Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery is the 21st title in the Scooby-Doo Direct-to-Video Film Series. This is co-produced with WWE Studios, and many wrestlers made cameo appearances. It was released in March 2014 as a celebration of thirty years of WrestleMania.note
Shaggy and Scooby have won a videogame contest for a week at WrestleMania, and so the gang heads off to WWE City to witness the show. Unfortunately, WrestleMania is about to be canceled thanks to the appearance of a strange and mysterious ghostly bear. Now, Mystery Inc. along with many WWE superstars must team together before WrestleMania is ruined.
A sequel, Scooby-Doo! and the WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon, was released in 2016.
Tropes are seen in this film include:
- Action Girl: AJ Lee of course. As she states to Shaggy, "Never underestimate a Diva."
- All Part of the Show: The fans think the blackout and the Ghost Bear are part of the wrestling event.
- Artistic License – Law:
- Scooby is framed for stealing the Championship Belt. The malicious Judge Judy Expy wants to put him in jail. To recap: Scooby is a dog.
- She also wants to prosecute Shaggy as his accomplice for owning the game that hypnotized Scooby. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of the law can tell you that this makes no sense.
- "WWE City law states that anyone accused of a crime can compete in the ring for a chance to win their freedom."
- Art Shift: While Scooby is dreaming where he wrestles food monsters, the animation shifts to the same style as the video game.
- Balloon Belly: Big bellies are seen on Shaggy and Scooby after they eat from every pizza box and pass out.
- Bears Are Bad News: The ghostly bear is the Big Bad of the film.
- Big Damn Heroes: John Cena coming in, all while "My Time is Now" plays, and then saving the Mystery Gang from a rolling boulder.
- Bioluminescence Is Cool: The stalactites in Bear Cave are inhabited by some sort of green-glowing centipede or worm. Nobody calls the slightest attention to them, but they might account for how the gang can flee the Ghost Bear down so many passages without carrying any evident light sources.
- Bowdlerise: Kane's Chokeslam. Instead of grabbing an opponent by the throat, he grabs them by the chest.
- Brick Joke:
- The Miz gets attacked by the Ghost Bear at the beginning of the film. When the bear comes back twenty minutes into the movie, it crashes into the sleeping motel the Miz is at, who is bandaged up.The Miz: (with Dull Surprise) Really?
- Reuben stating how he has his wrestling name and costume, "The Bonebender." He shows up in the climax in said "costume" and proclaiming himself as "The Bonebender".
- The Miz gets attacked by the Ghost Bear at the beginning of the film. When the bear comes back twenty minutes into the movie, it crashes into the sleeping motel the Miz is at, who is bandaged up.
- Butt-Monkey: Poor Miz. Pretty much any scene with him is to highlight his injuries from the beginning of the film.
- The Cameo: Many WWE superstars are lending their voices. These include John Cena, Triple H, Santino Marella, Sin Cara, Kane, Brodus Clay, AJ Lee, The Miz, Michael Cole, and Vince McMahon.
- Big Show and Alberto del Rio fight in a tag-team match against John Cena and Sin Cara (not voiced, though). There are also appearances by Sgt. Slaughter, Jerry "The King" Lawler, and Jimmy Hart (rocking with an iPad).
- There's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance of Wonder Girl, Artemis, Zatanna, and Miss Martian (in their civvies) watching the match.
- Career-Ending Injury: Cookie's leg is in a brace presumably from a match he had long ago, thus ending his career as a wrestler short.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: The wrestlers are all much stronger in the film than they are in reality, so this results in moments like John Cena stopping a large boulder with his bare hands, and people lifting and pummeling the Ghost Bear which is a real large man in a heavily animatronic Powered Armor of sorts.
- Chekhov's Boomerang: Scooby's dancing skills which appeared as a gag, then was used when he was hypnotized to steal the WWE Championship Belt, and then come back to help him fight Kane.
- Chekhov's Gag: Daphne mentions how she gave John Cena her cellphone number during his tag team match with Sin Cara. Later on, Cena saves Mystery Inc from a humongous boulder thanks to Daphne texting him.
- Circling Vultures: Vultures appear after Vince announces how Shaggy and Scooby must wrestle Kane.
