I've always hated the "Partner Misunderstanding". You know. When there's a tag team match and one partner accidentally hits the other, and the other acts like he did it on purpose even when they've been a team with no issues for a good while.
I agree, and on a similar note is when someone else attacks one partner, and that partner thinks it was his friend that hit him, and they end up having trust issues the next week as well. Could they not go back and watch the replay and clearly see it was someone else?
@@nosenseinme4354 Wrestlers not being able to simply watch a replay gets back to the bigger issue of treating it as if wrestlers are incapable of watching the broadcast show in general. (Which is even sillier when you even have backstage segments of wrestlers watching a match on TV.)
Can you just imagine a home invasion situation going on in your home. You’re upstairs and can hear your family being attacked downstairs and you’re like “Hey Google, play Real American” before you go downstairs to save them.
@@tuckermitchell7869 But Jericho was also the man who answered a "We the people" chant with, "That was a stupid idea from bad creative." Can't say THAT ain't breaking the fourth wall.
We need more of those kind of GM. 'You two wanna beat each other up?, okay then, save it for the next PPV cause you two are gonna fight in a Last Man Standing match!'
People who aren’t aware they’re on TV. The moment of Lita telling Stacy “I’m pregnant BUT DONT TELL ANYBODYZ” while a camera is in her face is something I’ll never forget.
The reaction of the crowd was great. You could hear their incredulity. It would’ve worked so much better if it was a shot of her talking to Stacy from a distance, you see Stacy smile and hug her, and we are left to speculate about what they were talking about because they’re so far away that we can’t hear the conversation.
Do you really think every scripted tv show should be Deadpool? I'm sure you have no problem with Breaking Bad characters ignoring the camera that is filming them cook and sell meth, or a horror movie character sneaking up on someone ignoring the huge camera crew, but if a wrestler does it then that is just stupid?
@@blitzofchaosgaming6737 I don't mind it, but it can flag as a flaw in internal logic when they *are* achknowledged for storyline purposes, i.e Randy Orton showing footage to Triple H and Batista.
I’ve always thought they should just have the backstage footage be from hi-def security cameras, especially for stuff like backstage attacks. The commentators could say an attack or incident was “caught on our security cameras” and has been edited together at different angles. You may not be able to get close-ups (but if you want that you can just have the wrestler being interviewed) but it would like more plausible and realistic.
Yeah because it makes logical sense. WWE doesn’t consider stuff like that because they think they are thinking like a regular corporation. Most times they don’t think like us and that can be a real problem.
Honestly this unironically is the answer. Everyone (Even other heels) hated Evolution in Kayfebe so them letting Batista's coming betrayal be kept to themselves just to spite Hunter is believable.
I have a funny story. I was working at an Indy show and there was the heels beating down one of our babyfaces. His tag partner's music started playing, but since he'd chosen a song with a "buildup" section before the main melody hit, his theme song just played for half a minute before he ran out at the "drop". While his tag partner was getting basically mugged.
lmao that's such an indie trend though. Everybody's entrance theme always has entire days of intro section, lol. It is a bit daft. My announcer theme's pretty quick to begin, but my wrestler theme's on the edge of annoying in that way. Might have to chop it down a bit in a sound editor. Or maybe just stick with the announcer theme.
This only works well with more lighthearted, whimsical and comedic teams. I think Breezango pulled this one off quite well, and also the reverse where they'd use props and costumes and little distractions to throw off their stronger meaner opponents.
#7 One of the most baffling things about this trope is when the heel is beating the face, then the hero's music hits and the heel just completely stops what they are doing. This is even more perplexing when a heel is about to win a ladder match and they stop climbing the ladder to react to the hero's entrance.
This is how Brock Lesnar won MITB years back. It should have been Mustafa Ali... but Brock's music hit, and he was frozen in fear. This was the reverse of "face-heel" in your scenario.
