The day-after Mania crowds are traditionally raucous. Last year raised the game exponentially, thanks to the agitation from 18 seconds of Daniel Bryan and 18 seconds only. This year's crowd was different though. I hate to say that it was just a New York crowd, because let's face it, a lot of people in that crowd also went to Mania, and Mania has the largest concentration non-native fans to that city. But yeah, when you combine the New York crowd with the Mania crowd, screwy things happen.
The most surreal event that took place was the Sheamus vs. Randy Orton match and the ensuing beatdown from Big Show afterwards. Given the choice between two wrestlers that the crowd wanted no part of, they started chanting randomly. I rail on bad chants all the time, and trust me, chanting for Rob van Dam and then going into the wholly self-indulgent "We are awesome!" number made me roll my eyes so hard that I'm blind and am writing this column by muscle memory. However, when you give WWE your money, you don't surrender your freedom of expression. The best part about wrestling is that the feedback, even more so than this column, is instant. If a crowd doesn't like something, they'll be the first to let you know, and fuck anyone else for suggesting otherwise.
However, where this crowd earned its stripes was when they collectively gave Dolph Ziggler a bigger WrestleMania moment than anyone got at Mania last night. When he came out to cash in his briefcase on a hobbled Alberto del Rio, the reaction was deafening. When he actually won the title, that first pop was made to sound like a church mouse's tittering. All the months of awful booking were washed away in the loving adoration of that crowd, and it made for a better feelgood moment than anyone could expect for any title switch in 2013.
And he was the heel.
I don't mean for this to come off as a laundry list of things that the crowd did, but I also found it completely fascinating that the humming of Fandango's theme song actually took off and then carried on into the rest of the night. I beg of every crowd in America to let that be a thing, because it's probably the most innovative thing any crowd has ever done, and I say that without a trace of sarcasm. I was on the Fandango train from jump, because I love the weird and the wonderful. But he could be this year's Daniel Bryan, and we'd all be better for it.
Bryan himself suffered no Mania hangover, going from putting over Big E. Langston into being adopted as a Stepbrother of Destruction in chasing off The Shield, who got the biggest rub of their short careers by interrupting the Undertaker. Mark Henry got people singing his theme song. John Cena literally turned his heel and showed why, no matter how many awful stinky breath jokes he makes, that he's still got the ability to turn the charm on when he wants to. Paul Heyman got a nuclear pop just for mentioning CM Punk's name. I'm afraid that if he had appeared on the show, the Izod Center would have melted. Conversely, if Triple H had appeared, that crowd would have literally rushed the barricade and stabbed him.
As a collective, they didn't need the extreme stimuli outside of Ziggler's cash in. The wrestlers gave their cues, and the crowd did the rest, which is weird to say. But hey, the fans are part of the show as we're famously told by many journalists, opinion writers, and even people in the biz, right? I don't think I can take a crowd like this every show, but when they are on, and when they are needed, they're a kind of thing to savor.
But, I think I have to hand it to the guys creating the cues tonight as well. This show doesn't work as well if they laid it out like a normal RAW. Then again, sometimes, you need to rip up the SOP and just wing it, especially when the crowd doesn't react the way you think it's going to.
The most surreal event that took place was the Sheamus vs. Randy Orton match and the ensuing beatdown from Big Show afterwards. Given the choice between two wrestlers that the crowd wanted no part of, they started chanting randomly. I rail on bad chants all the time, and trust me, chanting for Rob van Dam and then going into the wholly self-indulgent "We are awesome!" number made me roll my eyes so hard that I'm blind and am writing this column by muscle memory. However, when you give WWE your money, you don't surrender your freedom of expression. The best part about wrestling is that the feedback, even more so than this column, is instant. If a crowd doesn't like something, they'll be the first to let you know, and fuck anyone else for suggesting otherwise.
However, where this crowd earned its stripes was when they collectively gave Dolph Ziggler a bigger WrestleMania moment than anyone got at Mania last night. When he came out to cash in his briefcase on a hobbled Alberto del Rio, the reaction was deafening. When he actually won the title, that first pop was made to sound like a church mouse's tittering. All the months of awful booking were washed away in the loving adoration of that crowd, and it made for a better feelgood moment than anyone could expect for any title switch in 2013.
And he was the heel.
I don't mean for this to come off as a laundry list of things that the crowd did, but I also found it completely fascinating that the humming of Fandango's theme song actually took off and then carried on into the rest of the night. I beg of every crowd in America to let that be a thing, because it's probably the most innovative thing any crowd has ever done, and I say that without a trace of sarcasm. I was on the Fandango train from jump, because I love the weird and the wonderful. But he could be this year's Daniel Bryan, and we'd all be better for it.
Bryan himself suffered no Mania hangover, going from putting over Big E. Langston into being adopted as a Stepbrother of Destruction in chasing off The Shield, who got the biggest rub of their short careers by interrupting the Undertaker. Mark Henry got people singing his theme song. John Cena literally turned his heel and showed why, no matter how many awful stinky breath jokes he makes, that he's still got the ability to turn the charm on when he wants to. Paul Heyman got a nuclear pop just for mentioning CM Punk's name. I'm afraid that if he had appeared on the show, the Izod Center would have melted. Conversely, if Triple H had appeared, that crowd would have literally rushed the barricade and stabbed him.
As a collective, they didn't need the extreme stimuli outside of Ziggler's cash in. The wrestlers gave their cues, and the crowd did the rest, which is weird to say. But hey, the fans are part of the show as we're famously told by many journalists, opinion writers, and even people in the biz, right? I don't think I can take a crowd like this every show, but when they are on, and when they are needed, they're a kind of thing to savor.
But, I think I have to hand it to the guys creating the cues tonight as well. This show doesn't work as well if they laid it out like a normal RAW. Then again, sometimes, you need to rip up the SOP and just wing it, especially when the crowd doesn't react the way you think it's going to.
