Two characters, usually lifelong rivals, have a final bout to settle their score once and for all. They charge each other to begin exchanging blows... and the scene abruptly ends. The fight is never shown and the audience never learns the outcome.
This trope is often done to deliberately fuel speculation among audiences about the winner of the fight. In some cases, the writer(s) may simply not feel comfortable giving a clear winner for one reason or another, i.e. wanting to maintain the belief that the character are equal. In very rare cases, the winner will be revealed in a later entry in the story or writers will leave clues as to who won without saying it outright. If the rematch is lighthearted in nature, not showing the outcome can be justified from the standpoint that it isn't meant to be taken seriously.
It can be easy to confuse this with an Evasive Fight-Thread Episode, but there are two major differences:
1) An EFTE's fight is interrupted within the story rather than the story just cutting away from the fight and ending.
2) This trope is specifically about a rematch that is meant to settle previous competitions. In an EFTE, the characters do not need to have clashed more than once or even before the events of the story.
Sub-Trope of Bolivian Army Ending. See also The Last Dance.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Splatoon: The manga's stamp rally arc ends with the Blue Team facing Rider's team in Arowana Mall, the same stage they battled each other in back in chapter 1. The chapter ends right as the battle begins, and the next chapter begins with the start of a new day with no mention of the rematch.
- Variable Geo: The OVA culminates in the long awaited showdown between Yuka her childhood friend/rival Satomi. Once Yuka frees her from Miranda's disembodied spirit, the two waitresses meet on the roof of the Jahana research facility for a proper rematch and to determine the winner of the "Virgin Goddess" tournament.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!:
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duel Monsters: During the Battle City arc, Jonouchi (Joey) loses his Red Eyes Black Dragon card to a Rare Hunter in a duel. Yugi defeats the Hunter and wins back Red Eyes card for Jonouchi, but Jonouchi insists on Yugi keeping the card until Jonouchi can win it back from him in a duel (the 4Kids dub has Joey insist Yugi keep it as a sign of their friendship). In the arc's finale, Yugi and Jonouchi have a duel to settle an unresolved one they had while Jonouchi was under Marik's control, with the winner getting the Red Eyes as the prize. The duel itself is never shown but Jonouchi is seen using the Red Eyes in subsequent episodes, suggesting that he was the victor.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions: Kaiba's goal in the movie is to bring back Atem for a rematch. The epilogue shows Kaiba succeeding in accessing the afterlife and meeting Atem again, whom he issues a wordless challenge to as the movie ends and the credits roll.
Comic Books
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: In the first issue, the Turtles encounter Tommy who is while undercover as a Foot ninja. A fight ensues and Tommy knocks out Raph before escaping with the rest of the Foot. In the Turtles' second encounter with Tommy, Raphael sends Tommy through a wall. In the final issue, Raph challenges Tommy to a fight to settle their score and the final page shows the match about to begin as the story ends.
- X-Treme X-Men (2001): Issue #2 has the newly introduced villain Vargas defeating Rogue and Beast, and killing Psylocke. In issue #17, Rogue fights Vargas again and is poised to kill him with his own sword. Their fight is televised and commented on by a camerawoman, but the camera battery dies just as Rogue is pushing down the sword toward Vargas's body. At the end of the same issue, Rogue goes back to her teammates, but the reader is not shown any resolution to their battle.
Films — Animated
- Hulk Vs.: After their first fight gets interrupted by the Weapon X squad, Hulk and Wolverine go at it again at the end of the film. The winner of the fight is left unrevealed and since both have very powerful healing factors, Hulk stomping on Deadpool in a post-credits scene doesn't necessarily mean Hulk won.
Films — Live-Action
- Dragonball Evolution: Goku accidentally knocks out Chi-Chi thinking she is Mai in disguise. Chi-Chi and Goku later argue over whether or not this was a lucky punch and decide to settle it with a proper fight that begins as the movie ends.
- Fast Five: The epilogue has Brian challenging Dom to one final race to determine who is the better driver between the two of them. The film cuts to the end credits as Dom accepts Brian's challenge.
- Justice League (2017): A variation. A newly resurrected Superman curb stomps the entire Justice League before being returned to normal. A mid-credits scene has Superman and Flash engaging in a race, with the scene ending before the winner is shown.
- Rocky III: Perhaps the Ur-Example in all of pop culture is Rocky's third fight with Apollo Creed, which is witnessed by no one but the two fighters involved. It isn't until Creed that we learn that the victor was Apollo.
Literature
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian: Junior and Rowdy become rivals after the former transfers to Reardon high school. Junior wins a basketball game against Rowdy and his team, but their friendship is fixed when they got out of school for the summer. The boys play a basketball game one on one, with the winner being left unknown.
Live-Action TV
- Arrow and The Flash (2014): The first crossover has Barry controlled by a metahuman villain, forcing Oliver to fight and defeat him to snap him out of it. The crossover's conclusion has Barry and Oliver deciding to have a friendly match as the credits roll.
