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Stevie Richards On Crowds 'Hijacking Shows,' Vince McMahon Not Understanding Shinsuke Nakamura, More


Mr.Dreadful

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Stevie Richards spoke with Memorabilia Guy on a number of wrestling topics, both past and present. Here are some of the highlights:

Crowds "hijacking" shows:

 

"I think guys work harder than they ever have, unnecessarily. Crowds can hijack shows nowadays; they can take control with their own chants to get themselves over. It's counterproductive. I'm not saying people need to be spoon-fed and fall in line like the wrestlers do, but it's like these people go to the show to not have a good time. They tried to sabotage the shows. These guys work every bit, if not, harder than we did back in the day. But we were able to lead the people in to the story lines we wanted and they could sit back and enjoy the ride. Now these people are trying to drive the car. I wouldn't say there is a huge difference between the talent and the product. There is a difference between society and they way people react to this type of entertainment."

 

WWE not understanding something different:

 

"I heard somewhere that Hunter [HHH] said he wasn't ready for the main roster. I mean the guy had Tokyo Dome shows countless times. I think sometimes Vince [McMahon] doesn't understand something a bit different. There is a part of me that thinks Nakamura will be an emperor or something stupid like that when he goes to the main roster. Nakamura is so charismatic. Vince might say – I don't know why he saunters around like he has no bones in his body. Well the fans are paying attention. I think that's something that he just doesn't understand."

 

If Impact Wrestling is good enough to compete with WWE:

 

"Going back to the ECW thing before, you shouldn't want to compete. You should be doing your own thing or watching WWE and saying – lets do something completely different. That's why the Broken Hardy's were so over. It was so different. It got people outside of wrestling talking. When was the last time something like that happened? You know, you have The Rock showing up in WWE, but when was the last time you had mainstream media talking about TNA? I don't think that's happened. Vignettes are what are missing from wrestling. When was the last time you saw a really cool vignette in which you cared about the character? Probably the Wyatts. It was like wow, this is interesting. The vignettes are what made the Hardy's stuff really compelling and interesting to fans and people outside of wrestling. That's how you make money. Nowadays they just debut characters, put them out there, and give them a title run and they fall away after a year. One year in today's business was like 4 in my era. You would build up talent. Randy Savage didn't get the world title until three years in to the company, maybe more. I miss that stuff. I miss the six months to a year of really caring about a character."

 

Stevie Richards also discussed if ECW helped form today's wrestling crowd and what he's up to these days. You can read the full interview by clicking here.

 

 

http://www.wrestlingattitude.com/2017/03/stevie-richards-on-crowds-hijacking.html

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I disagree with the crowd hijacking the show analogy. Maybe if WWE if that's what he was referring to, would actually put more effort into making RAW more entertaining, then fans won't 'hijack' the shows out of BOREDOM.

 

I wouldn't say Seth's promo was boring - it was a really good promo where he was actually trying to use pauses for dramatic effect, and some morons started chanting for a guy who left three years ago and isn't coming back.

 

Agree with his concerns for Shinsuke, but hopefully he's seen enough of what he can do now and Vince won't interfere.

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I thought it was. Guess we'll both agree to disagree.

 

Fair enough, but if you find it boring and you're in the arena, go and get a Coke or some merchandise - or maybe at least cheer for Triple H, or Joe - who are relevant to the story.

 

I felt the "CM Punk" chants were disrespectful, and in fact went a long way to killing the promo itself.

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i think crowds are chanting for the sake of chanting cause its trendy and it makes them feel cool. lets be honest here, they chant at times that there shouldn't be chants, they chant names that are have no bearing on the segment/match (CM Punk), and they chants things that have now become a cliche and lost it 'specialness' because its over done(like the "you deserve it", "we are awesome/this is awesome" chants).

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I thought it was. Guess we'll both agree to disagree.

Fair enough, but if you find it boring and you're in the arena, go and get a Coke or some merchandise - or maybe at least cheer for Triple H, or Joe - who are relevant to the story.

 

I felt the "CM Punk" chants were disrespectful, and in fact went a long way to killing the promo itself.

Honestly Lightning is biased af sometimes. Guys like Rollins or Corbin can cut a great promo and the dude's going to react the same way.

