Narm / Professional Wrestling

"There is only room for woman at the top of the WWE...ME the Celtic Warrior Sheamus!"

You can't write the sort of Narm that happens in Professional Wrestling. Okay, you can, but nobody really tries to do it intentionally. Unless you're Vince Russo.

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Ring of Honor

• ROH isn't immune to the narm despite being one of the most prestigious independent promotions in the northeastern United States.
  • There was the sexual harassment angle that saw the Christopher Street Connection going after Alexis Laree. While the group were said to be wrong for picking on her, the commentators couldn't help but admit they were turned on by the whole thing and it generated huge pops from the crowd, especially when Allison Danger forcibly kissed Laree.
  • There was the time that Larry Sweeney knocked out Allison Danger, then demanded that his obese lackey Bobby Dempsey (who basically was a Face to the crowd) hump her; when Bobby hesitated, Larry Sweeney eventually knocked him on top of Allison Danger, and then started pushing him into her. Problem was, the fans were chanting at Dempsey to "man up."
  • While we're on the subject, the Delirious-Daizee Haze-Rhett Titus love triangle was narm from start to finish. It was normal for fans to chant "YOU GOT COCKBLOCKED!" at the universally loved Delirious whenever Rhett Titus stopped him from asking Daizee Haze out. Not to mention, when Titus bragged about having sex with Haze, he started getting face pops despite being the heel. Haze, thanks to her rejection of the lizard man, and this episode, was the opposite. It didn't help matters that Delirious joined the Age of the Fall at the aptly titled "Age of Insanity." Ultimately, the payoff to this was highly predictable, as Titus revealed that not only did he not sleep with Daizee, but he was a virgin.
    • Of course, ROH "narration" (read: the Newswire) did admit that the "confession" was under duress. It was impossible for the fans to take Rhett Titus seriously as a heel or to really treat him as one. The gimmick was FUNNY! Plus, he was acting so enthusiastically and "sincerely" that it was treated as Narm Charm.
• A few too many people laughed at Homicide's attempt to murder Colt Cabana with drain cleaner
• At the 2016 Aftershock, a fan hit the ring to propose. What made what would have been a sweet moment into material for this page was the crowd telling the stunned lady to say no.

TNA

• TNA No Surrender 2008 featured an MMA-style match between AJ Styles and Frank Trigg. Mike Tenay and Don West, bless their hearts, were trying to sell the match as important and dramatic, but their efforts were shot to hell by the cameras getting closeups on upset fans chanting "We want wrestling!" and "Fire Russo!". Doesn't help that the finish of that was a no contest due to accidental groin hit.
• AJ Styles trying to emulate his mentor Ric Flair. With his complete lack of Flair's trademark charisma, there's just no way you can take him seriously. Especially when he starts throwing out Flair's catchphrases... Blame Ric Flair ^note or at least his pre-TNA self being simply one of a kind; it's essentially reviving WCW's "Lil' Naitch," except wasting one of the young TNA 'legends' instead of a ref.
• The 9-16-10 episode of Impact was host to perhaps Abyss' most ludicrous moment of narm to date, in which he abducted someone, presumably TNA backstage personnel, and proceeded to bring them to a torture chamber for the purpose of conducting various non-PG activities. In a scene more akin to something you'd expect to see in a Saw flick rather than professional wrestling, Abyss branded the date 10-10-10 onto the exposed abdomen of his captive. That this was filmed by a cameraman, who did nothing to intervene, and furthermore, shown on TV, to announcers who had little to no reaction whatsoever, not only makes suspension of disbelief impossible, but is also hilarious.
• Samoa Joe was kidnapped by ninjas in front of a TV crew. Nobody did anything to stop this, nobody seemed to care. He cut one promo from apparent captivity, and came back within a month, the entire thing is never mentioned again, except by Spoony.
• From the "THEY are coming" storyline rehash, there's the scene of Crimson "murdering" Abyss by hitting him in the back with Janice, followed by Abyss falling over after stumbling onto the ramp, with Crimson standing behind him, grinning like a horror movie villain. Sadly, the grin, Crimson's ridiculous faux-spiky hairdo, and his odd head-tilt ruined any attempt to take the scene seriously.
• Abyss chokeslamming AJ Styles through the ring, despite the fact that when that sort of thing normally happens it's one huge guy doing a huge power move to another huge guy. AJ is not huge, Abyss is really not that huge and the chokeslam had almost no strength behind it, making it look more like TNA just has a really shoddily constructed ring.
  
  Really the whole affair was Narmtastic. Hogan and Abyss celebrate like they won the title and actually didn't, Ric Flair gets hastily wheeled down to the ring like an old man about to admonish kids who are messing around on his lawn, gets shoved around by Hogan and Abyss, Hebner accidentally trips on the hole, Desmond Wolfe shows up, has the same thing happen to him, trips backwards over Flair and stumbles into the hole, and then Flair does a Flair flop into the hole himself. It was clearly meant to be a comedic end to a PPV (why?) but the end product was less "HA HA, this is hilarious" and more "HA HA, who the hell wrote this?"
• Joker Sting holding Eric Bischoff hostage with a bird. Yes, it's as bad as it sounds.
• Madison Rayne's completely not foreshadowed relationship with Gail Kim which bordered on outright romance was the peak of this in Rayne's TNA career until her even more inexplicable program where Brittany became a fan girl trying to impress Madison which rapidly escalated into Brittany being a vengeful scorned bisexual. This might have been a compelling series of angles over the course of six months but having it all play out in less than two months when no such dynamic existed the month prior combined with Brittany's complete inability to beat anyone made it impossible to take seriously.
• Samuel Shaw's TNA angles generally bordered between Nightmare Fuel and Nausea Fuel until he began his program with Gunner. See, he had been feuding with Mr. Kennedy, who had served in the armed forces and Gunner argued that Kennedy should have enough sympathy to try and help Shaw because he went through the same thing they did, despite the fact Shaw had not served and Kennedy pointed this out. There were multiple weeks of Impact where Shaw did nothing but sit, restrained in a padded room while Gunner talked to or tried to play cards with him. When Samuel Shaw finally "got out" and went back to doing things it mainly revolved around being a sorry Tag Team partner for Gunner and ineffectually trying to imitate him, including wearing his clothes, which actually did start to become creepy in the later stages of the angle and might have saved it if it wasn't derailed by Brittany entering the picture and stalking Shaw to the point he gave in and betrayed Gunner for her. Again, the this could have worked if the two weren't rolling on top of each other while making out in celebration of Gunner's downfall in less than a month's time!
• Matt and Jeff Hardy's contract-signing video for their match at Slammiversary 2016 achieved Narm status mere moments after it aired. Highlights include Matt being unable to decide on an accent, and the inexplicable slow-motion slam into a coffee table (which appears to break apart before Jeff's body even touches it).

