Wrestling Tropes You Love / Hate

[Peck]

Can’t believe no one has mentioned the “beating the 10-count back in the ring at 9.9999999”, especially when it happens multiple times a show, and even more especially when the wrestler is dead 40 feet from the ring from counts 1-9 then magically does a full-on sprint back to beat the 10.

[BloodyChamp]

8 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

You know that stings since Tony seems like such a great guy right now. Bobby's takedown of him in his autobiography is brutal. 

I have my own opinion about it that I think makes sense, but it’s not a popular one. The nice version is that I think they were both guilty of a few things, and both victims of the disaster that was WCW. Add all that together and those 2 guys had just seen enough of each other.

[Curt McGirt]

Yeah, the truth is usually somewhere in the middle, and considering WCW it HAS to be in the middle if not far to the crazy end of what you thought.

[BobbyWhioux]

5 hours ago, Peck said:

Can’t believe no one has mentioned the “beating the 10-count back in the ring at 9.9999999”, especially when it happens multiple times a show, and even more especially when the wrestler is dead 40 feet from the ring from counts 1-9 then magically does a full-on sprint back to beat the 10.

and when no one ever actually does get counted out

[BobbyWhioux]

like I said about DQs, it's time for a meta angle where a heel just patently refuses to get back in the ring and dares the referee to do it.  "The fans didn't come here to see you Count people out all night, I'll sit RIGHT HERE until I'm good and ready!"

[BobbyWhioux]

or, you know, finally close the CountOut/DQ title change loophole for a while and teach the audience to accept count outs as valid wins instead of bait & switches

[BloodyChamp]

5 hours ago, Peck said:

Can’t believe no one has mentioned the “beating the 10-count back in the ring at 9.9999999”, especially when it happens multiple times a show, and even more especially when the wrestler is dead 40 feet from the ring from counts 1-9 then magically does a full-on sprint back to beat the 10.

This is one that the announcers atleast tried to mention every once in a while. They would praise the ref for letting it go so we could see that match, get a real winner etc. So it didn’t bother me. It was also similar to my point about Tony telling Bobby to shut up. Count outs were on every card in wrestling for such a long time and they were often the reason a fan walked away thinking “that was so stupid I’ll never watch this crap again.”

[SirSmUgly]

On 10/20/2022 at 12:47 PM, Zimbra said:

I love all of that shit, the more demonstrative the better.  Pretty much anything that is playing to the back rows instead of the camera is OK in my book.

It's even better when it's a heel doing it when the face hadn't actually cheated.

My favorite variation on this: heel gets headlock on face, pulls face's hair. Face gets headlock, it's clean, but the heel gets away and throws a fit about supposedly having his hair pulled while a befuddled, irritated babyface looks on.

Bonus points if the ref then admonishes the face for a non-existent hair pull that he didn't even witness.

 

[DreamBroken]

On the topic of fun ref mannerisms, the 'manager is ejected' spot is always a favorite of mine and often leads to a huge pop. The point at to build the drama followed by the huge wind up and throw to the back motion, classic.

[Brandon Bones]

The disingenuous hand shake offer by the heel at the start of the match.

Its fine if it’s little people in the opener.  But anywhere else in any other situation… no.  Never on TV.

And if you had the nerve to do it on PPV (even if your a Rougeau).  
 

You owe me money.

[zendragon]

On 10/22/2022 at 1:32 PM, BloodyChamp said:

This is one that the announcers atleast tried to mention every once in a while. They would praise the ref for letting it go so we could see that match, get a real winner etc. So it didn’t bother me. It was also similar to my point about Tony telling Bobby to shut up. Count outs were on every card in wrestling for such a long time and they were often the reason a fan walked away thinking “that was so stupid I’ll never watch this crap again.”

I like the idea of "count outs and DQs are at a referees discretion" makes sense that the ref would want the main event to end on a double count out just cause Austin and the Rock decided to brawl all over the building 

[Kang]

Nothing much but I just hate the wait for the highflyer to land on you thing....