Speaking of the ladder matches. I hate how these sux foot + super athletic men can't climb a ladder. A moderately sturdy double sided ladder. Each time the scene has to go through all the steps. 1. Knockout or remove opponent(s). 2. Grab a ladder from outside the ring. ( Do not grab one already in the ring, A ladder from under the ring is best, especially when you have to move one out of the way to grab it). 3. Toss ladder in ring. 4. Stop to observe opponents before slowly climbing back into the ring slowly. 5. Stand ladder in the middle of ring, being certain turn it so the hard camera gets the best view. 6. Start to climb the ladder . 7. Pause for a moment at each step and hang your head low to show exhaustion. 8.Stay at least one step lower than necessary to teach belt or briefcase or whatever. NOW THE BEST PART 9. Do not fully extend elbow when reaching for the briefcase/belt. 10. Stand on this step a bit longer while watching for you next spot.
@@IelNadLowBar Yeah. The whole climbing really slowly up the ladder to build the tension of whether they'll grab the belt, briefcase or whatever is annoying. Realistically they'd quickly climb up, grab it and win.
The single worst instance of this has to be Fastlane 2017 where it damaged Owens credibility and resulted in the newly made Universal Championship that was made "for the fans" to be stuck on someone who barely appears on Raw which also hurt the title's credibility as well and made it look more like an accessory than a prestigious prize.
@@E_l_l_i_e I'd love to see a technical wrestler with an 'unescapable pin' move. Not sure I've seen that in a while, but in terms of a fighting sport it just makes sense. You then get the tension of people trying to avoid being put in the hold, but unfortunately wrestlers seem to want to prove they're tough and can 'withstand' things rather than having the smarts and the ability not to be caught by them in the first place
My favorite: The way certain wrestlers can be invincible to punches, kicks, chair shots, 3 on 1 attacks, and finishers one minute. Then struggle to victory (or possibly defeat) when actually booked for a match.
@@elijahechicagobearsboyd5734 At least when Mysterio went up against big guys they made it very believable that he could take them down due to his craftiness. But he rarely won against big men. And if he did, it was because of help or some type of shenanigans. Show vs Mysterio and Brock vs Mysterio on Smackdown early 2000s were great for those reasons. It put over Mysterio big that he was able to last long against these giants but the giants would still get over at the end so at the end of the day, no one looked bad.
@@tyratooOP they did something similar with ziggler during his feud with Cena were they said that although Cena had the size and power advantage Ziggler was much faster and due to his collegiate wrestling background he had the tactical advantage and he is willing to use dirty tricks to get an edge. Little things like that help sell the fans on a guy
Poor Adam Pearce man. His character really is just a normal guy trying his best to do his job and not get murdered by his muscled up, overly demanding and occasionally psychotic workers.
That camera one gets me One of my favorite jokes I've made was when I was watching the Booker T hotel segment from Judgment Day 2002 "Yeah baby, it's just you, me, and the camera guy about to film us getting it on" or something to that effect Also Booker T & Goldust were amazing, just needs to be said
You could make the same joke about the hotel segment between Torrie Wilson and Dawn Marie. It’s funny how Torrie goes on to accuse Dawn of “spreading rumours” about their night together, even though there was a cameraman present who supposedly captured everything.
* The dirty heel foreigner * Pairing two singles wrestlers into a tag team * Roll ups * Weddings * illegitimate child * double count out and brawl to the back (also know as the Duggan special)
@@crisistian_ Yeah, I don't have any problem with surprise roll-up/schoolboy wins. Can be mixed with a distraction or just used for a massive upset win.
@@fattiger6957 surprise roll ups by themselves isn't bad, it's just WWE's constant insistence on using them as a finish multiple times on nearly every single show
Referees getting knocked out at just the slightest touches The babyface being so distracted by someone on the outside that they can't finish the match & The Rivials who are forced to get along
@@supersasukemaniac imagine a superstar on the verge of winning a big time match, only for him to lose due to his rival making his presence felt by playing his entrance music or even trolling him by playing his music and never show up. The poor schmuck gets screwed and he ends up looking stupid for being distracted easily
@@supersasukemaniac I want to see the opposite of that someday. Like the music plays, and instead of being distracted and standing there, the guy rushes and tries to win the match before the run-in starts.