WCW

• Scott Steiner's brother Rick is hardly immune to this, either: one Nitro featured him telling Chucky (the killer doll from Child's Play) to "Get your raggedy ass in the ring!". Yes, he challenged a puppet to wrestle him. The sad part is that is the build up was pretty good, but it was all ruined by poor execution at the end.
• Goldberg's catch phrase in WCW was "Who's Next?", which was simple and effective. After one match, though, "Mean" Gene Okerlund was interviewing Goldberg.
  Gene: "After that win, the question isn't 'who's next,' but 'who's left?'!"
  Goldberg: "No... the question isn't 'who's left'... it's... 'WHO'S NEXT?'!"
• Announcer Tony Schiavone was a physical manifestation of this trope.
  • The '''SHOCKMASTER''' APPROACHES!!
  • Yeh-tay approaches.
  • RoboCop approaches!
• Hulk Hogan's promos for the "Yapapi Indian Strap Match" might not have been out of place in the 1980s, but they were filmed in the year 2000. To say they were a little behind the times would be an understatement.
  "As I strap that flesh, as your flesh bubbles and burns over your body! You understand, my man, what the YAPAPI mean by the Indian strap match!"
• Sid Vicious heads out to catch his limo, not yet knowing Goldberg beat it to a pulp:
  Sid: OH MY GOD! What happened to my car?! GOLDBERG! WHERE ARE YOU?! GOLDBERG! GOLDBERG! GOLDBERGGGGGGGGG!!!
• In Fall of 2000, as WCW was clearly in death spiral mode, the end of Nitro led directly into a Wall Street drama called "Bull". As a result, for about a three month period, viewers who stayed to the end of Nitro saw the wrestling show fade to black followed immediately by a dramatic voiceover that was easy to interpret as commentary:
  Voiceover: You're watching BULL!

