10 Awful WWE Clichés That Refuse To Go Away

Wrestling thrives on unpredictability. The thrill of not knowing what’s about to happen is a big part of the sport’s appeal, and while there are many legitimate gripes towards WWE’s current product, fans keep tuning in on the hope that something unexpected might just happen. The sport appeals for a number of other reasons, but this is undoubtedly a huge part of it.

As with any other form of entertainment, however, wrestling relies heavily on formula. Spend enough time watching WWE and you’ll soon become familiar with the company’s booking patterns. WWE’s stories exist almost entirely within such formulas: this has not only stripped the company’s predictability away, but resulted in a number of done-to-death clichés that only stifle Raw and SmackDown.

Clichés aren’t just a distraction, but a sign of lazy writing. They show a stark lack of imagination from WWE’s creative team and, at times, make the product unbearably boring. Some are inevitable in such a structured environment, but others fly in the face of logic and common sense, and only succeed in driving fans away.

WWE’s over-reliance on trite, tired clichés continues in 2016. The company repeatedly trot-out overused storytelling tropes that might have worked 20 years ago, but certainly don’t today. Wrestling is almost pointless if you can’t suspend your disbelief, and these aspects of WWE programming make it impossible to do so.

Here are 10 awful WWE clichés that refuse to go away.

Steel cage matches are a great concept in theory. The gimmick debuted in Atlanta back in 1937, when the ring was surrounded by chicken wire to keep the wrestlers in the ring, force them to engage, and prevent interference. This remains the match type’s key narrative today, but cage matches have evolved immeasurably over the years, and they’ve now been diluted to the point of irrelevance.

The problems stem from the escape stipulation, and the fact that a wrestler can win either by climbing over the top, or by simply walking out of the door. The concept of “winning” by literally fleeing your opponent is absurd enough, and this is compounded when you consider the smaller details.

If the door’s unlocked and an official’s standing there ready to open it, why wouldn’t the heel just make a beeline for it as soon as the bell rings? If the idea is that these guys are supposed stuck inside the cage with each other, then shouldn’t this loophole be eliminated?

Furthermore, most cage match build-ups involve in the heel constantly running from the babyface, but inside a cage, there’s supposedly “nowhere to run.” Then the match happens, and the babyface wins by escaping the cage at the first opportunity… stupid, stupid, stupid.

There are three acceptable ways to win a cage match: pinfall, submission, or knockout. Everything else renders the stipulation pointless.