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Professional Wrestling sits within a certain niche of the performance art entertainment spectrum where crowd participation is actively sought after. Every single thing a wrestler does inside the ring is done to elicit a live reaction from the audience, but it goes far beyond that.
From ECW allowing fans to bring their own weapons for matches to WWE creating stars out of The Miz Girl and Shocked Undertaker Guy. The crowds themselves have become a part of the show. Some might say so much so that it has become a hindrance to the product.
For every “good crowd” that can make the show ten times better by just truthfully enjoying themselves, there are ten “bad crowds” that leave a sour taste in our mouth because they’ve put the attention on everything except what is happening inside the ring.
Crowd participation is without question one of the things that makes the WWE so great sometimes. I really like to point at the atmosphere in Chicago for CM Punk versus John Cena at Money in the Bank 2011 as an example of this. However, there are chants that are harmful to the product overall. This list will point out 3 of those annoying chants that the crowd instantly need to stop uttering.
#3 The Perfect 10 Chants
Tye Dillinger’s “Perfect 10” gimmick gave us the gift of the “TEN!” chant. Personally, I’m a fan of the chant, but it is once again a case of knowing when to use it appropriately. At its core, the chant is used to just show adoration for Tye when he’s in the ring — when he busts out that cartwheel and throws the ten fingers in his opponent’s face, it’s an easy pop for the crowd.
However, we saw the chant rear it’s ugly head on an episode of Smackdown where two superstars took their fight to ringside, and the referee started his count to ten. This was just two days after Survivor Series event in 2017, so the WWE was still in Canada, where Tye Dillinger is from.
Every second that the referee counted while the two superstars were outside, the crowd chanted “TEN!” instead of the actual number. This is not ideal, not only to fans possibly getting confused on the real count, but even the two talent taking place in the match if they can't hear the referee.
Nowadays, it's a regular thing in WWE. The official decision to not use Tye Dillinger on RAW didn't have any effect on it either.
Crowds at the big four pay-per-views are usually quite “smart” leaning and will be expecting Dillinger in the number ten spot at the Royal Rumble again. For every countdown leading up to #10, are they gonna chant “TEN!” for each second?
Taking away from the suspense building for each entrant. Are they gonna boo whoever comes out at ten if it’s not Dillinger? Giving whoever it might be the Mysterio treatment from 2014? As noted before, I’m a fan of this chant, but I hope it doesn’t wear out.
#2 CM Punk chants
The easiest to point at in recent years is the “CM Punk” chants that pop up quite often. You expect these chants in Chicago and some of the other known hardcore wrestling markets such as Philadelphia and New York. For this particular chant, it’s not necessarily what is said but when it’s said.
With that being said, a fan's displeasure with a certain story or angle being told in the ring doesn’t necessarily give them the authority to drum up a CM Punk chant to take away from what is being done in the ring.
With Punk’s loss in the UFC, and wrestlers taking a shot at the crowd for chanting his name, this particular chant’s negative use is shrinking. Is Stephanie McMahon out in the ring in one of her twenty-minutes show opening segments? Perfect time to cue up the CM Punk chants.
Now there’s a discussion to be had about how effective or useful the chant really is, but that’s for another time and another place. What bothers me about this chant is how it is often used to demean other wrestlers while they’re in the ring doing their job.
#1 What? Chants
Started by Steve Austin in a hysterical attempt to mock his opponents, it has now taken on a life of its own. The crowd uses this particular chant to belittle certain superstars after every sentence in a promo. I suppose there’s something to be said about the wrestlers speaking realistically and perhaps not having such harsh pauses between sentences, but that lets the crowd off the hook in my opinion.
Stone Cold used the chant as a way to get himself over in a comedic way, and now it’s being used to do the complete opposite. It detracts from everything a wrestler says in the ring to the point where the segment becomes unwatchable.
Bray Wyatt, for example, cuts masterful promos on a weekly basis, but the way he uses the atmosphere to give a vibe to his words, allows the crowd to chime in with the chant. It’s extremely easy to go from feeling the power of Bray’s words one minute, to being taken out of that world by a crowd interjecting themselves.
For what? Perhaps it’s the cool thing to do during promos now, but in reality, it’s pretty much the exact opposite. The “WHAT?” chant needs to die but I don’t think it will… not any time soon anyway. Stone Cold himself could come out and cut a promo telling all the fans to stop doing “WHAT?” chants and they would do it at him.
