This applies to both community as well as ERB suggestions (not including joke matchups of course since those wouldn't be affected), so to clarify, I'm only doing this post as an assistance to help refine the way how most can approach coming up with ideas and so I'll do exactly that
The flaws I've noticed:
-The "Both both both both both" reasonings
It's not a good look generally when you have to constantly state this as an attempt to make your idea look good because most of what you're going to say ends up leaving you with "connections" that comes off as illogical stretches that can't be taken seriously like "Both have movie adaptations" in addition to having stuff that can literally apply to ANYONE whether it'd be fictional or historical
-You don't need to elaborate hard
Most ERB matchups are condensed to either one or two reasonings, some mainly require one to essentially summarize the entire concept of what you're trying to formulate
Examples:
Ulysses S. Grant vs Captain America, Civil War fighting leaders
Wayne Gretzky vs Tony Hawk, Athletes known for different types of skating
P. T. Barnum vs Vince McMahon, Ringleaders of massive entertainment businesses
Two users do this extraordinarily well:
https://www.reddit.com/user/NPRNilk/
https://www.reddit.com/user/Defiant-Oil5587/
Anything to convey your idea in a simple, yet effective way possible helps it catch on better when it's easy to understand
-Distasteful reasonings
Having the ideas centered on death, health/disability problems, tragic events, morbid reasonings, etc. doesn't make for something comedic nor creative in the slightest especially if they're both about recent (not historical) events involving actual victims, and if it seems like you're coming off as a tryhard unfunny edgelord, avoid it
-Focusing on things the characters wouldn't be fighting about
Generally it wouldn't be doable if the point of the matchup is how much both of them are shitty at what they did like James Buchanan vs Warren G. Harding because they're the worst presidents or something that hardly relates to them like GLaDOS vs Marie Antoinette just because they had a quote about cake, which at that point sounds like a stretch about why ERB would pair them up
-Figures that are either too dry to care for or just come from something esoteric for ERB viewers
To put it simply, ERB can do figures that definitely show their worth in history, but then there are ones who don't have that many known details of their lives that can make for a good battle like the captain of the Titanic or the guy who made the polio vaccine, and likewise that can be said for fictional characters like a niche anime protagonist or a trendy game that's not heard of by the general public
-Being so similar that there's no contrast or only doing contrast for the sake of them not being similar
When people are asking for something like Clara Barton vs Florence Nightingale where both are nurses working in overlapping fields or Chris Rock vs Kevin Hart just from them having similar styles of comedy and attitudes, the battle wouldn't seem that interesting from the lack of contrasting personalities between them or how they basically do the same types of things so that comparing them doesn't really lead to any good jokes being said about what they do without sounding hypocritical, and it's that kind of stuff that makes it obvious for why ERB didn't go with Jackie Chan against Bruce Lee or Freud against another psychologist and instead had someone more contrasting for both
On the other hand, you have suggestions that are just purposely trying to be completely different people or even one-sided just for the sake of it, like Captain America vs Homelander just because of their contrasting morals.... except that sounds like a battle set up entirely to make Homelander the loser from the start, so why not someone more closely matched to both of them? It's like saying how instead of Kurt Cobain vs a musician who's actually on his level of artistry, he should go against someone very cheerful and full of life just because CONTRAST, but I think ERB's best battles come from a popularly requested yet fitting matchup or something that fits just right like it was a Goldilocks situation where they have enough to fight about from their differences + similarities
For all these points, you can basically see how just about most of the matchups ERB made, especially after season 1, made sense to do as an idea and just about all the best ERBs follow these types of guidelines without trying to be random or different for the sake of it: https://www.reddit.com/r/ERB/comments/17zbm0q/why_every_erb_matchup_was_picked_explained/
