Have fans been "spoiled" by fast paced matches?

[HeymanHustler]

I started to make this assumption months ago, but after seeing the Sheamus vs Cesaro match from last Monday night, I'm inclined to say "yes" to such a question.

In that match, it started off just the right pace and from the sounds of it, the crowd was loving it at first. Then, before it barely even began to slow down, you started hearing "JBL! JBL! JBL!". You could blame it on your typical England crowd, but stuff like this has been happening for months now. The same happened during Bray Wyatt and Roman Reign's first one on one encounter from a few months back. It started off nicely and the crowd was pretty into it, then when the match started to slow down a bit during the midway point, you start to hear "Michael Cole! Michael Cole!", "Randy Savage! Randy Savage!", "Undertaker! Undertaker!", and "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!" chants from the fans. We even got faint sounds of the dreaded (and most annoying of all, if you ask me) "CM PUNK! CM PUNK! CM PUNK!" chants. Why? Because the match wasn't 1000 miles an hour from start to finish? Because the two would rather try and tell a story instead of going at it like Eddie and Rey at Halloween Havoc 97? I just don't understand it.

I get it, to an extent. It's disrespectful to chant for people who have nothing to do with the match, but chanting another wrestler/employee's name when they're not involved with a match is supposed to be the modern way to "BOO!" a match, apparently. The fans way of showing their disdain because they're bored with the match, usually because they're bored of seeing this match again (like with Cena vs Orton from this year's Royal Rumble or Sheamus vs Orton from just a couple years back on Raw) or because the match slowed down. Thing is, why be bored when a match slows down? It's like ring psychology 101. Happens in tons of matches when the match starts off fast, slows down for a bit in the middle (often with something like a wrestler having a sleeper hold or a headlock on their opponent for a minute or two), and then picks up even more in it's final few minutes. Why are fans bored of it now? Have we gotten so many matches that were fast paced for just about start to finish (ex. Shield vs Wyatts from EC) lately that whenever a match slows down, however brief it may slow down, fans can't handle it? And why chant other employees names during these slow periods? I used to think they'd do it to just give the creative guys in the back a message that they didn't want to see this match or were sick of seeing these two fight and wanted to see something else, but for months, a popular consensus has been that fans WANTED to see Bray vs Roman. They WANT to see Cesaro vs Sheamus. So when they finally get the match they've been crying about in WWE forums and comment sections, they boo it or chant some random schmuck's name because it gets a little slow near the middle? Give me a break.

I'm sorry if this turned into more than a rant than an actual question, but this kind of thing has been pissing me off more and more for the last few months and seeing it happen during the Cesaro vs Sheamus match just was like the last straw for me. But whatever. I'll shut up and let you guys do the talking. What do you think?

 

[TheICChampion]

In this fast-paced day and age, people tend to get bored with certain things a lot faster. It's like "that's great, what have you done for me lately" kind of mentality. Ok, now I've seen what I want to see, now I want something else. Or, you've given me this, now I want that. It's kinda sad, but that's the way humans have always been (granted, not all, but most). Look at technology just in the past decade. "I wanna play games on my phone." "I want faster internet." "I wanna be able to look at the person I'm talking to on my computer." etc etc. As for fans chanting random names during matches, I think it's just they've seen other fans chanting it on tv, so they think "I wanna do that too." Some fans are just attention ****es. They want to do whatever they can to get themselves over at the expense of the show. Or they think "That person got that chant going, I can do that too" or whatever. It sucks, I know, but that's just the way it is. That's the price to pay to be "free".

 

[James2293]

I think it has to do more with raw being 3 hrs long that when you attend raw. You sit, watch a match, promo, recap of either of the two, entrance, commercial break, match starts. And it repeats for three hrs that some people just start chanting names to get involved. Plus chanting the announcers names has been become a regular chant since last year which is worse than the what chants since a good match may be going on but the crowd distracts you when you're watching it on tv

 

[Jack-Hammer]

In my opinion, the answer is yes. All you have to do is look at some of the reactions some matches get the answer. Even if matches are well wrestled and the people involved work hard, live fans sometimes won't give a shit or they'll start with "CM Punk", "JBL" or "Jerry" Lawler chants. In other companies, and even WWE sometimes, the fans will start singing or chanting some sort of goofy song or cheer if they're not constantly entertained every single second by what's going on.. With some matches, it's understandable if they're just not interested in the guys who're wrestling, sometimes the company is to blame for that while sometimes it's the talent themselves. However, I've heard crowds do this to matches featuring some very over talent in what were good matches; they've given that sort of treatment to singles matches with Roman Reigns or Dean Ambrose before.

