Like any other media, professional wrestling has its tropes. But there are some tropes that need to leave their boots in the ring.
Since the dawn of wrestling time, tropes have existed. Tropes are a storytelling convention that can be easily recognized. When done well, tropes can still be good conventions to utilize. Professional wrestling on the larger stage has been slow to evolve beyond certain tropes, because in the eyes of many of the old guard still in charge, they worked back in their day, there’s no reason these tropes shouldn’t still work, right?
Wrong. For any medium to continue to exist and enjoy success, evolution is necessary. We’re not talking about the four-man group led by Triple H. I want professional wrestling to be better, because I know it can be, it just requires the effort to grow beyond the same old creative techniques that have been relied on for the last few generations.
Please note, that just because someone is listed as being part of a character trope, it doesn’t necessarily mean they were bad in that role.
The Evil Foreigner/The Evil Savage
You know this trope from:
- Hans Schmidt
- Nikolai Volkoff
- The Iron Sheik
- The Mounty
- The Quebecers/Amazing French-Canadians
- (Jacques Rougeau, Pierre [Carl Ouellet])
- The Blue Bloods
- (Lord Steven Regal, Earl Robert Eaton, Squire David Taylor w/Jeeves)
- The Headshrinkers
- (Fatu, Samu)
- The Wild Samoans
- (Afa, Sika)
- Kamala
- The New Hart Foundation
- (Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, Owen Hart, The British Bulldog, Brian Pillman)
- The Sultan
- Yokozuna
- Hakushi
- The British Bulldog
- Team Canada (WCW)
- (Mike Awesome, Carl Oulette, Jim Duggan, Jacques Rougeau, Major Gunns, Elix Skipper, Bret Hart, Lance Storm)
- The Un-Americans
- (Test, Christian, Lance Storm)
- Team Canada (TNA)
- (Scott D’Amore, A-1, Johnny Devine, Tyson Dux, Jack Evans, Teddy Hart, Bobby Roode, Ruffy Silverstein, Petey Williams, Eric Young)
- William Regal
- Tajiri
- Kensuke Sasaki
- La Résistance
- (Sylvan Grenier, René Duprée, Rob Conway)
- Umaga
- The Great Khali
- The Mexicools (Juventud Guerrera, Psichosis, Super Crazy)
- Lord Tensai
- Rusev
- The League of Nations
- (Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio, Rusev, King Barrett)
- Shinsuke Nakamura
- Jinder Mahal
- WWE Monday Night RAW
- WWE Friday Night SmackDown
- WWE NXT
- TNA Impact
- Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission Referee Bill Alfonso (ECW)
- Eric Bischoff (WCW/The New World Order)
- Referee Nick Patrick (WCW/The New World Order)
- Vince McMahon
- The Corporation
- (Vince McMahon, The Stooges [Gerald Brisco & Pat Patterson], The Big Show, Mankind, The Rock, Shane McMahon, The Mean Street Posse [Rodney, Pete Gas, Joey Abs] The Big Boss Man, Kane, Sgt. Slaughter, Chyna, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Test, Ken Shamrock)
- Vince Russo (WCW)
- Cyrus the Virus (ECW)
- William Regal (WWE)
- Eric Bischoff (WWE Monday Night RAW)
- Assisted by 3 Minute Warning (Jamal, Rosey), Jonathan Coachman, Chief of Staff Sean Morley
- Palmer Canon (WWE SmackDown)
- Paul Heyman (WWE SmackDown)
- Kurt Angle (WWE SmackDown)
- John Laurinaitis (WWE)
- Paul Heyman (WWE-ECW)
- Assisted by The Basham Brothers (Danny Basham, Doug Basham)
- Dixie Carter (TNA)
- Assisted by Rockstar Spud, Ethan Carter III
- Eric Bischoff (TNA)
- Vickie Guerrero (WWE SmackDown/WWE Monday Night RAW)
- Vince McMahon & Shane McMahon (WWE Monday Night RAW)
- Mike Adamle (WWE Monday Night RAW)
- Brad Maddox (WWE Monday Night RAW)
- The Authority
- (Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, The Big Show, Seth Rollins, Randy Orton, Kane, J&J Security [Jamie Noble, Joey Mercury] The Shield [Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns] The New Age Outlaws [Billy Gunn, Road Dogg] )
- Shane McMahon (WWE SmackDown)
- Baron Corbin (WWE Monday Night RAW)
- Harley Race
- Randy Savage
- Jerry Lawler
- Owen Hart
- Mabel
- Booker T
- William Regal
- Sheamus
- Bad News Barrett
- Baron Corbin
This trope has a rich history, but the most commercially successful iteration gave us the iconic Austin/McMahon feud. Since then, the powers that be in professional wrestling have been trying to capture that same lightning in a bottle, but every attempt following Austin/McMahon has fallen woefully flat, oftentimes trying to put characters in boxes that they don’t quite fit in.
Was there any suspension of disbelief that WWE didn’t want Roman Reigns to be the face of the company?
This role more than anything is designed as a way to explain why matches are happening, who’s kayfabe steering the ship, and gives multiple faces and even tweeners an additional hurdle to overcome. The problem is the lengths to which it’s overdone. Instead of building and growing what makes faces and heels distinct, what gives their characters personalities, instead divides the roster into either the side of the rebellion or the bootlickers, with the rebellious faces having to constantly fight uphill against an evil empire.
