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This is inspired by the series done by Cultaholic where wrestlers, fans, and etc send their biggest pet-peeves of wrestling straight down to hell. It is a fun series ran by Ross of the group and has seen everyone from youtubers like Nerd Cubes, Denkops, Brian Zane, wrestlers like Tama Tonga, Colt Cabana, Evil Uno, DANHAUSEN, wrestling legends like DDP, Jeff Jarett, Gail Kim, Lita, to personalities in the industry like Sean Ross Sap, Sam Roberts, and Dave freaking Meltzer!?
The point is, while we love wrestling, we have our own pet-peeves, small or large. So, here, pick five of your own pet peeves in wrestling to send down to HELL!
Also a playlist so you can pick a video and see what the series is all about. Tell me yours below!
Here is mine:
Nationalistic Gimmicks: This encompasses both the evil foreign heel and the "Good American boy/from this country" babyface. Unless done maybe with a hint of irony, or creating a character that is genuinely layered where that is only a small part of them, it is something that really deserves to stick in the older days. Now, I don't mind having some imagery where you are from. Like Cody's American Nightmare, Claudio/Cesaro's Swiss Imagery, Shawn Spear's Maple leaf skull logo, etc. But when a character is getting heat through "I am not from here! You hate me" it is cheap, and when it plays off of what is going on outside of the ring too, it becomes distasteful. Like think Rusev's run as a Russian. He had a badass look, and to a degree it is one of the better examples of a nationalistic character, but with a lot of stuff going on in the world right now, it has not aged well. This also goes for the All-American babyface when you're focusing on an international audience. It doesn't speak to most fans outside of the United States.
I think the moment where it died 100% was the AEW feud between Cody Rhodes and Anthony Ogogo. They were hot on Ogogo as a prospect and in-ring wise, he is pretty dang solid for his relative inexperience. In theory, win or lose, a story with Cody can legitimize him. But then, Cody decided to try to "End Racism..." in a promo against a black guy. YEP! This also came the year after summer of a lot of Political unrest and tension IRL between different political groups in the US where... people weren't feeling Patriotic and felt dirty putting their country on a pedistal. Meanwhile, Anthony Ogogo tried the generic heel template from America's big enemy... the UK (not since the World Wars, buddy) saying "You hate Shit health-care, are violent with guns, and are racist!" Americans: "Yeah... We are. Pretty crappy, huh?" It really was the turning point for the crowd turning on Cody where you got a little of it in the Face of the Revolution ladder match mainly because people wanted Cody to be out of the TNT title scene for a little bit, but it was the point where it really changed. It also hurt Anthony Ogogo because people didn't care about his big match or him as a heel. While sometimes he needs to learn when not to "Play the heel" on social media (LOOKING AT YOUR SHIT WITH GRESHAM AND GRACE! Making fun of a company as they were announcing a shut down is not good heel heat) he has a nice look, solid in the ring for his experience, and in interviews, he's a passionate guy with a work ethic. But that hurt him. He had a respectable performance in his match with Cody, but people just didn't care.
Making Shady/Sketch Finishes as a Common Occurrence: After watching some OSW recently where they are in WCW during the days of the NWO, while it is fun to look back on and make fun of it, doing that too much is just frustrating. This counts for stuff like DQs, Count-outs, interference loss, etc. I understand sometimes there is a need to protect people in a match, but those finishes feel cheap when it happens too much and especially on PPV. I think it takes the heat out of a match and if done rarely, it can be done to protect someone, have a fun shock finish/tell a story (See MJF vs Captain Shawn Dean Parts one and two) but when it happens too much it makes tuning in on weekly TV seem pointless. "Oh, why should I care if the match is going to have a weird finish and they are just going to have a rematch in a few weeks anyways?" and if you see WCW, it honestly was a contributing factor to their death, too many fuck finishes on TV and PPV along with a bunch of other stuff. Something I wish more places did, Time Limits! Even outside of AEW, as someone who has been getting into Stardom, their normal matches usually have a 15 minute time limit. While a time-limit draw can be a little fucked, and if it happens too often in a row, then it has its issues, but at least in a time-limit draw, you can still have a match and protect people and people don't look like idiots. Think Cody vs Darby, Kenny vs Okada 2, Danielson v Omega/Hangman, all were good matches and told stories which were developed on later.
Another smaller example from Stardom, I forgot which show it was, but leading into their title match, Giulia and Syuri were building tension where it was obvious there was going to be a split in their group, Donna Del Mundo. So there was a Trios match where Guilia had three members from DDM, and Syuri had three as well. The match built in tension, especially as the leader of the group, Guilia, and the champion, Syuri got more involved, and by the end of the match, both the future opponents just really ramped up the intensity and they were in the ring together when the 15 minute time limit hit. If it was a DQ, I would have been deflated, but with how it ended, it left me anticipated for their singles match as we didn't get to see them have enough time to get an advantage. Neither could really lose and even some of their team members were in positions where they probably shouldn't have been the "Fall person," so that match everyone looked strong, Guilia and Syuri looked on each other's level, and their later title match was excellent!
