Some of it is explainable at least in the Karate Kid universe.
Miyagi's training allowed Daniel son to beat the kobra kai fighters that had been in way more competitionst hen him, were previous champions etc, in his first competition. In this case the two sides were FAR closer in actual experience (it was both of their first times competing, both had started training fairly recently etc).
Hawk was a nerd lol, and he just learned karate recently, also he wasn't expecting his also nerd friend to fight back at all, so that kinda explains it.
Robby though they set up as kinda a "good guy" type, that was Daniels disciple, but then ended with a twist, actually I thought they did a really good job of making the "good guy" and "Bad guy" roles kinda switch back and forth throughout the two seasons, one of the things I really like about it.
Sam's whole arc in season 2 was meh but they basically wanted a chick on chick setup and a more solid "bad girl" I guess. It wasn't horrible, but it was kinda stupid lol. It basically led to Rob's downfall, while Migell ended up following miyagi's teachings more even though he didn't have Daniel as his teacher.
Great shot though, can't wait for season 3, just wish it wasn't so long away.
That works when Miyagi was giving him 1 on 1 lessons and focusing on him completely, also the movie worked because he was completely the good guy while the Cobra Kais were the bad guys.
Hawk might've been a nerd, but he was good enough to get to the semi finals of the tournament. After all that, all he does is constant job, which was pretty stupid too, but getting his ass kicked by the super duper needs guy that can hardly throw a punch was just completely ridiculous. Both my gf and I knew it was coming right when we saw him go to Miyagido, but doesn't make it any less stupid
I wish it was Sam's character in the hospital bed, that's how much I hated her character. ---
People come up to me... concerned.. that I'll reproduce." - Emo Philips