WWE

• Giant Gonzalez◊ in general. From his bodysuit, expressions, mannerisms, etc., to his miraculous ability to somehow oversell and undersell simultaneously. And of course, his widely infamous WrestleMania IX match against The Undertaker.
• An episode of WWE Raw gave us a dramatic moment turned into Narm by crowd participation. Randy Orton had just systematically destroyed John Cena's father as Cena watched, helplessly, handcuffed to the ring ropes. Cena finally manages to free himself (by unbuckling the turnbuckle) and chases off Orton, and Orton and Cena have a tense, dramatic staredown, Orton smiling like the cat that ate the canary, Cena staring daggers at Orton... and the crowd loudly chanting "You can't wrestle!" at Cena.
• A hilarious moment of audience narm was brought by a Providence, Rhode Island crowd at Backlash 2009. After Triple H was given an RKO by Randy Orton followed by a punt kick, he was shown as unable to get up and was taken out on a stretcher all the while the crowd sang "na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, good bye."
• WWE audiences in general love their role in creating Narms. After Vince McMahon was allegedly killed in a car bomb, the tapings of the next two shows started with a moment of silence from the wrestlers and a ten-bell salute from ringside. Which would've been fine if the show hadn't been in Philadelphia, a.k.a. Smark Central, the most notoriously cynical fanbase in all of sports, real or staged.
  • Speaking of the limo-bomb, how about Paul London's ridiculously cheesy grin during the hallway segment? ^note  This was for a time rumored to be the reason he was later released from WWE
  • But then again, the Northeastern United States - particularly, from Philadelphia, PA to New York City - is home of the most hardcore fans/smarks in the entire professional wrestling world. It would be more of a shock if these crowds didn't create Narms.
  • One might want to include Eastern Canada as well with hotspots being Toronto and Montreal for narmtastic crowds
  • That may also have something to do with an early ECW revival show that was held in the Hammerstein Ballroom (one of the original ECW's old haunts), in which the main event of Big Show vs. Batista was met with chants of "Where's my refund?" and "Change the channel!"
  • The whodunit storyline would have followed suit the next week, but a certain Rabid Wolverine decided to kill himself as well as his wife and youngest kid to bring everything to a screeching halt. Vince later handwaved his own "death" as staged a few months later and went back to Kick the Dog. ...Or leprechaun, as the case might be.
• The Main Event: Both the 1988 and 1989 episodes – aired live on NBC – featured melodramatic acting by Hulk Hogan that was critically panned:
  • The 1988 show depicted Hogan grieving his title loss to André the Giant^note (after an imposter referee counted Hogan's shoulders to the mat, then André sold the belt to Ted DiBiase). Hogan bawled as he said the referees were "identical, ''I-DENTI-CALLLLLLLLLL!!!" See a clip of the post-match interview here.
  • In 1989, Hogan and Randy Savage teamed against the nefarious Twin Towers (The Big Bossman and Akeem). Midway through the match, Akeem threw Savage on top of their valet, the beautiful but tiny Miss Elizabeth, the force of which knocked Elizabeth unconscious. As a dazed Savage tried to regain his bearings, Hogan immediately rushed to her side and began breaking down in tears. He picked up and carried the limp Elizabeth to a waiting stretcher (note that Hogan did not wait to see whether Elizabeth's neck or back were broken, bawling and sobbing all the way and – certain she was going to (dum-de-dum-dum) DIE(!) – practically demanding that the doctors save her life. In the process, Savage was beaten from pillar to post in the ring, and when Hogan returned, Savage played the Ungrateful Bastard in slapping his partner's face before leaving ringside to let Hogan fend for himself. After the match, Hogan continued his over-the-top acting as Savage claimed that 1. He wasn't getting the respect he thought he earned; 2. Hogan was blatantly lusting after Elizabeth. You know the rest: Savage turned heel and eventually lost his WWF World Championship to Hogan at WrestleMania V.
• Razor Ramon is somebody important, man.
  • Somethin' happen to his gold? Somethin' gonna happen to you, man.
  • Razor Ramon: [Pushes guy into fountain] "I make his dreams come true, man." Apparently he was dreaming of a swim.
• The WrestleMania XX encounter between "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and the New York City Crowd vs. Brock Lesnar and Goldberg was the greatest Squash Match in the history of professional wrestling. The best part was that Lesnar and Goldberg likely thought they could get away with phoning the match in, as they were both leaving the company the following week. They were wrong. You really had to see it on PPV or in person for the full impact, as the crowd was edited in the DVD version. ^note At least if you watch it with the English audio track. The chants are retained on the Spanish audio track.
• There was a match in 2002 featuring the WWE version of the New World Order (which naturally, they did "right"). It was special because it was the big return of core member Kevin Nash to action after taking several months out due to injury. Approximately one minute after he is tagged in, he got seriously injured again from simply walking across the ring. At the end of the match, nWo member Shawn Michaels cut a promo about how the nWo was unstoppable and was going to destroy WWE... all while poor Kevin was lying in a painful, powerless heap right behind him. Next week, Vince McMahon appeared and handwaved the group out of existence.
  • But the really fun bit was the video that circulated among Smart Marks for weeks afterwards, which showed that pivotal moment repeatedly. In slow motion. Set to "Chariots of Fire".
  • In fact, he looks to be in pain from the moment he stepped over the top rope (raising the leg tugs on that muscle). This is then exacerbated by the torquing he did after the Big Boot. After which, he mis-stepped a little, and all 300+ pounds went crushing down on the muscle. Narm, if only because Shawn's speech included: "Triple H! What you see here is your future!" (It was in the past that he tore his left quad in 2001, but in the future that he tore his right one in 2007). Credit to the rest for breaking the match into a brawl to cover.
  • On a related note, at the 2005 Royal Rumble, Vince McMahon tore both quads stepping into the ring after both Batista and John Cena were simultaneously eliminated.
• Hulk Hogan vs. Shawn Michaels. You just have to feel sorry for HBK on this one. Hogan played a creative control equivalent of a royal flush, meaning he was to win their match. The only thing Michaels could do was ridiculously oversell every bit of offense Hogan put up. The hilarity is unbound.
• This promo by Finnish wrestler Ludvig Borga.
• Take your pick with Bobby Lashley — his supposedly badass character being routinely described as "soft spoken" to the point of it being in his entrance video? All the various amusing nicknames smarks have given him? The infamous "I say your name is Finlay, and you're a baathturd" promo? Or the "No!", or the "old enough to be my dad's uncle" comment? Good God, Lashley is made of Narm.
