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Fridge Brilliance
- First and foremost, the logo. The company's name is "WWE," but their logo only says "WW." Where is the E? Well, try tilting the logo sideways (toward the right,) and you can find where the E is.
- The return of The Rock. Before he comes out, there is a short 'lights out' sequence with just random ambient sound playing, punctuated by sparking sound effects. Random filler? Used to set the mood for the 'lights going out'? Nope. The sparks are because of the return of the most electrifying man in all entertainment.
- The Miz wanting John Cena to state that he was Awesome if Alex Riley defeated him in a cage match. Compared to what Cena has gone through the past year or so, pretty lame right? But considering that Cena has focused more on The Rock than Miz (Despite facing the latter at WrestleMania for the world title), one could get the sense that despite all that has happened, Cena still thinks of The Miz as a joke. So the stipulation may sound tame, but when you consider the possibility of having the one guy who, despite your accomplishments, always saw you as a joke state that you're not, all of a sudden, Miz' stipulation doesn't sound so lame.
- Rikishi's twin sons were called the Uso Brothers, or The Usos for short, when they came up in FCW, then when they were called up to the main roster shorthand became the official name. "Uso" in Samoan language means "brother". Meaning "Uso Brother" would roughly translate to "Brother Brother". The long name practically parodied Hulk Hogan's Verbal Tic.
- How does R-Truth go from retaliating against John Morrison for taking away his title shot, to becoming a mad eyed conspiracy theorist arachnophobiac? Truth's interview on August 8th, 2011 compared Morrison to a spider heading into their match later that night. Let's think back to the night Truth turned heel. John Morrison, a guy whose Le Parkour training has made him so acrobatic some people have described him as "Spider-Man-like", as well as R-Truth's best friend for a good little while, comes out one night with complete sour grapes and questions R-Truth's worth as a number one contender to try to goad him into putting his Extreme Rules title shot on the line. Truth sees through it, and tells John as much, but then the London crowd still wants him to give John the match. So he makes the choice he knows is the stupid one because he values the opinions of the WWE Universe so much at the time, and of course he ends up paying for it. Not until that point, after he effectively just let them take away his dream, does the notion click in his head that neither Morrison nor the fans have ever been as loyal to him as he has to them. If such an experience didn't cause him to snap, question, and turn against his entire previous world view, he might as well have changed his name from R-Truth to I.M. Fool. And him hating the animal John was essentially said to be synonymous with during most of their friendship, shows how eccentric and strange his mind has become. It only helps this theory that the Face–Heel Turn itself was perhaps the most brilliantly-done Freak Out in recent wrestling memory.
- The turn caused by Morrison also explains where the Little Jimmy thing comes from. What's Morrison? A Jim Morrison-inspired wrestler. Who took advantage of his trust and friendship and took away his shot? Morrison. In effect, Truth describing everyone as Jimmys is basically saying he sees everyone as being just like John - people that betrayed his loyalty and devotion. He's basically saying that the WWE universe as a whole has betrayed him as John did. In this sense, he's right!
- And the change in his relationship with the Little Jimmy entity inside his head shortly after his face turn was his strange way of recognizing the fans' re-acceptance of him after he was stabbed In the Back by The Miz over John Cena's words.
- The whole storyline starting from CM Punk's shoot and leading to Triple H's term as COO may seem like it was just a spontaneous moment that caught fire and reshaped the fabric of WWE storylines. But the truth is, this is exactly what WWE has been going for since the NXT Riot on June 7, 2010 in Miami.
- The whole original purpose of Nexus was to rebel against and overthrow the influence of WWE management for forcing them to compete to get into the TV roster through a contest that treated them like crap.
- The Rock's return angle was basically Rock, Cena, and to a lesser point Miz calling each other out for perceived undeserved high status within the WWE system (Cena's only The Hero because kids and women love him, Rock's a glorified fad who skipped out to Hollywood, Miz is nothing more than a media-pleasing weasel - it shouldn't take too long to find people who feel any of those three ways).
