Loser Leaves Town: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
So, a [[Professional Wrestling]] feud has gone on for seemingly ages, with constantly escalating acts of violence on both sides, and a regular blowoff just doesn't seem appropriate. Where do you go from here? Well, you have one final match to settle the score, and just to make sure it's ''really'' final, the
A Loser Leaves Town match originated in the old "territory" days of wrestling, where a common tactic would be to bring in a new wrestler, establish him as a monster heel through [[Squash Match
The more modern version is often called the "Loser Leaves (the promotion)", "Retirement", "Pink Slip", or just "You're Fired" match). As the name implies, a match where the loser goes away, never to return. Supposedly. Due to abuse of this trope, and subsequent use of the [[Reset Button]], the joke in pro-wrestling fandom is that the average pro wrestler's retirement lasts about [[Three Month Rule|three months]].
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In fact, the "three-month rule" often came into effect for another variant of the "Loser Leaves Town" match. Sometimes, the defeated wrestler – almost always a face – wouldn't actually "leave town," but rather he'd return wearing a mask, come up with a crazy name, and often cause trouble for his villainous foe on the defeated wrestler's behalf. Invariably, the heel would complain that the masked wrestler was actually the face he defeated and that he was circumventing the rules, but the authority figures would plead ignorance and say the heel had no proof of who was causing the trouble. Finally, the heel and a few associates would corner the masked wrestler, beat him down to a bloody pulp, and pull off the mask. The "fired" wrestler would be reinstated and one final battle would take place. This storyline was most famously used for the Dusty Rhodes vs. Kevin Sullivan feud of the early 1980s.
So, why have a Loser Leaves Town match? Sometimes, it's to explain the absence of a wrestler who's left the promotion. Other times, it's to give a wrestler time off to heal an injury, film a movie, or spend time with his family. Still others, it can be used to set up a [[Charlie Brown From Outta Town]] angle. And yet still other times, it's simply the only way to end a feud that's just gone on entirely too long and consumed the characters of both wrestlers. In the [[WWE]] world, with its three separate "brand" rosters, it can be used to move a wrestler from one brand to another. Rarely, if ever, does a
{{examples}}
* For the last eight months or so of his career, [[Ric Flair]] wrestled under a stipulation that should he lose a single match, he would be forced to
** Then, after that amazing sendoff at Wrestlemania, he wrestles in a tour of Australia, and started performing for TNA. It became just another [[Ten-Minute Retirement]].
** It is also worth noting that after losing a
* [[The Undertaker]] lost one to [[Edge]] at One Night Stand 2008. This removal was for the purposes of recovering from injuries. He returned less than three months later when Vickie Guerrero needed him to kick Edge's butt.
* A stranger example occurred in 1999, where [[Vince McMahon]] was banished from the then-WWF for several months as a result of [[The Undertaker]] losing a match to [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]]. What makes this strange is that the time period was essentially the exact time surrounding the WWF's IPO, making many suspect that Vince took himself out of the limelight to comply with SEC regulations.
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'''Sportacus:''' The usual, right? }}
* [[Kevin Nash]] & [[Goldberg]] both lost Loser Leaves [[WCW]] matches to [[Scott Steiner]] in 2001, which actually stuck [[Real Life Writes the Plot|due to the company going out of business before they could be brought back]].
** This was actually part of Eric Bischoff's big plan to [[Continuity Reboot|reboot]] the company following his plans to purchase WCW. The original idea was to have Steiner wipe out every good guy on the roster on his way to [[The Bad Guy Wins|having complete dominance over the company]]. At around the point where this scenario had played out, the ownership transfer to Bischoff's consortium would be complete. In the inaugural Nitro of his regime, he would bring back all the [[Face
* One particularly egregious example from [[WCW]] featured [[Curt Hennig]] losing to Buff Bagwell in a Retirement Match, only to return to the ring THE NEXT DAY. Needless to say, this was booked by [[Vince Russo]].
* [[Video Game]] Example: [[Def Jam]]: Fight For NY has [[Snoop Dogg|Crow]] challenge [[Christoper Judge|D-Mob]] to one of these, with the stipulation [[Crowning Moment of Funny|"Loser goes to Jersey"]].
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