 

Don't bother.

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i think crowds are chanting for the sake of chanting cause its trendy and it makes them feel cool. lets be honest here, they chant at times that there shouldn't be chants, they chant names that are have no bearing on the segment/match (CM Punk), and they chants things that have now become a cliche and lost it 'specialness' because its over done(like the "you deserve it", "we are awesome/this is awesome" chants).

I agree with this as well. I think people try to have a good time but they also want to look cool. It's so hard to go to an event and cheer a babyface and boo a heel because of how things are now.

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i think crowds are chanting for the sake of chanting cause its trendy and it makes them feel cool. lets be honest here, they chant at times that there shouldn't be chants, they chant names that are have no bearing on the segment/match (CM Punk), and they chants things that have now become a cliche and lost it 'specialness' because its over done(like the "you deserve it", "we are awesome/this is awesome" chants).

I agree with this as well. I think people try to have a good time but they also want to look cool. It's so hard to go to an event and cheer a babyface and boo a heel because of how things are now.

 

 

Sad thing is, there's no no way for fans to legitimately tell the wrestlers how special their match is - that's what the "this is awesome" chant did. Originally to get that during a match must have been, even in a little way great for those performing - now it's lost all meaning.

 

Another sad thing is that crowd hijacking can detract from the promo itself, as I think it did with Seth on Monday.

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i think crowds are chanting for the sake of chanting cause its trendy and it makes them feel cool. lets be honest here, they chant at times that there shouldn't be chants, they chant names that are have no bearing on the segment/match (CM Punk), and they chants things that have now become a cliche and lost it 'specialness' because its over done(like the "you deserve it", "we are awesome/this is awesome" chants).

I agree with this as well. I think people try to have a good time but they also want to look cool. It's so hard to go to an event and cheer a babyface and boo a heel because of how things are now.

Sad thing is, there's no no way for fans to legitimately tell the wrestlers how special their match is - that's what the "this is awesome" chant did. Originally to get that during a match must have been, even in a little way great for those performing - now it's lost all meaning.

 

Another sad thing is that crowd hijacking can detract from the promo itself, as I think it did with Seth on Monday.

 

I remember when fans chanted ''This is awesome'' after Dean Ambrose did a suicide dive... something he does in almost all his matches. I just rolled my eyes.

 

I didn't see Seth's promo but I remember this happening to other guys multiple time. The ''CM Punk!'' and the ''What!?'' chant are among the worst and most annoying chant.

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i think crowds are chanting for the sake of chanting cause its trendy and it makes them feel cool. lets be honest here, they chant at times that there shouldn't be chants, they chant names that are have no bearing on the segment/match (CM Punk), and they chants things that have now become a cliche and lost it 'specialness' because its over done(like the "you deserve it", "we are awesome/this is awesome" chants).

I agree with this as well. I think people try to have a good time but they also want to look cool. It's so hard to go to an event and cheer a babyface and boo a heel because of how things are now.

 

 

To be honest though, I think the "faces need to be cheered, heels need to be boo'd" mindset needs to be left long in the dust. I don't feel that alignment should correspond with fan response anymore, I feel people should cheer for who they like face or heel.

 

Marty Scurll is a good example, dudes a heel. Big heel, but the response he gets is practically worship, and I think that's absolutely fine.

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I don't mind "This is awesome" chants. I think most of the time they're done, they're usually warranted. But the CM Punk chants or irrelevant chants need to stop.

 

 

I agree wholeheartedly with pretty much all that Richards said here, especially the part about building talent, and how it took guys longer to win a championship during his time, and how a year would be spent simply getting a character over, without putting a title on him. I miss this kind of stuff too.

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i think crowds are chanting for the sake of chanting cause its trendy and it makes them feel cool. lets be honest here, they chant at times that there shouldn't be chants, they chant names that are have no bearing on the segment/match (CM Punk), and they chants things that have now become a cliche and lost it 'specialness' because its over done(like the "you deserve it", "we are awesome/this is awesome" chants).

I agree with this as well. I think people try to have a good time but they also want to look cool. It's so hard to go to an event and cheer a babyface and boo a heel because of how things are now.

