Predictability is Not Necessarily a Bad Thing.

[The Doctor]

So, I was talking to Lord Sidious on Facebook an hour or so ago, and he mentioned that the Vince/Bret Wrestlemania match will be a "predictable win". I agreed, but I also started to think:

Are there times when predictability is not such a bad thing?

I believe there are.

I know we complain about how "Stale" things get, but in my opinion swerves for swerving's sake can get confusing, annoying, and predictable. That's right, unpredictability can become predictable.

For a good example of how unpredictability can become ridiculous, I turn to Bret Hart's book. In it, he describes something that happened in WCW. He entered the ring as a heel, turned face by beating down the nWo, then turned heel again by showing that he had faked his injuries. This, all in the course of a single episode of Thunder. That is just over-the-top and a perfect example of swerving for no real reason other than to swerve.

On top of that, there are times when predictability can be good. Take the aforementioned Bret/Vince match. I know Bret is going to win. You know Bret is going to win. And no one has any problems with it. We all want to see Bret ride out on a wave of glory. We're expecting it. And I'm sure if it happened a different way, many people would be upset.

The point I'm trying to make here is that there is Good Predictability and Bad Predictability. Predictably in and of itself is not necessarily evil, just like unpredictability is not necessarily good.

 

[Dan E. Inferno]

I have to agree with you doc. One of the most common phrases you will hear by a wrestling fan is "the problem with the match is that it's very predictable what will happen." I've probably said this a number of times myself because I do think think generally predictability is something we could without. An example of this is the recent Elimination Chamber PPV.

I was in the minority who thought the RAW chamber match was the better of the night. That's partly because I could see the Jericho title win coming a mile off. Don't get me wrong, it was a good match, but because I was a hundred percent sure of a Jericho win, it just wasn't as entertaining when it happened. The RAW chamber match was very unpredictable because I thought Sheamus, Cena, HHH and Orton all had solid claims for winning the title and that just helped me enjoy the match more.

But regarding your point about good predictability, I do agree. It was predictable that Taker would beat Shawn last year at WM25, but I still enjoyed watching it as a fan of the unbeaten streak remaining intact. Of course, along with everyone else, I know that Bret will beat Vince. Probably making him tap to the sharpshooter. However, I'm still going to thorougly enjoy seeing it.

So, there are occasions when predictability can serve a good purpose. But it's important for these occasions not to come too often because I believe, as a whole, unpredictability is one of the things that makes a wrestling match worth watching.

 

[FunKay the Inevitable]

Predictability is always a tricky thing in wrestling. I mean sometimes something is predictable and we don't get it I mean take Ric Falir entering the WWF for example. We all fully expected him take on Hogan at WM 8 for the title but it never happended and people were pissed. Don't get me wrong I love Flair/Savage but it wasn't what the people wanted. Then of course their's the case of something like Batista turning on Evolution (This is the third time I've used that example today). We knew it was coming but we WANTED to see that happen becasue we hated HHH so much.

 

[gd]

I don't think predictability is ever good for wrestling. Sure, there are some cases when it's highly likely someone wins and they do, which is just fine. You can't expect something crazy happening every match, but I think you should at least be going into most PPVs matches with the conclusion of the match in some doubt. That's why WM is looking so good this year. Most of the matches, other than Taker/HBK, which is a special case, have some doubt to them.

I think the situation you're talking about with Bret is more about completely stupid and over the top booking more than predictability. I don't think of predictability as just swerves, I think it's mostly about not knowing the outcome of a match before it starts, which just makes the ending seem pretty disappointing.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Predictability has become the norm in wrestling because of the internet. Let's be honest, virtually every fan that contributes to forums on wrestling websites wouldn't have a 20th of the knowledge they have about wrestling without the internet.

When a person visits a wrestling website and sees a story labeled **SPOILERS** for this weeks Raw main event or the probable outcome of a title match between whatshisname and whosits or storyline ideas for the upcoming TNA ppv, etc. we all know that the vast majority of those people click on those stories and read them. Why? Because they want to know and they want to know now rather than wait. It's like setting down a plate of chocolate chip cookies on a table in front of a 5 year old kid at 10 am and telling them "I don't want you to have any until after dinner tonight". You sure as shit know that if there's any way that kid can wrangle himself/herself one of those cookies, then he/she will almost certainly do it.

The fact of the matter is that the internet has changed pro wrestling and not all of it has been for the good. When you can potentially find out a month's worth of storylines, read about how a particularly big match or big feud is supposedly going to end, when a title reign is going to begin or end, etc. then of course wrestling is going to get a little bit stale. Of course it's going to be predictable if I find out, hypothetically that...I dunno....say that Drew McIntyre is gonna drop the IC title to Dolph Ziggler next Friday on Smackdown. It would be predictable because I'd read about it happening a week before the match took place.

Then you have some instances, such as Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon, in which you feel Bret Hart is going to win because you've been watching wrestling long enough and common sense tells you that it's almost certainly going to happen. However, that doesn't mean that you still can't watch the matches and enjoy them. Too many on the internet are no longer fans, they've become critics. They don't watch wrestling to be entertained, they watch it to find something to criticize the wrestling company about.