10 Awful WWE Clichés That Refuse To Go Away
2. Fake Firings
Few things have less meaning than the words “you’re fired!” coming out of a McMahon’s mouth. “Fired” rarely means “fired” in modern wrestling, and when a wrestler loses their job on-air, you know you’re probably going to see them again next week. Nine times out of ten, sacking a wrestler is just a cheap means of getting heat on an authority figure for the five minutes before the superstar makes their inevitable comeback, and it doesn’t work anymore.
Stephanie McMahon recently threatened Raw’s superstars with dismissal if they didn’t get on the same page ahead of their big Survivor Series match, and Steph herself was “fired” by Vince following the Invasion’s conclusion in 2001. John Cena, Dolph Ziggler, Steve Austin: the list of high-profile wrestlers who’ve been fired only to make an immediate return is endless, yet the tactic persists.
Furthermore, resorting to such means only paints the authority figures as incompetent. Why would they keep “sacking” people when the evidence overwhelmingly suggests that they’ll be reinstated? Besides, if firing superstars was as easy as they make it out to be, wouldn’t the McMahons just immediately dispose of guys like CM Punk and Daniel Bryan from the first moment they questioned their authority?
“You’re fired” should mean exactly that. This cliché only breeds predictability in a sport that thrives on the opposite, and should be abandoned immediately.