[SirFozzie]

It's completely old-school, but I'd love a gimmick where the ref actually does his job competently. By that I mean he stops all those sneaky cheats, turns around at the perfect moment to catch the heel about to use a weapon etcetera. Then the heel gets their heat by campaigning to bar the ref from their matches, because "It's obvious that they have it in for me. Look, I've been admonished by this ref an astonishingly 143% more than the opposition. It's OBVIOUS bias."

Kinda like Remsburg did with PAC in the Orange Cassidy AA title match. He knows when PAC slides out of the ring that he's going for the hammer and is there waiting for him, and calls him out on it. Do that more often, and watch the heel fume and then beg "the powers that be"/commissioner/whatever to keep that ref away from his matches.

 

[kafkonia]

I'd kind of like to see Bryce as the Only Competent Ref. It may be my old Chikara fandom talking, but I think he's the best ref on the roster.

[The Great ML]

I’m sure I posted this already years ago, but I hate winners slowly walking backwards up the ramp making faces at the loser in the ring. Just walk away, you won.

[zendragon]

I like when a wrestler slightly renames a move to match their character/gimmick. Mia Yima calling a Code Red a Code Blue or Guido/Nunzio calling a Side Russian Leg Sweep a Side Italian Leg Sweep 

Edited October 24, 2022 by zendragon

[SirFozzie]

My personal favorite with the sandman's white russian leg sweep.

[odessasteps]

Brazos Valley Backbreaker 

[Gorman]

A member of a heel tag team claps behind the referee to make it sound like they made a tag. On commentary, I call that the "Phantom Audio Tag."

[BobbyWhioux]

19 hours ago, zendragon said:

I like when a wrestler slightly renames a move to match their character/gimmick. Mia Yima calling a Code Red a Code Blue or Guido/Nunzio calling a Side Russian Leg Sweep a Side Italian Leg Sweep 

this is case by case with me.  Finishing holds that are obvious puns on the wrestler's name tend to feel unimaginative and "create-a-wrestler"y to me.  Unless the character is presented as the sort of dork that would earnestly do that (i.e. babyface version of Bayley using the Belly-to-Bayley Suplex.  Sasha Banks is a little too "cool" on the other hand to be calling something Banks' Statement).  Unless you're so cool it doesn't matter and you have a name that is a pun in the first place, like Rick Rude's Rude Awakening. Indirect references to the gimmick work better for me with most personas, like Nunzio/Guido calling it an Italian Leg Sweep rather than a Russian Leg Sweep, or the alcoholic Sandman calling a hurricanrana a Heinekenrana.  Bret "The Hitman" renaming the grapevine leg hold a Sharpshooter is brilliant, especially since the legs are held in a cross-hair pattern, though The Undertaker is probably my favorite because the hold was already known as the Tombstone Piledriver, so it's perfectly logical he would choose to use that hold.  "Rock Bottom" is dumb and only because The Rock himself is cool enough to survive it does he get away with it. "The People's Elbow" flowery and underwhelming as the move actually is, is a tremendous name, because it makes perfect sense that anyone arrogant enough to purport to be "The People's Champion" would also invoke the will of "The People" with every hold or claim it's done on behalf of "the people".  The Perfect Plex also works under the arrogance clause.  Rick "The Model" Martel never renaming The Boston Crab -- an excellent candidate for a name reclamation as most "place name" holds are, feels like a missed opportunity.  Something like the Runway Turn in reference to the application of the hold, or even the Montreal Crab or Milan Crab or Cocoa Beach Crab. Super serious wrestlers should, in my view, eschew cutesy names entirely in favor of keeping the generic [i.e. Arn Anderson not renaming The Spinebuster] unless it's a serious/unimaginative/"realistic" simple renaming of an old hold or naming of a new hold, directly after the serious character himself [LeBell Lock].  Kurt Angle had his goofiness to his personality but he always had the underpinning of being a very serious Olympic Champion Wrestler, so Angleslam and Anglelock work, as does the Tazmission and the complete assortment of Tazplexes.  And sometimes the hold in question is so over and ominous on its own that no rebranding can improve on the generic (i.e. The Piledriver, The DDT, and The Heart Punch).  And, finally, the opposite of that, when the personal nickname is just so cool sounding it doesn't even have to relate to the wrestler at all, i.e. The Ghostbuster.

