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Wrestling fans can make or break an event sometimes and I've seen this as a member of the crowd, watching it on TV, or performing in the ring; the reaction of the crowd matters when you are watching a WWE or wrestling show and promotions need to strike a delicate balance between giving the fans what they want without overindulging them in order to produce the best quality product.
Historically, crowds have usually bought into the product for a variety of reasons, be it less was known about the personal lives of the wrestlers, kayfabe was still alive and heavily guarded by performers or myriad of other reasons and events that have undoubtedly changed the landscape of wrestling and made it the product that it is today.
Now, more than ever, wrestling fans are divided into categories of not just by the style of wrestling they like, or which wrestlers they choose to support, but by how much they know. Terms such as "Mark", "Smark" and "Casual fan" are thrown around to divide groups based on how invested they are in the product and how much they seemingly know about what occurs on both sides of the curtain.
However, none of this has changed the importance of a wrestling crowd's reaction to a live event and how much impact it can have. The WWE provides the best examples of this, being that it is the biggest and most polarizing wrestling promotion in the world, with crowd reactions either enhancing an event or completely derailing it.
The Crux
Having had the pleasure of wrestling in front of a live crowd, and being at live wrestling events with wrestling fans has given me a greater perspective and understanding about the dynamics that exist in live shows.
There is something to be said about the changing crowd style in the more modern era as opposed to previous eras. With many wrestling fans, especially those more invested in the product, intentionally hijacking shows in order to turn the focus upon themselves.
This is awful.
Fans will hijack the show with chants like "we are awesome", "CM Punk", "What" or a member of the crowd will send out a beach ball, which culminated in the WWE attempting to ban Beach Balls from their events. All of these are intended to take away from the product and turn the attention to the fans themselves.
It's a fan rebellion and it's awful. You aren't actually punishing the promotion when you do that, you are punishing the performers. The promotion already has your money in ticket sales and the merchandise that you purchased, how you react in the arena is almost irrelevant.
I understand the want to show your displeasure at an event, I was at the Superdome in New Orleans for the Roman Reigns versus Brock Lesnar main event at Wrestlemania 34. It was a bad match and at the end of a long event, the crowd rebelled. Beach balls filled various sections of the arena and fans chanted whatever they wanted, turning their backs on two performers in the ring.
What do we do next?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to tell wrestling fans how they should behave at an arena, especially if the booking has not been up to scratch when ticket prices can be expensive, especially for the big events which people come from overseas for. I don't mind the reactions of fans going against the wishes of management to cheer for who they want the crowd to cheer for and boo who they want the crowd to boo.
It's how we end up with natural babyface and heel personalities that conquer the wrestling landscape. The reaction to Becky Lynch has turned her character from what the WWE seemed to intend to be a heel to one of the best babyface wrestlers they have on the roster.
Nor am I saying that wrestling fans being selfish or ego driven is a new thing. While the landscape has changed, wrestling fans have wanted the self-indulgent of wrestling since the Attitude Era. It's just the way they display it has changed.
Think about the idea of bringing a sign to an arena for the cameras. You take the time and effort to hope you get noticed on camera to get airtime, even if it blocked the person behind you from seeing.
The difference is that people no longer bring signs to the wrestling for the most part.
Crowds that used to look like this:
To this:
Perhaps it's because the modern day wrestling fan is too busy clutching their smartphone, or chanting "What" or "We are awesome" to carry a poster anymore, but at least the posters would go up and down throughout the course of the evening, as opposed to chants which hijack segments, overpower promos and ruin shows.
