Wrestling Tropes You Love / Hate

[Kuetsar]

6 hours ago, Goodear said:

My favorite part of the Tower of Doom is when the guy(s) doing the powerbomb part of the spot act like they were injured in the move which makes no sense whatsoever.

I thought it was talking about the old NWA/WCW match. . .

[AxB]

Wasn't it in Foley's first book, the story of how a guy got eliminated from a Battle Royal by a fan throwing Popcorn at him?

The Trope I hate is the Babyface chasing the heel manager around the ring. Because how many times in Wrestling history has that ended with the babyface successfully catching the heel manager and neutralising them from interfering again? Roughly never, yeah? The face just runs into an ass kicking every time, like an idiot would.

Edited February 5, 2021 by AxB

[The Natural]

That doesn't work for me, brother. Fuck Hogan.

Edited February 5, 2021 by The Natural

[Super Ape]

My favorite trope that sadly you never see anymore; the tag team format/style of wrestling being such an indecipherable monolith to singles wrestlers that you could put Ric Flair and another Horseman up against the world tag team champions, and you would have the Midnight Express outclassing Flair in every respect. Flair may be the world champion, the dirtiest player in the game, but you’re in the Midnight Express’ house now, and they’re forcing you to play by THEIR rules and kicking your ass all the while until Flair pulls some trickery out his ass to steal a win.

[Mister TV]

Back to cage matches, I always hated ones with the ref in the ring doing counts for illegal holds, doing rope breaks and so on, they just need to stand back and make a three count or hear a submission. 
 

 

[Brian Fowler]

My number one, all-time, most hated wrestling trope (though you don't see it real often anymore thankfully)

Babyface is outside the ring, heel goes after him. Face does a shoulder to the midsection, doubling the heel over, and does a slingshot sunset flip. The heel fights going over, fights, and manages to grab the top rope. Then the referee kicks the heels hands off the rope and drops down to count the pin attempt. What in the everliving fuck? Why is that the only hold or pin attempt not broken up by grabbing the ropes? Why is the referee helping the babyface?

Edited February 5, 2021 by Brian Fowler

[Ace]

Wasn't that primarily a Hebner spot?

 

[odessasteps]

Feels more like Tommy Young & Flair spot to me. 

[DJ Hero Morganti]

That spot only really works if the heel had been cheating and antagonizing the ref to build to it.. like over a few weeks worth of matches.

[Shartnado]

On 2/5/2021 at 1:57 AM, HumanChessgame said:

Adding to this, a stiff breeze is enough to incapacitate a referee.

That and severely impared vision must be part of the job requirements when you apply for a referee's license. I don't know what causes that though? Maybe some sort of inner ear thing? I mean plenty of refs seem to be wearing some form of an ear piece. Maybe they all need that just to stand upright for some of the match?

[eikerir]

One more modern “trope” I hate is the creative non eliminations from Royal Rumbles with people doing stuff like walking on the barricade or walking on theirs hands and then jumping back in the ring which is total bullshit.

If your body is meters away from anywhere near the ring how does that not count as being eliminated?

[AxB]

They had to institute the Two Feet rule because Shawn Michaels fucked up his non-elimination and put his one foot down that one time.

[BobbyWhioux]

2 hours ago, eikerir said:

One more modern “trope” I hate is the creative non eliminations from Royal Rumbles with people doing stuff like walking on the barricade or walking on theirs hands and then jumping back in the ring which is total bullshit.

If your body is meters away from anywhere near the ring how does that not count as being eliminated?

and worse now there's 4 people for whom this is their Royal Rumble Gimmick (Morrison, Kingston, Naomi, Catanzaro); not only are they expected to do it every time they're in, everyone knows that is going to be their moment instead of winning.

at the very least there needs to be more spots where the heel slides out under the bottom rope and finishes the job mid-routine

[Gorman]

On 2/3/2021 at 1:12 PM, Zimbra said:

I do like it when the heel on the apron claps loudly to make it sound like they made a tag when the ref's back is turned.

I've been trying to get "Phantom Audio Tag" over on commentary as the official name for this.

[Gorman]

The other one of mine is when someone dives off the top rope and the guy in the ring dropkicks him on the way down (Defensive Dropkick).

[Zimbra]

22 minutes ago, Gorman said:

I've been trying to get "Phantom Audio Tag" over on commentary as the official name for this.

I can totally hear Gordon Solie saying that in my head so I think it's a great name.

[kafkonia]

I love/hate how any move done on the outside of the ring is roughly 10x more devastating. Whether or not you hit the ground with any force.

[AxB]

Sheamus did a Backbreaker on the ring steps one time. To add impact.

[odessasteps]

I'll say it. The spike piledriver is dumb wrestling physics. 

[AxB]

Didn't Taz break his neck taking a Spike Piledriver?

