Your Wrestling Pet Peeves/Utter Hatreds
 

So, for this week's podcast, we're looking to tap into the more cynical and humourous part of people's minds, and talk about different pet peeves or just utter hatreds you have when it comes to the world of wrestling.

Is there one wrestler you always just utterly despised? A TV or PPV show that grates on your nerves? A commonly held belief that you completely disagree with? A pet peeve you constantly have to deal with that you'd like to eradicate?

Ultimately, who or what do you hate, and more importantly, why? As always we'll be reading the best submissions on the show and crediting you accordingly, so this should be fun to get a handle on who and what people personally don't like about their wrestling.

EDIT - The podcast discussing Wrestling Pet Peeves and Utter Hatreds, including many that are mentioned in this thread, is now available at the following link: http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean....gPetPeeves.mp3

I hate back-body drops. Seems like a stupid risk of landing on neck for an opening-mid match move.

I really dislike when a wrestler will look at the referee during a 3 count, showing no signs of fatigue and just plainly watching his hand until he kicks out.

I am noticing this a bit more now with a lot of wrestlers. I wonder if it happens more often now or I just didn't notice it as a kid.

-Guys are are dead on the floor then amazingly run and jump into the ring at the count of 9. Some guys are great at the gradual sell, others like Cena just run in showing no effects of anything ever.

-Not enough poking/raking eyes or cheap shot behind a ref's back. I want more cheap shots.

-Some matches getting out of hand, while being athletic, take way from it looking like a fight.

-Weak ass clotheslines. RVD.

-Not enough secondary finishers that can end matches. Without them or guys using pinning combos, everyone just waits for the finishers.

-Main roster women either being whores/skanks/bitches or crazy. It's 2015.

-"This is awesome" chants. A false finish doesn't make a match "awesome".

not taking a feud seriously - ie John Cena

People still doing the "what?" chant. And yeah "this is awesome!" Is way over used. Stop that.

The same 5 legends at all the throwback shows. Duggan, Slaughter, Piper etc.

I hate watching routines never get "learned" but the roster. Cena has been doing the two shoulder tackles for ten years now, yet people still always insist on throwing a haymaker immediately after.

Same for Ambrose falling into the ropes. You'd think people would learn what to expect by now.

Constantly referring to us fans as "The Universe" or "The WWE Universe". It sounds so ridiculously stupid and gimmicky and the term itself is just stupid, combined with the fact that it's over used.

Other performance based entertainment companies, entertainers, etc., don't refer to their fans as anything other than fans.

We're fans, we're people, we're not stupid and we're NOT a GIMMICK DAMN IT!

I hate when WWE ignores the past. It's so annoying to watch two guys have a blood feud where they try to murder each other right up to the moment where they have an organized, sanctioned wrestling match, then it's just on to the next guy. Then a couple months down the line, one of them turns face/heel, and now they're on the same side in tag matches, completely forgetting about the time they hated each other so much they almost literally killed each other.

The CONSTANT social media plugs I swear I fucking hate the day Vince discovered that was a thing.

Vince- I would have to write an essay its not just one thing.

Fans who try to hijack genuinely good shows.

There is a certain amount of genre blindness in wrestling I can except but it gets ridiculous sometimes.

Irish whips on the outside are just dumb.

the word wrestling being a bad word

Certain wrestlers are not allowed to be more than a stereotype when they could be so much more.

I would say treating fans like idiots/underestimating them but sometimes I wonder.

I also hate when the main event babyface beats up 50 people all at once on TV in about 5 minutes, but takes a grueling 25 minutes when it's just 1-on-1 at the PPV

-Wrestlers acting like they don't watch the show.

-Main events of the show never being announced or made until halfway through the show.

-The over reliance on thigh slapping. Some guys can do it seamlessly, others can't.

Wrestlers selling like death 8 minutes into a match. We are told that they are some of the greatest athletes in the world, so why do they blow up and milk non-existent drama?

Slow climbs have ruined ladder matches for me, as well as the endings of two guys battling at the top, one guy falls down, the survivor is the winner. I don't want to see anymore ladder matches for the foreseeable able future.