Exactly. Realistically wouldn't you focus on your opponent in the ring and try and beat them as quickly as possible so you can focus on the person you're feuding with? Instead of staring up the ramp shocked and shouting shit allowing your opponent to roll you up or hit their finisher and win when you turn around.
This is fine in theory, but it needs to be done quickly. Music hits, guy looks up in surprise, turns back and then gets caught by the other guys finisher or roll up or whatever. A momentary distraction is plausible enough. Unfortunately in practice we usually get "My enemy's music is playing! I must stand here staring at the stage for ten seconds doing absolutely nothing!"
One trope I never liked was managers distracting the referee. Aside from being overdone, refs must've caught on by now, they must know a manager standing on the outside is a blatant decoy for some skulduggery.
The best athourity figure I've seen currently is William Regal in NXT. Dude doesn't fight the wrestlers nor screws them over. Doesn't matter if you're face or heel. The guy is there to manage the show. And if a feud goes into a blood feud you know he'll be involved in it to have it happen at a Takeover.
Between Impact, main roster WWE, AEW, and NXT, I think Regal tops it off. Primarily because he's respected enough not to get attacked or ignored often, and it's also frickin' William Regal.
@@djm5687 I mean that part I get. If you pay for a ticket, obviously you should be able to sit there. But it seems to also give you a free pass to interfere with the show that no other fan has.
"holy shit! My opponent is outside of the ring and I'm in the ring. Let me look at the other side of the ring, then back at my opponent. Should I do it? It's a risk. Should I do it? Ok ok, suicide dive!"
I have always hated the contract signing. My immediate thought is always “Aren’t you two already under contract?” Then I wonder if every match has a contract signing that usually isn’t important enough to see. The only ones that somewhat make sense are when a genuine outsider is brought in for a match (i.e. Rousey). I also hate: using pregnancy in storylines, losing the baby in storylines, the authority figure (usually Vince McMahon) suggesting a match everyone wants to see, then deciding “but not tonight.” It’s cheap heat that always made me reevaluate why I’m watching this show if they’re just going to taunt me with what I want.
I also hate the contract signing like why does the world have to know that you're singing a contract like Paul Heyman said they could've done that in the back in private like a normal contract signing goes
Just a friendly reminder that The Nexus’ entrance song We Are One by 12 Stones is a fucking banger and is underrated as fuck. Also, I knew Ric turned on Sting once but I didn’t realise he’d done it a second time. That’s hilarious.
Good call. The promoters think it makes the wrestler look ultra tough, but all it actually does is make injuries look like nothing. Which makes all wrestlers look weak when they actually get them and have to actually take time off. It's so stupid.
@@Torthrodhel Also...Since the death of kayfabe in the 90's it just makes fans aware that the wrestler wasn't trusted to wrestle for the whole duration of the match. Hell...Brock Lesnar's 2020 Royal Rumble performance only happened because fans started to make fun of him only wrestling for 10 minutes at best in any match
TNA really went to the masked man trope well pretty hard a little over a decade ago with Christopher Daniels. Daniels got the fired briefcase at "Feast or Fired" & was "fired" as a result. Then he appeared under a mask as Curry Man from India. Next Feast or Fired it'd be Curry Man who would open the Fired Briefcase & get "fired" from TNA. Shortly after that Christopher Daniels would return to TNA
WCW used to lampshade the backstage camera trope. One time David Flair got caught cheating and his gf Daphne saw it on a TV. Later David went to the crew and asked who filmed him and shaved a guy's head lol
As a Canadian, the greatest moment in "foreign bad" is In Your House: Canadian Stampede. "Oh, the Hart family are heels because they're telling you how much your country sucks and theirs is better? Well, lets blow off this feud in their home town and see what kind of reaction they get? Jim Neidhart almost got as big a pop as Steve Austin? In 1997? Forty members of the family are celebrating in the ring and everyone in the building is delirious with joy? Our whole endgame is 'the heels win and are much beloved for it'?" To their credit, they at least stuck with that and did play that specific show with much less Canada bad, USA good.