[The Great ML]

4 hours ago, odessasteps said:

I'll say it. The spike piledriver is dumb wrestling physics. 

Arn and Tully did it convincingly.

[MapRef41N93W]

I don't know quite how to explain this, but I hate this thing I've been seeing recently where multiple wrestlers will all do one wrestler's signature pose at the same time. It's part of a larger trend toward a sensibility in wrestling that I can't quite describe except to call it "cutesy".

For example:

Plus one more recent thing in a similar vein from AEW

[MapRef41N93W]

But seriously, folks:

Spoiler

 

I hate that wrestling companies will allow blatant cheating, caught on video in clear view of everyone, to go completely unpunished. Some promotions even allow their supposedly prestigious titles to change hands as a result of such acts. It makes no sense and cheapens everything.

I also hate that the rules of pro wrestling permit competitors to drop each other on their heads and necks, kick and knee downed opponents in the head, and throw each other over the top rope.

These moves being legal makes nonsense out of everything that happens in the ring. Why would you ever scoop slam an opponent on their back when you could spike them on the top of their head instead? If your opponent is on the mat in front of you, why would you ever do anything but stomp their face over and over? Why would you ever hit a press slam or powerbomb in the ring, when from the same setup, you could throw your opponent over the top rope to the floor? It would be way more effective, and it's all legal!

All wrestling promotions should outlaw manuevers that involve lifting the opponent off their feet and dropping them on their head or neck, as well as all kicks and knees to the head of downed opponents, and all throws over the top where the opponent's feet are off the mat before their shoulders clear the perimeter of the ropes. They should also move away from unambiguous match-deciding cheating, except for angles involving reversed decisions and/or wrestler suspensions.

 

I'm kidding, but I'm also completely serious.

(Spoiler for eyeroll-inducing diatribe)

Edited February 7, 2021 by MapRef41N93W

[Ramo2653]

12 hours ago, MapRef41N93W said:

I don't know quite how to explain this, but I hate this thing I've been seeing recently where multiple wrestlers will all do one wrestler's signature pose at the same time. It's part of a larger trend toward a sensibility in wrestling that I can't quite describe except to call it "cutesy".

For example:

Plus one more recent thing in a similar vein from AEW

I'm personally on the fence about these since I don't mind showing your opponent up if it happens in the context of the match. At least the Nakamura one was from a house show and those always have silly stuff in them (which is partly why there fun to attend). 

[BobbyWhioux]

14 hours ago, L_W_P said:

A wrestling promotion run with "real sport" rules could be pretty interesting.

It would certainly give some great room to work on 'shades of grey' stories with people deliberately/accidentally cheating, or trying to injure people with illegal moves etc.

Put value into managers by giving them NFL style challenge flags. Heel cheats, ref misses it, out comes the challenge flag.

You don't have a manager? Oh well, refs rule is final.

Did your manager not throw the flag? Maybe they didn't see the cheating either? Or maybe they are about to turn on you...

part of what make the Royal Rumble so fun and something that even the casuals and lapsed show back up for is it's the one night on the WWE schedule that comes closest to still doing it.  Time lasted, number of eliminations, which numbers are historically more lucky. STATS. And as much as I've been joining in with the laments about "The Floor Is Lava" the underlying premise that there is a Letter Of The Law that's gotten divorced from the Spirit Of The Law as athletes find a competitive edge in the loophole is great, and all over real sports -- and not coincidentally, I think, the moments that tend to draw the most controversy (or as we wrestling fans call it, heat) -- just think about how much "did both feet hit the floor?" feels like "did he get both feet in bounds?" or "did he break the plane of the goal line?"  It's really not that different.

Just think about how pissed off people get, and how much "engagement" social media gets after a soft Roughing The Passer call, or a phantom Pass Interference or Holding.  Why is that?  Because the match matters, and the rules ostensibly matter.  Wrestling is leaving metric tonnes of potential heat on the table by not going through with the effort of pretending to be a "realistic" sport.

I *LOVE* the manager with challenge flag idea, especially because it would actually give pretense/plausible deniability to why anyone has a second at ringside, be it manager valet or partner, instead of everyone knowing they're just there to expedite the run in so why doesn't the ref just eject them straight away? Why are they even allowed at all?

Meanwhile, I'm watching Tully Blanchard be as clandestine as possible about passing a metal slug back and forth to Shawn Spears' black glove and I appreciate Tully's effort but can't help but ask why go through all that trouble?  What are they going to do to you?  AEW never disqualifies anyone.  There's no consequences for being caught.

THAT should be the heat getting gimmick. Blatantly cheat in fair view of the ref and DARE them to DQ you every week, and talk in your promos about how you know they won't and it's the fans fault because the fans don't want a DQ.  Sets up your transition back to actually caring about rules.