  • Much of Lashley's Narm stems from one source — his high-pitched, lisping speech. Nothing deflates a massively-muscled, built-like-a-Sherman-tank, military-alumnus Scary Black Man like having him open his mouth and sound like the most stereotypical Flamboyant Gay ever.
    • Lashley soon realized this and went into MMA, where he doesn't have to talk and can actually kick ass.
    • And then he went to TNA, where he's had promo time every week and only one actual match.
    • And in MMA, he (or his management) instead gets a reputation for dodging anyone who would be an actual challenge/threat and isn't the champion (i.e. Alistair Overeem, Strikeforce heavyweight champion) or Fedor Emelianenko.
• The Great Khali once won the World Heavyweight Championship. That's not Narm, though. The following night on SmackDown, there was a big celebration in the ring for him, with many native Indian folk dancing, singing and celebrating with the big man. And there were a good number of shots of his face, in which he looked legitimately happy. This still isn't Narm, though. The Narm came when Dave Batista stormed out to the ring, scared away all the dancers and attacked Khali. Nothing says "heroic face" like trashing another guy's victory celebration. Batista's a jerk!
  • The thing is... the Great Khali's a Face in India to the point that in the WWE SmackDown broadcasts in India, he's the Face while his opponents are the Heels. The whole thing smelt of "preemptive editing."
  • In the same vein, the segment where the Great Khali brings Big Show out and gives him various "peace offerings," including a goat, and basically doesn't do a single heelish thing despite being the heel. Big Show, conversely, abruptly ends the segment by punching Khali in the face and walking off.
    • Perfectly consistent with the above, making him the gigantic homeland Face and Batista and Big Show to be the arrogant, rude bullies. If anything, it sounds like Khali's face turn on Raw was meant to synchronize the two versions of him.
• Vince McMahon gets the lighting rig dropped on him and the show ends with saying "Paul," and "I can't feel my legs." ^note Some fans see the angle as a Take That! towards a TNA stage worker who was killed in a stage accident after the 2008 Slammiversary PPV two weeks earlier, but the similarities between the two events are merely coincidental.
  • And six months later, he returns with much fanfare (and nary a scratch)... only to be "put back out of action" by a kick from Randy Orton. Which wouldn't be Narm if it weren't for daughter Stephanie's hilariously high-pitched screechy wails...
  • This is also 'helped' by the fact that while it was supposed to be an evil, unthinkable move and played up as such, the audience was going fucking wild for Orton the whole segment.
  • Beat up Vince McMahon and the crowd will cheer? That's crazy! We can really apply the term Narm to pretty much every time Randy Orton gives somebody a head kick.
    • Orton's taken a liking to punting members of CM Punk's Nexus in the same way. Every time, Punk walks out and starts trying to negotiate with Orton. "Randall. You don't want to do that. Randall. Do not punt Husky Harris in the head. Do not do it, Randall. You will regret it. There will be consequences." The most hilarious was probably "Randall Keith Orton, do not do it." Orton then does it anyway, and contrary to what Punk said, he doesn't face consequences.
    • CM Punk has since been referring to Orton as "Randall Keith Orton" anytime he mentions him. Usually, it comes off as awkwardly forced into the sentence or just sounds like Punk is about to give Randall a time-out so he can think about what he's done.
  • Vince has also admitted to Roman Reigns that he cheated Afa and Sika (The Wild Samoans) on their pay. Roman Reigns then shoves Vince off his feet. The rather droll way in which Vince says, "My neck...my back..." and rolls around on the floor. The way Vince reacted (like a roided up Humpty Dumpty), you'd think Vince was going to lay there until someone actually helped him up.
    Vince: SOMEBODY HELP ME, DAMN IT!
• During one WWE PPV, The Undertaker's entrance was specifically arranged so it would look like he was floating down the entranceway towards the ring. The only problem with this was that the cameras filming the entranceway were angled completely wrong, causing one hell of a Special Effect Failure by revealing that he was standing on what looked like a pulley-board. Needless to say, WWE never did that again.
• Ricky Steamboat, while an incredible worker and a ring legend, still participated in this WWF promo in the 80's. But what can you say, it was the WWF in the 80's, and it did fit the character.
• Batista is pretty much a Narm Fuel Station Attendant. From the "That's my title, and come Sunday, I'm taking it back" line that became hilarious through repetition (and Batista's constant failure to back up the threat) to his infamous "Basketballs don't hold grudges" comeback, the big man is a great source of unintentional hilarity.
  • Mid-March 2010 turning heel was to meant to cure him of the Narm. Then he appears on Raw, he was confined to a wheelchair, screaming for someone in the back to "GIMME MAH DAYUMN SPOTLIGHT!!!" It's safe to say that, Face or Heel, Batista cannot resist being Narmy.
• The 9/18/09 episode of SmackDown! contained a moment of Narm so perfectly emblematic of the trope that it's hard to believe it wasn't actually intentional. In response to general manager Teddy Long's nefarious actions in cheating The Undertaker out of the world title at the Breaking Point PPV prior to the episode, the Undertaker impersonated a limo driver and abducted Teddy Long in a jaw-droppingly stupid scene. See it here. From the Undertaker's hilarious one liner, to T-Lo's ridiculously exaggerated expression of surprise◊, to the incredibly cheesy special effects that kick in as Teddy struggles to free himself, we dare you not to laugh.
  • A very similar incident ten years earlier was another instance of narm. During The Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness days when he was stalking Stephanie McMahon, he impersonated a limo driver as Stephanie was chased into the limo by members of his Ministry. When she told him to go, he turned around, revealing who he was, and saying "Where to Stephanie!? Ahahahaha!!" as Stephanie screamed.
• There's also the infamous 'Heidenrape' incident, in which Heidenreich kidnapped Michael Cole and took him backstage. We later see Heidenreich pushing Cole up against a door, talking to him in a low raspy voice and reading him a poem whilst keeping him in what we can assume was a hammerlock, although since we only see them from the chest up it looks much worse.
  • Cole's facial expressions during this scene don't make this any... uh... "straighter"?
  • The crowning jewel was months later when Chris Jericho replayed the clip, actually called it "Michael Cole gets raped," and added Dueling Banjos as background music.