- City of Adventure: WWE City, which is where WrestleMania is held. Presumably, this is also the place where other pay-per, er, "WWE Network specials" are shown.
- Clear My Name: Scooby was caught stealing the WWE Championship, with Shaggy played as an accomplice. Lucky for them, Vince has given them an option to let them win their freedom in a wrestling match...against Kane.
- Comedic Underwear Exposure: The Miz has boxers exposed, courtesy of the Ghost Bear.
- Continuity Snarl: Somewhat. Triple H and Kane are shown in their wrestling gear despite the current Authority storyline, with a clip showing Triple H fighting alongside Sin Cara, John Cena, and Brodus Clay. Although this could be justified with the movie being produced before the storyline.
- The WWE Championship belt featured in the film has the previous design (The modified Cena spinner belt).
- Cool Car: Sin Cara's convertible, which gets totaled by the Ghost Bear.
- Corrupted Character Copy: Cookie is seen to be one of Doc Louis: they're both portly African-American coaches who retired from a sport they loved and are shown training newcomers to become champions. Their similarities end there though: unlike Doc, who doesn't seem to take it badly that he's not fighting anymore and helps train Little Mac to be the best he could be, Cookie resents the injury to his leg that prevented him from becoming champion, tries to steer his nephew away from a career in wrestling, and plans on revenge.
- Covers Always Lie: AJ Lee and Triple H are shown together...except 1) neither of them interact and 2) Triple H isn't WWE Champion at all.
- Crazy-Prepared: So Sin Cara just so happens to have a magnet on him to test whether or not The WWE Championship Belt being locked away is a fake?
- He must've somehow figured out that the belt Scooby had was a fake.
- Crossover: Scooby-Doo with the WWE of course. Notably, this was the whole gimmick to The New Scooby-Doo Movies in which the gang has teamed up with real celebrities most of the time. This was also used occasionally in What's New, Scooby-Doo?.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Kane versus Shaggy and Scooby pretty much goes how you'd expect between the Big Red Monster and the Cowardly Lion duo.
- The Dreaded: Kane is feared by Shaggy and Scooby. Although you really can't blame the two for that.
- AJ Lee to Shaggy and Scooby as well. Shaggy describes her as "Kane with lipstick."
- Dull Surprise: Michael Cole on commentary, which only makes his comments on how Shaggy and Scooby are gonna get pulverized even more hilarious.Cole: After Kane is finished with Skinny Man (Shaggy) and Dead Meat (Scooby), we'll be scraping them off...with a spatula.
- Edible Theme Naming: Cookie, and his nephew Reuben (a type of sandwich).
- Enemy Mine: Kane sides with Cena and Sin Cara against the Ghost Bear after finding out that the championship belt he's been fighting Shaggy and Scooby for is really an EMP device and that he (albeit accidentally) set it off.
- Epic Fail: Shaggy and Scooby training with AJ Lee, which ends up being very painful for them.
- Eye Awaken:
- Done by Scooby just before his dream when he wrestles food monsters, video game style.
- Kane does this during the final battle when Scooby revives him with water.
- Fastball Special: John Cena and Sin Cara do this in the movie, with the twist in that Cena helps Sin Cara from flying into the sky and helping him land on his feet.
- Firing in the Air a Lot: Bayard shoots into the sky repeatedly when he wants to make a point.
- Forgot About His Powers: In WWE City, anyone caught breaking the law can wrestle it out in the ring…not that it's mentioned as an option for the villain after the unmasking. Though considering that Cookie can't wrestle with that bad leg of his, there's no way he would've been able to fight back.
- Freudian Slip:Daphne: (upon seeing a shirtless John Cena pull the Mystery Machine out of a ditch) I didn't know WWE superstars were hot...I mean, strong!
- Gas-Cylinder Rocket: Fred tries to use this against the Ghost Bear in the cave, tipping a table so its edge knocks the spout off a gas tank. This backfires badly when the Ghost Bear dodges the oncoming tank, only for the missile to crack open a wall and unleash a torrent of water from the other side. Not only does the water destroy the evidence they'd found in the cave, but the gang are swept away by the resulting flash flood and almost drown.
