World Wrestling Entertainment/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance:

• 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 sports 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 while 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. I had a little bit of trouble understanding why, until I found out that "uso" in Samoan language menas "brother". Meaning "Uso Brother" would roughly translate to "Brother Brother". The long name practically parodied Hulk Hogan's Verbal Tic. - Someone Else 17
• How does R-Truth go from retaliating against John Morrison for taking away his title shot, to becoming a mad eyed Conspiracy Theorist arachnophobiac? Question came to mind a couple of times, and some thought was put into it, but it didn't completely click until Truth's interview on August 8th, 2011 comparing 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, no it's not. This is exactly what WWE has been going for since the NXT Riot on June 7, 2010 in Miami.

1. 1. 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.
   2. 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).
   3. 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 the 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.
   4. 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.
   5. 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.

• • The essentially binding storyline thread in all this is that there is a huge bubble of discontent within the 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 the 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.
  • All the heels would obviously be against Triple H given that he's a Face authority figure rather than a heel one, which meant that they wouldn't be able to get any advantages in their favor against a face and would most likely be on the receiving end of Laser-Guided Karma.
  • 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, AJ), True Neutrals (Aksana), or faces by default (Alicia Fox).
  • 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.
  • With all of this in mind, the motivation of 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.
• 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.
  • 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.

Fridge Logic:

• The theme for NXT Season 5 is "Redemption," meaning that the rookies from the past four three seasons^[1] 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.
  • Because intentionally losing a match makes you real cool in a locker room.
  • I'm sure they meant the stipulation.

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1. ↑ Not counting the all-Diva season