- Mark Henry's monster heel turn was based on fifteen years of being disrespected and not taken seriously on any sort of a long-term basis by WWE (which honestly is far less debatable than whether what he brings to the table deserves a championship level push). This has been hinted at in all the trash talk he shouted about being unstoppable and unhappy when he was done destroying somebody, until it was finally made canon outright heading into his title match with Randy Orton.
- R-Truth's conspiracy theory angle started with his best friend's highway robbery of his dream as detailed above, but basically the way he perceives it is the WWE system is holding him back for the whims of John Cena, Triple H, and apparently also CM Punk.
- And what about the other half of Awesome Truth? The Miz's stock had fallen rapidly since his WWE Title run ended. When WWE accidentally moved his apprentice Alex Riley to SmackDown, the latter took it as a sign he no longer was associated with the Miz (Riley was signed to a personal service contract with the Miz rather than an official WWE contract). Riley didn't show up for the Miz's Triple Threat Steel Cage match where he lost the title to John Cena, and his increased klutziness cost the several attempts to regain the belt. This made the Miz increasingly angry at not only Riley, who he fired afterwards, but also at referees for overturning his title wins, the fans for rooting for Riley, a virtual nobody, over a former WWE champion, WWE management for quickly giving Riley a contract and denying him any more opportunities at the title since then. At SummerSlam he got stuck in a throwaway six-man tag match and the next night on Raw he was reduced to being in a segment with Jared Fogle. Awesome Truth formed the next week.
- The sudden firing of Awesome Truth was especially problematic because Triple H reneged on a promise not to fire the two of them after they apologized for their behavior, leading to concerns about whether Triple H could be an honest and transparent leader.
- Likewise, Orton being given a free shot at Christian's World Heavyweight Championship the second he got on Smackdown on Christian's first show as the champ based on an obvious popularity contest, while forcing Christian to work for rematches despite the fact polling the peeps worked in his favor as well and even rejecting Christian's claims to rematches based on missed calls by referees. Seeing WWE basically support his dream basically get ripped away from him in a flash, Christian felt forced to resort to cowardly measures of his past and then some in order to ever get it again. He even points to the "unseen forces" in WWE management protecting Orton because he's their golden boy, very similarly to what's been going on with Cena.
- Cody Rhodes feels that WWE failed to protect him from the incident where Rey Mysterio broke his nose, ending his "Dashing" phase, and later to an incident where Randy Orton smashed him in the head with a ring bell.
- Dolph Ziggler was angered by the fact that Hugh Jackman, an actor who was not under WWE contract, broke his jaw during a match with Zack Ryder. The incident was essentially unsanctioned by WWE, but Jackman was given no punishment for his attack.
- Beth Phoenix and Natalya felt that real women wrestlers were being ignored by WWE in favor of model-types.
- The essentially binding storyline thread in all this is that there is a huge bubble of discontent within WWE that has just been building and building, with the likes of Orton and Cena seemingly oblivious to most of it because their success has put them on a pedestal to where they're the oblivious main profiteers of the system, and in the summer of 2011 we've just seen it explode with the ousting of Vince McMahon from power and the absolute chaos surrounding Triple H's run as COO. And there is a real conspiracy somewhere in all of this. Somebody is taking advantage in an attempt to rule WWE, and Kevin Nash and the nWo name are possibly involved. The mystery of who the players and the mastermind really are, however, is just beginning to get solved as we speak. This isn't a WMG, by the way, because a lot of this is pretty much canon. The lead-up just seems to go a lot farther back than a three-month-rule thing if one looks under the surface.
- Sin Cara vs. Sin Cara. Of course Hunico (Fake Sin Cara) would be peeved that Sin Cara (Mistico) took his identity... because Hunico actually -did- wrestle under the name (but different identity and lesser known) of Mistico as well. A nice little touch for those who know the history of the two wrestlers.
