Batman Gambits in Professional Wrestling.
- During Bret Hart's feud with Vince McMahon, a woman accidentally backs her car into Hart's limo as he was getting in, severely injuring his left leg in the process. McMahon would then spend the following weeks verbally abusing Hart, until he finally managed to goad him into a No Holds Barred match for Wrestlemania XXVI. During the contract signing, Hart then reveals that the limo accident and the subsequent leg injury were nothing more than an elaborate con to manipulate McMahon's ego and trap himself into a match with a supposed cripple.
- Part of Carlito's gimmick is to bite into an apple and then spit it into a person's face. One time, he attempted this on Big Show, only for Show to steal the apple and Neck Lift him. Show decides to beat him at his own game and bites into the apple, only to collapse. Carlito explains that he saw this coming, and poisoned the apple. He then beats up the weakened Big Show. If Show didn't decide to use the apple, who knows how this situation would have turned out.
- Raven is a master of this; he manipulates people's hopes, dreams, fears, and desires to the point of becoming a Dark Messiah to his followers.
- Jerry Lawler pulls off a masterful one on Michael Cole on the May 16th, 2011 edition of Raw. Jerry, after accepting a match with Cole at Over The Limit, tells Cole that he doesn't respect him... but does respect Jack Swagger, The Dragon to Cole, for being a former world champion and great wrestler. He then says Cole's made Swagger nothing but his sidekick. Michael Cole responds by gloating about how being his sidekick has made Jack a much greater star and no one remembers that he used to be world champion... with Jack Swagger right in the ring. The result is a seriously ticked off Swagger telling Jerry Do with Him as You Will and abandoning Cole. Jerry's reaction pretty much confirms this was a ploy to use Michael's own ego to isolate him from his own ally.
- The aforementioned Hitman used one to win the WWF Championship at SummerSlam 1997 from The Undertaker. Shawn Michaels, the guest referee, confronted him about a chair he'd wedged into the corner earlier, which led to Hart spitting in his face. HBK swung the chair and accidentally hit Taker when Hart ducked, which in turn allowed Hart to make the cover for which Michaels had to count. This isn't necessarily the Batman Gambit worth mentioning here though. That would be the TNA rendition 14½ years later. At Against All Odds 2012, TNA World Heavyweight Champion
Bobby Roode had to defend his title in a four-way match against Jeff Hardy, James Storm, and Bully Ray, with authority figure Sting, who Roode hasn't been very fond of for good reason, as the special enforcer. After the match spiraled into chaos and the referee was knocked down, Roode brought in the world title to try to hit Hardy with it, only for Sting to cut him off and take the belt from him. Let's just say, masterful evil goading and gloating ensued on the part of Roode. - Randy Orton's revenge scheme against Triple H incorporated this trope. Several losses he and his minions suffered at the hands of "The Game" in the course of their feud were purportedly to heighten his false sense of control and leave him vulnerable to far more devastating reprisals (in particular a degrading attack on his wife).
- And now Kane claims he's had a similar plan to surpass his (kayfabe) brother The Undertaker as "the Devil's favorite demon," with his plan having first been enacted thirteen years ago after his first loss to Taker.
- The Raw after Edge kicked off the Raw vs. SmackDown feud in 2005 by appearing on SmackDown and spearing Rey Mysterio Jr., John "Bradshaw" Layfield appeared on the TitanTron and mocked Chris Masters, goading him into a fight in the parking lot. When Masters arrives, JBL reveals he had no intention of fighting him, he was just separating Edge and Lita from their bodyguard. In the ring, Mysterio attacks the pair from behind.
- In a Best 2 of 3 Falls match between Kurt Angle and Eddie Guerrero, Eddie was down 1 fall to none. However, he had knocked down and seriously dazed Kurt, but he couldn't score a pin because the ref was still incapacitated from a hit he took earlier in the match. With the ref out, Eddie went and grabbed a chair, with the obvious intent of getting a few shots in before the ref came to. As Eddie was about to clobber Kurt, the ref started to shake it off and get up. Eddie slammed the chair against the ring post, tossed the chair down next to where Kurt was laying, and then dropped to the mat to play dead. Kurt came to, grabbed the chair wondering where it came from, as the ref, who had heard the "chair shot," saw Eddie unconscious and Kurt holding the chair. The ref awarded Eddie a fall, thinking that Kurt had hit Eddie with the chair.
- Becky Bayless acted as if she was Alicia's most hated rival, knowing that would get WSU to put the two in matches against each other, allowing her to make Alicia look good and earn title shots. She also secretly helped her retain the WSU Title until she exposed the ploy by blatantly interfering in a triple threat match to ensure Alicia would win it. With the ruse exposed, Alicia rewarded Bayless for a job well done by awarding her WSU's title. Tammy Lynn Sytch knew that something was up, however, and got herself a wrestling license just in case. Even though Sytch is not an active performer, she could beat an already-been-through-a-triple-threat Alicia, ensuring that Becky would not get the belt.
- When The Age of the Fall were trying to recruit Austin Aries to their cause, Tammy Lynn Sytch offered Aries sex to publicly refuse them and take on her services instead. The Age of the Fall leader Jimmy Jacobs asked his girlfriend Lacey to help sway Aries and Lacey decided the best way to do so was beating Sytch to the punch. This caused her to fall for Aries, leave the group, send Jimmy Jacobs into a break down and put The Age of the Fall on the path to its end.
- WSU Champion Angel Orsini pulled one on Mercedes Martinez, who was getting closer and closer to taking the belt and just wrestled her to a time limit draw, by interrupting a match involving her own tag team partner Reyna Fire, destroying Reyna, and naming Mercedes a more worthy partner based on her performances. However, after one successful outing as a tag team, Little Jeanne, Orsini's true replacement partner, would emerge and kick Martinez's ass. Angel didn't seem to know quite enough about Martinez though because she was totally unprepared for her response to this trickery.
- Serena Deeb devised a painful one in SHIMMER after noticing "Death Rey" liked to bounce off the ropes before kicks. She let Sara Del Rey get started and took them until Del Rey thought Deeb was done, then kicked out and dared Sara to try again, causing Del Rey to go for another after which Serena also hit the ropes and Sara stepped right into a spear. The bell wouldn't stop Sara from continuing to kick Deeb but she earned a title shot.
- After losing the World Heavyweight Championship to Randy Orton, following a corner sunset flip being countered into an RKO, Christian would get a series of rematches, including inside a steel cage where he would do his usual Five Moves of Doom but when it came to the corner sunset flip Christian instead climbed the cage, knowing Orton would waste time by setting up an RKO in preparation for a move he had no real reason to try with an escape victory condition. So, Randy still managed to get up the Cage wall and stop Christian but he only had to put that effort in because he acted just like Christian expected him to.
- For their No DQ title defense at the 2015 Best In The World, The Addiction taped one half of the challenging Tag Team, Bobby Fish, to the ropes, allowed his partner Kyle O'Reilly to fight them off and set up a table while O'Reilly looked for something to cut Fish free with. O'Reilly proved predictable but they didn't count on Fish freeing himself and had to be saved by the third Knight Of The Rising Dawn, Chris Sabin.
