9 Steps To Getting Over In WWE (100% Guaranteed)

4. Get Beaten Up Like A Champ

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WWE.com

Of all the skills in the wrestling ring, one of the least appreciated is the ability to sell.

It’s also one of the most important, especially if you’re a babyface who doesn't have enormous slabs of torso meat to get his message across. If you want audiences to react to you as an underdog good guy, you have to get the ‘under’ bit right, and that means having the ever-loving spaghetti beaten out of you. Or at least, look like you are.

For a masterclass in how to do this, watch Sami Zayn. He owes no little portion of his WWE career to his ability to look like he is getting pounded half to death. That particular way of crawling, broken yet determined, to the corner to drag himself up by the turnbuckles is absolute money. It makes us care when he turns it around and boots his opponent adorably in the face. Dolph Ziggler is a mainstay of the roster for precisely this skill, where he turns into a man-shaped lump of rubber and flops around the ring as if Agent Smith has pulled his cable out.

For a smarkier example see Johnny Gargano, currently underdogging his way through an excellent NXT run, where he amply demonstrates his ability to appear to almost die several times a night.

Contributor

Ben Counter is a fantasy and science fiction writer, gaming enthusiast, wrestling fan and miniature painting guru. He was raised on Warhammer, Star Wars and 1980s cartoons that, in retrospect, were't that good. Whoever you are, he is nerdier than you.