Dragon Ball loves using this trope, particularly to set up an opponent that Goku would eventually have to fight.
- The most common version of this was introducing a minor villain, saying that he's as strong as an old villain, and having another character easily beat the minor villain to prove how strong this character is, with the minor villain acting as a stand-in. Occasionally Akira Toriyama would just use the villain directly. Examples include:
- Raditz confronts Piccolo and identifies him as the second strongest man on the planet; he pulls a No-Sell of Piccolo's attempts to hurt him.
- Nappa states the Saibamen to be nearly as strong as Raditz; Piccolo, Tenshinhan, and Krillin beat them with ease, even Yamcha had to be taken out with a cheap shot, when previously Raditz was a terrifying juggernaut able to kill everyone at the same time.
- Cui claims to have a battle power of 18,000 which makes him equal to Saiyan arc Vegeta. The new, powered-up Vegeta is shown to have a significantly higher battle power of 24,000 and defeats Cui in a few panels.
- King Cold is explicitly stated by Vegeta and Tien Shinhan to be around as strong as Frieza (Daizenshuu 7 states he's "somewhat weaker" and Dragon Ball Z Kai saying King Cold is stronger), the Big Bad of the previous arc. Trunks goes Super Saiyan and kills him in one hit. In a variation of this cliche, Frieza himself comes to Earth and gets killed by Trunks, but he was killed by surprise before he could power up, showcasing Trunks' Combat Pragmatist nature. Cold, therefore, exists to show that Trunks' victory over him wasn't a fluke, and that Namek Frieza's level of power is not relevant to the high tiers anymore; especially once Trunks states that the new threat (androids) are too much for even him.
- After Androids 19 and 20 turn out to be Big Bad Wannabes possibly weaker than Frieza and Cold (Piccolo and Vegeta dismantle them with no trouble), the real androids (17 and 18) establish themselves as threats when 17 takes out Trunks in two hits. Kami later just states this outright by noting that even someone who could easily beat Frieza and Cold was taken out nearly instantly, so these androids must be a big deal.
- 17 in turn ends up on the receiving end of a Curbstomp Battle with Cell, the true Big Bad of the arc, shortly after a somewhat evenly matched fight with Piccolo, who had desperately resorted to reuniting with Kami to defeat them, and who gets one of his many near-death experiences at Cell's hands.
- When Cell transforms into his second form, the first thing he does is confront Android 16, who was said (and shown) to be on par with Cell's first form. Second form Cell blasts his head off immediately after barely flinching to 16 punching him in the face.
- At the Cell Games, Cell spawns 7 Cell Juniors who are stated and shown to be far stronger than Cell's second form and strong enough to overwhelm any of the heroes besides Gohan. When Gohan powers up, he makes them explode with one punch each.
- At the beginning of the Buu arc, Goku clunkily drops a statement that Babidi's Dragon, Dabura, is as strong as Cell. When Majin Buu (Fat Buu) shows up, the first thing he does is knock out Dabura with one kick. He also takes out Super Saiyan 2 Gohan, who was matching Dabura, with a punch and a blast, which would have killed him if not for Supreme Kai's intervention. He then beats down Supreme Kai, who is stronger than Piccolo (but not as much as Dabura or Gohan) and in possession of psychic powers powerful enough to incapacitate a Super Saiyan 2, just by smacking him into the ground and crushing him with his body. After, again, pulling a No-Sell when Supreme Kai tries to use said psychic powers.
- This was Yamcha's main role in the Tournament arcs in the original Dragon Ball. He was always beaten by an opponent that will eventually fight Goku in the Finals. Jackie Chun (Roshi), and Tienshinhan. The exception is against Shen/Hero (actually Kami), who loses to Piccolo Jr.
- General Blue is depicted as the strongest of the Red Ribbon Army, being the only one of them able to fight Goku to a draw with his own abilities; in fact, upon their initial confrontation, Blue nearly killed him. He ends up on the receiving end of this trope during his face off with Mercenary Tao, who No Sells Blue's paralysis technique and kills him with his tongue.
