, Hart began to flourish when he let his anti-American persona fly and came across as a bitter man that needed to get his comeuppance. 

When he debuted in ECW, Raven differed from most of the other heels in that he never shouted his promos. Instead, he deliberately spoke softly and used psychological warfare to get under his opponents' skin. It was effective enough to make him one of the most enduring characters in ECW history.

For much of his early career, Shane Douglas was known as a smiling, blue-eyed, blond-haired babyface. So when he became The Franchise in ECW, just about everyone was shocked by his verbal ability to unleash on wrestlers such as Ric Flair and knocking the tried-and-true approach to the wrestling industry.

Bully Ray has always been great on the microphone, going back to his days in ECW where his challenges to ringside fans almost always incited riots in the crowd. However, his recent work in TNA established him as a star who also knew how to cut one hell of a promo and build interest for his matches.

To be fair, there are two John Cenas: the one that makes lame jokes and has been booed for the better part of a decade as a result, and the one who cuts impassioned promos, making his next big match seem like the end-all be-all, and that's the one who is one of the best promo men of his generation.

More than a decade after they were last together on a television screen and the tradition of Animal saying "Tell 'em, Hawk" followed by Hawk saying "Welll...." still stands out. The Road Warriors had a phenomenal look to them, but their crazy, intimidating promos were almost as much a part of that success.

Chris Jericho is an example of someone who didn't get over with fans until he learned to talk. His unconventional promo style got him noticed in WCW and helped him break out of the cruiserweight division. And in WWE, he's learned to adapt with the times, changing his entire delivery and persona as needed to effectively get across any points he was making with the audience.

We've mentioned several times on this list examples of where a wrestler didn't need to scream to get themselves over. Jake "The Snake" Roberts was the absolute master of that promo style. By remaining calm and speaking in a devious voice, The Snake was able to get into his opponents heads by intimidating them verbally before the bell even rang.

Let's be honest here - as soon as you saw the name "Macho Man" Randy Savage, in your head you did an "Ooooooh yeah!" in his world-famous Macho Man growl. Probably the most imitated promo in wrestling history, Randy Savage didn't need to say anything specific besides talk in that voice, asserting his claims and making general threats at his rivals. But he did so much more on the microphone that he became a master.

One of the true guilty pleasures for any fan who lived through the Rock 'n' Wrestling Era was to have Bobby "The Brain" Heenan sell a member of his Family's match to you. Sometimes serious, sometimes funny, sometimes a bit of both, Heenan used his Brain and his Mouth to make you believe that his clients were truly about to triumph over fan favorites like Hulk Hogan, Paul Orndorff and The Big Boss Man.