Pointless Name Changes: Now this is going into pet-peeves. We know WWE's recent habit of changing names. Now, I'm not entirely against it if there is a complete new gimmick, and shortened names are okay a good chunk of the time (Like Alexander Rusev to Rusev, Antonio Cesaro to Cesaro) and other times not (Austin Theory to... Theory). Also when someone goes to a new company, especially WWE, before they debut, maybe coming up with a new name and an altered identity can be good and has worked for a number of people. Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn (though that is a gimmick change) Dean Ambrose was fine, and more. But then we get into people getting their name changed when they are already established in said company without a real character change. You know, the GUNTHERs of the world and people getting a name change upon going to WWE's main roster. I'm mixed on it just because of consistency. Especially in WWE right now, NXT/NXT 2.0 is canon. It has had showcases on the main roster, it beat Raw and Smackdown in a Survivor Series PPV. It was different when it was the days of OVW, Deep South, and FCW where to watch it you would have to be on some obscure local channel in the area or later find it on YouTube. Even if not everyone watches NXT, there is a solid amount of the audience aware of it, and advertising it is good to get more eyes on the product to watch these future stars develop. While some aren't as bad as the internet makes it out to be, a lot of the time when it happens I just go "Why?" and perhaps it can be tied to a larger thing about WWE where they hate people who make a name for themselves outside, but still just annoying. A real pet-peeve.
Spooky/Supernatural Characters in 2022!:
OKAY NOW HOLD UP! LET ME SPEAK! It is possible to have a good spooky character in 2022, and I enjoy some bollocks. Think Malakai Black, Danhausen (who is tongue and cheek), The Fiend (mostly), etc. Heck, Princess Nova is a motherhecking evil Princess and I love using her as an e-fed character. But I feel as though because of the success of the Undertaker and Kane we overlook how many of these wacky characters fail. From the Black Scorpion in WCW using magic, Seven, Mordicai, the Dungeon of Doom, Papa Shango, etc. Then even some of the decent to great ones have so much.... weird shit happen. Like all wrestlers are not immune to bad storylines, but with a supernatural/spooky character, it tends to get worse when it is bad as they try to do more things to see what sticks. I'll bring up two examples.
First, the Demon, Finn Balor. It is a badass entrance, and in NXT was done pretty well where it wasn't inherently spooky powers, but just a darker side and war paint he wore for big matches. Upon the main roster, they leaned more into the supernatural side and it has been mixed. The stuff with Rollins was inoffensive. But then we had the stuff with Bray which nearly killed both if it wasn't for the mumps preventing the storyline ending. Then he seemed to just bring it out at random when the storyline sometimes didn't call for it, or didn't when it did. Then meanwhile, Finn himself, the man, looked weak. His return to NXT was amazing because he ditched the Demon and focused on being The Prince, at first a heel, then a Tweener more in line with his days as the Real Rock and Rolla' in Bullet Club. He returned to the main roster and while it was great he mixed it up with Roman, his last match with the Demon killed the character imo. It isn't even that he lost. The Demon lost to Samoa Joe and he was fine. But they went ham with the stuff... The weird "Demon Heart Beat" thing with him doing a weird flop on the floor, then the turnbuckle collapsing from nothing. It ruined an otherwise good match.
Then, the Fiend and Alexa Bliss. The Bray Wyatt/Fiend stuff was amazing. I was worried at first, but after a few weeks of Firefly funhouses, I was interested, then the Fiend came and I was hooked. But as time went on, he started to fall into some more stereotypical spooky tropes. He nearly got killed Twice with the wack Hell in a Cell (See point number 2) and then losing to Goldberg, but he was saved by the Firefly Funhouse match. Even a bad "Swamp fight" with Braun (though old Bray was that I guess) didn't quite end him. But something that did come from it was Alexa joining Bray. At first, they had great chemistry. The Harley to Bray's Joker. Alexa is a great actress. But during his feud with Randy it was such a mixed bag. Everything was thrown at the wall and not all landed. Then came the bad mania finish(SEE POINT 2 AGAIN), Bray being released and Alexa basically becomes the New Bray except without the depth what Bray had. I'll give Alexa credit in that she threw herself into the character, is one of the few people who can do that character well and didn't deserve the harassment post-Bray release, but man her storylines have been so... bad overall. From sudden hypnosis, MMA fighter and MMA FOUR HORSEWOMAN Shayna being scared of a doll, that shit with Eva, her foaming at the mouth, it just hasn't been good.