• On an early 2010 RAW, CM Punk asked audience member Jared Fogle (yes, THAT Jared Fogle of Subway commercials fame) if he wanted to join the Straight Edge Society. When he refused, CM Punk decided he would force Jared to accept Punk as his savior. The Narm comes when Punk uttered the following line, one that many thought would never be uttered anywhere, much less on a WWE television show, "Luke, Serena, go get me Jared (Beat) from Subway." And then D-Generation X makes the save, just to make it even Narmier.
• Vince McMahon bragging in early 2010 about how he screwed over Bret Hart, and how Bret apparently brought it upon himself. Especially (unintentionally) hilarious is hearing Vince scream, "YOU DESERVE TO BE SCREWED!" to Bret, as he backpedals like a Looney Tunes character, hiding behind almost a dozen hilariously inept security guards. It came very close to crossing the line into "cartoonish supervillain" territory.
• The entirety of Big Show vs Big Bossman feud, but especially the scene at Big Show's dad's funeral. Bossman drives by the funeral in The Bluesmobile shouting insults against Show's dad through a megaphone. Then he hooks the casket up to his car and drives away with it, with Big Show hanging onto the casket and riding it like a sled.
  • What's ironic about this feud is, during Bossman's original WWF run in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he was scheduled to begin a feud with "Ravishing" Rick Rude, with Bossman's mother being the target of Rude's insults.
  • Speaking of Bossman narm, special mention has to go to the Al Snow feud, which culminated in the "classic" Kennel from Hell match.
• The Undertaker vs. Kane feud from 1997/1998 shouldn't be overlooked just because it was a part of the Attitude Era. On the final Raw before WrestleMania 14, The Undertaker delivered a long, heartfelt promo to his parents' gravestones which was immediately followed by an even longer promo where Paul Bearer rambled about The Undertaker whilst Kane set television sets and eventually crew members on fire using his power over lightning bolts, whilst Jim Ross, Kevin Kelly, and Michael Cole played the whole thing completely, hilariously straight.
• The January 11th 2010 episode of Raw featured The Miz and MVP cutting a pretty damn fine promo that could qualify as a Moment of Awesome...except for one line where MVP draws a comparison between WWE and the circus and he thinks Miz is a monkey flinging poo. And then Miz responds with a sarcastic "poo" as though he actually took that line seriously. The restrictions of PG television definitely were showing here.
• On the July 6th 2009 episode of ECW Tommy Dreamer called Abraham Washington a "lego head" as a comeback to a barrage of fat jokes. Bear in mind this came from a badass who wrestled in countless hardcore streetfight matches and in barbed wire years earlier.
• One moment saw Eve Torres making a run in on Maryse in the ring. The only problem? She couldn't get through the ropes on the first attempt.
• Pretty much any time Maryse tries to be intimidating or come across as a believable heel. She tries to cover up for her lazy Five Moves of Doom wrestling with hair flipping and hand gestures with the occasional promo in French. It doesn't work.
• Every promo by the Ultimate Warrior. Trying to make sense of anything the Warrior says is an exercise in futility, and yet his intensity and delivery makes them strangely compelling (not to mention utterly hilarious). Mocked repeatedly on The Spoony Experiment.
  • One example of many: "I came here for one reason - to attack and keep comin', not to ask but just to give, not to want but just to send-the send the power of the Warrior down everybody's throat in the WWF 'till they become sick of it- well, you're gonna get sick of it, 'cause this freak of nature is just beginning to swell, and when I get big enough, brother, there ain't gonna be any room for anybody else 'cept me and all the Warriors, floatin' through the VEINS, and the POWER of the WARRIORRRRRR..."
• How about Jack Swagger bursting into the room of Rey Mysterio and dragging him away with an ankle lock, Rey was screaming out in pain and Jack had this manic grin on his face, this was still within the range of decent until Jack Swagger dragged him backwards through a curtain, you just got this image of a creepy pedophile dragging away someone who "looks like a freaking twelve year old" who's trying to crawl away from his abuser. No one said Narm had to be light and fluffy laugh
• Ahmed Johnson. Especially the promos cut for the Warzone video game for the PlayStation. Wonton and beef stew indeed.
  • "Yub gub dub, G!"
• Val Venis' debut included a feud with Kaientai and Yamaguchi. The narm comes from Yamaguchi's obsession with revenge (Val supposedly slept with his wife) and a backstage skit where the Kaientai stable ties up a nude Val Venis and Yamaquchi-san apparently cuts his penis off with a sword.◊ Then the WWF waited until next week to say that he missed. And to add to the Narm, Yamaguchi only missed because the lights were turned out at the last second - by John Wayne Bobbitt.
• The infamous Genesis of McGillicutty promo was cut on the August 31st, 2010 episode of NXT when Michael McGillicutty cut a promo after being eliminated from NXT and how we was going to be a future world champion which led to the end of the promo
  McGillicutty: And starting this moment... from now... from this moment on... this will be the moment... starting now... of the Genesis... of McGillicutty.
• The 9-27-10 edition of RAW had Edge interview the anonymous RAW General Manager on the Cutting Edge. The GM had only previously communicated through a laptop operated by Michael Cole. For the interview, the RAW GM was being run through a voice changer. While the segment was narmy enough already just because Edge was interviewing a laptop (Lampshaded by Edge himself when he said that RAW had come from Austin stunning McMahon to Edge arguing with a computer), the voice distorter made the GM sound exactly like GLaDOS. The segment would even end with Edge destroying the laptop, making people wonder if the computer would starting singing Still Alive after RAW went off the air.
• The infamous "Pillman's Got A Gun!" Moment: "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, feuding with his onetime ally Brian Pillman, breaks into Pillman's house (observed by cameras). Meanwhile, Pillman, his wife and his friends, and announcer Kevin Kelly are all lying in wait for Austin, who beats up all of Pillman's cronies. Pillman then produces a Glock and claims he will "blast his sorry ass straight to hell" as Kevin Kelly screams "Pillman's got a gun!" At this point the cameras "cut out" until we rejoin the action with Austin unsurprisingly not dead. Pillman drops an F-Bomb on live TV as Austin gets pulled away. The vignette was so widely panned that the WWF and Pillman publicly apologized. Basically everyone involved realized how preposterous it was to have a scripted fighting show where guns could be involved.
