11: How Talent Can Evade Security

Whenever a fan jumps over the barricade, it usually takes the WWE security team a few seconds to bring the fan down to the ground. However, when a WWE talent who’s not scheduled for the particular match jumps the barricade, the security is nowhere to be seen.

Additionally, wrestlers somehow have the ability to move towards the front of the barricade without any security team member asking them their business, and WWE have somewhat tried to combat this in recent years in the most comedic way imaginable.

Whenever Solo Sikoa has interfered in Roman Reigns’ matches, he has sported a standard black hoodie, and this is to avoid detection. This means that in theory if a fan wore a black hoodie, they would be able to sneak up to the ringside area.  

10: Wrestlers Are Put Under A Spell

Wrestling is filled with outdated tropes, and one of them is that wrestlers are always distracted by entrance music, and this distraction is always so significant, that the wrestler stops whatever they’re doing, even if they’re about to win a major match.

Take for instance at Money in the Bank in 2019, Mustafa Ali had his literal hands on the Money in the Bank briefcase, and when Brock Lesnar’s theme song hit, Ali was frozen in fear. Ali could have easily just snapped out of this and realised that Lesnar had no chance of getting to him before winning the biggest match of his career. Ali just looked like a complete fool. It was an atrocious booking move.

This distraction trope that makes little sense from a kayfabe perspective is usually booked when a wrestler costs another wrestler a match. A wrestler’s theme will play, or the wrestler will come out on the ramp, and the wrestler will be so thrown off by this mental distraction, that it will cost them the match.

WWE have to their credit been trying to limit angles of this nature, and for good reason, as they do nobody any favours, and there are much more creative and logical ways to incorporate distractions and interference into key matches.

9: The Police Let WWE Wrestlers Commit Heinous Crimes

Throughout the history of WWE, they have delivered numerous angles where the police have gotten involved, and proceeded to arrest a wrestler for committing a serious crime. However, it’s never been made clear as to why the police pick and choose when to intervene in WWE’s business. Numerous heinous crimes have been committed on WWE programming including attempted murder, and the police haven’t been remotely interested.

This was somewhat directly addressed in 1999 during the feud between Vince McMahon and The Undertaker. When McMahon called the police to seek assistance as The Deadman was about to invade his home, the relevant police department accused McMahon and WWE of delivering a publicity stunt.

8: You’re In A Blood Feud!

One of the most frustrating things about pro wrestling, particularly WWE, is when two wrestlers are in the midst of a heated, intense rivalry, and when the eventual matchup occurs, the two lock-up. A lock-up is a traditional starting off point  of a wrestling match, and it also shows a sign of mutual respect; however, when it comes to blood feuds and pay-offs to the feud in question, a lock up should be nowhere to be seen.

The two wrestlers should be throwing everything they can at their arch-nemesis, and delivering a standard lock-up makes no sense whatsoever. This was the case in 2018 when bitter enemies, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins collided at the TLC event. Even though the feud was red-hot, and both men wanted to rip each other apart, they started the match with a lock-up and traditional chain wrestling. Quite rightly, this sequence was scolded by fans, as it simply made no sense, and it was hardly a surprise that fans in attendance heavily turned on the match.

7: The Undertaker’s Selective Powers

Supernatural characters are hard to deliver effectively, yet WWE struck gold when it came to The Undertaker. The Undertaker was insanely dedicated to the character for 30-years, and this in-turn helped create one of the strongest characters in pro wrestling history.

A lot of the elements of the character worked across numerous eras, yet this didn’t mean that everything made logical sense from a kayfabe perspective. Take for instance, The Undertaker’s powers such as summoning lightning, The Deadman only seemed to do this for segments, yet when it came to actual 1 vs. 1 matches, The Deadman usually decided to abandon any supernatural powers. Surely, if The Undertaker was so powerful, he could use his supernatural powers during NO DQ style matches to pick up an easy win? This was never addressed on WWE programming, and although the obvious answer is that it would get boring, extremely quickly if The Deadman used powers such as lightning in every match, it would have been nice to have some kind of kayfabe explanation from WWE.