- Then Tao proceeds to be the first villain to have Goku completely outmatched and force him to train harder than ever before, showing how dangerous he is compared to everyone else in the arc. He gets worfed back after Goku's training, as Tao's defeat shows that Goku has improved to the point Red Ribbon is essentially done for.
- Krillin suffers from this nearly as much as Vegeta below. In Dragon Ball's Tournament Arcs, Krillin would ultimately lose to enemies Goku would go on to fight or to Goku himself (after they knocked out Yamcha, of course), though Krillin fares a bit better as he would at least get a win in the first round before losing in Semi-Finals. He also suffers this in the twist end to the 22nd Tournament Arc, where he's kill off-screen by a minion of King Piccolo, and in the anime to one hit!
- In a rare occurrence, Goku gets this trope when he loses to the elderly King Piccolo in ideal conditions: fully fed, no distractions and plenty of motivation.
- Tenshinhan/Tien is on the receiving end of this in the final confrontation against King Piccolo, where he's trounced by his servant Drum to demonstrate how strong Goku is when he one-shots him... which then establishes how strong King Piccolo himself now is in his restored youth and gives Goku some serious trouble.
- Piccolo has also suffered from this a few times:
- In the very first episode of Z when Raditz shows up. Before he finds Goku he runs into the previous Big Bad Piccolo, who attacks him with his most powerful attack from the previous series. Cue Worf Barrage that ends with Raditz laughing at how the attack barely singed him, and Piccolo having a major Oh, Crap! moment. In fact he only survives the encounter because Raditz sensed his true target and left.
- After fusing with Nail and fighting Frieza's second form on fairly equal footing, Frieza transforms and utterly trounces him.
- Likewise, in the Cell Arc, he rejoins with Kami and becomes a "Super Namekian," proving himself too much for Imperfect Cell and an equal match to Android 17 note . Then Cell returns after absorbing several cities-worth of people, and effortlessly defeats and nearly kills him.
- Nappa is on the giving and receiving end of this. First, he easily engages all living Z Warriors who have been training for a year at the lookout to fight him and Vegeta. Nappa kills all but two of them which establishes just how strong the Saiyans are. Then he gets the absolute crap kicked out of him by Goku at his base level, and taken out in one hit once Goku uses the Kaio-ken. This shows off Goku's newfound power after training with King Kai, and also demonstrates his new ability to multiply his strength using the Kaio-ken.
- The start of the Cell Saga actually inverts this. Imperfect Cell openly admits he's not as strong as the Z Fighters or the Androids yet. Obviously, once he goes Semi-Perfect, it's played straight from there on out.
- Vegeta is relegated to this role for most of Z. After and even before his Heel–Face Turn, his place in the plot is mostly getting beaten to set up Goku's fight with the newest antagonist. It's Played for Drama later on as Vegeta gets tired of living in Goku's shadow and sells his soul for the power to finally beat him.
- He loses to Zarbon at first to establish the ability to transform to increase one's strength (though he makes up for it the next time they fight).
- He's nearly killed by Recoome to establish how much stronger Goku's training in 100x gravity was, who beats Recoome in a Curb-Stomp Battle.
- He's killed by Frieza after believing he's become a Super Saiyan, which sets up Goku who eventually becomes a Super Saiyan himself.
- His loss to Android 18 wasn't to set up Goku, however, since Vegeta had actually surpassed him when he became a Super Saiyan, but rather was to establish that it's going to take a level beyond Super Saiyan to deal with the latest threats.
- He inflicts this on Cell, who had just absorbed Android 17, to establish how much stronger he had gotten due to training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, only to succumb to it once Cell becomes Perfect to establish just how strong the latter is.
- Notably he, along with Future Trunks and Piccolo, are the few who can hold their own against the Cell Jrs since Goku had worn himself out fighting Cell, but even they still struggle. This sets up Gohan's transformation to a Super Saiyan 2 and killing every Cell Jr. with one hit.
- Majin Vegeta gets a statement dropped by Piccolo about him being "as strong as Gohan was when he killed Cell... no, maybe even stronger...". When he tries to confront Fat Buu, the latter just lets Vegeta punch him in the face to no effect before finally hitting back and beating him to near-death almost as easily as Dabura. Then comes his Senseless Sacrifice against Fat Buu established just how potent the latter's Healing Factor is.
