10 Modern Wrestling Tropes We're Totally Sick Of
9. Rematch After Rematch After Rematch...
There's no level of enthusiasm that endless repetition won't dull. "Too much of a good thing" is more than a cliché; it's a very real concern, and in wrestling as in any other artform, overindulgence is a zeal-killer.
Zack Sabre Jr. and Hiroshi Tanahashi are two of the best wrestlers on the planet, but going one-on-one five times between March and September 2019 killed interest levels in their final showdown at NJPW Destruction in Beppu, despite each bout's obvious quality. Tetsuya Naito and Kota Ibushi's story is much the same, having faced each other three times in as many months last year. By the end, the pairing felt boring, uninspiring. Those terms should never be applied to the names Naito and Ibushi.
WWE supposed binned their old automatic rematch clause for fallen champions back in December 2018. They've done a better job of varying their pairings since then, but shows like the rematch-heavy Stomping Grounds 2019 show the problem never really went away. "The feud must continue!" is an appropriate meme.
Week-by-week storytelling is difficult and a certain volume of rematches is to be expected; spamming them is lazy, dull, and uncreative.