Subverting Expectations In Pro Wrestling
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ต.ค. 2024
- DAVE KNOWS subverting expectations in wrestling is commonplace, but pulling off a swerve isn't as easy as it sounds. There is an art to putting a twist into a story and it's something that many bookers and fans should keep in mind. As a truly satisfying swerve is one of wrestling's greatest moments. So we should all know what makes a wrestling swerve great.
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An example of a swerve I feel fits the description is Undertaker's heel turn in 2001.
"Were you gonna kiss his ass?"
"Hell no!"
At this point, everyone and their mother expected Taker to go along and help J.R., but
"Is that because you're better than me?"
You can tell it worked when you heard the whole crowd gasp. Sounded like they felt like teenagers throwing a party, but mom and dad come home early. Having that Oh No moment.😂
That heel turn was way out of left field and made no sense. The subsequent face turn didn't make much sense either. I get what they were going for in both cases but it just didn't land for me.
Swerves in wrestling are like swerves in movies, when done well that can make a good movie into a great one but when done poorly it can take a great movie and make it unwatchable. The most important aspect is that both what is expected and what happens need to make sense and be built up. You need to be able to rewatch it knowing the twist without it coming out of nowhere.
I feel like Bash at the Beach 1996 Hogan heel turn was a great swerve
Yeah, but who’s side is he on?
@@patrickjohnson1649 not Heenan's best call
Not at all, the thing is viewers had been conditioned for years to know that Heenan hated Hogan, for him to be suddenly happy to see Hogan would have been out of character. I dont think anyone believed Heenan when he said that, they thought, "Really Brain? He's here to save the day! How can yooooooouuuu HOLY CRAP!!!". We were set up for a perfect swerve, and even Bobby Heenan's seemingly messed up call reinforced what we thought until it was actually happening.
@@AnubisRazael fair
@@AnubisRazael I agree. It wouldn't have made sense for Heenan to trust on Hogan. Even if he took up somewhat of a Babyface Role when it came to the Outsiders.
I was so excited when Nakamura won that Royal Rumble. Then his Wrestlemania match happened, and well, I'd be tempted to call that match a swerve.
Yeah that match was so disappointing
@@DaveKnowsWrestling that was on Vince McMahon becuase they had a 5 star classic at wrestle Kingdom 10
This is helpful as I'm an armature fiction writer and I'm currently working on my first horror story.
Well glad that you got something out of this video
My favorite subversion of expectation in wrestling is actually Bob Orton turning on Flair for Harley Race's bounty. Like Orton was a babyface at the time and harley in promos before that happened was throwing out a bunch of names of the heels in the company so until it happened nobody expected a heel turn. Now with Orton basically becoming a career heel off that spot it seems obvious but at the time nobody saw that turn coming and it was awesome.
Heel turns I think are really telegraphed now, with the way WWE has conditioned it's audience (tag team breakups, thrown together tag teams of main eventers coming to blows etc) to see them coming and I think there's a lot ways to do a heel turn that aren't so cookie cutter.
Ooh, yes, very good call with that one.
Nice old school example there
Your channel just showed up on my recommendations today and I've been on such a binge! Loving it, you'll be a household name before long!
Thank you so much and welcome to the Know-It-All Nation and I hope you enjoy!
Vince Russo is the king of swerving and Dave certainly knows wrestling
this is great-- the story behind the story.
Vince Russo was the king of swerves with random heel turns throughout the wwf and even wcw and many other swerves he was responsible for.
Yes he did a lot of them... not to say they were any good
@@DaveKnowsWrestling oh yeah a majority of them were terrible like really bad
Bro, It's a swerve, bro.
I'm pretty sure the Erick Rowan thing was just comedic relief
Great video, Dave! Yessir, Russo was the best example of "Swerve you didnt ask for, Bro!"
He absolutely was
I’ll come back when I watch all your videos first.
Don't worry, this one has no spoilers for the others
Vince Russo would approve of this list
Vince Russo is the king of swerving
The Montreal screw job was a big time swerve..especially since it involved the talent itself as well as the audience
Great video as always, keep up the good work, man!
Thank you so much for taking the time to say so
@@DaveKnowsWrestling You’re welcome. This is the kind of wrestling content I want and I’m glad that you’re getting recognition for it.
Nice White Jacket very Miami Vice!! Love the channel Thank You 🙏 Dave
Thank you
@@DaveKnowsWrestling My Pleasure 😌 Brother!
Wow Dave, this was one of your best videos.