Bray Wyatt.

When the Authority(or any heel) plots their evil plan out loud and in front of a camera like a Bond villain.

The music that WWE uses is ludicrously terrible.

Out of interest, why so?

Dean Ambrose's rebound clothesline

Or more specifically the lack of selling afterwards.

Like, I don't mind that he powers through the attack to come off the ropes with a clothesline, but for god's sake, sell the fucking initial blow afterwards.

I remember Rollins hitting an enziguri clean on ambrose and he did the rebound thing, and taunted afterwards like nothiung happened. I'm like "HE JUST KICKED YOU SQUARE IN THE HEAD. FALL DOWN AFTER YOUR DUMB CLOTHESLINE."

Yes! What do the Authority do in the days between shows? They're clearly not laying out the next episode. What would happen at the end of the show if four people hadn't come out to interrupt each other's promos in the first segmemt to set up that "blockbuster" tag match? Do they just shrug and start the NCIS rerun a half hour early?

Fans who try and get themselves over with retarded chants (NXT crowds).

The chants are to help the talent get over not themselves.

I hate that every wrestler looks the same: 6"0-6"2 , 210-230 pounds. There used to be wrestlers of all shapes and sizes. It added variety.

I just hate smarks. Too many reasons to count.

Bring back fat guys with mullets!

Refs counting to 5 when a wrestler goes on the top rope....chuffing pointless rule.

What chants during promos, it's getting boring.

26 finishers in a match, no psychology whatsoever.

Not enough bastard heels, too many heels are the same.

Bad-ass babyfaces who will take on the world that immediately become spineless cowards the moment they turn heel.

Man I hate that. Why did Seth hitting Roman and Dean with a chair zap him of all his courage? Same with Punk, a clothesline to the Rock completely altered his character.

That's why I love Regal in NXT, he comments that the show is booked solid and the person will have to wait a week. Most backstage skits with him he's reading or relaxing with some tea. Why not? His work should be done for the night.

Watching a ton of mid-'90s PPVs, back in the days when authority figures just made matches and did the whole Deus Ex Machina thing, and I'd say a majority of these shows have some sort of mention of what the next night's Raw main event was going to be. Hell, in the "post show" for the Rumble '96, Gorilla Monsoon announces the main event for the next month's IYH.

People still love Austin, it would just depend how he was promoted and treated.

Daniel Bryan. Small little troll with no personality and made the fans like him because they can chant with him. Kick,kick, kick, kick, some Benoit moves and a weak ass running knee. Just don't see why everyone like him.

Fans who think that WWE sucks because it's not the Attitude Era anymore. "If we could just get blood and sex and swearing back, it would be great again!" They forget that there was just as much crap back then as there is now. They just edit that shit out of the highlight reels. Wrestling today isn't unwatchabls because it's PG. It's unwatchable because the writing is terrible and they have no idea how to build more than about 4-6 characters at any given time.

As much as I get the point but Seth really hasn't backed down from opponents really. I remember before Fastlane he had to go against Daniel Bryan to try to get Roman Reign's main event spot and he didn't complain at all at having to wrestle Daniel first.

Top level announcers who don't understand the meaning of what they're saying. Most specifically the misuse of "Calvary" when they mean "cavalry" and the use of the word "dehabilitating." The word is DEBILITATING. They're professional fucking broadcasters for crying out loud.

Midcard title meaninglessness. Though there may be hope for that. Not holding my breath though, we'll see.

The fact that every show is live action and backstage. Put the commentators backstage except for PPVs and have actual sets.

No more enhancement matches. Cornette recently said on JRs podcast, bring them back so that you aren't constantly damaging midcarders.

Wrestlers being horrible with selling moves or suddenly acting like nothing happened once the match ends. Cena being a big example of both.

Big Show in general.

Outside of a couple of wrestlers, monster/beast type pushes for big men type wrestlers since those either fail badly or completely fall apart once the first big loss happens. Makes all the squashing done seem useless in the end.

Yeah Rollins has never been a solo brave guy, he just went from having his "Shield brethren" behind him to having the Authority and then J&J security.

