Wrestlers never really called matches in the way you mean. They used to get a lot more freedom but they also worked in a completely different age. They developed to this point because this is the system that works best and its part of how they are all trained now.

The most experienced guys probably do get a lot more freedom to plot matches how they want and they will change stuff up like i say for pacing and working the crowd but even the big matches that get a lot of freedom (every Taker wrestlemania since HBK 1 for example) will be worked out beforehand between the two workers, the producer and the associated segment writers.

So for the given example of Punk vs Cena there were some calls that got caught by the cameras but mostly that will have been pacing. They might introduce some new stuff they tried in house shows that didnt form part of the plan but its extremely rare to hear a call that strings together three or four moves to form a spot.

Also for the record it would take a lot for me to believe Jake cut promos unscripted even back in the day, though unlike now he would have had a lot more character input including scripting his own promos. Also keep in mind when he started in the WWF he was experienced with a similar amount of years wrestling as CM Punk had when he basically ran everything following his first heel turn including the Straight Edge Society work. Guys with a lot of experience and talent get a lot more freedom.

It seems rather difficult to remember all that BS. Calling matches in the ring seems much simpler.

As to Jake Roberts, I've heard several of the older guys (DiBiase comes to mind) state they were given an idea of where to go with the promo, but they weren't told "this is what you'll say".

I guess it was different then too since I don't think they were live very often. Then again I knew Ray Traylor personally, and I was once told by him that his stuff was often scripted.

Then again his promos were essentially "The Big Boss Man something something HARD TIME! something something JUSTICE! something something HARD TIME!" so he probably needed it.

The WWF/E has long been more heavily scripted than most other organizations. Jake may not have done many unscripted promos in the WWF, but in the 80s Flair certainly did, as did a lot of others in the NWA. In the 90s, one of the bigger success stories of Bischoff's 'just let them say whatever they want' strategy with many wrestlers in WCW was Chris Jericho. Obviously, there were things that would have been the wrong thing to say, but there wasn't something that was dictated as the right thing to say.

If you listen to shoot interviews with wrestlers also, they will frequently mention that upon arriving to the WWF from some other organization, one of the things they noticed was how matches were generally much more scripted.

Regardless of level of scripting, you gotta give the wrestlers credit - I regard them as super-stuntmen. Their athleticism and durability is incredible

Its only a matter of time until he tears his quad doing it.

I remember some Raw matches from the 90s where you can easily hear HBK calling some holds to his opponent. For some reason, I think it was a match vs Shamrock where you can hear him saying "punch, punch, clothesline"

Much of the entire 60 minute HBK/Hart match was called in the ring. Which led to some problems, like Hart completely no selling a juji gatame armbar.

Wat

Hmmmm, I could have sworn from the HBK/Hart greatest rivalry documentary was that when Bret talked about the Iron Man match, he said that when he got a glance at how much time was left, he was amazed that they did exactly what they were supposed to do in the whole match, right down to the little details.

Now, I know that long matches are pretty much improv and would most likely be called in the ring like HBK/Cena (I believe it was somewhat called in the ring, but I can't tell), due to length of time, but I really don't think that most of the WM 12 iron man match was called in the ring.

I think read that WWE writes all the wrestlers promos word for word too. Vince just doesn't trust the wrestlers much, and it makes the product pretty bland, imo.

One of the writers came out in a G-string and went by the name of Big Dick Johnson. But he quit a while back.

they talked about that and you're correct. they planned the entire match before hand. he said he glanced at the clock with 2:35 left (i think it was 2:35) and was amazed because the way they planned it there should've been 2:30 left.

Punk is the most blatant caller in wrestling though. His hour long matches with Joe and his matches with Aries and Cena come to mind as how him obviously whispering is really distracting to the enjoyment of the matches.

So that conflicts with what people always said, that HBK and Bret were both refusing to give each other falls during the match, which was what led to them being 0-0 before the tie was finally broken.

It sounds, though, like they weren't supposed to get any falls on each other?

Lol, what? I have never heard this but it sounds very to me. Googling around I cant see anything about it either.

Its possible they were going to originally give falls to each other so it was like 2:2 but then they ended up with 0:0 as planned beforehand but no way they went into business for themselves and shot on the planned falls during the match.

they discussed why they only wanted to do one fall as well but i don't remember why and don't have it d/l'ed no more.