 

 

To be honest though, I think the "faces need to be cheered, heels need to be boo'd" mindset needs to be left long in the dust. I don't feel that alignment should correspond with fan response anymore, I feel people should cheer for who they like face or heel.

 

Marty Scurll is a good example, dudes a heel. Big heel, but the response he gets is practically worship, and I think that's absolutely fine.

 

Let's be fair though, at least my live events if you cheer a face you get looked at like you think it's real haha

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i think crowds are chanting for the sake of chanting cause its trendy and it makes them feel cool. lets be honest here, they chant at times that there shouldn't be chants, they chant names that are have no bearing on the segment/match (CM Punk), and they chants things that have now become a cliche and lost it 'specialness' because its over done(like the "you deserve it", "we are awesome/this is awesome" chants).

I agree with this as well. I think people try to have a good time but they also want to look cool. It's so hard to go to an event and cheer a babyface and boo a heel because of how things are now.

 

 

To be honest though, I think the "faces need to be cheered, heels need to be boo'd" mindset needs to be left long in the dust. I don't feel that alignment should correspond with fan response anymore, I feel people should cheer for who they like face or heel.

 

Marty Scurll is a good example, dudes a heel. Big heel, but the response he gets is practically worship, and I think that's absolutely fine.

 

Let's be fair though, at least my live events if you cheer a face you get looked at like you think it's real haha

 

 

Lol, ahh well who cares what others think though? Cheer for who you want to, face or heel. There's no end to movies in which I prefer the bad guy anyways, wrestlings no different.

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I hate the "people go to the shows to not have a good time" line. I hear that WAY too often from people...and it's shit. No...they go there to have a good time. Then something happens that makes them feel like they wasted their money in doing so...and they have every right to be upset about it. They don't want to get up and quietly leave, because they still paid for a full show...so they sit through it, complaining (as they have every right to do). Wrestlers need to pull their heads out of their asses with lines like that. I love Stevie, but...no.

 

It's true that some crowds can be major assholes about nothing in particular...but if the show was TRULY good...if it was done exactly as it should be...then there would be absolutely no room for the crowd to do anything other than pay close attention to the matches.The problems start when that isn't the case. And the further that you get from that ideal "sweet spot"...the more problems you get with rowdy crowds. Obviously WWE can't put on a perfect show every single night. But they can at least stop doing things that they know damn well people don't want to see. Sometimes their attitude towards the fans is so blatant that you can't help but give them a giant middle finger as someone who paid their hard earned money to see a show...

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This looks like a good interview. Stevie is right on the money. He also has great taste in wrestling video games.

 

Chanting is fun, but I think fans do go a bit overboard sometimes. I don't mind the constant chanting at UK shows, because I feel like that's more of an organic part of their culture with football and whatnot. As an American fan watching, it makes it feel more special, the same way Japanese fans being so quiet does. With PWG, it comes off as more forced, and it's uncomfortable when you see the wrestlers literally stopping to cringe at chants like "this is kayfabe". The wrestlers look around with a look on their face that says, "please don't, you're embarrassing yourselves", and the fans all laugh and clap like it's part of the show.

 

 

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WWE is entirely less respectable than British or Japanese wrestling, which is why you get the crowds that you get; You get the fans that you cater to. WWE continuously caters to an audience of racist, xenophobic, sexist, moronic simpletons on wellfare...so that's what their crowds reflect. You might have an exception in one town or another...but for the most part...no...you get what you get. Even TNA's fans are better than WWE's, because they at least went out of their way to find a different product that they enjoy. WWE's audience is just America's lowest common denominator...for the most part.

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People are still chanting USA at Rusev lmao

 

In a match with an Indian guy as well. (Not sure if Jinder is US-Indian though, as born in the USA)

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WWE is entirely less respectable than British or Japanese wrestling, which is why you get the crowds that you get; You get the fans that you cater to. WWE continuously caters to an audience of racist, xenophobic, sexist, moronic simpletons on wellfare...so that's what their crowds reflect. You might have an exception in one town or another...but for the most part...no...you get what you get. Even TNA's fans are better than WWE's, because they at least went out of their way to find a different product that they enjoy. WWE's audience is just America's lowest common denominator...for the most part.

Quite the xenophobic prick aren't we?

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