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Conservation Of Ninjutsu / Professional Wrestling

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  • WWE has taken advantage of this trope on several occasions. The most ludicrous, perhaps, was John Cena and Randy Orton vs. the entire Raw roster, in 2008. Cena and Orton generally win their matches, or put on a good showing, but they generally take 15-25 minutes against one, maybe two opponents. This match took seven minutes. Their opponents? Snitsky, Santino Marella, Trevor Murdoch, Lance Cade, Umaga, Super Crazy, JBL (who has been involved in several of those 15-25 minute matches with Cena and Orton, as has Umaga), "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, Cody Rhodes, Paul Burchill, Val Venis, Bob Holly, Carlito, DH Smith, Brian Kendrick, Robbie and Rory McAllister, Charlie Haas, and possibly a couple others. Then, after that was over, Triple H stole the lack of numbers advantage from the two of them, beating them both down.
    • Not to mention at least two of their PPV's (Survivor Series, Royal Rumble) are built around this trope.
    • Particularly egregious is the Survivor Series, where the best chance of one team to win is when they only have one wrestler left, particularly if they are the Face team.
    • In the Royal Rumble, each successive elimination takes longer and is much more difficult than the previous one, and the final two wrestlers might be fighting for as long or longer than the previous 30+ combined.
      • It can be considered someone subverted by the Royal Rumble matches, as it's a free-for-all with no teams, and many wrestlers are usually eliminated by a group of others forming a very temporary truce to force them over the ropes and out of the ring.
  • Also supported in tag teams by the Ricky Morton Rule, where after one partner gets beaten, the fresh partner jumps in and takes on both of the other two wrestlers.
  • Often shown in cases with giant or powerhouse wrestlers, like Mark Henry or Ryback, where they'll have said giant or powerhouse face off against two or three jobbers at once and completely destroy them. In one notable instance, Big Daddy V faced off against four jobbers and still crushed them. Of course, the majority of the time, facing a single non-jobber will generally give these guys a tougher time.
    • Interestingly, The Shield, a three-man group consisting of Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins, have been able to give Ryback a tough time, even beating him down on numerous occasions together as a cohesive unit.
  • After two aversions of this trope from Ken Shamrock and The Big Show, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin played it straight when he took on all 6 members of the Ministry of Darknessnote  to successfully rescue Stephanie McMahon from a borderline Satanic wedding to The Undertaker.

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