Lol bull fucking shit

NXT crowd never did "We are awesome"

Having the tag ropes attached and them never being used. Why did they even bother to put them on?

Closed fists are apparently legal now also.

Double countouts. Just screams we have no idea what to do with this feud

Oh, also, Steve Austin. Fuck that guy. I get why he's important and all, but, seriously, fuck that guy.

Whenever Michael Cole shouts "For the win!" when someone goes for a pin...... What else would it be for? Also, he never actually says it for the actual finish.

The slow climbing of ladders in ladder matches. I'm used to it being one of "wrestling's rules".... but watching Mania with an "outsider" this year, she was just confused and wondering why they all climbed the ladder so excruciatingly slow (Except for when they were climbing to stop someone else).

Frequency in which finishers are kicked out of is a big one with me. When the guy's face is full of shock that his finisher got kicked out of , i go "really?, cause that happened the last match you had and the one before" The finisher isn't really a finisher anymore. It's more of a way of saying this match is coming to a close soonish. But never on the first one.

Also I don't like how Raw doesn't have a proper theme/opening anymore.

It has had just so for two or three months now.

And how the commentators aren't definitively face/heel anymore. I LOVE JBL on commentary but he needs to be more definitively heelish and less complimentary of the babyfaces. When he does go full heel he goes to far and grinds Cole into the dirt. It leaves me with a "daddy just hit mommy" feeling and I don't think that's what they want.

Kind of on the same lines, beatdowns that go on forever and leave you feeling uncomfortable. Especially when the current authority figure is a babyface or neutral one. Chuck Palumbo beating the holy shit out of Jamie Noble comes to mind. It went on forever, was far too brutal, and to top it off I'm pretty sure it happened on Teddy Long's watch.

I know I've been watching infrequently lately so maybe I've just been missing it. Glad they fixed that then.

That faggotry is reserved for large arenas

when the champ loses a non title match. That's just dumb.

The lack of meaningful promos. Most promos are the same handful of people saying the same bullshit. I know my hero, Triple H, is one of the worst offenders. Then they don't know why other guys don't develop mic skills when they never promo or if they do its cardboard scripted bullshit or paint by numbers promo from a can horse shit.

For sure the 20 minute opening promos. Most sitcoms are shorter than RAW openings, and they progress stories and characters in the same time HHH, Steph, and Rollins finish monologueing.

Oh. Non-wrestling fans insisting on smugly telling you wrestling is fake.

The hyperbole for grinding into us that a finisher is supposed to be the most lethal thing known to man, when thousands of wrestlers have been using said move as a transition in matches for 50+ years.

ie - anyone else on earth does a Camel Clutch, and the announcers react with all the urgency of reading a soggy phonebook. fucking Rusev does so much as look at the back of somebody's neck, and it's all about shrieking "ACCOLADE! ACCOOOOLAAAAADE! NO MAN CAN ESCAPE! HE'S GOING TO BE IN THE HOSPITAL FOR 2 YEARS AND CRIPPLED FOR LIFE AFTER THAT!!! ACCOOOOOOOOOOOOOLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAADE!!!! ASDFGIFLHIBBLE" for 10 goddamn minutes straight.

"Oh my god, Seth Rollins just ran to the ropes - CUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRB SSSSSSSSTTTTTTTOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOMMMMMMMMPPPPPP!!! *sound of Michael Cole jizzing himself*"

This 100p. Distracts from the show when the crowd is chanting who the hell knows what through entire matches.

Anytime a move gets a name, it becomes devastating (Sweet Chin Music, Accolade, etc).

• Theme Music : Why can't someone come out with their theme music playing ?

• Never crossing paths :The bad guy and the good guy who hate each other just came out of the same entrance and made their way to the ring instead of beating the shit out of each other in the back

• Ladder matches : these fuckers run around at lightning speed but climb a ladder at a snails pace.

• Lets catch him :The very obvious positioning of the guys on the outside when guy is about to dive from the turnbuckle

• 619 setup : how people always seem to get set up hanging on the second top for 619

• HHH : HHH beating every legend and superstar to stroke his ego

• not grape-vining the leg except on the finish

Sounds like you would better enjoy MMA - where things are less of a work, but still a work.

