Fridge Brilliance
- Clubber Lang beat Rocky Balboa not just because of his focused training and his desire to win. Note the montage of Rocky's title defense matches with Clubber watching them. Clubber was not there for fun; he was specifically studying Rocky, his fighting style and strategizing how to beat him!
- Clubber Lang's defeat at the hands of Rocky isn't just due to the fact that our protagonist committed himself to training and Took a Level in Badass. It's also the fact Clubber Lang, himself, didn't take him seriously in their rematch and attempted to use the same methods he used in their first fight. In some ways he arguably made the same mistake Rocky himself made in the first fight where he horribly underestimated his opponent.
- The fact that Thunderlips and Rocky have a "real" fight isn't actually as unrealistic as it seems. Plenty of wrestlers, including Hulk Hogan himself, have scripted matches that do involve actual punches and throws being thrown. Thunderlips also doesn't seem particularly hurt by Rocky's hits and uses "show" moves that don't hurt Rocky but make him look bad. It seems very likely this is Foreshadowing that Thunderlips was playing with Rocky the entire time and our hero's ability to hit has gone down. Thunderlips even comments on the fact that Rocky was the one not taking seriously their match and he was trying to make it look good."That's the name of the game."
- Combined with Fridge Horror: Rocky's fight with Thunderlips was "real" all right; it was the first of a series of excruciating beatingsnote that led to his brain injury and subsequent retirement at the beginning of Rocky V. Mickey even admits that the second fight vs Apollo Creed should have killed him. Losing Mickey and Apollo certainly made things worse.
- Paulie smashed a Rocky pinball machine at the beginning, foreshadowing how Rocky's life and career would fall apart down the line. Also, who drove Rocky to bankruptcy in V? Paulie did.
- Rocky winning the heavyweight title in the first place deprived Lang of a possible opponent, contributing to the animosity against both Rocky and Apollo.