• The 11-15-10 episode of Raw had a promo of John Cena's decision as the special guest referee in the Randy Orton vs. Wade Barrett title match. To gather the effect perfectly, the AM Raw was better to watch. The promo was cut directly from a Piper's Pit that ended with John Cena basically no-selling an RKO, and then FUing both Orton and Barrett. The promo itself was shots from Cena's career. However a more recent shot showed Cena hunched depressed in the corner of the ring and almost looked to be crying. One could simply picture Barrett standing behind him screaming "Cry, Cena! CRY!!" It then ends with a shot of Cena leaving the building. It's mostly ridiculous because it may be the first ever title match to be more about the referee than either of the two competitors.
• At the June 2010 Viewer's Choice Raw, the group of NXT season 1 rookies who later became The Nexus literally destroyed everything in sight after they came out during the main event between Cena and CM Punk. This moment is widely regarded as a Crowning Moment of Awesome, but there was some Narm in the little kid shouting "MR. KING! MR. KING!" at Jerry "The King" Lawler after he had the announce table thrown onto him.
  • This incident also led Daniel Bryan to get legitimately fired for choking Justin Roberts and made the situation go into Narm territory after the fact due to Fridge Logic (if he is dismissed for abusing a ring announcer, how are the rest allowed to keep their jobs for derailing and vandalizing a very expensive television program; despite being a necessary move to appease their sponsors, it pulled back the curtain on Kayfabe). Fortunately, Bryan soon made a comeback.
• The pregnancy angle between Kane and Lita led to the delivery room moment when Kane found out that Lita had miscarried. The angle was already not that impressive but getting to see Kane degenerate into a screaming pile of rage did give the angle a comedic spin. It also didn't help that Lita was sitting on the hospital bed with a look of, what can best be described as, stoic indifference instead of a mother who lost her child, though her reaction could be explained as being in shock, or asking herself, "How in the hell did I get talked into this?" ^note It should be noted that the pregnancy was forced on Lita, but she still lost her child. It would be a difficult emotion to convey for an extremely talented actress.
• During an Inferno Match between Undertaker and Kane at the 2/22/99 episode of RAW, Vince McMahon, who was on commentary for the match received a black container from Paul Bearer. He opens the container and inside was... a teddy bear. His reactions afterwards, including repeatedly saying "Why", falling on his knees crying and a Big "NO!" after Taker set the bear on fire, even as kids, got a big laugh out of some people.
• The video games also have the potential for some potent narm, such as in one game, adding Jerry Lawler's entrance music to Val Venis' Titantron.
• While The Miz's promo at WrestleMania 27 was pretty damn awesome, chronicling his days on The Real World then rising to the top of WWE, his entrance was not. It showed him busting through an AWESOME sign made of what seems to be styrofoam. The thing looked like a prop from Pee-wee's Playhouse.
• The last Raw before WrestleMania 27, a huge promo with Triple H, The Undertaker, and Shawn Michaels in the same damn ring at the same time. It's a pretty tense moment (sure Shawn came down acting like a big kid, but that's one of the reasons why he's beloved), but then Hunter gave a weird "you got soft" monologue to Shawn, which he sort of accepted, although didn't like. Then Taker basically told him that he ended Shawn's career and humbled him. After a failed kick and a broken up fight, it cuts to a show of Shawn's face... and it looks like he was about to cry from their comments, and then left, apparently indicating that he went backstage so nobody could see him do that.
  • Speaking of that promo, as Shawn was leaving the arena, you could overhear a fan yelling to Michaels, "C'mon Shawn! One more match! One more match, Shawn." The way that fan was yelling causing quite the Mood Whiplash.
• The opening music to the Tough Enough revival, which sounds less than suited to a pro wrestling show.
• WWE Over The Limit 2011's promo which feels more like a commercial for Viagra more than a PPV.
• After Cody Rhodes moved to SmackDown! he adopts the "Dashing" gimmick. Following a few months being Laughably Evil, he Took a Level in Badass. He attacks foes with his face mask in No Holds Barred Beatdowns. So what's the narm? Well, when he talks about the ugliness he sees he puts paper bags on people. Symbolically he's covering the "sinful" appearance of others by doing this. In reality, the idea of Rhodes gaining vengeance by placing a paper bag on his foe's head is truly humorous.
  • Everyone's extreme enthusiasm to wear the bags and seeing people on the front few rows sitting jauntily with them over their heads doesn't help with Cody's intimidation either.
  • The commentators refer to it as the "ultimate humiliation".
    • Perhaps the narmiest thing about Cody's otherwise brilliant persona is that the commentators cannot seem to decide whether Cody is delusional about his facial injuries or if he has actually been rendered ugly. You would think the transparent protective mask would aid in such a judgment call.
  • The narm continues: following the attack on Randy Orton on the 10/10/11 Raw he taunts, "Would you like a receipt with that paper bag?"
    • Everything Cody Rhodes says makes him sound like he's sedated. He's supposed to sound crazy, but he sounds more like a talking goat in an earthquake.
  "''Cuhuhut the heeadd offa vipurr and the venum goes wihith ihihit."
• Pretty much everything R-Truth says or does since his heel turn. That weird "shitting his pants" expression he always has or beating John Morrison to the point of Overly Long Gag.
  • He then insulted The Miz, Rey Mysterio, and Alberto Del Rio by calling them Kermit, Bottlenose, and Liverlips respectively. He then referred to John Cena as "lily white."
  • "When a angry black man is talking you do not interrupt him."
  • "STOP THE PRESSUH! CALL THE POLI-CIA! THERE HE GO, RIGHT THUR! HE'S A THEIF, YO! THAT AIN'T RIGHT, YA'LL!"
  • "USED TA!? USED TA IS A ROOSTA FROM BREWSTA!"
  • "YOU GON GET GOT!" Which he's unfortunately said at least twice.
  • Also during his rampage against John Cena merchandise, he stormed away from the table of shirts and other things and comes across a concession stand. He then violently attacked...a pyramid of empty soda cups◊ featuring Cena on them. He then turned and saw a poster with a giant soda cup on it, groaned angrily and stomped away.
  • On the June 13, 2011, R-Truth referred to the Titantron as "the Triton."
• Eve dancing to R-Truth's raps. No...just...no. Stick to wrestling. CM Punk was right when he, on commentary, said that it looked like she was having an epileptic fit. This was certainly hurt by the fact that the PG rating kind of limited what she could do in terms of movement, dance in general tending to be suggestive (For the record, she can dance, she choreographed a lot of the routines for her college dance squad.) She does tend to repeat the same few steps over and over.
• In a promo between CM Punk and Orton, they mess up. Orton throws out a classic gem with "You'll be sleeping... unconscious."
• Michael Cole, presumably taking the TV-PG rating into account, draws a great deal of dramatic impact when saying to Alex Riley:
  Cole: You are a... a bastard.