- Graceful Loser: Kane gives Scooby and Shaggy a handshake for winning the WWE Championship. "Well done," as he puts it.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Cookie put post-hypnotic triggers during the bonus dance mini-game Scooby played at the beginning of the movie. While it helped Cookie when Scooby stole the WWE Championship belt, it also gave Scooby the ability to fight off Kane in the climax and thus foil Cookie's plans.
- It's Personal: Sin Cara has an intense rivalry with the Ghost Bear seeing as his great-great-great-grandfather, Sin Cara Grande, was the one who defeated the bear in the past. It also doesn't help that the Ghost Bear totaled his car as well.
- Karma Houdini: Bayard repeatedly tries to kill the gang, but we never see him get punished for it. Justified in that the gang had no clue that Bayard caused the rockslide and Bayard would probably sue them for trespassing on his property. Ms. Richards is also never seen punished for attempting to arrest and falsely accusing Shaggy and Scooby of something they didn't do, especially when she had no right or authority to do so.
- Limited Wardrobe: The tendency for Mystery, Inc. to always wear the same clothes as cartoon characters typically do is lampshaded by Shaggy.Shaggy: (in regards to not bringing anything other than food for the trip) Like, what's the big deal? We all wear the same clothes every single day!
Fred: Well, he makes a good point. - Loud Gulp: Shaggy and Scooby gulp loudly to express their terror at Kane being their wrestling opponent.
- Made of Iron:
- During the tag-team match, John Cena hurls The Big Show over to the announce table and the impact is so powerful that the table is totaled, and Show leaves three Impact Silhouettes. Seconds later, Show comes out of nowhere with a picnic table, without a scratch on him.
- The Ghost Bear goes through this in the final battle. It goes up against Sin Cara, Kane, and John Cena, who all get their fair share of signature blows off on it including the Five-Knuckle Shuffle. It gets dazed, but still, bats around the others like it were nothing. It takes Scooby-Doo with a final belly flop that destroys the arena to finally take the win. It helps that it was more of a robotic suit that could've absorbed some of the damage, but the blows to the face were pretty much unprotected, showing Cookie still had his wrestling endurance.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Bayard certainly thinks killing people is the best thing to do. When the gang is looking for the Ghost Bear, he sends a massive pile of boulders their way because they're on his property.
- Mythology Gag:
- The trailer has someone singing the first lines of What's New, Scooby-Doo?.
- The opening credits show many clips from the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!.
- Shaggy quotes how John Cena is a "Doctor of Thuganomics" when playing a videogame.
- Velma's excitement over the wrestling match in the climax is probably a reference to A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, where Velma was shown to be a huge wrestling fan.
- There's a sign that reads "Tombstone Tacos" with a black hat on top of it, a nod to The Undertaker and his move the Tombstone Piledriver.
- Shaggy refers to Vince McMahon as "The Higher Power," a reference to the Corporate Ministry storyline. Vince responds with "Yes, thanks for that trip down memory lane."
- Shaggy's comment on AJ Lee being "Kane with lipstick" is probably a subtle reference to her 2012 storyline where she dressed up as Kane once and was shown to be even crazier than the Big Red Monster himself.
- Noodle Incident:
- The various times Shaggy and Scooby have been bait for the mysteries. None of the mentioned cases were shown in any of the prior movies or television shows.
- In the movie itself, Kane returned to WWE City because his championship match was "overturned".
- Not in the Face!: The Miz to Kane.
- Oh, Crap!: Shaggy and Scooby's reactions when they see that their opponent is Kane are looks of pure terror.
- Oh, the Humanity!: Michael Cole shouts this when Big Show hits John Cena with a picnic table.
- Orbital Shot: Scooby and Shaggy have one at the end of the movie while the former is cheered on.
- Rascally Raccoon: Bayard owns a raccoon as a pet.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Unlike most authority figures, Vince researched Mystery Inc. and immediately asks for their help. And during Scooby's Clear My Name incident, he goes to the side of Mystery Inc. instead of immediately hauling the poor dog to jail (although having Shaggy and Scooby wrestle Kane to clear their names is a different thing).
- Red Is Heroic: Sin Cara's wrestling gear as opposed to his trademark cyan.
- Red Herring: Bayard is shown to be a possible suspect of the Ghost Bear, seeing as WWE City is taking over most of his property, but he doesn't appear after WrestleMania begins.
