Worst WWE Cities?

[cyhh2002]

Throughout its history, the WWE has visited many cities over the years. Some, like New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Miami, Detroit, Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston have cemented their positions as some of the top drawing cities in the WWE as their crowds have been very enthusiastic when it comes to supporting the WWE.

However, there are several cities that don't draw and/or have dead crowds as well and as a result, the WWE seldom visits those cities. Among those cities that I can think of are Seattle, Portland, Spokane, Denver, Nashville, and Las Vegas.

Your thoughts?

 

[kadroan]

You left out Dayton, Ohio (the RAW Batista returned) and this past RAW in Birmingham, Ala. when Evolution returned.

The TV ratings turned out to be good but it was pathetic hearing nobody reacting to Evolution.

 

[CrucifiedRaven]

You left out Toronto (my hometown), the host of two of the best WrestleMania's of all time, in your list of great WWE cities. I think it's on par with New York and Chicago... considering WM6, WM18 and some of the great RAWs over the years. Not to mention about half a decade of "you screwed Bret" chants towards Michaels, Vince and Hebner after 1997... As far as the worst? Usually anytime they go to an old WCW territory like Atlanta or South Carolina it's been pretty bad. Not sure why, but I guess the south were never Vince fans. Also Ohio (Columbus, Dayton as mentioned above) have always been disappointing for the most part.

 

[Reflection]

Baltimore!!!! You missed that. After that terrible crowd reaction throughout Old School RAW (which included some pin-drop-silences as well), it will be hard to compose a worst crowd list without that city being in it.

 

[laodaron]

Philadelphia and Chicago. Those are the two smarkiest cities and therefore make the most unwatchable television appearances, IMO.

 

[enviousdominous]

How has nobody even thought to mention Pittsburgh as a toxic location?!

I'm a card carrying Cena hater. If I see him, I will boo incessantly. If there's kids around, I will boo in a manner that doesn't ruin their experience. The idea is that he's out there putting on a show for our amusement, and it amuses me to boo him.

I made that last paragraph to emphasize just how horrible the Pittsburgh crowd was during the 2014 Royal Rumble. I got a few chuckles while watching it, but eventually I really wanted to stop watching only because the entirety of the crowd was one gigantic dick convention. I'll chant "CENA SUCKS!", but I'm not going to chant "YOU BOTH SUCK!" or do a somber *CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP-CLAP-CLAP* "THIS IS AWFUL!" chant like they did. It's like they were indulging in their disgust, it ruined the show for me. I hate John Cena and I'm a huge Daniel Bryan mark, but that crowd had issues and I would never show my disappointment in the same way they did.

It's a free country, we can be assholes if we really really want to be. But for fucks sake, don't drown out a performance because a few drunk jackasses think it would be so damn validating to ruin a show with their heckling. I honestly didn't see any reason for the John Cena vs Randy Orton match to warrant their brand of obnoxious angst.

I honestly think it's a Pennsylvania thing. I saw Philadelphia mentioned by someone else in this thread. Seeing that reminded me of something not Pro-wrestling related, but indicative of how Philly crowds can be a bunch of shit heads.

Bill Burr had to do ten minutes of stand up for a Philly crowd that had just booed two other performers into oblivion:

[YOUTUBE]rNnkDjMVJqE[/YOUTUBE]

 

[beckyh]

Every time they come to Lexington or Louisville (KY), it's not good. But there is always a MMA event the weekend before which does well.

 

[HORRORHOLIC]

I've always thought Toronto was pretty much the New York of Canada. I was at both Wrestlemania 6 and 18 by the way

 

[bioshock]

Cant imagine how cool a Old School Raw would be in MSG or in Chicago with those hot crowds. But so far this year Birmingham, Ala is the worst. Even the fans at the show tweeted out how bad it was. I mean cmon the only chant they could get going was "WHAT...WHAT...WHAT" talk about behind the times. Its hard to think of which crowds are the worst, usually they get defined with how they act on Raw. I think last year and the year before that, the 2nd Raw after Wrestlemania had horrible crowds, just like this year the 2nd Raw after Wrestlemania, all 3 shows had the YES movement totally dead in the water.