6: The Camera Doesn’t Exist

WWE wrestlers have a weird relationship with the camera. Often, wrestlers cut promos directly into the camera, yet sometimes, they are booked to act like the camera isn’t there. WWE are prone, particularly over the past two-decades, to produce backstage segments where a camera is clearly there, yet the wrestlers fail to acknowledge it. This is even the case when wrestlers are sharing top secret information, and they still divulge this private information with full knowledge that a cameraman is in the setting with them.

TNA had a great answer to this, as they would often have talent, acknowledge the camera, and even kick the camera man out of the setting. They would even film the segments secretly, as If the wrestlers had no idea that they were being filmed. This was a great touch, and is definitely something top wrestling companies such as WWE and AEW should look to use.

5: Supposed ‘Deaths’

Certain WWE matches such as the buried alive match result in the kayfabe passing of a wrestler, yet when the wrestler who was seemingly ‘killed off’ mysteriously returns, it’s never logically explained.

It’s understandable why WWE don’t offer an explanation for any supernatural characters that have ‘died’, yet when traditional wrestlers such as AJ Styles get buried alive, and then magically come back, a kayfabe explanation is needed. It goes without saying that offering any kind of kayfabe explanation would be a difficult task, as there’s no way of explaining it without sounding completely ridiculous, so WWE have likely always believed that it’s in their best interest to outright ignore the kayfabe plot hole.

4: ‘Banned’ From The Arena

Whenever a wrestler is causing mischief, it’s commonplace for an authority figure to ban the wrestler from the arena. However, a wrestler always seems to get around this by simply purchasing a ticket and acting like a fan in attendance. This makes no sense from a kayfabe perspective, because if the wrestler in question is outright banned from the arena, this surely means they aren’t permitted to purchase a ticket? This has been a loophole that has been exploited for years, and WWE have never had a logical answer as to why they allow their wrestlers to get away with it.

3: The Announce Table

The announce table is one of the most commonly used weapons in pro wrestling. Wrestlers have a habit of putting their opponent through the announce table, and the spot always receives a thunderous ovation from the audience. For the spot to work, and for the table to break cleanly, the wrestler will always clear the table completely so no objects are present. This is obviously for safety concerns, yet if the wrestler was trying to inflict as much damage as possible on their opponent, then surely it would be more fitting to keep objects such as laptops, pens and monitors on the table?

2: Contract Signings

WWE loves to market and book a contract signing on WWE TV for a major match. These types of segments are a great way to take a feud to the next level, and delivering the contract signing on live TV, throws an added element of importance and legitimacy to the match in question.

Only a select number of matches per calendar year are selected for contract signings, which begs the question: how are these matches chosen? And does every match on the show require a contract? This has never been clarified by WWE, and you would have to assume that every PPV match requires a contract, so does the authority figure of the time just go around seeking signatures?

The kayfabe answer is potentially that the authority figure may wish to present the contract signings for their biggest matches in a live setting. This in-turn would spike a rating and give the greatest exposure to the featured match.

1: Wrestlers Don’t Watch The Show

Whenever WWE presents RAW or SmackDown, it is very much presented as a live broadcast, and the announcers and wrestlers address the fact that RAW or SmackDown is a show on the respective network. However, why don’t wrestlers watch the show themselves?

Over the years, there have been numerous examples of wrestlers failing to watch the product. This ridiculous trope usually comes down to a wrestler being clueless about something that was booked on the show, and this in-turn makes them look completely incompetent as a character.

One wrestler who has broken this formula has been Kevin Owens. Owens often cites that he watches the show and has a good understanding of what occurred on prior shows, and what type of actions and behaviours he should expect out of certain wrestlers.

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