- The Resenter: What motivated Cookie to create the Ghost Bear. His injury prevented him from pursuing his dream of becoming WWE Champion and having to train newcomer after newcomer who would probably obtain what he could never get, with one of them being his nephew, only made this become pure hatred. The likely reason he doesn't want his nephew to become a wrestler is that he's afraid he'll become the Champion he never got a chance to be—but it also he had a case of Even Evil Has Loved Ones and truly did not wish to see his nephew end up like him.
- Rousing Speech: Cookie tries to give an inspirational speech to Shaggy and Scooby...then Kane walks by and gives them the throat-slit gesture.
- Running Gag:
- The man behind Michael Cole and his ever-changing signs, eventually reading, "Is that a bear?"
- Wrestlers being thrown out and landing on Cole's announcing table.
- Shout-Out: There are a few scenes of four girls watching WrestleMania who look suspiciously like Wonder Girl, Artemis, Zatanna, and Miss Martian (unless it's them). This doubles as a Mythology Gag; the show this movie is emulating had Scooby cross over with DC characters before.
- Shown Their Work:
- The animators worked hard to recreate the moves and entrances of the wrestlers. Sin Cara's movements, in particular, are really fluid. They even note Kane's heterochromia.
- The movie also goes to great lengths illustrating Kayfabe and the nature of the WWE as an entertainment business. Vince McMahon, whose ring persona is that of a ruthless Corrupt Corporate Executive, is portrayed as a fairly pleasant, reasonable guy in private and Kane, portrayed as a vicious monster in the ring, is a Graceful Loser to Shaggy and Scooby. Most fictional portrayals of pro wrestling tend to gloss over this aspect of it, only giving it a passing mention if they mention it at all.
- The Smurfette Principle: Out of all the wrestlers making speaking cameos, AJ Lee's the only one to be a woman.
- Spit Take: Daphne does one when she realized Velma and Fred agreed to go to WWE City with Shaggy and Scooby.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: John Cena and Sin Cara on the wrestler's side. Sin Cara's case is justified through—his great-great-great grandfather, Sin Cara Grande, fought the Ghost Bear in the past and he must continue his family's legacy.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: After Miz's encounter with Kane, he's thrown to the side. When he turns around, Kane's gone.
- Stock Footage: Miz running on the road stating, "Who's awesome? I'm awesome!" at the beginning of the movie.
- Super-Strength: John Cena's pretty strong as it is, but here he can pull the Mystery Machine out of a ditch without any sign of exhaustion.
- This continues later as he's able to push back a rolling boulder and then hurl the Ghost Bear off to the side of a cave as they keep falling at terminal velocity.
- Theme Music Power-Up: "My Time Is Now" starts playing as John Cena rescues the gang from a rolling boulder.
- Training Montage: Shaggy and Scooby have to go through a training montage, and it's all set to AJ Lee's theme.
- Trial by Combat: When Scooby and Shaggy are accused of stealing the championship belt, they are made to earn their freedom in the ring by defeating Kane.
- Unnecessary Roughness: Miz states this after he falls off the sign heading to WWE City in a Non Sequitur, *Thud*, courtesy of the Ghost Bear.
- The Voiceless: Sin Cara, which is lampshaded by Fred. Luckily for the Scooby-Doo gang, Cena speaks "Masked Luchador" (presumably from hanging out with Rey Mysterio all those years), and Sin Cara's actions speak louder than his words.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Bayard last appears glaring at the people attending to WrestleMania. Although this is justified in that he's not interested in WWE City at all and probably returned to his home in the woods.
- World of Badass: Every wrestler is a badass in some way, and so is the Mystery Gang with Shaggy and Scooby coming in as Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass, placed in WWE City which is presumably the holy mecca of wrestling shows.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Shaggy is shown wearing mat wrestling gear and Scooby wears a singlet—not the sort of thing you wear when facing Kane. However, it's subverted as they are in a wrestling match, so they're in wrestling gear.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Miz going, "Really?" at the Ghost Bear. First, when Miz has to climb up the Triple H standee in the opening the Ghost Bear swipes its claws at the leg to make him fall. The second is when the Ghost Bear crashes into his sleeping motel where he's shown in bandages and slings.