I think to conclude this point, spooky/supernatural characters in wrestling are like Pandora's box. You never know what you are going to get when it is opened, and it is mixed. Even Undertaker and Kane have had so much crap over their legendary careers. It needs to be done carefully and really, it is hard to do.
Toxic Fans:
I'll just use Brian Zane's rant here.
The point is, while we love wrestling, we have our own pet-peeves, small or large. So, here, pick five of your own pet peeves in wrestling to send down to HELL!
Also a playlist so you can pick a video and see what the series is all about. Tell me yours below!
Here is mine:
Nationalistic Gimmicks: This encompasses both the evil foreign heel and the "Good American boy/from this country" babyface. Unless done maybe with a hint of irony, or creating a character that is genuinely layered where that is only a small part of them, it is something that really deserves to stick in the older days. Now, I don't mind having some imagery where you are from. Like Cody's American Nightmare, Claudio/Cesaro's Swiss Imagery, Shawn Spear's Maple leaf skull logo, etc. But when a character is getting heat through "I am not from here! You hate me" it is cheap, and when it plays off of what is going on outside of the ring too, it becomes distasteful. Like think Rusev's run as a Russian. He had a badass look, and to a degree it is one of the better examples of a nationalistic character, but with a lot of stuff going on in the world right now, it has not aged well. This also goes for the All-American babyface when you're focusing on an international audience. It doesn't speak to most fans outside of the United States.
I think the moment where it died 100% was the AEW feud between Cody Rhodes and Anthony Ogogo. They were hot on Ogogo as a prospect and in-ring wise, he is pretty dang solid for his relative inexperience. In theory, win or lose, a story with Cody can legitimize him. But then, Cody decided to try to "End Racism..." in a promo against a black guy. YEP! This also came the year after summer of a lot of Political unrest and tension IRL between different political groups in the US where... people weren't feeling Patriotic and felt dirty putting their country on a pedistal. Meanwhile, Anthony Ogogo tried the generic heel template from America's big enemy... the UK (not since the World Wars, buddy) saying "You hate Shit health-care, are violent with guns, and are racist!" Americans: "Yeah... We are. Pretty crappy, huh?" It really was the turning point for the crowd turning on Cody where you got a little of it in the Face of the Revolution ladder match mainly because people wanted Cody to be out of the TNT title scene for a little bit, but it was the point where it really changed. It also hurt Anthony Ogogo because people didn't care about his big match or him as a heel. While sometimes he needs to learn when not to "Play the heel" on social media (LOOKING AT YOUR SHIT WITH GRESHAM AND GRACE! Making fun of a company as they were announcing a shut down is not good heel heat) he has a nice look, solid in the ring for his experience, and in interviews, he's a passionate guy with a work ethic. But that hurt him. He had a respectable performance in his match with Cody, but people just didn't care.
Making Shady/Sketch Finishes as a Common Occurrence: After watching some OSW recently where they are in WCW during the days of the NWO, while it is fun to look back on and make fun of it, doing that too much is just frustrating. This counts for stuff like DQs, Count-outs, interference loss, etc. I understand sometimes there is a need to protect people in a match, but those finishes feel cheap when it happens too much and especially on PPV. I think it takes the heat out of a match and if done rarely, it can be done to protect someone, have a fun shock finish/tell a story (See MJF vs Captain Shawn Dean Parts one and two) but when it happens too much it makes tuning in on weekly TV seem pointless. "Oh, why should I care if the match is going to have a weird finish and they are just going to have a rematch in a few weeks anyways?" and if you see WCW, it honestly was a contributing factor to their death, too many fuck finishes on TV and PPV along with a bunch of other stuff. Something I wish more places did, Time Limits! Even outside of AEW, as someone who has been getting into Stardom, their normal matches usually have a 15 minute time limit. While a time-limit draw can be a little fucked, and if it happens too often in a row, then it has its issues, but at least in a time-limit draw, you can still have a match and protect people and people don't look like idiots. Think Cody vs Darby, Kenny vs Okada 2, Danielson v Omega/Hangman, all were good matches and told stories which were developed on later.
Another smaller example from Stardom, I forgot which show it was, but leading into their title match, Giulia and Syuri were building tension where it was obvious there was going to be a split in their group, Donna Del Mundo. So there was a Trios match where Guilia had three members from DDM, and Syuri had three as well. The match built in tension, especially as the leader of the group, Guilia, and the champion, Syuri got more involved, and by the end of the match, both the future opponents just really ramped up the intensity and they were in the ring together when the 15 minute time limit hit. If it was a DQ, I would have been deflated, but with how it ended, it left me anticipated for their singles match as we didn't get to see them have enough time to get an advantage. Neither could really lose and even some of their team members were in positions where they probably shouldn't have been the "Fall person," so that match everyone looked strong, Guilia and Syuri looked on each other's level, and their later title match was excellent!