 

[FeeltheBANG16]

Toronto is always lively (maybe I'm biased because it's my hometown). Everytime I've attended an event the place is rocking. As for worst cities... I'd say Tennessee as a state has some of the worst crowds. (No offense Tenesseers)

 

[MattRhys20]

I remember a couple of months ago, Josh Isenberg talked on CSR about the issue of 'RAW should not go to certain places. One of the places mentioned was Sioux City, Iowa which was dead.

 

[Dragon Chief]

Toronto and Montreal deserve to be mentioned amongst the greatest WWE cities. As for worst cities I would say Washington, DC. has never been that memorable to me but I wouldn't consider it the worst, it's just the only one that comes to mind at the moment. I remember Cyber Sunday 2007, Batista was defending his title against Undertaker with Austin as the referee and the crowd reaction for Batista in his hometown was underwhelming, especially for such a huge match. Very rarely do we see good crowds in this era and I wouldn't put the blame on a specific city as the only crowds that I remember nowadays are the WrestleMania crowd and the post-WrestleMania crowds.

 

[suleman09]

I'd have to say Baltimore MD and Washington DC and maybe Richmond VA, all there are around my hometown and I go to each venue when wwe comes to town, its always disappointing how low the energy is sometimes bc im always trying to blow the roof off of the place

 

[Mark Henry's Beard]

I see some people mentioning GREAT crowds like Chicago, New York, and that Pittsburgh Rumble crowd and that's something that is beginning to chap my ass. I've started to more frequently see people bitching about hot crowds as "trying to get themselves over" and this new way of thinking ranks up there with some of the stupidest shit I've ever heard. Seriously. It's mind blowing ignorance. Would you prefer the crowds to instead give the show the ambiance of a three hour funeral? Give a hot crowd a hot show and there won't be any problem with the audience "trying to get themselves over". What assholes. Paying money for a ticket and then reacting to the show put in front of them. I bet they cheer at concerts, too. Low lifes.

As for the worst crowds, there are a lot. Awhile back, I proposed that the WWE limit RAW to 25 or 30 select cities, with other cities getting a tryout now and again and being put into the rotation if the crowd proved to be up to it. It actually seems like WWE has this system somewhat in place already, only they don't execute it worth a shit. This Monday, wrestling hotbed Baltimore will be getting their third RAW in less than a year. It also seems like they're in Iowa, Wisconsin, or Ohio about once a month. A hot crowd makes a good show great and a great show epic. It can also turn a terrible show (2014 Royal Rumble) into something that's at least worth watching. I'm seriously sick of RAW emanating from BFE. Your product is probably hotter than it has been in any point in the last 10 years. Go places that allow that to come through on television. Not Birmingham, Alabama or Sioux City, Iowa.

 

[laodaron]

Your false dichotomy doesn't do your argument any justice. There are more choices than funeral crowd or piece of shit smark asshole crowds like Chicago and Philly.

 

[Mark Henry's Beard]

Your false dichotomy doesn't do your argument any justice. There are more choices than funeral crowd or piece of shit smark asshole crowds like Chicago and Philly.

Oh, so you'd rather them just perform in front of ok crowds, since you've decided to label legitimately good, hot crowds as awful just because there are snarks in them. Please, Mr. Wrestling Hipster, teach me your ways.

"THIS CROWD IS FILLED WITH ACTUAL FANS OF WRESTLING! FUCK THEM! I CAN'T WAIT TIL NEXT WEEK WHEN THE CROWD GOES BACK TO BARELY GIVING A SHIT!"

 

[laodaron]

Oh, so you'd rather them just perform in front of ok crowds, since you've decided to label legitimately good, hot crowds as awful just because there are snarks in them. Please, Mr. Wrestling Hipster, teach me your ways.

"THIS CROWD IS FILLED WITH ACTUAL FANS OF WRESTLING! FUCK THEM! I CAN'T WAIT TIL NEXT WEEK WHEN THE CROWD GOES BACK TO BARELY GIVING A SHIT!"

I'm not going to argue back and forth with you because you have an absolute zero sum concept of what you're talking about. You don't know what a hot crowd is, no idea what a smark is, or no idea what a hipster is. I love the mainstream stuff, and when I go to a wrestling event, I don't want to be a part of a movement that gets reported on dirtsheets. I want to watch great wrestling.

A good town cheers the good guy and boos the bad guy. They chant for the people in the ring, and don't shit on a match because it isn't high intensity enough for them. They rally behind a guy's 5 moves of doom, and then they erupt when the good guy gets the win and go crazy booing when the bad guy does. WM30 was a good crowd. A great one, in fact.