Another problem that wrestling companies are plagued by are fans that aren't content to be fans, but rather want to be the stars of the show. It's one thing to not be into the product you're seeing, voice that opinion to the heavens if that's how you feel, but some fans actually pay their money to go to some of these shows for the primary purpose of acting like coked up chimps flinging their shit around. Those fans are very usually of the opinion "I paid my money, so I'm gonna behave exactly the way I want; so fuck everybody else." If it sounds like a typical attitude you'd hear from some redneck, it probably is because rednecks aren't at all limited to the south. Every state, geographic area and culture have rednecks; they might be called by a different name, but they're all the same thing.

As has been said in numerous posts by numerous posters, wrestling can sometimes be a reflection of society and I've little doubt that American fans are spoiled rotten just like American society itself. This isn't just an issue with WWE, but it's an issue that every pro wrestling company suffers unless your matches are little more than spotfests that move at an insanely fast pace.

 

[Gibby]

Hiroshi Tanahashi weighed in on this topic in his book. @puro_yottsume has been translating it from Japanese on his blog, there's a few excerpts worth a read but here's a relevant passage.

If I throw in moves after moves, the crowd will be deprived of their opportunity to enjoy those “space” between the moves. The kind of “space” that the famous Ric Flair created in his matches. And when they are lost, you fail to give audience the aftertaste of each move. The beauty of pro-wrestling will be lost forever.

Pro-wrestling is about dealing with mannerism. As the chairman of BUSHIROAD (owner of NJPW) Takaaki Kidani always say, “Entertainment is done for when people are bored with the product”. And I agree with that. The more progress “McDonalization of wrestling” make, the faster fans will lose interest in the product. The fans will lose their expectation for the coming product in the future.

Worth a read - http://yottsumepuroresu.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/njpw-hiroshi-tanahashi-talks-about-his.html

I don't always agree and I was yearning for faster matches as a kid: I just didn't know they were possible until I saw Steamboat/Macho and the middleweight guys like Michaels and Hart in the top line. That said those guys are psychology experts as well, so the clear answer for me is that a brisk pace doesn't harm without psychology, but too much of any one thing, be it brawling, hardcore, flying, main-event style, technical or shoot will get dull as dishwater.

 

[PeterSellersSTL]

some of these matches are random matches with no build though so what reason do fans have to be invested? Cesaro was just feuding with RVD a couple of weeks ago and at the drop of a hat he's feuding with Sheamus. Why? I wanna see matches with something behind them, I watched Hart Michaels Iron Man about a week or two ago, loved every minute of it. I do believe people will sit through matches with "space" if given a reason to.

However, as for the random wrestler chants, it really is just obnoxious crowds wanting to be part of the show. And I think it's here to stay and fans today and the IWC at large love to bitch about quiet crowds, submission holds and pace be damned.

The announcers are in part to blame to, if they would actually call matches and the psychology, fans would be better off. Announce teams are responsible in educating fans. Also it doesn't help when Cena and others go superhero. Ambrose comes out of something as simple as a sleeper dizzy and collapses if he stands up to fast. Cena goes into an AA like nothing even happened. But then there are guys like Ziggler who's crawling on the rope and flopping like a dead fish 1 minute into his match, it's laughable.

The announce team, the wrestlers, and the crowd have to all be on the same page, otherwise it looks and sounds like 3 different products and ruins things for viewers at home.

 

[Papa Pillman]

I think if there is one thing most to blame for the phenomenon that you're describing, it's less about pace desensitization and more about the formulaic nature of many of WWE's TV matches. It's like the fans know the point in the match when they can tune out and do their own thing before checking back in for the finish. Combine that with the fact that every hot WWE crowd now seems to have a thirst to indulge itself by checking off the boxes of all of the assumed prerequisite chants, and will find chances to do that no matter how good the show, and you have merely noticed what the result is.

Beyond that, but only slightly related, fans should be expected to react in a more attentive nature both at the very start of a match and when the hottest sequences of the match occur. Watch any "real" combat sport and you'll see(or more appropriately hear) the same thing happen at the opening bell and also when the flurries, rallies, big power shots, etc. occur.