10 Modern Wrestling Tropes We're Totally Sick Of
3. Gimmick (Match) Pay-Per-Views
This isn't a rip on the Royal Rumble or Survivor Series. Though technically gimmick pay-per-views, they are timeless concepts that can still be as effective today as they were back in the day, even if the build towards the latter gets a little dopy as wrestlers start fannying around with red and blue t-shirts.
The issue isn't with those Big Four shows (or events like Money in the Bank); it's with Elimination Chamber, TLC, Hell In A Cell, and even TakeOver: WarGames and they harm they deal not only to the stipulations, but logic and storytelling.
This year's WarGames special saw the wonderfully nuanced narratives in NXT's women's division thrown aside for the sake of a clusterf*ck. It turned out to be a great clusterf*ck, but the build was too convenient, too contrived, to ignore, and the same goes for the significantly worse men's bout.
With the main roster PPVs, wrestlers are thrown into these brutal matches regardless of whether or not their feuds have enough heat to warrant it. Hell In A Cell feels particularly worthless now. These bouts used to come together because two wrestlers were willing to die to put the other away; now, they come together because they're on a calendar.