Thanks so much that does mean a lot
Great work as usual. Thank you
Thank you for saying so
Excellent
Stephanie turning on Vince at Armageddon was a good swerve
Great video as always, Dave. Vince Russo would be very proud, BRO lool
I mean... I am poking holes in a lot of his work
Best swerve every is Rock winning WWF Championship . Nobody expect that he would turn heel that night.
That was actually a pretty good swerve. Especially since it hadn't been very long since he'd turned face and was clearly being set up as the next Austin. Then "BOOM," he's champ like everyone wanted but is now the biggest heel in the company.
Whenever I think of the word swerve in wrestling I think of 2 things Isaiah Scott's nickname and that prank show wwe ran in 2015 and 2016
by swerves and twists, I wanted to ask you if you have seen/read Attack on Titan or not? It has many crazy crazy plot twists and revelations, and that to correctly subtly foreshadowed right from the beginning. Direction, charcter writings, developments everything is a too good.
I have not, I don't really like anime
The best swerves in my opinion are the ones you never see coming but make the most sense for example Survivor Series 98 which I know everyone uses that as an example but it’s so perfect where if you go back and watch everything it all makes sense
Not sure which part of SS98 you're talking about, but did you not see this video?
@@DaveKnowsWrestling I mean The Rock part
Then I concur, the Rock part was very good
Bro, Bro. See, what you don't knooooowwwww, and if I'm lying then I'm not telling the truth, but listen Bro. And I'll be your huckleberry. I'll be your
Man...I remember as a Kid watching The Rock take on Vince and Gang at the Survivor Series 98. I cheered for The Rock all the way to the finals, just for him to team up with the Evil Vince McMahon. My heart was broken and I remembered I cried I was so mad lol.
And that my friend is the greatest Swerve in wrestling History in my mind. Hogan's was great but I never was a fan Hogan as a kid, Macho Man was my Guy lol.
For me the Rock was a great swerve, the Shane part was dumb... but maybe it was necessary to throw us off the scent
Why hello
Why is Gamora
This channel is so really, really terrible ...
... that I always hit the "thumbs-up" before the video has really started. Because I always get qualitiy content by Dave. Opinions might differ sometimes. And sometimes not. But that's how the world is. Keep it up, Dave.
Interesting way of paying a compliment
@@DaveKnowsWrestling Couldn't resist given the topic of that video. ;-) But in all seriousness: Keep up the good work.
Ha ha! I saw what you did there😉
Commenting for the algorithm
Well the algorithm thanks you
I got my seat 💺🍿💺
Well Rikishi did do for the people.
He did it for the money
Vince being the "higher power" was the dumbest fucking thing in the history of pro wrestling.
Would you consider Sheamus' Brogue Kick on Drew from Monday a swerve? I mean, we all knew it was coming, we just didn't know when.
To me a swerve is not just a turn
Example of a bad swerve: Survivor Series 98
Example of a good swerve: Survivor Series 98
Yes... somehow that does make sense. I hear you
@@DaveKnowsWrestling I don’t know if I’ve accidentally stumbled upon a nuance about the Rock’s heel turn but I was referencing the Stone Cold and Rock swerves that happened on the same night
Yeah know I get what you mean. The Shane turn made no sense, but the Rock one was really good
Dave I can make some logic of that of why Shane McMahon hired Austin back even though Vince fired him.
You see Vince McMahon has to mentally torture Austin like Austin tortures Vince McMahon. Hiring Austin may be a risk to their plans but at the end of the night it pays off and had all of us fooled.
So McMahon's master plan was to pee himself on national TV just to torture Austin which pays off by fooling all of us?
@@DaveKnowsWrestling yes when it comes to the Rock winning the survivor series in 1998. Did you see the look on Austin's face when Shane McMahon gave him the double bird?
@@DaveKnowsWrestling Should have been Linda hiring Austin back to keep it as her looking after the company's health or something. Shane's swerve would have had more impact on him making Vince proud.
A TH-cam video about subverting expectations, asks for a like and subscribe
yeah ill swerve ye aight
I like to swerve my family all the time, I break their favorite things and make it seem like one of the kids or gf did it and when ww3 is about to start between them I reveal it was me all along. I need help.
Gzus: It was me, family! It was me, all along!
JR: Awe, son of a bitch!
Please tell me you wear a hooded robe during the reveal.
Your whole life is one big swerve lol If Shinsuke eliminated Zack Ryder or whoever it wouldn't have had as much impact. My favorite one of those was Santino and Alberto Del Rio.
Like the swerve of Dean Ambrose showing up at the Rumble?
@@DaveKnowsWrestling All I know is you're getting ready to look stupid when he walks out like the Last 90 seconds on Smackdown when you could have had the bet won wrapped up on Sunday.
Swerve for the sake of swerve does not make for interesting storytelling
You sure got that right
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