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Post by HMARK Center on Jun 22, 2015 18:11:21 GMT -5
I've spent the last month or so trying to get back into and fully caught up on NJPW, Lucha Underground, and ROH. This has meant cramming a bunch of shows into marathon viewing sessions, which is normally alright, except that, at least with the ROH crowd, I'm already getting sick of a few of the crowd chants.
I thought of this because I was at Punk vs. Aries back in 2005 (ROH Death Before Dishonor 3, the "Punk tells the snake story and threatens to leave with the belt" show); it's the first time I remember a crowd doing the "BOO...YAY!" thing as a face and heel traded forearms or punches. It was a chant that meant something that night; going into that match, we were all convinced it was Punk's final match in ROH, and we were going to cheer even if he brought a live grenade into the ring and chucked it in the middle of Section B. It only made sense after awhile to put our cheers into that form.
Getting back into ROH after about 4-5 years of being away from it, I can't get over how commonplace the "BOO...YAY!" thing is now, even in face vs. face matches. It's REALLY off-putting, and REALLY repetitive.
So, in other words, it got me thinking about the chants that happen at indy shows that drive me crazy. If you've got one, share it, and say why you hate it.
I'll start off with a classic: "This is awesome". Yes crowd, we know it is. Once you start cheering that, it suddenly feels like it's only "awesome" because you want to shoehorn that chant in to show other cities "Hey, look, we can chant it, too!". If you really, honestly like the action in the ring, we'll know by the noise you're making without you having to explain it.
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metylerca
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Post by metylerca on Jun 22, 2015 18:18:56 GMT -5
"Wrestling!.........yay!!!"
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Johnny Flamingo
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Post by Johnny Flamingo on Jun 22, 2015 18:21:08 GMT -5
Only one I don't like is "We are Awesome"
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Brood Lone Wolf Funker
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Post by Brood Lone Wolf Funker on Jun 22, 2015 18:28:17 GMT -5
SUPER DRAGON....SUPER DRAGON
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Post by Just call me D.j.m. on Jun 22, 2015 18:55:10 GMT -5
I want to ask a question to the poster of this thread.
What chants do you like? What chants are okay?
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Post by 2coldMack is even more baffled on Jun 22, 2015 18:57:53 GMT -5
I want to ask a question to the poster of this thread. What chants do you like? What chants are okay? Seriously. When is it okay to react with more than polite applause? I'm going to the ROH Atlanta show in a couple of months, how do I react "right"? Seriously, stop harshing on people for enjoying themselves. |
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Facetious
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Post by Facetious on Jun 22, 2015 18:58:25 GMT -5
Twinkies (mainly towards Todd Sinclair) will always be the most forced, stupid chant. It was kind of funny the first time and every other time was eye rolling.
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Post by HMARK Center on Jun 22, 2015 20:00:07 GMT -5
I want to ask a question to the poster of this thread. What chants do you like? What chants are okay? Well, I'm not king of the indy crowds, so I don't get to dictate which chants are "okay"; I can simply say which ones I think are obnoxious. Forced chants suck, for me. I hate the notion of crowds being there to largely get themselves over, and too often that's what a lot of the chants come off as. "This is awesome", "this is wrestling", they come off as supremely forced, as "this is what we're supposed to chant right now", rather than organic enjoyment. It confuses me, because I feel like it'd be so much more fun to go to a wrestling show to cheer your favorite wrestlers, yet so often the cheers are just the company name or one of the ones above. Obviously it's not like crowds don't do that (otherwise we wouldn't have dueling chants), but, for example, when we chant the initials of a company instead of the wrestlers' names, eventually the wrestlers start planning their matches around stuff like that, and I don't think it's a good thing. Given that wrestlers are in there to make a living, I just prefer the idea of cheering for the actual talent. There have been some amazing chants made up over the years for certain wrestlers ("Who dat think they gonna beat dat Dog?!" for JYD in New Orleans, or even something as simple as "OLEEEEE OLE OLE OLEEEEE!" for Generico or a Samoa Joe kick), and it makes for a more fun crowd atmosphere and directs the fan attention at where I, personally, think it really should be, on the individual talents. |
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Post by HMARK Center on Jun 22, 2015 20:01:34 GMT -5
Twinkies (mainly towards Todd Sinclair) will always be the most forced, stupid chant. It was kind of funny the first time and every other time was eye rolling. Ugh, was Petey Williams vs. Austin Aries the first time that one happened? If so, I was there for that, too. Yeah, kind of a fun joke at first (especially at the end of the night, during Danielson's farewell, when everybody chanted "THANK YOU TODD!" at him for being a good sport), but it's so weird to still hear some people try to do it...thankfully, very few of them. |
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Ultimo Gallos
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Jun 22, 2015 20:05:40 GMT -5
Only one I don't like is "We are Awesome" Thankfully that one hasn't infected the local indies yet. Not a fan of "THIS IS WRESTLING". Well duh it is wrestling that is why we are here. |
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Facetious
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Post by Facetious on Jun 22, 2015 20:15:02 GMT -5
Twinkies (mainly towards Todd Sinclair) will always be the most forced, stupid chant. It was kind of funny the first time and every other time was eye rolling. Ugh, was Petey Williams vs. Austin Aries the first time that one happened? If so, I was there for that, too. Yeah, kind of a fun joke at first (especially at the end of the night, during Danielson's farewell, when everybody chanted "THANK YOU TODD!" at him for being a good sport), but it's so weird to still hear some people try to do it...thankfully, very few of them. I'm almost positive it was. The New York crowd tried to make it a main stay and Aries himself tried to diffuse it (with Golden Snack Cakes, which in turn started a chant for that), but I'm not exactly sure when it went away. |
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Post by DSR on Jun 22, 2015 20:54:27 GMT -5
Earlier today I watched ROH's "Michael Elgin: Unbreakable Obsession" DVD, and there's a couple of times on there where Elgin does the Crippler Crossface. The audience starts chanting "CHRIS BENOIT! CHRIS BENOIT!" Ugh.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 22, 2015 20:57:03 GMT -5
I don't necessarily like the "this is awesome" chant either, but the people who chant it do so because the match they are watching makes them feel that way. They aren't chanting it if they don't think to themselves, "wow, this is awesome." Same with anyone who chants "match of the year" after a match is over if they feel that it was. It's their opinion. Voiced during a wrestling show.