Cesaro, Neville and going way back Snitsky; why don't they have first names in the WWE? Imagine instead of Stone Cold Steve Austin, he was just Cold Austin. That sounds like a weather report from last nights Raw location. Or instead of Mankind, he was simply Kind. Big difference.

Why don't they have name for teams they just throw together? Cesaro and Tyson Kidd...yawn. They should be known as The Swing Kidds.

lack of tits

Or like sheamus last night.

Finishers that dont look painful at all. AA, Angle Slam, sister Abigaile, any punch ect
The rule that says every match must be won by that wrestlers finishing move. How about winning without the trade mark finish.
This goes along with the finishers, why use a submission like a Boston crab or abdominal stretch when there is no way that will end the match....or even get sold.
Overall lack of selling-see Cena

I bet Rusev could make you tap if he applied the boston crab.

I bet he would

Retcons. You can't promote Edge & Christian as brothers for the best part of a decade, then change it to "best friends" whenever you feel like it.

Distraction Finishes. Guy in control of match, his long term opponent's music hits, guy gets distracted, rolled up for the pin.

Cage Matches. Specifically those that can be won by exiting the cage. You put two guys into a cage for them to fight it out and the winner is the guy who runs away!?

Forgot one;

They have 3 hours of Raw every week and we still only get the same handful of guys featured. The fact that Ryback, Reigns, and Orton each wrestled twice on Monday is ridiculous. Wouldn't that time have been better served highlighting some other guys?

This podcast is going to be a blast, btw. Really looking forward to hearing the panel's take on these things.

Another pet peeve is when a pet pees. See the hell in a kennel match.

It does when your expectations on matches you're seeing have been lowered to the point that it does.

Semi-related: The Young Bucks. I'm not one who outright bashes talent often (personal dislike of talent like boring-ass Rusev or Chris Masters isn't exactly the same as shitting on them wholesale), but these spot monkey knockoff Hardy Boyz epitomize the dim view that critics of indy wrestling speak of. Yeah, people are popping for 800 flips per match, but that doesn't make Jim Cornette "wrong". Throwing a bunch of highspots with no match flow, no storytelling reason, and half the spots could be finishes that are just thrown away ultimately benefits nobody in the long run. Short term pops, long view of injury risk for everyone involved. Every match I have ever seen of them, even on regular TNA tv, were trainwrecks.

The difference between them and people like, say, Daniel Bryan is such: DB is good at what he does, and people go "it's not his fault he didn't grow a foot taller! He's good at what he does, and it would be nice if he got recognition for his talent", The YB's, on the other hand, are just popular. POPULAR DOESN'T ALWAYS EQUATE TO GOOD! They're not necessarily good at what they do. They have fresh faces all the girls want to sit on, do shit in matches to get all the attention on mostly them, and have teamed up with the Neo nWo for a proxy rub. These guys in action are why smarks cringe at the thought of Devitt or KENTA in a WWE ring when it was first announced. Its why Kalisto and Kofi won't be much outside of a high octane tag partner. As good as his call up has been so far, it is why I don't expect much from Neville's main roster run... the negative stigma of the "high flyer" is too great. And those two dickheads either are blind to the fact they aren't helping, or just too arrogant to give a shit.

100p what Tom Guycott said.

This actually makes it worse. While admirable they're taking the piss, it still doesn't help other high flyers. At all. They might as well just trio tag with Teddy Hart and become 100% toxic in every way.

Half the people in this forum.

Being good at being heels and their matches being "clusterfucky" have nothing to do with one another. Hell, people always crap on Vince Russo's booking, but he was a marvelous, natural onscreen heel. See how that didn't change the perception of his booking?

They may have "toned it down", but their matches are still a wasteful shitshow of "let me get my shit in", even with them just doing some spots "for the lulz".

... and the other half?

Seems to depend on where you are.

If i am in front of a tv, and flip to USA, more often than not, I see a cold open with the crowd and pyro. If I hit up a stream (that isn't of the USA network feed) the theme is always intact.