Additionally, this trope more than anything else is guilty of leading to emotionally dissatisfying finishes, nonsensical swerves and gives too much time to characters we’re all sick of. An authority figure should be singular and neutral. Bring back the on-screen president of the company that’s seldom seen. A great example is the work of Gorilla Monsoon in the then-World Wrestling Federation in the early to mid-1990s.
A singular on-screen neutral authority figure can help explain cards, matches, dole out stipulations, and still be occasionally swayed by heels on technicalities or by faces on merit without hours of screen time devoted to their presence.
Kings
You know this trope from:
While I’m glad that the King of the Ring tournament is back, having the winner suddenly shift gears from an established character to a snobby king heel is just tired.
The King of the Ring was not entirely dissimilar to a Young Lion’s Cup with a WWE flair to it. It was a tournament meant to showcase young talent and elevate the winner to a new level on the card. Anymore what we see is a mid-card wrestler (generally one who’s already a heel) who creative has nothing else better for, win the tournament and spend the next few weeks coming out with a custom cape and crown, denigrating the audience and his opponents.
Said wrestler seldom moves up the card, and the gimmick is dropped long after it’s worn out.
Baron Corbin went from a balding biker in pseudo-pirate pants, to a creepy Applebee’s bartender, and now he’s a king? I can tell you exactly what’s going to happen. Corbin’s going to remain a thorn in the side of the bulk of the mid-card with the occasional championship opportunity at the Intercontinental or US championships, and won’t be moving up the card. So why do we need a tournament and a lousy “King” gimmick on top of that?
What we should see instead is the tournament being used to build what already makes the winner and their character great – cranking that personality up from an 11 to a 12 and ripping the dial off. A stepping stone in transitioning someone up the card and changing how the audience views that character.
The “Evil Foreigner” and/or “Evil Savage” plays on the worst xenophobic attitudes that too many people already have, while at the same type playing up just awful stereotypes. Taking pride in your country is fine, but we should move beyond booking and writing that relies on garnering heat just for coming from a different country.
Let’s call these tropes what they are. These tropes are racist.
“Got a couple guys who aren’t American? Can’t think of literally ANYTHING better to do with them? Just have them badmouth the US, or put some paint on him and have them speak gibberish.”
This archetype hit it’s peak in the 1970s and 1980s and should have never made it to the 1990s, let alone the modern age. Media doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
When people – young & old alike – see the evil foreigners and/or savages running the gamut of whatever stereotypes the creative team can come up with and then fall at the hands of the white American babyface, it reinforces and normalizes whatever prejudices they already have and gives them license to put that prejudice on full display in public. It’s jingoism through professional wrestling.
“Yes. You were right to hate [Evil Foreigner/Savage].” Every person who falls into this trope is booked as not just different, they attack The American Way(TM) and talk about how proud they are of their own culture.
You should be able to be proud of your culture and heritage without having that used against you as a professional wrestler, without having a flag-waving boy scout burying you. I wish creative teams, bookers, etc. could see that.
As an example, I’ve been to an independent professional wrestling show where they have a slightly tan white guy with a black and grey beard being booked as a terrorist from the Middle East. I’ve seen and heard the fans at this show say some of the most disgustingly racist things in their efforts to boo the heel.
It goes beyond poor representation, and so many talented athletes have had to fight too hard to avoid being typecast as this character. A great example is Mustafa Ali. Once billed on the independent scene as “Prince Mustafa Ali” – the former policeman, Chicago native, and practicing Muslim was billed from Saudi Arabia as a typical evil foreigner heel. What kind of world are we continuing to build where we can’t do better for people creatively, where we can’t evolve beyond this trope?
Now? Thankfully, the WWE didn’t take some big steps backwards (like say for example casting an Italian-American as a Muslim, Arab-American terrorist), and Ali was lighting up the ring on WWE SmackDown at the end of 2019.
Representation matters, and we should want better from our professional wrestling. When we have gimmicks like this still on TV, it makes it look like professional wrestling can’t grow. I’m glad to see some progress on this on the bigger stages, but there’s still work that needs to be done.
In-Ring Contract Signings
You know this trope from:
There are so many of these signings that WWE has MULTIPLE compilations of this trope on it’s official YouTube page.
The contract signing has long been a staple in trying to build hype for a match. Your competitors meet in the ring, generally about a week or so before the “Big Match” is set to take place in what’s supposed to be a professional setting.
There’s suits, a carpet, a table (on the rare occasion, a desk) and a piece of paper the combatants are set to sign. One combatant signs the contract, the other goes to do the same, something is said, and the whole thing explodes into violence wherein a bunch of security guards or talent from the back that couldn’t be bothered to be present in the ring, suddenly show up to hold the two wrestlers back.
Professional wrestling relies on this convention as a means to entice any last-minute holdouts that this match is something they want to see, and to sure up anyone already excited for this match.
Tell me why an undead mortician who can summon lightning and hurl fireballs is bound by paperwork?
It’s a bad convention, because there’s no longer any surprise left in these segments. We go into it knowing what’s more than likely to happen. There are other ways to build tension better than contract signings. Whatever happened to backstage assaults? Hanging out in the rafters? Vignettes that speak to the actual characters involved in the match?
Let’s move beyond this convention and start putting effort into our creative endeavors.
Evil Authority Figures
You know this trope from: