By Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

As expected, I ruffled some feathers (copyright Todd Keneley) last night when in my "virtual time" coverage of TNA Lockdown last night here at PWTorch.com, I called the fans "lame" when they chanted "TNA! TNA!" and "This is awesome!" after big highspots. Let me explain where I'm coming from.

First, when it appears someone might have gotten hurt doing a move, chanting "This is awesome!" comes across as callous and blood-thirsty. These wrestlers, some working for barely fast food wages (if you consider the hours dedicated to their craft sculpting their body, doing cardio, practicing in the ring, traveling, prepping ring gear, etc.), should not be given the biggest pops from paying customers when they put their health on the line for a move that contributes nothing to the story in the ring that couldn't otherwise be accomplished more safely.

Second, I've covered this business full time for over 25 years. I've seen trends come and go. I've seen many "chant de jours" come and go. I've watched many generations of fans have "their thing" that defines their era of being a fan. I've seen what survives the test of time, what proves to be benefit the bottom line of promotions, the longevity and health of wrestlers, and the enjoyment level of the fan base. From those several decades of observing and studying this industry, I strongly believe pro wrestling is most entertaining and effective at drawing money when it draws fans into the emotions of siding with one wrestler they identify with or admire and therefore are rooting for and siding against someone they think deserves to "get what's coming to him" because he's a jerk or a cheater or, well, just lame.

So when fans cheer a "move" regardless of who executes it because it was "cool" athletically, it tells me the promotion and the wrestlers have failed at their jobs. Fans should be wrapped up in cheering for someone they hope wins and booing someone they hope loses. Think of your favorite movie experiences. Yes, there are cool special effects and car chases and stunts that are exciting, but you'd never chant "Sony Pictures! Sony Pictures! Sony Pictures!" in a movie theater or on your couch when you see it. If your main emotion was "This is awesome!" during a dramatic battle between the protagonist and antagonist, the director and actors have failed to draw you into the scene as a battle between good and evil, with you rooting against evil.

If wrestlers hear chants of "This is awesome!" or "TNA!" they should consider it a sign they have to adjust what they're doing. It might be too late during the match. If you look at last night's X Division match, there was no "good vs. evil" or "protagonist vs. antagonist" storyline. The match was thrown out there, with zero hype other than a generic cocky promo last Thursday by champ Kenny King.

Until the ring intros, viewers didn't even know whom King would be facing. It turned out to be another heel, Zema Ion, and an overly muscular dreadlocked indy guy who looks burned out and has had no TV time invested in lately. We're supposed to cheer him? When was his last TV win? When was the last time we were given a reason to identify with him and root for him? The last thing I remember is a promo he gave several weeks back where he looked like he had been in a steam room filled with marijuana smoke for six hours.

TNA threw those three out there to be "spot monkeys." There's no good reason to do that. It just caters to the worst instincts of wrestling fans, and a part of the potential wrestling fan audience that has been proven to be too small to sustain a large national promotion. WWE doesn't cater to fans who like spotfests for a reason - they don't draw beyond a few hundred indy show fans looking to see great athletes do amazing spots up close. On a national scale, though, it's just not marketable to a large enough audience to be worth it. Plus, it screws up everything else.

When TNA opens a show with an X Division spotfest to "fill a spot" for those fans who like that stuff, they screw up the whole tone of the show. The first match should be used to establish the booking philosophy of the promoter. If the tone set is that fans are there to "cheer big spots," it undermines the story the rest of the matches are telling, which is Team TNA ending the reign of terror of Aces & Eights, or Chavo Guerrero & Hernandez trying to regain the tag titles against two heel tag teams you can't wait to see get embarrassed by losing. And so on.

Oh, and then there's the issue of what we now know about the ramifications short-term and especially long-term of wrestlers taking excessively frequent head trauma during matches. Fans who cheer spots where it's clear a wrestler just risked their brain for their short-term pleasure are lame. Promotions who cater to those fans are doing a disservice to the wrestlers they employ and the larger fan base who want a well-told dramatic story told via a simulated fight between good and bad, minus the real world harm that results from largely pointless spotfests with no backstory.

So, yes, chanting "This is awesome!" after a big spot rather than cheering the wrestler you want to see win and, yes, chanting "TNA! TNA!" instead of cheering the wrestler you like for getting one step closer to a win is lame. (And yes, this applies to "ROH! ROH!" chants or any other promotion. WWE tends not to do these type of spotfests and, internally, frown on these chants rather than celebrate them.)

In the mid-to-late 1990s, when ECW was counter-culture wrestling promotion that marketed itself as (and truly was) a distinct alternative to WCW and the WWF, chanting "ECW! ECW!" made some sense. Today, when TNA fans do it, it just feels derivative, too late, and kind of… well… lame. The smartest fans aren't out to show how "smart" they are at live events. The smartest fans get into the show and have a blast cheering for their favorites and jeering the heels. The days of cheering "spots" should be over. That was for the last generation. Times have changed... for the better. Move on. Be original. Don't settle for a derivative outdated 1990s trend.

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