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What's the story?
Fan interaction has always been one of the biggest things for the WWE Universe as a way of making the crowd feel like they are part of the event. It seems that fans will feel less part of the shows in the future since WWE stars are now banned from slapping fans hands on their way to the ring.
In case you didn't know...
One of the biggest face things to do is to come out and hi-five fans on the way down the ramp, many superstars have designed their entrance around the fan interaction in recent years, but it seems that this has become less frequent over the past few months.
Fans pay a lot of money to sit close to the ramp so that they can slap hands with their favorite stars, but it seems that times are changing in WWE and there could be a time where fans are no longer allowed to hi-five their favorite wrestlers.
The heart of the matter
As part of the most recent episode of The Wrestling Observer, Dave Meltzer revealed that fans are not actually allowed to slap hands with fans on the way to the ring as part of televised events since they are subject to time restraints. (Transcript via RingsideNews)
“Yeah, you’re not supposed to do it on TV because it takes too much time to get into the ring. They do it at house shows all the time. They do it in NXT all the time.”
Many fans will be questioning why Ronda Rousey is allowed to do it and more often than not she often goes out of her way to circle the ring and slap hands with all the fans at ringside, it seems that this is another WWE tactic to help the former UFC star to become a top babyface.
“It’s not banned but I am sure at TV — other than Ronda, they want everyone to know that Ronda is cool because they want her as a babyface right now. They got a lot of money invested in her. They got to use more tricks for her because she’s not that experienced. So, she gets more latitude when it comes to things like that.”
What's next?
It seems that Rousey could be the only star openly allowed to physically interact with fans moving forward, which would definitely allow her to stand out at Raw tapings.
Author's take
It's understandable that when WWE is part of TV tapings then they have to make everything fit time limits, but it takes seconds to run past and hi-five a fan so not allowing it as part of televised events does seem to be a little bit harsh, maybe this is just another one of WWE's tactics to get Rousey over as a babyface in record time.
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