It's weird that TNA did the "invisible camera" trope probably the best out of any company from like 2011-2013. They had the camerawork look like it was covert, showing things that shouldn't have been seen. Probably the best part of a otherwise abysmal product.
You forgot about Don Callis in ECW on TNN. he was 'the network' which was preventing all the weapons & blood in matches. He was getting nuclear heat from the crowd, more than actual heels, and he wasnt even wrestling.
I remember there was an episode of Raw or Smackdown where she was trying to do the opening promo and set up a Match, but couldn't get a word out because of all the booing. Cena ended up having to pull a "What's that Vickey? I have a match with Dolph Ziggler AND Timmy's Trapped in a well? Well okay."
Apparently, the famous "excuse me" line was a total accident. She forgot her line for a second, said that to give herself a few seconds to think, and the crowd just had a massive reaction to it.
pointing at the WM sign. looking back at the ring from the ramp completely ignoring the camera right in front of the wrestler, ignoring their personal space.
I think that Mr. America got away with being signed, as he was signed "Sight unseen"... Stephanie was in charge of SD, and freaked out when she saw him for the first time...
this is correct. she was trying to stop bischoff getting him first, so she signed him without knowing much about him. this storyline was actually really well done and entertaining and i don't know why people malign it so much. it was goofy, sure, but it all made a sort of logical sense.
@@MrItsthesimon I was one of the few that liked the storyline of Mr. America. It kept one of the biggest stars ever on TV, while not having him in there week in and out for the world title. It was goofy but was by design and not accident.
@@Xehanort10 that didn't happen though, the only person who said it wasn't was Tazz, and he was a heel commentator. everyone knew. thats why on his debut episode, before he appeared on screen, stephanie saw him backstage and freaked out and tried to get vince to leave before vince saw him. i watched through this period a couple of weeks ago.
Call me old-fashioned, but the whole "face wrestler under a mask and different identity drives the heel wrestler straight up the wall" trope always amused me. It just did.
@@wstine79 the one thing that fans are expecting from these random paired teams is how long will they last or who will make the move to betray the other guy first
I agree! Nothing screams "false finish" more than Michael Cole saying "The streak is over!" or "We have a new champion!" They do it to create suspense, but it has the opposite effect.
the most frustrating trope for me is during a tag team match when the ILLEGAL partner runs in to break up a pinfall. in my opinion that should be a DQ but no, the ref just yells "hey, u cant do that!"
IIRC in World Class the announcers would explain that a team is allowed one run-in to break up a pin, but any more than that would be a DQ. If the ref sees it of course.
The Midnight Rider was supposed to make the promoter the baby face. Back in the day he said “I don’t know where he lives, he just picks up his cheque and leaves, so unless YOU can unmask him I can’t fire him”. Cuz in the territories ALL the promoters were babyfaces
For Number 6. This is why I loved Lucha Underground's cinematic backstage scenes. It showed the camera was clearly non-diagetic and was NOT a physical thing that existed in the universe. This was helped by a match being changed backstage and the announcers at ringside being shocked by it's announcement since, logically, they WOULDN'T know about the change or deal since they don't have access to a magic camera.
One of my favorite takes on the authority figure was something TNA did pretty early on. They had a "championship committee" that made decisions regarding championship matches and very rarely they would have a "representative" (usually Dusty Rhoads but I think there were a few others mix in there too) come out and announce whatever decision they'd make. A very old school way to approach the authority figure thing.
Foreign heel is a big trope in Japan, too. Being a gaijin doesn't automatically make you a heel, but "conquering hero defeats evil foreigner" goes back to Rikidozan and continues today.
