Speech Impediments in Wrestling | WrestleZone Forums

In fact, there have only been a few wrestlers in history to have a lisp and one such man is Dusty Rhodes. Rhodes is a decorated wrestler and has won many titles and has an impressive list of accolades. A multiple time champion in the NWA, celebrated booker and all around personality in the wrestling

I'm going to go ahead and just skip the obvious Jack Swagger joke here. Wrestlers with speech impediments don't come along very often.

In fact, there have only been a few wrestlers in history to have a lisp and one such man is Dusty Rhodes. Rhodes is a decorated wrestler and has won many titles and has an impressive list of accolades. A multiple time champion in the NWA, celebrated booker and all around personality in the wrestling community. Definitely what most would consider a succesful career.

The question here is this: Did his speech impediment have any effect on his career, either positively or negatively? I'll give you an example of Rhode's mic work if you are unfamiliar.

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Sometimes the lisp was strong and sometimes he was talking so damn fast it was well hidden. It was definitely there though. Some aren't so hot on his in ring work, but many would say that Rhodes is one of the best talkers in wrestling history. A pretty big accomplishment for someone with a speech impedient, something that causes trouble for many people on a social level.

The only other really notable wrestler to have one is Ric Flair. All of the great things about Rhodes can also be said about Flair. A multiple time champion and arguable one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. He had the same problem as Rhodes did with his lisp. He was on the other side of the fence though and did most of his best work as a heel. The fact that he had a speech impediment didn't seem to effect him and was still seen as the wheelin' dealin' etc etc.

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Flash forward to present day and you have Jack Swagger. In his short time in the industry he has already made a name for himself and has garnered a good deal of attention. While we aren't here to discuss how good or bad Swagger is so far in his career, we are talking about his lisp. The subject of jokes and ridicule, some have gone so far as to say that the heat he recieves is legitimitely effecting his promos and encouraging the progression of his lisp and the promos goes on.

Personally, I think it's great. There's something there that's a real juxtaposition. You have a stellar in ring performer who cleanly pinned one of the hottest wrestlers in the game right now in Randy Orton. A decorated amateur athelete who has already proved that he can hang with the big boys and is a legitimate threat. Then you have the lisp...something that is often the subject of ridicule and humiliation for the people it inflicts. It's a large target for the crowd to use against him and they really do. To me it gives just the right amount of uniqueness to his mic work when you don't have very many vocal standouts on the WWE rosters outside of the veterans.

The only problem I see with it is if he's ever turned face. Rhodes worked because he was an epic talker and so damn natural at it. It had the audience in the palm of his sweaty hand the whole time as they ate up every word of his American fairytales and common man speaches. I don't think Swagger is horrible on the mic (with the lisp put aside) but there is plenty of room for improvement. He doesn't have the likeability at all yet to be a face, but even when he does he doesn't seem to have the natural charisma to pull it off. For Rhodes, the lisp added to his whole character. The same can be said about Swagger, but only as a heel.

You also have Sheamus, a personal favorite of mine right now. His lisp definitely isn't as noticeable as Swagger's or Rhodes' is, but it's still there. His seems to be a little more overpowered by his accent and way of speaking, using the slang that seems to be foriegn to us Americans. Not to mention that his paleness is so in your face that it's a much larger target than his lisp could ever be.

So do lisps ever have any effect on a wrestlers career in any aspect or overall? Can it aid, hinder or possibly both in the journey to stardom? Has it had any effect on careers in the past?

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