- He loses to Kid Buu to buy time for Goku to charge the Spirit Bomb.
- Beerus is a weird example since Vegeta actually does better than Goku against him, but that's before Goku gets a new powerup.
- He fails to stop Frieza from destroying Earth in time to demonstrate his slow reaction time which forces Goku to finish off Frieza himself.
- He loses to Hit to establish his Time Skip ability and to set up how Goku has to deal with it himself.
- He loses to Goku Black to establish the strength of his Super Saiyan Rosé form (though he later curb stomps Goku Black in a rematch), and then loses to Merged Zamasu to demonstrate how powerful the fusion between Goku Black and Zamasu is.
- He loses again to Beerus in their rematch even after mastering his Super Saiyan Blue form to demonstrate just how much Vegeta still needs to overcome against the God of Destruction.
- He loses to Jiren to establish just how overpowered he is, shrugging off whatever blows Vegeta deals — including a Final Flash and his new transformation — before ultimately being knocked away from the arena.
- He struggled against Broly even with his Super Saiyan God form to establish just how powerful the Saiyan is, who later easily shrugged off a full power blast from a Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta to establish the Saiyan's insane power.
- He loses to Moro before getting his energy drained to show off the former's newfound power. Later, he loses to Moro's One-Winged Angel powerup again just after briefly getting the upper hand upon training a technique to counter his powers. To add insult to injury, this moment came right after Piccolo claimed how Vegeta "Never misreads an opponent's strength".
- He lost to Granolah and later on, Gas even upon using his newly obtained Ultra Ego form in order to demonstrate the former two's status as the strongest in the universe. He then lost again to Frieza after attaining a higher level of transformation even after being restored to his full strength to demonstrate the Emperor's elevated power.
- Cell gets this treatment in the Otherworld Tournament filler arc. While Cell was powerful enough to initially able to fight Goku so effectively and decisively that the latter actually gives up trying, he had since recieved a power boost from recoving from near death and likely another from dying for real. Despite being strong enough and skilled enough that Cell should actually have a significant advantage considering Pikkon later fights Goku evenly, Pikkon effortlessly defeats Cell in Hell even while Pikkon is still wearing his training weights to demonstrate just how powerful Pikkon is supposed to be as Goku's opponent at the final match of the tournament.
- Fat Buu himself falls victim to this trope when he powers up and expels his evil side, which then becomes a separate being, Evil Buu. While Fat Buu had previously been nigh-unstoppable, taking out most of the cast instantly and matching Super Saiyan 3 Goku blow for blow with no signs of fatigue or damage (while Goku was sweating bullets), Evil Buu quickly demonstrates his power by crushing Fat Buu in the space of a few panels, blowing back the previously unstoppable candy beam, turning Buu into chocolate before eating him and transforming into Super Buu. After coming back, he is nearly beaten to death by Kid Buu, despite his ability to heal and regenerate, which seems to reach its limit here.
- All the top-tier fighting characters, like Vegeta and Fat Buu, get this treatment in Battle of Gods thanks to Beerus, who is the living embodiment of this trope. Beerus knocks him away effortlessly. How much so? He takes Super Saiyan 3 Goku out with two hits, spanks Gotenks into submission, and knocks Gohan out by slamming him into Buu.
- In Dragon Ball Super, this ultimately happens to Hit, who is the strongest known member of Universe 6 and gave Blue Kaioken Goku a hard time, against Jiren to hype him up even further, as even though the former did manage to put up a good fight, even nearly ringing him out, Jiren ended up breaking through Hit's Time Skip through sheer force and ultimately managed to knock Hit out of the arena.
- Universe 11's God of Destruction, Belmod, tries to use Jiren to invoke the trope in the Tournament of Power. After allowing everyone to see how Goku is among the strongest fighters in the ring, he orders Jiren to take Goku out. His thinking was that when everyone saw that Goku was taken down, the other fighters would be demoralized and give up on the spot. It does not work at all: even before Goku makes his reappearance, other fighters from the other universes were lining up to fight Jiren themselves, not intimidated by him, but rather excited to test their power against someone so strong.