It's everywhere and in Japan more often than not you earn your face status if you are a gaijin or if your black then do some comically racist spots on TV
1. I can fully believe that no one would tell Triple H about Batista knowing about he & Flair colluding behind Batistia's back. This was "Reign of Terror" Triple H, so I'm sure literally everybody else in WWE, both on Raw & Smackdown, were more than happy to see Hunter get what was long coming. 2. Sting being the poster child for being betrayed makes me honestly feel that AEW's going to try to do a major swerve and have Sting be the one who turns heel on Darby at some point, because it'd be too obvious to have Darby (or, more likely, Lance Archer) turn heel on Sting.
@@Mr_Leo_DS Actually that was answered before early on in the 90s and shit that Triple H on an episode of smackdown or something like that joked that he does not watch the previous episodes or that he ain't got time to rewatch the episode. I got this Information from Reddit when people were talking about the Triple H and Batista feud.
My friends and I like to think in canon the wrestlers are micro-chipped for their entrance music to hit. This is why everyone is surprised when an un-announced wrestler shows up, but their music still plays, and why wrestlers have to run in from the other side, opposite the entrance, through the crowd if they don't want their music to play. This does raise some questions about Edge & Christian's Attitude era entrance, tho
Right, every fucking return is followed by the same line, if you go check the rare occasions where Cole didn't say it, you will see it ends up being great Could say the same thing for "can it be? It is!"
-When a wrestler is having a match and the person they're feuding with music plays, and they focus their attention on the stage and their opponent beats them by a surprise rollup. WWE uses this way too much. -Can they coexist? When 2 wrestlers have a feud, but they somehow are forced to become a tag team. The only time I saw this work was when John Cena and Shawn Michaels did it. WWE has done this like 3 times in the last month.
What killed the "heel authority figure" for me was the one-two punch of John Laurinaitis and The Authority. Vince, for as grating as he can be sometimes, is still a great promo man. He's a great heel, the man was born to be a heel. But Johnny Ace? Stephanie? What made the Authority especially awful was their invulnerability--say what you will about Vince, but he got over because he was willing to let Austin beat the tar out of him repeatedly. Steph can't get hurt by any of the male faces because of the PG product at the time, and Triple H was equally as untouchable. (That said--man sold like a champ whenever it happened he actually faced consequences.)
HHH took bumps during the feud with the Shield and Sting. As far as Stephanie goes, i would argue that Stephanie being invulnerable is what made her role as a heel exec realistic. Vince getting hit with somebody's finisher wasn't realistic at all because people can't do that in the real world.
@@decepticonxhunter4850 Oh for sure, I do agree on HHH taking bumps, he sold them really, really well, too. Problem is is that the Authority just kept coming back. Angle didn't need to run as long as it did. And yeah, maybe it is more realistic--but this is wrestling. In the same breath as "realistically untouchable authority figure" you also have "immortal personification of death" and "backwoods cultist who is now a demon clown."
#2 has been so successful over the years because it's one of the most effective ways of turning the fans against the heel. Although there are exceptions Americans are proud to be Americans. One trope that I actually do feel is overplayed is when the heel insults it city's professional sports teams. It's cheap heat, but it works.
The reverse nauseates me just as much: "This guy's a good guy because he's American." Huge missed opportunity not including Tribute to the Tropes (pun intended) in a list of honorable mentions
@@closethockeyfan5284 I get that but it did serve as a good segway for a heel to switch to face. ...the whole, "I may not play by the rules but I'm still an American and I love my country." It's a story that works because it's real world. People may differ, sometimes vehemently, but they're unified when their homeland is persecuted. It's just like a Republican Cowboys fan watching a game with a Democrat Cowboys fan while the Cowboys are playing Washington. There's unity there.
I'm often annoyed by the "powerless authority figure" when a wrestler is constantly making demands from, threatening or attacking their employer without repercussions.
@@starbreaker269 He did fire him once, and then Austin kidnapped him and threatened to murder him. I think Shane hired him back with a clause that prevented Vince from firing him again or something.