And then he still can't help but crack a smile during the line, as though he were a little kid on the playground who'd just learned a new swear word and wanted desperately to try it out. Even more hilarious was the audience's reaction, which was a mix of ooh's and ah's, but you could tell that it was probably at least 70% sarcastic.

• The 7/18/11 episode of Raw concluded with Triple H coming out and firing Vince McMahon. This was concluded with a tearful, and very hokey, "I love you, Pop." Even worse, the crowd, confused into thinking it was an actual retirement of sorts, ran through a gamut of chanting things. They ran through chanting "Triple H," "Cena," singing goodbye to Vince, and finally "Thank You Vince." At the end it seemingly broke down into a huge mess of different chants running at once while Vince stood in the middle of the ring blubbering.
• Natalya, bless her heart, is a fountain of Narm. Apparently, the Neidhart family is a conservative one, because trash talk just isn't that girl's strong point. One night, while on commentary, the closest she ever came to snapping at Michael Cole (pretty much a requirement for commentary) was to tell him to "settle his teakettle." And another night, after a Face–Heel Turn, she goes into a speech about vegetables. [What had happened there was that Kelly Kelly said that the fans like her and the other Divas like her (the ones that Beth Phoenix and Natalya are feuding with for being all looks and not talented), Natalya then compared the fans to candy-eating kids, and how she and Beth were going to show them they need to "eat their veggies" by showing them what "real" Divas wrestling was.] However, Beth and Nattie have made it work, and have a sense of humor about being "the two hottest veggies in the WWE."
• Kevin Nash's return in 2011 is full of some truly narmy moments. We'll just say that his issue with Triple H is centered over texting.
  • "I'M YOUR FRIEND!"
  • "Would you like to see the text message on my telephone?"
  • "I'M TRYING TO MAKE THE WWE COOL AGAIN!"
• Hopefully in the right section, just from the trailer of Triple H's new movie Inside Out, it seems to have no clue what kind of movie it is. Is it a straight, but really cliched action movie? A subtle parody of an action movie? A so-so porno with none of the good stuff? Seriously.
• Mark Henry slamming Jerry Lawler through the announce table had some serious impact...or would have if not for the fact that directly afterward, the guys in the front row behind him were cheering in demand for him to do the same to Michael Cole.
• JR's firing by John Laurinaitis, or afterward, when Michael Cole screamed for a good minute about how awesome it was that JR was fired, even channeling Schiavone and declaring several times that it was the greatest night in the history of wrestling.
• An early 2012 episode of Raw featured a scene straight out of a horror film, where the big red monster Kane was chasing down Zack Ryder and Eve Torres. Pretty thrilling stuff... until Ryder discovered that his getaway vehicle had a flat tire. He then spent the next fifteen minutes fixing said flat tire... and did I mention that during the night's main event, update footage of the titanic struggle was shown periodically on the big screen? This lead to comments along the lines of "He's still changing that tire? Why don't they just run for it!"
• The same week's SmackDown featured a no-DQ match for the World Heavyweight Championship between Big Show and Daniel Bryan (c). Right near the end of the show, Big Show is chasing Bryan around the ring, when he collides with D-Bry's girlfriend A.J. Lee. Bearing in mind that AJ is all of 5' tall and maybe 95 pounds, while Big Show is easily 2 feet taller and some 5 times her weight, she goes down in an instant. Then the smarks start chanting "She's OK" while Big Show looks like he's about to cry, and Daniel Bryan closes the show by calling Big Show a bastard. The show actually ends of a close-up of Big Show's face, blubbering like a baby.
• The 1/23/12 episode of Raw ended with a big confrontation between CM Punk and Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and Interim Raw General Manager John Laurinaitis. After a particularly tense promo, Punk manages to finally get his hands on Laurinaitis, and actually sets him up for the GTS, but Laurinaitis seems quite okay with getting KO'd to oblivion, showing no expression whatsoever in his predicament.
  • From that same edition, there's also John Cena's angry face to the camera after being forced to watch Kane basically destroy his best bud Zack Ryder.
• The 10/24/11 episode of Raw ends with Laurinaitis giving John Cena the opportunity to pick any partner he wanted for his upcoming tag team match against The Miz and R-Truth at Survivor Series. After building it up for a few moments, Cena announces, "I choose my partner to be... THE ROCK!!" - at which point the cameras get a great close-up of the line of dribble hanging off his lip.
• In the lead up to his match with Big Show at WrestleMania 28, Cody Rhodes continues to show his opponent's most embarrassing WrestleMania moments. With the loss record Show has had at the event that shouldn't be that hard, as Cody has shown footage of his losses to the likes of Akebono and Floyd Mayweather. Then he said he would show another loss except Show didn't even wrestle this time, referencing WrestleMania 18 when Show was at WWF New York. That could have ended the segment as it would indicate that the company didn't have anything for him that year. Yet Cody provides a clip of Show at the restaurant with fans, followed by an Evil Laugh. Apparently, being at a restaurant is embarrassing. This also fuels Big Show's anger as he squashes The Miz, indicating that referencing it was Serious Business.
• Yeah, Chris Jericho beating up CM Punk and dousing him with liquor on the 4/2/12 edition of Raw was a tense segment, but it loses its edge somewhat due to Jericho slipping on the spilled liquor and falling on his ass when attempting to kick Punk. The spilled liquor having come from Jericho trying to smash a bottle over Punk's head, somehow managing to make the 'glass' shatter a good 2-3 inches before it hit his head.
• On the topic of WrestleMania 28, the Triple H vs The Undertaker match in Hell In A Cell, while an excellent and emotional match, had its moments. One such moment was when 'Taker kicked out of a Pedigree that was chained from a Sweet Chin Music from guest referee Shawn Michaels: HBK sells it by dancing in circles like a lunatic around the ring. Another was when 'Taker sat up after that as Hunter prepared to hit him with a sledgehammer again (it was that sort of match): Hunter sells it by dropping to the canvas in fright like he got kicked in the face. A little bit later, Hunter kicks out of his first Tombstone Piledriver of the night again, that sort of match): the camera zooms in to 'Taker, hoping to get a priceless shot of his surprised face like when HBK did the same at their WrestleMania 25 match, and instead gets a view of 'Taker with drool hanging out of his mouth.
• The Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena feud was mostly awesome, except for the go-home show which, inexplicably, required Brock Lesnar to work the mic for the entire segment, mostly with John Laurinaitis, no less, negotiating his contract and talking about Cena. Particular gems include referring to clause in his contract as "exhibit A" and telling Cena, "This is real, John. This is a real feeling, that you're feeling, because I...can feel it!" There was a reason they had Heyman talk for him during his first run (mercifully, they brought Heyman back to do exactly that)
• The Big Show/John Laurinaitis segment from the 5/14/12 Monday Night Raw in spades. See it here in all of its glory.
• The 1000th episode of Raw also had toward the end, where CM Punk clotheslines The Rock. It then cuts to a shot of The Rock's face and...he's gasping with his eyes bugging out like somebody threw a fish onto land.
• Whenever Layla uses a body scissors in her matches. The body scissors is typically done from behind the opponent but she prefers to do it the old school way of facing the opponent, which makes it seem like she's doing a bit of dry humping. There's no way that wasn't intentional though. The Narm however comes from the opponents actually selling it like it's a painful submission hold.
• The ending scene of Summerslam 2012, after Triple H lost to Brock Lesnar by submission, which had the crowd chant "YOU TAPPED OUT" to Triple H as he walked sullenly up the stage to the backstage area.
  • Then there was the Raw after this, where Lesner and Paul Heyman come out and cut a promo about it. It was going fairly smoothly, but the entire thing came crashing down when Paul used the word "Brocktagon."
  • And if that weren't bad enough, they had Brock Lesnar quit the company (again!) via Tout. The WWE 15-second video service.
• One segment on Smackdown becomes Narm with a bit of Fridge Logic. CM Punk scares the living crap out of Rey Mysterio's daughter at the start of the show. Rey showed up later to attack Punk in revenge. As is normally done in professional wrestling, he took his shirt off and he was wearing a t-shirt underneath. Except it had been fairly obvious in the opening segment of the evening that he wasn't wearing a t-shirt underneath. So apparently in the blind rage after his daughter was scared, Rey took off his shirt, put a t-shirt on and then put his other shirt back on just so he could dramatically remove it when he appeared on the stage.
• Mick Foley has a weird tendency to repeatedly subvert this trope when he's clearly trying to reinforce it by doing stuff with the intention of it being stupid but which turns out to be brilliant and gets over despite Mick's best efforts. Examples include the entrance video for his Dude Love persona^note (On the 1999 VHS release The Three Faces of Foley, Mick tells the Hardyz that with so many actual tough guys or guys trying to be tough, he should go in the opposite direction, and that Dude Love had the market cornered on stupid), the debut of "Mr. Socko"^note (In his first book, he wrote that he had asked Al Snow for an idea for something really stupid that he knew Vince would hate. Al suggested a sock puppet.) and the "Rock, This Is Your Life" segment on the September 27, 1999 Raw which drew an amazing 8.4 quarter hour rating.