- Castle: "Ghosts" sets up a poker rivalry between Beckett and Castle. In the first game, Castle has a winning hand but folds to deliberately let Beckett win because he doesn't want to embarrass her in front of her boss and coworkers. Beckett learns the truth and demands a rematch—and she winds up deliberately letting Castle win, to avoid embarrassing him in front of his friends. Then Castle learns the truth and demands another rematch. They begin one last game, this time with no spectators to make them hold back, and the episode ends before even the first hand is over.
- Kamen Rider Kiva: In the finale, Wataru and Taiga have one final clash to settle their differences. The scene cuts away before the victor is shown.
- Scrubs: Invoked in "My Manhood". After having one of his testicles removed in an operation, Turk starts acting extremely aggressive to overcompensate for his perceived lack of masculinity. Meanwhile, JD tries to be more assertive so he can be a better father figure for his son. This results in the two getting into a fight, which JD wins with a lucky hit to Turk's face and Turk becomes obsessed with beating JD in a rematch. However, they manage to reach an understanding and stop the fight. To save face, they decide to do a "Rocky III freeze-frame ending" and circulate a picture of them about to punch each other. This allows them to both claim victory, without anyone knowing who really "won" the fight.
Video Games
- Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance: The ending has Red Magnus challenging Killia to a duel for the right to call himself the strongest Overlord, like he had attempted to do in the first chapter. The ending goes on to say that the outcome of their duel was lost to time. Subverted in the post-game—Killia had let Red Magnus win, reasoning that after all his Character Development in becoming a better leader to Scorching Flame and rebuilding it and the other Netherworlds, Red Magnus had earned that title. Presumably, Red Magnus chose not to say anything about his victory out of respect for his friend/rival.
- Dragalia Lost: At the end of the "Flames of Reflection" event, sisters Ramona, Rena, and Renee triumph over Lazry to win the Golden Anvil blacksmithing competition. When Lazry was Promoted to Playable roughly a year later, her adventurer story concluded with her having a rematch against the sisters at the next year's Golden Anvil, but the story ends just before the winner is announced.
- Dragon Ball Online: Goku and Vegeta leave Earth to settle their rivalry with one final fight somewhere they can use their full power without endangering others. Later, a supernova-like explosion is detected, implied to be the result of their battle, but who wins is never known.
- No More Heroes: Travis, previously upset over Henry pulling a Kill Steal to a targeted assassin, gets a chance to defeat Henry himself in an unlockable True Final Boss fight as revenge. This fight concludes as Travis and Henry continue clashing their Beam Katanas while arguing aggressively. When they do decide to put an end to the fight, they go for one more clash to see who lands the final blow... and then the game's credits roll while keeping the last moment of that fight frozen in the background. The outcome isn't revealed until the sequel No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, which takes place three years in the future.
Western Animation
- The Boondocks: In "...Or Die Trying", Huey attempts to destroy the film reel for the movie Soul Plane 2: The Blackjacking. He is caught by Ruckus who works in the theatre as an usher and defeats Huey in a fight. As Jazmine and the Freemans are leaving the theatre in the epilogue, Huey sees Ruckus again and decides to have a rematch. The final shot is a freeze frame of Huey and Ruckus lunging at each other.
- DC Animated Universe:
- Justice League Unlimited: In "Grudge Match", Huntress encounters a brainwashed Black Canary who attacks her. After the villains' plot is resolved, the two heroines decide to have a re-match to settle the previous two fights they've had but the conclusion is never shown.
- Superman: The Animated Series: "Speed Demons" has a charity race between Superman and The Flash to see who is the fastest, but it gets pushed aside when they have to deal with the Villain of the Week. At the end, Flash points out that they never got to see who was fastest, and the episode ends with him and Superman starting the race over again. While left unresolved in the series, background details in one episode of Justice League Unlimited imply that Flash won.
- Family Guy: Quagmire sleeps with Cleveland's wife Loretta in "The Cleveland–Loretta Quagmire". After a violent confrontation between Cleveland and Quagmire that ends with Cleveland and Loretta separating and Cleveland forgiving Quagmire, the episode ends in a recreation of Rocky III's final scene as the two friends have a fair bout to clear the air. Just as in the movie, it's not shown who wins.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: "Fall Weather Friends" revolves around Applejack and Rainbow Dash competing to determine who is the better athlete between the two of them. Rainbow Dash wins the most events in an "iron pony" competition, but after Applejack objects that Rainbow has an innate advantage in some of the events due to the latter being a Pegasus, they decide to settle the matter once and for all in a marathon footrace. The race eventually devolves into the two of them pulling dirty tricks on each other, delaying them both until they wound up tying for last place. At the end of the episode, they reconcile their grudge and decide to re-run the race fairly, but the credits roll right after they get started. Their rivalry is still going strong as of "Castle Mane-ia".
- Robot Chicken: One episode had Superman and Santa Claus competing in a race against each other that was repeatedly interrupted by villains. After dealing with them, Superman and Santa decide to race without any interruptions, with the episode ending without showing the conclusion.
- The Simpsons: "The Great Wife Hope" ends with Bart and Lisa at an abandoned MMA ring deciding to resolve "that sibling rivalry we have going on." The episode ends as the two rush each other. It then gets subverted when, after the initial end credits, the scene cuts back to Lisa curb stomping Bart.