- The "Vote of No Confidence" for Triple H certainly left some scratching their heads considering that even the faces walked out on him could be more understandable considering:
- Not all of the present Superstars (John Cena, CM Punk, and Randy Orton) and Divas (Kelly Kelly and Eve Torres) were there to vote.
- The faces on both Raw and Smackdowns were midcarders (Air Boom, Daniel Bryan) who were outnumbered by the heels (who may or may not pressure them into seeing things their way until they reached their Despair Event Horizon).
- The voice of the Divas was Beth Phoenix, a heel. While the rest of the majority consisted of heels, rookies who wouldn't be too sure who to follow (Kaitlyn, A.J. Lee),
True Neutrals (Aksana), or faces by default (Alicia Fox). Also at that point, Alicia hadn't joined forces with Eve and Kelly so she had no strong allies to stand up to Beth. - The referees, announcers, and cameramen (with a few exceptions) are defenseless and wouldn't be able to defend themselves. However, one of said exceptions actually led the strike, despite being unquestionably pro-babyface 98 percent of the time, which also probably influenced the midcard face wrestlers a bit as well. That being said, Lawler was still only participating reluctantly, concerned largely about his safety.
- With all of this in mind, while for the heels the walkout was merely a cover to mask their true intentions of overthrowing Triple H and installing a heel replacement (Mark Henry, for example, had nothing to worry about and probably only wanted Hunter out of power, especially since he was still angry at the fine he was given for attacking Lawler), the motivation of the faces joining the "No Confidence" vote may be out of fear for their safety, looking out for their best interests, or not being sure what to do and decide to just go with whatever everyone else was doing.
- CM Punk often gets flack for "selling out" for standing by Triple H during the walkout angle, as it completely contradicts his character. Thinking about it, Punk May have been merely a neutral party who was very suspicious that the walkout was likely being masterminded by forces just as much pro-establishment as Triple H. It’s a social commentary about "astroturfing", when the grassroots image of a political movement is merely a facade.
- John Laurinaitis being the first person to welcome the returning Brock Lesnar doesn't make sense to the viewer at first... until you realize that he is still the Executive VP of Talent Relations, whose very job is to look for talent that would help carry WWE into the future. Also, he brought in one of the hottest free agents in the business and fans have been clamoring for WWE to bring Brock back, so he wants to have that in his resume so he can help out his own image.
- Not to mention that it soon became clear that Laurinaitis wanted Lesnar as his Dragon
- Some fans were pretty miffed at first when, after a few weeks of Justin Gabriel taking "All About the Power" as his theme song, David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty would take it on and Gabriel would switch to a production theme, because of the drums and chanting fitting the African-rooted Gabriel. But the lyrics are all about someone feeling powerful, like they're head and shoulders above any adversaries. Not only was this far more heel than face (Gabriel was in the middle of a Heel–Face Turn), it fit Otunga's character to a tee, both in a political sense (Harvard law grad) and in a physical sense (bodybuilder). Where this starts really going into Fridge Brilliance is the similarities between Otunga and Barack Obama: both are Harvard graduates. Both have African sounding last names that start with 'O' and and end with 'a'. And both have Kenyan fathers. Suddenly the African-sounding theme doesn't belong to Gabriel so much after all. However, he actually is from there, specifically South Africa, as opposed to the American-born Otunga.
- This only gets better after he splits from his team with Michael, keeps the theme, and becomes eventually Johnny Ace's Amoral Attorney. His character embraces both his Harvard law and bodybuilding roots (the latter via constant posing in his entrance and even matches), showing just how fitting the song is for him. But it goes further than that. John Laurinaitis has had no theme song through much of his current run, only recently taking on politician style entrance theme music. Why haven't Otunga and Eve Torres changed their music since becoming Johnny's staff? For Eve it's obviously because her distracting beauty and ability to use it is how she has such a commanding place, but for Otunga it's probably deeper than that. Laurinaitis's politician music represents his disingenuous "People Power" campaign…but Otunga's represents what John and his staff really think.