Pointless Name Changes: Now this is going into pet-peeves. We know WWE's recent habit of changing names. Now, I'm not entirely against it if there is a complete new gimmick, and shortened names are okay a good chunk of the time (Like Alexander Rusev to Rusev, Antonio Cesaro to Cesaro) and other times not (Austin Theory to... Theory). Also when someone goes to a new company, especially WWE, before they debut, maybe coming up with a new name and an altered identity can be good and has worked for a number of people. Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn (though that is a gimmick change) Dean Ambrose was fine, and more. But then we get into people getting their name changed when they are already established in said company without a real character change. You know, the GUNTHERs of the world and people getting a name change upon going to WWE's main roster. I'm mixed on it just because of consistency. Especially in WWE right now, NXT/NXT 2.0 is canon. It has had showcases on the main roster, it beat Raw and Smackdown in a Survivor Series PPV. It was different when it was the days of OVW, Deep South, and FCW where to watch it you would have to be on some obscure local channel in the area or later find it on YouTube. Even if not everyone watches NXT, there is a solid amount of the audience aware of it, and advertising it is good to get more eyes on the product to watch these future stars develop. While some aren't as bad as the internet makes it out to be, a lot of the time when it happens I just go "Why?" and perhaps it can be tied to a larger thing about WWE where they hate people who make a name for themselves outside, but still just annoying. A real pet-peeve.
Spooky/Supernatural Characters in 2022!:
OKAY NOW HOLD UP! LET ME SPEAK! It is possible to have a good spooky character in 2022, and I enjoy some bollocks. Think Malakai Black, Danhausen (who is tongue and cheek), The Fiend (mostly), etc. Heck, Princess Nova is a motherhecking evil Princess and I love using her as an e-fed character. But I feel as though because of the success of the Undertaker and Kane we overlook how many of these wacky characters fail. From the Black Scorpion in WCW using magic, Seven, Mordicai, the Dungeon of Doom, Papa Shango, etc. Then even some of the decent to great ones have so much.... weird shit happen. Like all wrestlers are not immune to bad storylines, but with a supernatural/spooky character, it tends to get worse when it is bad as they try to do more things to see what sticks. I'll bring up two examples.
First, the Demon, Finn Balor. It is a badass entrance, and in NXT was done pretty well where it wasn't inherently spooky powers, but just a darker side and war paint he wore for big matches. Upon the main roster, they leaned more into the supernatural side and it has been mixed. The stuff with Rollins was inoffensive. But then we had the stuff with Bray which nearly killed both if it wasn't for the mumps preventing the storyline ending. Then he seemed to just bring it out at random when the storyline sometimes didn't call for it, or didn't when it did. Then meanwhile, Finn himself, the man, looked weak. His return to NXT was amazing because he ditched the Demon and focused on being The Prince, at first a heel, then a Tweener more in line with his days as the Real Rock and Rolla' in Bullet Club. He returned to the main roster and while it was great he mixed it up with Roman, his last match with the Demon killed the character imo. It isn't even that he lost. The Demon lost to Samoa Joe and he was fine. But they went ham with the stuff... The weird "Demon Heart Beat" thing with him doing a weird flop on the floor, then the turnbuckle collapsing from nothing. It ruined an otherwise good match.
Then, the Fiend and Alexa Bliss. The Bray Wyatt/Fiend stuff was amazing. I was worried at first, but after a few weeks of Firefly funhouses, I was interested, then the Fiend came and I was hooked. But as time went on, he started to fall into some more stereotypical spooky tropes. He nearly got killed Twice with the wack Hell in a Cell (See point number 2) and then losing to Goldberg, but he was saved by the Firefly Funhouse match. Even a bad "Swamp fight" with Braun (though old Bray was that I guess) didn't quite end him. But something that did come from it was Alexa joining Bray. At first, they had great chemistry. The Harley to Bray's Joker. Alexa is a great actress. But during his feud with Randy it was such a mixed bag. Everything was thrown at the wall and not all landed. Then came the bad mania finish(SEE POINT 2 AGAIN), Bray being released and Alexa basically becomes the New Bray except without the depth what Bray had. I'll give Alexa credit in that she threw herself into the character, is one of the few people who can do that character well and didn't deserve the harassment post-Bray release, but man her storylines have been so... bad overall. From sudden hypnosis, MMA fighter and MMA FOUR HORSEWOMAN Shayna being scared of a doll, that shit with Eva, her foaming at the mouth, it just hasn't been good.
I think to conclude this point, spooky/supernatural characters in wrestling are like Pandora's box. You never know what you are going to get when it is opened, and it is mixed. Even Undertaker and Kane have had so much crap over their legendary careers. It needs to be done carefully and really, it is hard to do.
Toxic Fans:
I'll just use Brian Zane's rant here.