The only chants I really wish would go away would be the ones that actively take away from the show itself, or intentionally make it difficult for the performers to do their job properly. Like "shut the f*** up" during someone's mic work, or the people who still do the Steve Austin "what" thing during pauses in someone's mic work (if that counts as a chant, even though it's really not). In those instances, where the wrestlers who are trying to get across the storyline they are involved in or explain why their character is doing something, the people chanting are actively trying to stop the wrestler speaking from effectively communicating the story to the audience.
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Malcolm
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Post by Malcolm on Jun 22, 2015 20:58:54 GMT -5
I want to ask a question to the poster of this thread. What chants do you like? What chants are okay? Seriously. When is it okay to react with more than polite applause? I'm going to the ROH Atlanta show in a couple of months, how do I react "right"? Seriously, stop harshing on people for enjoying themselves. He didn't say the crowd were acting "wrong". Just that they are annoying. He has the right to say that a chant is annoying just like people have a right to say how much a crowd "sucks" for not reacting "right". |
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Malcolm
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Post by Malcolm on Jun 22, 2015 21:04:47 GMT -5
Only one I don't like is "We are Awesome" Thankfully that one hasn't infected the local indies yet. Not a fan of "THIS IS WRESTLING". Well duh it is wrestling that is why we are here. The next time someone chants "This is Wrestling" someone else needs to start a "No Shit Sherlock" counter-chant. |
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Post by HMARK Center on Jun 22, 2015 21:06:35 GMT -5
I don't necessarily like the "this is awesome" chant either, but the people who chant it do so because the match they are watching makes them feel that way. They aren't chanting it if they don't think to themselves, "wow, this is awesome." Same with anyone who chants "match of the year" after a match is over if they feel that it was. It's their opinion. Voiced during a wrestling show. The only chants I really wish would go away would be the ones that actively take away from the show itself, or intentionally make it difficult for the performers to do their job properly. Like "shut the f*** up" during someone's mic work, or the people who still do the Steve Austin "what" thing during pauses in someone's mic work (if that counts as a chant, even though it's really not). I get that, but for me it just takes an already predetermined product and makes it feel even more fake. I realize how badly the cat's out of the bag on stuff like that, but it would just be nice to get the sense that something is awesome based on the crowd's pure reaction without being told outright; just comes off too much as part of the show, at least for my tastes. I never minded "shut the @#$% up" during a promo...as long as it was done to a heel, or just somebody we're supposed to react negatively to (e.g. the heel is speaking, so you figure you're about to get a line of BS and stalling tactics, so you want them to shut up). "What", however, is a chant born from the depths of hell. It's cool to see that one's faded back quite a bit, too. |
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Post by DSR on Jun 22, 2015 21:07:12 GMT -5
Thankfully that one hasn't infected the local indies yet. Not a fan of "THIS IS WRESTLING". Well duh it is wrestling that is why we are here. The next time someone chants "This is Wrestling" someone else needs to start a "No Shit Sherlock" counter-chant. "THIS IS WRESTLING!" "THOUGHT IT WAS BADMINTON!" |
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Post by Mister Pigwell on Jun 22, 2015 21:08:42 GMT -5
Man I love loud rowdy crowds. Barring "We Are Awesome" I get as much of a kick out of the standard chants you're complaining about at times as I do the matches, and a crowd getting that into it adds a lot to the show sometimes.
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Ultimo Gallos
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Jun 22, 2015 23:34:40 GMT -5
Thankfully that one hasn't infected the local indies yet. Not a fan of "THIS IS WRESTLING". Well duh it is wrestling that is why we are here. The next time someone chants "This is Wrestling" someone else needs to start a "No Shit Sherlock" counter-chant. I would but the shows are family friendly with lots of young kids there. |
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Malcolm
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Post by Malcolm on Jun 22, 2015 23:44:31 GMT -5
The next time someone chants "This is Wrestling" someone else needs to start a "No Shit Sherlock" counter-chant. I would but the shows are family friendly with lots of young kids there. How about "No duh, Sherlock" instead? |
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