Popular Wrestling Tropes That Make No Sense

• WWE often books foreign wrestlers, such as Gunther and Rusev, to be heels.
• Fans typically buy into this trope and just boo whoever is booked in that way.
• It's a trope that the wrestling industry needs to get away from.

Thankfully, the professional wrestling industry is starting to try to change this trope by treating foreign wrestlers with more respect and making many of them babyfaces nowadays. However, the idea of a foreign wrestler naturally being a heel still exists in every promotion and is a trope that fans have always gone along with, booing certain wrestlers simply due to the country they're born in.

While there have been plenty of foreign heels who haven't relied on the fact that not being American seemingly makes them evil in the world of wrestling, promoters too often fall into this trope. Whether at an independent show or at the top of the WWE industry, it's a trope that always takes place and still does to this day, with the likes of Rusev and Gunther.

Given the way the world is developing, this trope needs to start being faded out of the business completely, as it sets a worrying precedent for life away from the wrestling bubble. But as long as fans buy into it, promoters will keep leaning into the idea.

Referees Are Knocked Down

• Referees will stay down for uncomfortably long periods of time.
• Sometimes, only a small bump will take them down.
• Fans love to see the drama that unfolds in the middle of this situation.

A classic trope often included in wrestling matches is that one small bump into a referee will knock them out for the entire match. This is usually done to create a finish that isn't clean, typically leading to a heel cheating to win during the time the referee is down and another gets to the ring, as it allows for shenanigans, and that's one of the reasons why fans tend to love this wrestling trope.

Audiences know that when a referee goes down, something dramatic will go down that wouldn't usually happen in the match. It heightens the drama; therefore, it makes sense that fans would enjoy this trope as they know a weapon might get used or another tool that people didn't expect. However, that doesn't mean that the trope makes sense, as the idea that the referees end up being down for as long as they are is often comical.

Of course, the idea is that they're not professional wrestlers; therefore, they can't sustain the same level of punishment that a wrestler would. Sometimes it can be a brutal spot that takes them out, which is understandable. However, there are also times when it's the faintest touch or just one punch, and then they lie out for the remainder of the match, which is difficult to take seriously.

The Teddy Long Tag Team Match, Playa

• This often screams of a last-minute booking from creative.
• These tag team matches are a lazy way of putting a match together.
• A WWE General Manager does this nearly every week.

This is a trope typically associated with WWE, but it's one of several promotions used. It is best remembered from Teddy Long's time as SmackDown General Manager. The idea is that four wrestlers will be involved in a promo segment and will start arguing amongst each other until an authority figure appears and books them all in a tag team match. Whether it's for right then or later in the night, this is a trope that wrestling fans always fall for.

As soon as a segment starts building up in this way, it becomes painfully obvious what's happening, yet fans react whenever the tag team match is announced. However, it makes no sense at all, and all it serves is to make the General Manager look stupid. They seem to be incompetent at booking a full match card ahead of time, given that they always just throw some of the biggest stars together at the last second.

It can often lead to some good tag team contests, which is likely why fans still enjoy seeing this trope. However, it's lazy booking and something that the industry should try to stop doing overall, as it doesn't truly move a storyline forward.

Wrestlers Can't Climb Ladders

• Wrestlers always scale the ladders incredibly slowly.
• Fans buy into the drama that this causes.
• It would be refreshing to see someone climb up quickly

Ladder matches come in all forms nowadays, with different tweaks to the classic stipulation, but regardless of what's dangling from the arena roof, the concept is always the same: Climb the ladder, retrieve whatever is in the air, and win. This can be a title, a Money in the Bank briefcase, or something else, but the match will always see the same trope take place, which is that wrestlers suddenly lose the ability to climb a ladder.

Rather than just going up the ladder quickly when the first opportunity is available, wrestlers always slow things down and struggle. While this makes sense at the end of the match if several big bumps have taken place, in wrestling, it takes place almost immediately. It's hard to buy into or take seriously, but wrestling fans love it because it builds drama.

Without that, a ladder match would be almost impossible to work, so it is a necessary evil. However, this is a wrestling trope that fans have always found entertaining, so it's unlikely the wrestlers themselves will try to make the match more realistic.