- Upon returning from injury, Wade Barrett changed his finisher from Wasteland to The Souvenir, which got mixed reactions. Why is it that Barrett would suddenly switch from a slam to an elbow strike? Because he was out for so long due to a dislocated elbow. He's demonstrating not only that he's back to 100%, but also how tough and vicious he is by hitting his opponent full-force with a formerly injured body part. Also doubles as a pun, since he's technically giving his opponents an "elbow injury".
- Why is Antonio Cesaro's finisher called the Neutralizer? It's not just because it renders his opponents inactive, it's because he's from Switzerland, which is known for neutrality.
- The Shield might not be directly connected to CM Punk, but one need only look at their attire (which matches the outfit Punk wears in the advertisement for WWE '13) and their entrance video (which features a lot of imagery that's all too similar to the "Revolution is Coming" viral ads that appeared on WWE.com prior to the announcement of WWE '13) to see some connections between the group and Punk.
- Aksana being the one who attacked Kaitlyn at Night of Champions. She was the only other Diva in the building that night (she accompanied Antonio Cesaro for his title match). She put the wig on and attacked Kaitlyn before going out with Cesaro, who could provide an alibi for her if she was suspected. Also Beth Phoenix being a suspect. She's a fairly muscular girl, as is Aksana and Kaitlyn would have been able to see that her attacker was solidly built.
- After Daniel Bryan tells AJ he wishes she'd never been born, she goes crazy in her match. Who's she facing? Natalya. The woman who brought her onto the main roster as a prodigy but then turned on her for being a "perky little princess" and made her life hell for the latter part of 2011.
- Why have none of R-Truth's recent appearances made so much as a mention of Little Jimmy? Well, if you listened to R-Truth's last couple of promos mentioning Little Jimmy (mainly bit pieces as he's been mostly a Jobber in the last year), Truth outright states that Jimmy was going through puberty. Little Jimmy no longer appears because he's grown up and "moved out" of R-Truth's imagination.
- On the September 2nd, 2013 episode of Raw, we find out that Triple H approved the match between CM Punk vs Curtis Axel and Paul Heyman. Why? Punk's obsession with Paul Heyman borders on Tunnel Vision. He is ignoring everything else that is going on in the company. Think about it; Triple H wants Punk's focus to be on Paul Heyman. Remember Punks promo on Raw that kick-started the Summer of Punk? Imagine if Punk started to focus on what was happening to Daniel Bryan? Not only that, but by the end of the year, after the rivalry with Heyman was over, Punk did indeed set his sights on Triple H and The Authority.
- Kane adding the caveat of the steel cage door being locked for the 1/13/14 Raw's main event of The Usos vs. Daniel Bryan & Bray Wyatt seems like just another way for the Wyatt Family to prolong any brutality on the Usos uninterrupted. However, it seems clear by the end when Bryan turns on Bray that it was to keep Erick Rowan and Luke Harper from protecting their leader. This likely means that Kane just might have some residual feelings for Daniel Bryan held over from their Team Hell No days.
- Young Bo Rotunda's happy-go-lucky Pretty Boy persona and push to the top of NXT in the middle of 2013 in front of a vocal college audience that can't stand such a figure, followed by his subsequent heel turn as the developmental brand's main heel by playing his character straight as a delusional undertalented phony, seems like a happy accident and may very well be one. One would think the Fridge Brilliance would come in when one realizes that Bo's character is exactly what a lot of people think of another, similar man WWE propelled to the top—this being the current face of the machine himself, John Cena. However, since the start of FCW's transition into NXT Wrestling, his ring name has been Bo Dallas. What's the significance of this? Well, Dallas also happens to be the name of a classic pop-iconic soap opera (as well as its modern-day next-generation revival) involving a cast of characters who are generally good at putting on a public face but whose world under the surface for the most part is wrought with scheming and conniving up the nines. Pretty much Bo to a tee. Furthermore, his first NXT theme and stage graphics played up the whole "Dallas/western" theme, possibly hinting at the connection, and his current theme, while awesome, contains lyrics that veer back and forth between Determinator and The Dreaded. Note that he got this theme before turning heel. A teaser to his true nature, perhaps? But…the show's not actually set in Dallas, right? Well, Bo's not even from Texas, he's Florida born and billed. This whole turn of events may have been a possibility since the Wade Barrett feud was aborted.