Learn what you're talking about before you decide to jump into a thread that's over your head and try to shit on it. Go ahead and respond if you want, but this is the last thing I'll be saying to you.

 

[Con T.]

I'm not going to argue back and forth with you because you have an absolute zero sum concept of what you're talking about. You don't know what a hot crowd is, no idea what a smark is, or no idea what a hipster is. I love the mainstream stuff, and when I go to a wrestling event, I don't want to be a part of a movement that gets reported on dirtsheets. I want to watch great wrestling.

A good town cheers the good guy and boos the bad guy. They chant for the people in the ring, and don't shit on a match because it isn't high intensity enough for them. They rally behind a guy's 5 moves of doom, and then they erupt when the good guy gets the win and go crazy booing when the bad guy does. WM30 was a good crowd. A great one, in fact.

Learn what you're talking about before you decide to jump into a thread that's over your head and try to shit on it. Go ahead and respond if you want, but this is the last thing I'll be saying to you.

So a crowd is just supposed to accept everything WWE gives them, even if they don't like it?

That's dumb. If you pay for a ticket, you get the right to express when you feel something sucks. Whether you like to admit it or not, much of the events of Wrestlemania 30 (read; Daniel Bryan winning the world title) happened because of that Pittsburgh crowd. Without them, the New Orleans crowd boos the shit out of Batista/Orton.

Then are they such a great crowd?

 

[SeriousProfessional]

... But so far this year Birmingham, Ala is the worst. Even the fans at the show tweeted out how bad it was. I mean cmon the only chant they could get going was "WHAT...WHAT...WHAT" talk about behind the times. . .

That's because Alabama is full of morons. Seriously, there's a lot of people who don't seem to realize it's a work.


I hate to say it but Tampa crowds are weak, also. You'd think they'd embrace it more considering that half of all wrestlers seem to live there. It doesn't help that WWE seems to always put on a toned down B-show when they come there.

 

[laodaron]

Oh, Jesus. Another person that got worked by WWE and gives the crowd the credit.

Yes, if a crowd watches WWE and then pays for an event, and then they shit on it because you don't like the way that creative is working them, or they don't understand that it's an angle, that makes the crowd a bad crowd. Pittsburgh didn't have shit to do with WM30, because Bryan was hand picked to win the title at WM30 back before Summerslam. Stop giving shitty crowds credit for being morons.

 

[Con T.]

Oh, Jesus. Another person that got worked by WWE and gives the crowd the credit.

Yes, if a crowd watches WWE and then pays for an event, and then they shit on it because you don't like the way that creative is working them, or they don't understand that it's an angle, that makes the crowd a bad crowd. Pittsburgh didn't have shit to do with WM30, because Bryan was hand picked to win the title at WM30 back before Summerslam. Stop giving shitty crowds credit for being morons.

Link to your evidence? Because it's fairly obvious you have none.

All of the television was building towards Orton/Batista from the Rumble to the Chamber. And unless you have anything to spefically support your assessment, I'm sorry to say you worked to believing this was the plan all along.

 

[Mark Henry's Beard]

I'm not going to argue back and forth with you because you have an absolute zero sum concept of what you're talking about. You don't know what a hot crowd is, no idea what a smark is, or no idea what a hipster is. I love the mainstream stuff, and when I go to a wrestling event, I don't want to be a part of a movement that gets reported on dirtsheets. I want to watch great wrestling.

A good town cheers the good guy and boos the bad guy. They chant for the people in the ring, and don't shit on a match because it isn't high intensity enough for them. They rally behind a guy's 5 moves of doom, and then they erupt when the good guy gets the win and go crazy booing when the bad guy does. WM30 was a good crowd. A great one, in fact.

Learn what you're talking about before you decide to jump into a thread that's over your head and try to shit on it. Go ahead and respond if you want, but this is the last thing I'll be saying to you.

That post is hilarious to me for a number of reasons. First of all, you tell me I have no idea what makes a good crowd, then you clarify what it means by telling me it's just a crowd that cheers for the faces. (By the way, if every crowd behaved like this, Steve Austin, the Rock, and Daniel Bryan would have never achieved what they did, as they were all heels that the crowd turned face).

