BRM Reviews the 3/4/2019 Raw (frustrating)

[Big Red Machine]

TRIPLE H PROMO- bad because it broke kayfabe
He broke kayfabe for no reason, telling us about “Richard Fliehr” and using the word “character” several times. This would have been an excellent promo without the breaking of kayfabe, which is even more annoying because he could have cut basically the same promo and just said “Ric Flair” every time he said “Richard Fliehr” and hadn’t use the term “character” it would have worked just as well.

Using the name "Richard Fleihr" when referring to Ric makes me think that Hunter had a eulogy written when he almost died and worked it into the promo. He certainly got choked up like he was reading one.

Also I think you can get away with "breaking character" if you put your emphasis on the correct part of the promo. Let's compare CM Punk's promo to Hunter that began "This is Phil Brooks talking to Paul Levesque". The emphasis there was "Ooooh look at us with our shoot names"

By comparison the takeaway from Hunter's promo here is "You attacked my best friend at his birthday party I'm going to bring the fight to you because of it."
And I'm not saying this should be every promo from now on, I think there's sufficient emotional investment. Triple H almost lost his good friend and was denied the chance to celebrate him in a way that he (Flair) would've enjoyed , and he tapped into that emotion expertly

In both cases it was completely unnecessary to do and doing it inherently reminds people that what they are watching is an act. It's immersion-breaking and therefore should be avoided at all costs.