- Many complain that Dean hasn't defended his US title as much as a he should, but it makes perfect sense given that they were with The Authority between August of 2013 and April of 2014. They protected him and made sure he didn't have as many defenses in order to avoid a repeat of Seth's and Roman's loss of their Tag Team titles in the hand of Cody Rhodes and Goldust. Said loss happened because the Authority wanted to punish Cody and Goldust. Right after their defection, Dean had to defend his US title in a Battle Royal, which Ambrose ended up losing.
- Following Seth Rollins's attempt to cash in his Money in the Bank contract on Brock Lesnar, a lot of people were surprised that the Authority not only didn't seem to mind that one of their own had attacked their hand-picked champion, they actually defended Seth Rollins from Dean Ambrose and John Cena. Then you realize that the Authority's goal hadn't been to get the belt onto Lesnar, it had been to get the belt off of Cena, and had Seth been successful, he would have been champion and the feud would have changed from Lesnar vs Cena to Lesnar vs Rollins. And no matter who wins, the Authority wins, and Cena is out of the title picture.
- The Big Show's betrayal at Over The Limit 2012. Most people would think that it was a nonsensical Russo-esque swerve, with Big Show aligning with Laurinaitis despite the fact that the latter humiliated and fired the former for making fun of his voice. But remember that Big Show said his turn was based on the lack of sympathy he got from the rest of the face roster. Johnny's job was on the line with his match against Cena, and he couldn't use any outside assistance from his allies or they would lose their jobs. Since firing someone close to him would come off as suspicious, he knew he had to get rid of a face, and shortly before the event, trick him into believing nobody cared about him anymore and that even Cena showed no real sympathy for him, as evident by treating his feud with Laurinaitis as a joke. With the "iron-clad contract" Laurinaitis promised him if he helped him win, Show would be able to get his revenge on Cena and then on everyone else who failed to stand up for him. And Johnny would have found a way to save his job again.
- Why was Eve, despite being a heel by that time, suddenly back of Zack Ryder's side for the 7-on-7 tag match at WrestleMania 28? She was just a mole for Team Johnny the entire time! When Zack and Eve did the "woo-woo-woo" taunt, it forced the referee to escort Eve out of the ring. This distracted Zack and allowed the Miz to hit a Skull-Crushing Finale and get the pinball for the win. That was her plan all along.
- At the 2013 Money in the Bank: Why was AJ stupid enough to attack Del Rio with the Divas title even though she knew it would cost Ziggler the match? By that point, Del Rio was heel and Ziggler face, but AJ remained a heel. AJ attacked Del Rio to intentionally cost Ziggler the title.
- After the Authors of Pain win their debut match on Raw, they ditch Precious Paul Ellering. Why would they suddenly ditch him? Remember when he returned to the WWE with the Legion of Doom and betrayed them for the Disciples of Apocalypse? Ellering justified his actions by comparing LoD to an old horse to be shot. The AoP likely knew about it and wanted to avoid that happening to them.
- The reason why Stephanie McMahon gave Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn Raw contracts? You'd think it would be to spite Kurt Angle for being the Spanner in the Works in the Authority's plans for Ronda Rousey. Until you realize why they got fired from Smackdown Live in the first place: Upon his announcement of taking a indefinite leave of absence, Owens and Zayn brutally attacked Shane McMahon. Considering their relationship, Stephanie likely enjoyed the beating Owens and Zayn gave to Shane and this was her way of thanking them. Also, this would not only spite Kurt Angle, but Shane as well.