I forgot one/another one;

Gimmick PPVs.

Hate that gimmick matches like Hell In A Cell have been run into the ground. Matches that should be pulled out of the bag to settle serious feuds now happen because it's October and we have to shoe-horn matches into the gimmick. It's backwards, and it's annoying.

TLC is the worst. A Ladder match, Tables match, and a TLC match on one card is redundant. Let's not even touch on Chairs matches, and worse still, Stairs matches.

WWE Creative

The lack of back stories behind most of the stars especially the tag teams and divas

The lack of storylines for the mid and lower card stars.

The shoddy transition from NXT To WWE.

The stars they just let slip through to other federations

When an evil bastard of a heel turns face and completely changes his personality.

Sheamus is the offender that sticks out in my mind, but it happens all the time. He went from this badass, celtic warrior, to Al Roker, with no explanation whatsoever. Like, did he find Jesus or something?

Most face turns occur when a heel starts to get over, and then he challenges another heel. So just because he's got beef with another dude, he has to act like a baby kissing goof? No, that doesn't make sense.

Heels should do a better job of transitioning their character into a face. And vice versa. I equally hate when you have a badass face who doesn't take shit from anyone, and takes beatdowns in stride, then he turns heel and all of a sudden he's a giant coward.

Somebody said it the difference between YB and Dolph Ziggler is that Ziggler doesn't have to hit 300 super kicks in a match to make you react (I know for YB thats the gimmick but still.)

This one gets me too. If there's a story that the ex-face has turned heel because they are afraid of someone in particular; or they are getting older and want to work smarter, not harder -- I can sort of buy it -- but that doesn't mean you need to become a coward. Randy Orton lost so much credibility as a chickenshit under The Authority. When you really think about, as far as their personalities go, Daniel Bryan might as well have headlined WrestleMania XXX by himself Orton's heel champion was so weak.

Something to keep in mind about guys on the indies or with free reign over their matches: Just because they go out of their way to have a spotfest doesn't mean that they don't know how to dial it back. The Young Bucks go way over the top, but that's sort of their shtick. If they were working for a promotion that wanted them to dial it down, I'm sure they could.

On the flip-side of the same token, just because you don't see someone do something in a match, doesn't mean they can't do it. I'm specifically thinking about Heath Slater for this. A lot of people think all he can do is punch and swing his hair around -- but the dude is a gifted athlete and can do some high-flying stuff. He just knows it doesn't fit his gimmick, so he doesn't.

So much good stuff in here. I've got to second the lack of continuity. People can say "It's wrestling" all they want, but at the end of the day, it is jarring when things don't make sense. The Goldust/Stardust stuff was just dropped. How is a casual fan meant to feel about them not fighting anymore? When guys suddenly become friends because of face/heel alignments despite having had a blood feud, or drop their hatred for guys just because they aren't in an immediate program -- it really bothers me.

I saw Cody and Rey teaming sometime since the Goldust/Cody pairing, and it made me fucking sick to see them slapping hands like they are buddies. I don't mind them being forced to tag, but these guys were acting like The Rockers out there. Pre-window incident, mind you.

Bringing up Cody and Rey makes me realize how few vicious feuds there are to get upset about being dropped for no reason. Guys tend to have mildly unpleasant feelings for each other these days.

Here are some more:

* Move set-ups that are too contrived. Or when guys automatically do something in the ring to feed into a guy's stuff. Even Daniel Bryan is guilty of this as guys always try to clothesline him after he hits the ropes after backflipping out of the corner over them.

* When a wrestler does a move that looks better and is logically more effective than their finishing move, but it doesn't win them the match. Basically any time Cena does a powerbomb is a good example of this. He's logically driving them down with more force than an Attitude Adjustment, yet the AA is 10x more effective.

* The tropes setting up title matches. And automatic rematches for that matter. I hate that shit. It's so fucking lazy, and it kind of pisses on your guys. An automatic heel rematch works for the bad guy, because then it allows the face to go over them twice. But when faces get screwed out of the title, but you then want them to do a chase, they basically have to lose twice to the heel that beat them, and that makes them look stupid.

