During the main event of Extreme Rules, fans at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh made the Dolph Ziggler vs. Seth Rollins Iron Man match about themselves. They started counting down the last 10 seconds of every minute on the clock up on the Titantron and then making a loud buzzing sound, as if this was the Royal Rumble. WWE, in an effort to squash this nonsense, took the clock off the Titantron. Fans, instead of taking the hint, loudly booed this and then just randomly started counting down. In the ring, Ziggler and Rollins were talking about it during rest holds, lamenting it being worse with the clock gone. So WWE put it back, the fans cheered, and went right back to counting down.
I was going to try to represent both sides of the argument here. The idea on one side that, yes, the fans paid their money so they can chant whatever they would like, and that it was all in good fun.
But no. To hell with that.
This sucked. The crowd sucked for doing it. It was awful and bad and every reason to dislike a wrestling crowd because they seem to believe doing this kind of thing is cute, or funny, or anything more than walking into a party and taking a massive dump in the punch bowl.
It sure seems like if you give wrestling fans an inch, they’ll take a mile. And, you know, if you’re doing it in protest at least you have a cause beyond selfish idiocy and a desire to be the show instead of be entertained by it. I could at least understand that. I cannot understand this.
Vince McMahon had given these very fans what they wanted!
Not only did he book two of the best wrestlers on his roster in a legitimately compelling gimmick match over a belt people care about after they had rewarded us with multiple fantastic matches on TV in the week’s leading up to this show, he did so over a Roman Reigns vs. Bobby Lashley match that he very clearly has a soft spot for.
Oh yeah, and he had Lashley win that match, clean as a whistle.
He went into Pittsburgh, didn’t give Roman Reigns the main event, beat him clean, and then put the best match in the biggest spot, and the fans in the arena responded to getting exactly what they wanted by taking a big ol’ dump on it.
Maybe it was funny the first time they did it, and maybe even got a chuckle the second time, but to continue doing it all throughout the match completely took away from what the guys were doing in the ring and made it all about the fans and their actions. Sorry, but I don’t watch wrestling shows to see what new and innovative tactic the live audience will use to try to take it over. I was legitimately excited for this match, and then even more excited when it became clear it was the main event, and I hardly remember anything from the match because of the fans who decided to go into business for themselves.
That sucks.
I’m not alone in that either, which really just means this group of fans screwed it up for a lot of other folks who paid money to watch this. Then again, social media and such has given rise to trolling and shit posting for the sake of reveling in responses exactly like the one I’m writing here, so I guess they win in more ways than one. I’m “gotten to,” I suppose.
How lame of me to just want to enjoy a wrestling match on the wrestling show.