Fridge Logic
- The theme for NXT Season 5 is "Redemption," meaning that the rookies from the past three seasonsnote have a chance to earn a spot in Season 6, each with new pros such as Chavo Guerrero, JTG and Hornswoggle (which is stupid). The returning rookies? Titus O'Neil, Lucky Cannon, Connor O'Brien, Byron Saxton, Jacob Novak, and... Darren Young? Considering that not only was he part of The (original) Nexus, but he was already a regular on "Superstars" and even has had own theme music.
- Perhaps not surprisingly, Darren Young makes this point repeatedly on the show.
- For the 2011 WWE draft, if your brand won a match, then you'd get a member from the other brand. One would think, that, instead, you would want to get rid of people on your brand, for less competition.
- So what is the deal with Team 3D? Pretty sure The Dudley Boys were using that name before coming to WWE and up until then, wrestlers were allowed to keep their names if they predated working with the company, such as Hulk Hogan and Vader. Furthermore, why do they even care? If the Dudley Boys are out in the world bringing in fans of other promotions, WWE should be able to get some of that revenue by releasing tapes of some of the best Dudley Boy matches in its own library.
- Alicia Fox didn't start appearing as a face and heel at random until after she had suffered a long losing streak. Quite a possible hint that she wasn't all there to begin with - and she did throw a rather big tantrum after losing a match as early as 2010. So those can come across as subtle foreshadowing for her Villainous Breakdown in 2014.
- Charlotte's Face–Heel Turn and eventual Heel–Face Turn on NXT. It's quite possible she linked up with Summer and Sasha because she was ambitious enough to want to go to the top - and Summer and Sasha were getting shit done. However it's likely she quickly realised what a nasty piece of work the two of them were. When she finally got to the top, she had nothing to fear and was able to break away from Sasha. Her face turn seems to be that she remembered what a good friend Bayley had been to her when she first debuted - and found herself unable to let someone else be a victim of Sasha's meddling.
Fridge Horror
- An episode of Raw ended with Kane having Eve Torres cornered backstage, cowering and screaming. The next week she passionately kisses John Cena in the "heat of the moment". The next week she reveals she had been using John Cena and Zack Ryder all along. She gets dubbed a "Hoeski" and publicly shamed by Cena. It's heavily implied that Kane raped her. We could have been booing the actions of a rape victim - who had possibly gone mad from the experience.
- Remember the infamous "Eddiesplotation"
angle? If Eddie's best friend Chris Benoit's death hadn't been so horrific to the point of the WWE erasing him from its history, there's a good chance that WWE creative would have done the same with him. - Randy Orton has recently started his mission to completely destroy the fan favorite Superstars to the point of stripping them of their identity to spite the WWE Universe, starting with Jeff Hardy. Even going as far as to remove Hardy's face paint. What if one of his targets turn out to be a Masked Luchador? Sin Cara aside, one might be thankful that The Lucha House Party is exclusively on 205 Live until you remember that it airs immediately after Smackdown Live (In the same arena, no less)!
- It's no secret that management was not happy with Bart Gunn winning the WWE Brawl for All, let alone defeating "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, as it derailed plans for a feud between Williams and Steve Austin. With the airing of an episode of Vice's Dark Side of the Ring focusing on the Brawl for All, Butterbean confirmed that he was brought in to knock out Bart Gunn as punishment for beating Dr. Death. It also mentioned that WWE had Bart Gunn train to be a boxer in preparation for the match, which Butterbean stated that had he fought the way he did in the Brawl for All instead of as a boxer, he would've had a better chance of winning. Not only was the match set up for Butterbean to knock out Bart Gunn, but they sabotaged Bart Gunn to ensure it would happen!
