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RADICAN'S TAKE
RADICAN'S TAKE: Thoughts on the crowd in London and their disrespect to Undertaker and Foley

Apr 23, 2013 - 10:05:57 AM
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By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

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It’s clear right now that WWE’s stars and storylines aren’t connecting with fans that attend Raw live. Fandango, a heel, is widely cheered and people dance along to his music. Dolph Ziggler has to work very hard to get booed on television through promo work, but he’s usually a babyface by the time his match ends even if he has to cheat or as was the case last night, use Fandango’s music to win.

Fans bored with WWE storylines have resorted to entertaining themselves during Raw. This isn’t likely to happen every week, as the fans in attendance the Raw after WrestleMania and last night in the U.K. are a different breed from the typical Raw audience.

I have no problem with these fans going into business for themselves if what they are seeing in the ring doesn’t connect, but I did have a problem when the fans in London last night disrespected talent like The Undertaker and Mick Foley by trying to be the best imitation of what they think a raucous live crowd should be.

It was downright disrespectful for the fans in London last night to chant, “You’ve still got it” at Undertaker during The Shield vs. Taker & Kane & Daniel Bryan match. When did Undertaker lose it? Undertaker is someone that hasn’t had a regression in his in-ring performance and if anything, he has gotten better with time since his WrestleMania winning streak went from being a statistic to being one of the biggest staples of WrestleMania each year.

The “You’ve still got it” chant is usually reserved for performers like Sting in TNA, who at times has delivered better than expected matches on PPV for the company, but nothing close to the level of what Undertaker has done at WrestleMania the last five years. Undertaker deserves better than that from fans that are just trying to come across like the most raucous crowd that WWE sees during the year for Raw.

Then there was Foley’s show closing promo with Ryback. Foley cut a really good promo challenging Ryback to be a better man. Foley made several good points and alluded to how he did things in his career compared to what Ryback did last week when he left Cena alone in the ring to fend for himself against The Shield to close Raw. While Foley was cutting his promo, he was greeted by the infamous “What?” chant at times from the crowd. The “What?” chant jumped the shark a long time ago. It was funny when Stone Cold introduced it, but now that it has been more than ten years, it’s time for fans to retire that chant, especially when Foley is cutting a really good promo to help enhance the Ryback-Cena storyline heading into “Extreme Rules.”

WWE shares some of the blame here. Their stars and storylines aren’t connecting with live crowds. Some crowds greet the wrestlers and storylines with apathy. Last night, WWE brought Raw to London and when the circus comes to town once a year, the crowd is going to be energetic and react to the show unlike other crowds. This time around in London, it was clear what WWE is doing isn’t connecting with the crowd. However, it was ridiculous to see the treatment the crowd gave to Foley and Undertaker, both of whom deserved better than a crowd trying to go into business for themselves.

***

Please click HERE and click “like” to join the Radican’s Wrestling Community Facebook fan page.

Follow Sean on Twitter at Twitter.com/SeanRadican

Contact Sean at PWTorchSean@gmail.com


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