8 WWE Secrets You Can Spot Early (If You Really Pay Attention)
Wrestlers really should have learned to stop setting up convoluted stacks of tables by now.
You don't need me to tell you that Randy Orton didn't burn Bray Wyatt to a crisp. Not even WWE is desperate enough to burn a man to death on live TV, right? Actually, I take that back. Never underestimate the desperation of WWE in search of ratings.
If you looked closely enough, you could clearly see that The Fiend had been replaced by a dummy just before Orton dropped the match, saving Bray from a crispy death in the process. You wouldn't have noticed if you were blindly watching the show, although an overly long shot of Orton staring at the match sort of gave the game away.
WWE likes its tropes and likes its tricks, and it especially likes combining the two. You can usually tell what is going to happen in any particular match based on several tried and tested techniques, be they announcer ticks or referee movements. This is entertainment portrayed by humans, after all, and there will always be moments that betray expectations.
It's not the intention of this piece to to ruin pro wrestling for you, but some are just too big to miss.
8. That's Gotta Be It!
WWE loves to telegraph anything and everything. This doesn’t necessarily count for storylines as the company has a tendency to change plans for the sake of changing plans or even avoiding an obvious route because of its perceived predictability. The Hardy Boyz vs. Edge and Christian at WrestleMania XXV was a classic lost forever as a result.
But when it comes to ticks and cues, WWE has perfected the art of ‘we think you’re going to assume this when you hear this’. The announcers are the worst (that is true no matter what follows), frequently getting over-excited in the hope of convincing fans that the end of a match is nigh. They all do it, but Michael Cole is the worst of the worst (again, true no matter what follows). It is all sorts of annoying but it won’t change. Next time Baron Corbin hits a Deep Six or Sami Zayn hits a Blue Thunder Bomb, the excitement will be the same.
In fact, you can tell if something is actually going to be the finish, as the announcers will reduce their volume in the hope of allowing crowd noise to take over. There is no ‘THAT’S GOTTA BE IT!’ or IT’S GOTTA BE OVER!’, just silent acceptance that another match is done.