@@cookieface80 They explained in storyline that while Vince hated Austin he made him a lot of money so he kept trying to either put up with him or get him under control.
Weddings !!!!!!!! So shocked you did not mention them. Also being shocked about your favorite youtuber not revealing what you were thinking he would reveal. :)
So love the top8 format. Brilliantly researched and perfect delivery. W3 provides the best wrestling youtube content and deserves to have a million subs
especially when the other wrestler takes too long to perform a move or whatever then the bending over wrestler just stands there for too long looking silly lol
This list needs a part two. Some of my favorite wrestling tropes: > the jealous inferior brother/ son or tag team partner > the exposé > the love triangle > the badly injured hero wins in the end > the underdog aka David beats Goliath
Hate the fact that wrestlers wake up before they get counted out and just make it in at 9. I can understand and get behind it on a rare occasion, but the fact is that its quite common, and feels so cliché.
I read an article in a magazine once (remember when there were multiple Wrestling mags?) Where an "expert" explained that waiting till 9 or kicking out at 2 was because wrestlers were strategically trying to catch their breath and save their energy as much as possible. It was a nice try.
@@rvawildcardwolf2843 If that is the case then I hope they acknowledge it and that seems like something a Heel will do more frequently than a face in trying to slow the match down and halt any momentum.
What do you want them to do only so much you can shit on the faces without making them look like shit but insulting the audience can be used far more liberally
A funny thing about the "Foreign Menace" trope is the fact I saw a video where this was played in an incredible way once: I saw on a video that NJWP had a superstar named Antonio Enoki, who was basically their national superhero. Then, Big Van Vader faced and utterly destroyed in within 3 minutes. Maybe it was the originality for making the hero being defeated, maybe it was how some people on internet says ("Whatever you do, a japanese will do better"), but I found that incredible. Heck, I'm not even a longtime wrestling fan (I just like the way it is played), and mostly wrestlers I know just by name, but I got all pumped up just seeing a guy SUMMARIZING this. It must had been something incredible at that time.
The "Wrestler A hits Wrestler B with his devastating finishing maneuver 3 times during a match yet can't pin him each time, only for Wrestler B to make a comeback, hit his move once and win" trope. Examples: John Cena, Triple H, Hulk Hogan and Roman Reigns
The sound guy shouldn't need amazing reflexes, he should be able to see the guy running towards the entrance and be able to just press a single button to play a song. It's 2021, it can't be that hard to keymap songs to buttons
The trope of "two wrestlers beating the hell of each other for months but became tag team/friends/allies shortly after without much acknowledgment of the situation" makes me angry most of the time. The lack of continuity in wrestling is my biggest pet peave. That's one of the reason why I really enjoy (enjoyed ?) the Fiend, which fought most of the time former rivals or allies, remembering the past.
@@nabillahlabat5570 Yeah, at least with Sheamus and Cesaro it was actually acknowledged, and they did a pretty good job with them because although they hated each other in storyline wise early on they grew to respect each other to a point where they basically became like blood brothers.
Hey, Zane. I used the masked trope in the Road to WrestleMania stories I did for WWE SmackDown vs Raw. Jericho was attacked by a masked man which had 2 different outcomes. And in Rey Mysterio’s story in 2011, Swagger did an obvious masked character called Todo American - inspired by Hogan’s late in his career.
Dario Cueto from Lucha Underground is an example of an “evil authority figure” down well recently because they made him and his motives different and more interesting. Funny you should mention Pearce and Sonya, because Raw this week teased another power struggle between them coming perhaps.
At least in the case of the not-so-mysterious stranger, it's usually played as a joke where the whole point is plausible deniability. Everyone can figure it out, but those in authority are sympathetic to the face's plight so they deliberately play dumb unless the heel can prove the identity.
No mention of the wrestling wedding? With the exception of Elizabeth and Macho Man it has never been done well, in any company. And that's even if you ignore Billy and Chuck