Then, Tatsu allegedly stomped across the kitchen and proceeded to open up a can on Sheamus, with some reports even characterizing the beating as bad enough to elicit tears from the future WWE Champion.
Let this be a lesson to you folks: Size doesn't matter...unless you want to get pushed in the WWE.
One of the most prevalent stereotypes of fiction is that characters with big muscles must be strong. In most media, this almost forces creators to make large characters seem strong (or at least stronger than smaller characters) and small characters seem less strong, or risk forcing the audience out of the story.
Often, this carries the opposite meaning as well: small characters are usually elusive, quiet, agile, stealthy and quick, while large characters being such will not be believable.
In
Professional Wrestling, this is taken to extremes. Few fans will accept a smaller or average sized wrestler as a main event contender without years of development, whereas larger wrestlers may be advanced to the main event scene almost immediately after debuting.
Related to
Bishounen Line. Polar opposite of
Muscles Are Meaningless.
The Giant will always be portrayed this way, even if they're mostly fat.
Examples:
Comic Books
- This trope is almost the entire plot for the Hulk, as any character's superpower can be easily identified by which body part is the largest (The Leader, the Abomination, etc.)
- For a while, the Hulk himself would also get larger as he got angrier/stronger.
- This is also prevalent in many Rogue's Galleries.
- For Spider-Man, the "strong" villains were always large and muscular (e.g. the Rhino) while the villains who had other powers were slimmer (e.g. the Chameleon.)
- Carnage subverted this trend; he was at least as strong as Venom if not stronger (and thus stronger than Spider-Man) but was actually smaller and less muscular than Peter Parker without his symbiote.
- Batman had Bane, Clayface, Solomon Grundy, and other "melee" villains who were larger than Batman.
- Batman is an especially obvious example of this trope. In comics where he had to fight, he was drawn larger than average (The Dark Knight Returns). In comics where he used his detective skills, he was drawn slimmer and less muscular (The Brave and the Bold).
- In films, Batman traditionally wore a padded Bat-suit, but appeared slim as Bruce Wayne.
- Superman's villains who fought with him were drawn larger (e.g. Doomsday.)
- However, the villains that outsmarted him were drawn smaller, e.g. Mr. Mxyzptlk, Luthor, etc.
Film
- The Pacifier - Lulu (10 year old girl) is so impressed by Shane's pecs, she hopes that when she grows up she'll have boobs like him.
Professional Wrestling
- In Professional Wrestling, "large" wrestlers (275 lbs or more) are usually given squash matches and power finishing moves. Smaller (200 lbs or less) are usually in matches that demonstrate acrobatic or high-flying moves.
- In general, the only women that are allowed to compete against men were the female bodybuilders who were equal to them in size. Chyna is by far the most famous, but see also: Nicole Bass, Midnight, Asya.
- Recently, "The Glamazon" Beth Phoenix competed in the Royal Rumble.
- With the advent of the light heavyweight division of the WCW and WWF during the Monday Night Wars, smaller wrestlers doing power moves became more common, and larger wrestlers doing acrobatic moves like the kip-up
were also common.
- ECW averted this often, and even squeezed in a series of subversions with the "Little Spike Dudley: Giant Killer" gimmick, where the 150-pound-soaking-wet Spike would somehow, after having been beaten half-to-death by men 3 times his size, and with commentator Joey Styles begging for the ref to stop the match, find a way to prevail in the end.
- Inverted by Hydra of Chikara, who must weigh 150 pounds, but is treated by announcers and other wrestlers as a behemoth.
- In Professional Wrestling, this is taken to extremes, as few fans will accept a smaller (Rey Mysterio Jr, AJ Styles) or average sized wrestler (Bret Hart, Eddie Guerrero, Shawn Michaels, even Stone Cold Steve Austin himself) as a main event contender without years of development. Whereas larger wrestlers (Kane, Brock Lesnar, The Great Khali) may be advanced to the main event scene almost immediately after debuting. This is particularly noticable in WWE, where 1) the promotion has access to much larger wrestlers than smaller promotions, and 2) the CEO, Vince McMahon, doesn't like smaller wrestlers and is reluctant to push them. Nowhere is this mentality more apparent than in the career of Paul "The Big Show" Wight, who had his pro wrestling debut (not just his first televised match, but his first match ever) in the main event of a WCW Pay-Per-View for the world championship — and won!
- Other good examples are Sheamus, Wade Barret, and Alberto Del Rio in decending order. Sheamus first appeared on TV as a (supposed) jobber before plowing through on his way to being a monster heel.
