10 Totally Dumb Booking Tropes Wrestling Is OBSESSED With
8. Lampshade Hanging
Lampshade hanging happens in virtually every storytelling medium, and wrestling is no different.
It's basically a means of telling the audience that what they are watching is far-fetched or a bit dumb, but that's okay, because the author agrees. It's a cheeky way of getting away with some rubbish or other, basically.
It's necessary sometimes, but there is a good and bad version of everything.
The good: Kevin Owens doing a great impression of an apoplectic Seinfeld character ranting about how contrived Monday Night Raw is as a television show. The implication is weird, though: Kevin Owens is more angry with WWE television and the way in which it is formatted than any critic with an "AEW bias".
And, when the show isn't at its post-peak worst, Kenny Omega on Being The Elite explaining that he sometimes concocts risky plans on AEW Dynamite - which involve him nearly getting Pillmanised - for dramatic effect.
The bad: Almost every other BTE skit in 2023. When a wrestler makes reference to the fact that their backstage interview has been conveniently interrupted to set up a match on the next show. Matt Hardy promising not to do any more contract storylines before getting one more out of his system.
This really only works when it's funny.
Ultimately, if the product is bad or at least ripe for mockery, isn't it preferable to make a better product and get rid of the contrived stuff altogether?