|
|
"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.
open/close all folders
General
- Any bit that gets put into the Botchamania series becomes narm material by default.
- Sid Vicious was supposed to be a towering menace, but during his offtime, he's more interested in playing softball than pro wrestling. Also, he challenged Brian Pillman to a shootfight once, and after getting his ass kicked by Pillman he left, deciding to come back and try again with a weapon this time! The weapon he found and decided to use was a squeegee (yes, a squeegee). When he walked back into the bar brandishing the squeegee and challenging Pillman again, he was reportedly laughed out of the place. Don't forget that on a live WWF PPV, Sid asked for a retake when he screwed up his promo, and Jim Ross told him that they're live. And then there's the persistent rumor that he actually crapped his trunks during his WrestleMania 13 match with The Undertaker. Given the fact that The 'Taker had to hoist Sid's rear end towards his own face several times during the climax of that match to execute the Tombstone Piledriver, this brings new meaning to the scowl Taker has on his face throughout the match. And every waking moment since.
Sid Vicious: Nash, you know and I know that you are only half the man that I am... and I have half the brain that you do!
- Just about any promo (HUH?) cut by Scott Steiner (HUH?), when he's supposed (HUH?) to be intimidating. (HUH?)
- "It's still real to ME, dammit!!"
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 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."
- Unfortunately, women very rarely are treated with respect by the fans during ROH events. Doesn't matter if they're faces, tweeners or heels. The sheer number of "You got herpes!" chants shouted by the crowd is rather disturbing.
- 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. This Troper remembers though that 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.
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.
- TNA's 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 (well... 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.
- From the recent "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.
- Joker Sting holding Eric Bischoff hostage with a bird. Need I say more?
WCW
- Scott Steiner's brother Rick is hardly immune as 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...
- I choose to blame the whole integration of Chucky into WCW in the first place; as someone else said on TV Tropes, the worst part about that storyline wasn't this, but that before the reveal, the build-up and hype by unexplained off-screen laughter... they could have gone anywhere with it.
- Goldberg's catch phrase in WCW was "Who's Next?", which was simple and effective. After one match, though, Gene Okerland 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!!
- 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.
- And given the fact that they took place in front of a patriotically raised, North-American audience, Hogan's insistence on making it sound like he was promoting an "Apple-Pie, Indian strap match" can only be wondered at. God knows what the audience made of the imagery of Ric Flair's skin 'bubbling' from the strapping he would supposedly receive. We've all seen the texture of those McDonald's pies.
"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!"
WWE
|
|