Basically I love this trope when there's serious thought put into it and I hate it when it's just done to be done.

[BobbyWhioux]

Why isn’t Sasha Banks using “The Boss Lock” or “The Legit Boss Lock”, anyway?

[Cobra Commander]

Is Lucha the only place that came close to matching the dynamic of how some sports umpires/referees aren't exactly evil, but more attention-hungry? I think some of the rudo ref stuff was a little more subtle than just having Tirantes/etc screw over babyfaces everytime.

Like a Joe West referee in wrestling would be a more evil Tommy Young where there's a chance that he could bait a babyface into losing their cool or he could occasionally foil a heel.

[zendragon]

5 hours ago, BobbyWhioux said:

this is case by case with me.  Finishing holds that are obvious puns on the wrestler's name tend to feel unimaginative and "create-a-wrestler"y to me.  Unless the character is presented as the sort of dork that would earnestly do that (i.e. babyface version of Bayley using the Belly-to-Bayley Suplex.  Sasha Banks is a little too "cool" on the other hand to be calling something Banks' Statement).  Unless you're so cool it doesn't matter and you have a name that is a pun in the first place, like Rick Rude's Rude Awakening. Indirect references to the gimmick work better for me with most personas, like Nunzio/Guido calling it an Italian Leg Sweep rather than a Russian Leg Sweep, or the alcoholic Sandman calling a hurricanrana a Heinekenrana.  Bret "The Hitman" renaming the grapevine leg hold a Sharpshooter is brilliant, especially since the legs are held in a cross-hair pattern, though The Undertaker is probably my favorite because the hold was already known as the Tombstone Piledriver, so it's perfectly logical he would choose to use that hold.  "Rock Bottom" is dumb and only because The Rock himself is cool enough to survive it does he get away with it. "The People's Elbow" flowery and underwhelming as the move actually is, is a tremendous name, because it makes perfect sense that anyone arrogant enough to purport to be "The People's Champion" would also invoke the will of "The People" with every hold or claim it's done on behalf of "the people".  The Perfect Plex also works under the arrogance clause.  Rick "The Model" Martel never renaming The Boston Crab -- an excellent candidate for a name reclamation as most "place name" holds are, feels like a missed opportunity.  Something like the Runway Turn in reference to the application of the hold, or even the Montreal Crab or Milan Crab or Cocoa Beach Crab. Super serious wrestlers should, in my view, eschew cutesy names entirely in favor of keeping the generic [i.e. Arn Anderson not renaming The Spinebuster] unless it's a serious/unimaginative/"realistic" simple renaming of an old hold or naming of a new hold, directly after the serious character himself [LeBell Lock].  Kurt Angle had his goofiness to his personality but he always had the underpinning of being a very serious Olympic Champion Wrestler, so Angleslam and Anglelock work, as does the Tazmission and the complete assortment of Tazplexes.  And sometimes the hold in question is so over and ominous on its own that no rebranding can improve on the generic (i.e. The Piledriver, The DDT, and The Heart Punch).  And, finally, the opposite of that, when the personal nickname is just so cool sounding it doesn't even have to relate to the wrestler at all, i.e. The Ghostbuster.

Basically I love this trope when there's serious thought put into it and I hate it when it's just done to be done.

I remember when The Angleslam was The Oplympic Slam. And did he rename the anklelock the anglelock? my ears have always heard the former

[BobbyWhioux]

Angle is a weird case of the unofficial fan nicknames overwriting the original official nanes (perhaps impossible pre-internet). In the case of the anklehold, probably all started with mishearing ankle as angle until angle won out.

this never quite happened with Randy Savage, whose top rope elbow never had an official moniker but is often called the savage or macho elbow by fans

[Cobra Commander]

The Edge/Christian team was given the name "The Team of Edge and Christian" or TTOEAC on the internet because that was the introduction.