* How the Divas are treated.

* That no one on the mid or lower card is hungry enough, in storylines, to try and make a name for themselves by attacking a top star or making a challenge. Everyone seems to shut their mouth and know their place and stay out of the real stars' business. You know, as a gimmick. I fucking loved it when Carlito came out that one time and said he was supporting Sheamus at TLC, because he wants to see Cena lose. That was cool.

* Opening promos on RAW every week. How long would it have been since a match opened RAW? You know, just as something different? I'm not against in-ring promo segments, but do they need to start every...single...RAW?

* When guys hit a dropkick, they are fine; when they miss a dropkick, it's like they just took a piledriver.

* Modern commentary. I'm not knocking the talent of the commentators. I've heard Michael Cole be great, and I've heard JBL do some of the best color stuff ever. Jerry Lawler has shat more wrestling than most people know about. But god damn it, the current shit fucking sucks. JBL sounded like he was more concerned with getting himself over at WrestleMania than anything else. I'm sure he's being told to do it, but fuck.

* Another thing on women: Why are they all good looking? You'd think there would be at least one girl in wrestling with a crooked nose or something. And how are the girls meant to stand out as beautiful if they are all beautiful? On the worst and most superficial level, Kevin Dunn should want some ugly girls to contrast the hot girls against.

Or when they do it gets played for comedy, see Curtis Axel. I don't expect him to be main evening WrestleMania 32, but if your angle is a guy trying to elevate himself, give him a bit of a rub, see if he can get it over, because it's one of the most natural ways to build someone.

kane not being in a mask will always be super gay to me

Axel should be winning a few matches against enhancement talent here and there.

I don't like it when a guy uses a move as a finisher, but then a bigger/stronger guy does the move, but because it's not his regular finisher, it doesn't win the match. An example would be Big Show using a leg drop on a guy, or something.

Wasn't the last match to start RAW a Triple Threat between Ricardo Rodriguez, Zeb Colter and Big E Langston? I swear to God I'm not making that up. The show just went live with them in the ring representing Del Rio, Swagger and Ziggler for whatever reason.

Also, keeping in the spirit of the thread... fuck that Adam Rose guy.

Holy shit if that was the last time. That would be two years ago.

Just wanted to thank everybody in this thread for the awesome suggestions - the podcast discussing a great many of the Pet Peeves/Utter Hatreds mentioned in this thread is now available to listen to at the following link:

http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean....gPetPeeves.mp3

This ended up being a really fun podcast, talking everything from wide-reaching issues such as WWE buzzwords, hypocrisy and policies, to the humorous minor foibles that many have with the Greatest Sport Of Them All, if you've never listened to the show before (and especially if you have) - check it out and let me know what you think!

Two guys kicking the shit out of each other for minutes on end, but end up being "ok"....however when a wrestler so much as bumps into the ref, the ref is out cold for several minutes.

When people doing rasslin podcasts have English accents. Hate that.

Yeah, that's one of mine too.

Pussy refs.

Like, if they take a tim white HIAC bump, or even if they get clocked by a punch or a kick, I can understand being down for a while, but when a dude just kind of bumps into him like you said, and he's down for what feels like forever.

Fuck that shit.

Off topic, but damn it I loved the chair shot bump one of the refs took during Austin Rock at Mania.

It's the shirt, it drains your powers.

When a wrestler is in a Guest Referee role, they only need to be be gently brushed and they're out cold.

There's a gimmick; wrestler puts his opponents in a ref shirt in order to win the match.

I don't watch professional wrestling anymore. I haven't since 2003, but one of my biggest pet peeves when I did view it (and one of the reasons why I stopped screening it because it happened so often) is when a superstar would be in the ring cutting a promo, then his foe's theme music would start to play, the guy in the ring would make the same phony expression of frustration as his enemy *slowly* made his way down to the ring, then would get on the mic, say repetitive nonsense he said last week with bad acting and then every now and then would acknowledge the fans booing/and or chant and I would be ready to scream at how boring, predictable and redundant it all was.

Did my post get mentioned?

I download for name.rep