For years, the mike drop has represented the most cutting way to close out a promo.
Ever the innovator, Paul Heyman once again changed that distinction, introducing wrestling fans to the phone flip during the final segment of Talking Smack two Fridays ago.
“I just knew, at the end of that promo, I wanted to do something,” Heyman says. “I don’t hold a microphone, so I needed to do the equivalent of a mike drop. The flip of the phone was what I had in mind. I figured, if I flipped the phone at the end, that our director and the producer would know that was the end of the show, and the viewer at home would say, ‘That’s different, I’ve never seen that before,’ emphasizing the point I made.