Second, your example of a "great crowd" is the crowd at WM XXX, which, ironically, I was a part of. The irony isn't done there, because that crowd goes AGAINST what you just described as a great crowd. That crowd was PISSED when Cena beat Wyatt, didn't give a shit about the Streak match until it was over, and favored heels AJ Lee, Bray Wyatt, and the Real Americans. I agree it was a great crowd, but not by the definition you just gave me. It was the same crowd that probably infuriated you 24 hours later on RAW.

 

[EnjoyWrestlingSince94]

"Sigh" It seems Baltimore, MD. My hometown will always get the short and shitty end of the stick.

 

[JJ15776]

So a crowd is just supposed to accept everything WWE gives them, even if they don't like it?

That's dumb. If you pay for a ticket, you get the right to express when you feel something sucks. Whether you like to admit it or not, much of the events of Wrestlemania 30 (read; Daniel Bryan winning the world title) happened because of that Pittsburgh crowd. Without them, the New Orleans crowd boos the shit out of Batista/Orton.

Then are they such a great crowd?

Are you serious? How did Pittsburgh's Royal Rumble crowd have anything to do with Daniel Bryan winning the title at WrestleMania when, whether you want to admit it or not, that was obviously the plan well before Royal Rumble? That makes absolutely no sense.

Link to your evidence? Because it's fairly obvious you have none.

All of the television was building towards Orton/Batista from the Rumble to the Chamber. And unless you have anything to spefically support your assessment, I'm sorry to say you worked to believing this was the plan all along.

Is this sarcasm? I really can't tell.

Ok, I'll play along. What evidence do you have that Batista-Orton was the plan? Because you obviously have none. All the television from the Rumble to the Chamber, just like all the television from SummerSlam to the Rumble, was about The Authority keeping Daniel Bryan away from the title, keeping Daniel Bryan out of the main event.

You want something specific? Fair enough. First, the interview Daniel Bryan did for ST Communities before the Royal Rumble. Here: http://stcommunities.straitstimes.c...superstar-daniel-bryan-breaking-down-barriers

Relevant quotes:

"As of now, I'm not in the 30-man Royal Rumble match, I'm trying to get involved in it. (WWE) COO Triple H doesn't want me anywhere in the Royal Rumble match," explained Bryan.

"The company doesn't neccesarily want somebody like me at the top. I'm not what they think a WWE superstar should look like, but because the WWE fans have been so loud and vocal in their support of me, they kind of had to put me at the top of the card because people want to see it," he noted proudly.

"I'm just thankful every day for how awesome my fans have been."

With Wrestlemania looming ahead on April 6, Bryan has set his sights on the top prize, the WWE World Heavyweight championship.

"If I can't do that, I'd like to wrestle Triple H. He's the one keeping me from my opportunities right now."

This is two days before the Royal Rumble, and he's clearly advancing the storyline that Triple H and The Authority are keeping him out of the Royal Rumble match, keeping him away from the title, and keeping him away from his goals - just like he did on Raw when he mentioned that The Machine wouldn't let him get anywhere because they kept putting the Wyatt Family in his way, when he temporarily joined them so he could take them out from within, in one of the coolest endings in Raw history. He also brought up the crowd, thanking them for getting him where he is and encouraging them to continue to do so.

Secondly, Daniel Bryan's Twitter account. https://twitter.com/WWEDanielBryan

He posted this three minutes after the Royal Rumble ended:

@WWEDanielBryan Sorry guys, the machine wanted me nowhere near the Royal Rumble match. But I thank everyone for their support. YOU are the #YESMovement

And this seven minutes later:

@WWEDanielBryan They try to keep US down and away from the top spots, but they can’t ignore the reactions forever. Keep voicing your opinions. #YESMovement

Again, advancing the storyline that Triple H/The Authority/The Machine/WWE are keeping him out of the title picture, keeping him out of the main event. And again advancing the idea that his fans, the Yes Movement, can help him get there despite what the WWE wants. This has all clearly planned before the Rumble given how quickly they went up.

It was a storyline, you got worked. It happens to the best of us, and you're certainly not alone on this one. Just accept it and move on.

 

[Con T.]

So then your evidence is based on twitter and interviews.

If so, then feel free to tell me.... Where on television, from the Rumble to the Chamber, do you see that angle progressed?

Or, was the angle that was progressed Orton/Batista?

Sorry, alt of Laodaron, but you have things that happened on twitter. I got things on camera.