• Triple H saving Vince from Lesnar would be awesome… if not for that wet spot in the middle of Trips' pants.
• John Cena and Cryme Tyme vandalizing John "Bradshaw" Layfield's limo wasn't a bad idea for a segment. Having Cena go from sarcastic vandal to spraypainting "JBL IS POOPY" on the hood? Oh, you better believe that was Narm.
• The Wyatt Family's debut on RAW, where they assaulted Kane and injured him, is possibly one of the most shocking debuts in WWE history... or at least it would've been, if it wasn't for the crowd chanting "Husky Harris" after their assault.
  • Also Kane vs. Bray at SummerSlam in a "Ring of Fire" match (basically an Inferno match but no one HAS to get burnt, with the flames basically acting like a steel cage would in any other situation). The premise is needlessly complex and made sillier by the other Wyatts attempting to hand Bray a kendo stick only for the flames to cut off their efforts (setting the tip of the stick alight with a weak flame; why not just throw it over the fire?!). Eventually it ends with Rowan and Harper putting a flame retardant blanket over the vents and ambushing Kane, rendering the entire stipulation practically pointless. All in all a textbook case of overthinking in the creative department.
• The Undertaker "dies" at the 1994 Royal Rumble. How Taker's career survived after that is a mystery.
• John Cena vs Ryback at Extreme Rules 2013, Cena jumps off the audience section onto Ryback and through a table. WWE obviously tried to play it off as if it were some kind of extreme spot (the shot of Cena obviously hesitating), but Cena couldn't have possibly dropped more than four feet. Falling off the Titantron, it was not. In fact, just about any time Cena performs an aerial attack of some kind, simply because his aerial offense has all the grace of a baby elephant.
• The Bella Twins
  • The Divas will always fall prey to the Bellas' Twin Magic, despite the noticeable clue that a) Brie and Nikki don't look alike at all, and b) THEY HAVE FREAKING NUMBERS ON THEIR BACK!
  • The feud between Brie and Stephanie McMahon (later Nikki) in 2014 is pretty much nothing but this, primarily because of the Bellas' complete inability to act. Gratuitous use of the word "bitch", both of the Bellas' voices cracking like pubescent boys whenever they try to shout anything, Stephanie trying to frame Brie's husband Daniel Bryan of an affair which looked awfully similar to TNA's infamous Claire Lynch storyline, Stephanie wearing what is clearly a dominatrix outfit for their match at SummerSlam 2014, Triple H selling Brie's slaps like he were getting shot (and a shot at the aforementioned match at SummerSlam where it looked like Triple H was checking out Nikki's cleavage) and post Face–Heel Turn Nikki trying way too hard to be edgy by shouting at Brie...
    "I wish you died in the woOOOOmb!"
    • On an episode of Raw soon after, WWE tried to get the hashtag "Raw Is Womb" to trend on Twitter. Another segment later on ended with the Bellas' slow, sloppy catfight legitimately injuring Jerry Springer. Makes Just as Much Sense in Context.
  • Before this, Daniel Bryan and Kane's feud involved Kane stalking Bryan and Brie like a slasher movie villain. At one point, Kane appeared in the backseat of their car with Brie while Bryan was attempting to fix the engine and Brie responded with laughably unconvincing screaming.
• A lot of Roman Reigns' mic work, mostly a period at the end of 2014 and throughout 2015 where Vince McMahon was writing his promos for him, combined with Roman's apparent awkwardness when reading from a script. Highlights include his rambling and borderline incomprehensible "Jack and the Beanstalk" promo toward Big Show, his "Suffering Succotash" line against Seth Rollins, and his "tater tots" promo against Sheamus. ^note  Allegedly, this was because Vince figured, as the cousin of the Rock, Reigns could take stupid sounding stuff and make it sound hilarious. However, part of that was because Rock is very over the top with his delivery, while Roman isn't, being more Cold Ham, so stuff sounds as stupid as it would with anyone besides the Rock saying it. The laughable attempts to play off the audience's utter loathing of Reigns is often this as well, or simply frustrating depending on the viewer. Most of these attempts to lie about the audience reception can be seen through by anyone who is not blind and/or deaf.
• The Riott Squad's debut promo was not well-received when WWE posted it on YouTube, with many people using the word "cringe" to describe it, and one person writing, "I'm done with this already." Part of the problem was that Liv Morgan seemed too happy and cheery compared with Ruby and Sarah Logan.
• In November 2018, Daniel Bryan underwent a Face–Heel Turn after defeating AJ Styles for the WWE championship, now branding himself as "the New" Daniel Bryan, rejecting the fans support and "'YES!' Movement" and being repackaged as a more serious, pro-environmental heel. Not narmy in itself, but part of his shtick involves chastising the fans by repeatedly yelling "fickle!" at them, and since the latter is an Inherently Funny Word, it doesn't so much provoke heat as it does laughter. Thankfully, WWE apparently realized this, as he eventually stopped doing it.
• Shane McMahon turning on The Miz at Fastlane 2019. Between Shane taunting Miz's dad and his attack on Miz, it's pretty narm-y. Really the whole "the Best in the World" thing for Shane. It could work if it was played ironically and/or self-aware, since no wrestling fan believes Shane is legitimately the best wrestler ever. However, it's played totally straight, with Greg Hamilton's over the top announcement of Shane's nickname at pretty much every opportunity, and the fact all of Shane's wins have come via either cheating, Ass Pull^note  He beat The Miz at WrestleMania simply because he happened to land on him after Miz suplexed them both off a scaffolding , or outside interference, further making his status of "best in the world" seem like an Informed Ability.
• Becky Lynch, "that little weirdo" Ronda Rousey, and Charlotte Flair's backstage brawl on the April 1, 2018 episode of RAW. Ronda somehow commandeering a police car while handcuffed, all the screaming by the commentators, police, and the women (sometimes on top of one another), and Ronda sticking her head out of a window just to get kneed in the skull by a limping Charlotte. This segment is the definition of unintentionally hilarious in WWE. The fact that it took place on April Fools' Day wasn't missed by many.
• Few would argue that Nikki Cross isn't a bad wrestler. However, once SAnitY disbanded and she dropped her crazy gimmick, her promos have been hampered by her thick Scottish accent, which makes almost everything she says sound stupid.
• On an October 2019 episode of SmackDown, Bayley underwent a Face–Heel Turn, complete with Evil Makeover. The narm comes from the fact that her first action as a heel is attacking her "Bayley Buddies" with a pointed stick and deflating them which looks as silly as it sounds, all while Michael Cole and Corey Graves comment as though she'd crossed the Moral Event Horizon.
• Apollo Crew's heel turn back in 2021 produced Apollo's fake Nigerian accent which many couldn't take seriously because of how silly it sounded. Apollo would eventually drop the gimmick when he returned to NXT in 2022
• The 02/03/21 vignette for the debut of Mei Ying, leader of the Chinese heel faction Tian Sha. A Chinese princess who sought help from a dragon to overthrow her brother who killed their father, and now is possessed, or something, by the dragon and has to bring pain to everyone, not only sounds like something out of a Wuxia movie, but also seems like the kind of character you'd see on RAW or SmackDown not NXT, which is praised for it's more realistic characters. ^note  Mei Ying only lasted a few months as Tian Sha fell apart when Xia Li was called up to the main roster, and ended with her "possessing" Boa, making him more aggressive, while her portrayer was repackaged as Wendy Choo, whose character is that she sleeps all the time and wears pajamas.
• In summer 2021, Baron Corbin loses his role as "king" to Shinsuke Nakamura, which begins a Humiliation Conga that seems to be an attempt to earn him sympathy with the audience. However, it comes off as hilarious because all his problems are so comically over-the-top (somehow, no longer being king means he lost all his money, his car, he and his wife had to move in with her parents) like he's Squidward Tentacles all of a sudden, except, unlike Squidward fans actually believe Corbin deserves what happens to him. Also, even in Kayfabe the whole thing is filled with Fridge Logic ^note  If Corbin is really poor, then that would be terrible optics for WWE, whose reputation as of late hasn't been great, and why does he keep appearing on WWE TV? and the fact that Corbin has X-Pac Heat means that he's still booed no matter how "pathetic" WWE tries to make him look.

AEW

• Revolution 2021 ended with an Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch between Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega with a gimmick that after a certain amount of time, the ring would explode. The match ended with Omega retaining, he and his cronies handcuffing Moxley to the ring post to ensure he'll be trapped in the explosion, and Eddie Kingston running in to cover Moxley and supposedly protect him from the blast. When the timer reached 0 the fans were treated to...sparklers that looked like they were nicked from Gillberg's entrance, and less explosive pyro than the average Kane or Cody Rhodes entrance. And yet Jim Ross treated it like he just saw Mankind fall from the cell once again, while Kingston sold it as if an actual nuclear bomb had detonated in Daily's Place. Even the smark-heavy fandom of AEW wasn't amused.

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