I Just Can't Get Into NXT Because Of The CWC Crowd

[clifford]

Black and Gold NXT is my favourite time period of wrestling the last 20 years. I zoned out towards the end of that era however. I didn't watch 2.0 save for a few big episodes and most of the PLEs they did. I've tried lately to get back into NXT and am having a real hard time enjoying it. During Halloween Havoc I think I figured out why.

There's like this...Stepford wives, uncanny valley aspect to the NXT crowd that I feel realllllyyy offputting. It's like they are a building full of plants, and will cheer and boo and chant at the touch of a button. It's like you've forced them to watch hours of old NXT and now they are doing their best impression of a Full Sail crowd? Does this make sense? Like, they are imitating a white hot crowd but none of it feels genuine. Like a bunch of people cosplaying as wrestling fans?

It's making it impossible to get into NXT for me; cause objectively I like a lot of the talent and there is quite a lot good storytelling and in ring work and Shawn Michaels seems like an absolute treasure behind the scenes.

It also needs to be said that Vic Joseph is atrocious. In the same vein as the crowd, it feels like he puts on everything with this fake sincerity that just takes you out of matches. You just don't believe he cares about any of this; his emotions seem so forced and all he does is repeat the same point regarding a match over and over with this grating, bombastic inflection (I did really dig Booker as colour commentator, though I've always loved him as a colour guy).

I really do think the crowd is the problem for me. Maybe its cause the Capitol Wrestling Center or whatever they call it reminds me too much of the pandemic era crowds. I do know that having a 'real' venue full of actual fans for Stand and Deliver earlier this year was great, and only hammers home the fact that the CWC crowd is so...awful.

Anyway, TL,DR: I can't get into NXT because of the fake crowd.

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

I don't know for a fact but it does feel like a strategically planted crowd. Where they'll have cult favorites and cheer for odd stuff that you would think there's no way they could be legit but it just feels so unnatural somehow that it feels like they are plants.

[Moppy]

Oct 24, 2022 3:57:02 GMT -5 clifford said:

It also needs to be said that Vic Joseph is atrocious. In the same vein as the crowd, it feels like he puts on everything with this fake sincerity that just takes you out of matches.

100%. And once you notice him shouting to stress the word he's on to coincide with every. single. power move or big impact, regardless of wherever he is in his sentence at the time, it can't be unheard.

[EoE: Well There's Your Problem]

I like how you say “doing a Full Sail impression” as though that crowd didn’t have the same issues.

[clifford]

Oct 24, 2022 4:21:23 GMT -5 EoE: Well There's Your Problem said:

I like how you say “doing a Full Sail impression” as though that crowd didn’t have the same issues.

Yeah, fair; Full Sail definitely had their own shortcomings as a crowd. But they actually felt like wrestling fans, instead of this weird CWC set up.

Like, Full Sail played along and did everything that was expected of them, sure; but it felt like they were wrestling fans who were committing to something. This current crowd feels like they are doing it but don't fully understand why they are doing it. I'm probably not explaining it right, but it just feels so *fake* to me.

To be clear, I'm not saying I really liked the Full Sail crowd either. But they didn't take me out of the show, or actively stopped me from being able to watch it, like this crowd does.

[theironyuppie]

Vic's pre-programmed 'this is indeed awesome' to any THIS IS AWESOME! chant gets boring fast.

[Jedi-El of Tomorrow]

Oct 24, 2022 4:21:23 GMT -5 EoE: Well There's Your Problem said:

I like how you say “doing a Full Sail impression” as though that crowd didn’t have the same issues.

The Full Sail crowd was worse. Don't forget them booing because a Takeover was going to Brooklyn, and they just couldn't have somebody else getting a Takeover.

[A Platypus Rave]

Oct 24, 2022 4:21:23 GMT -5 EoE: Well There's Your Problem said:

I like how you say “doing a Full Sail impression” as though that crowd didn’t have the same issues.

It's generally what happens when you play to the same crowd every week... and I mean that mostly literally... as the same people would usually come out to the Full Sail tapings every single week. (just like when TNA would tape at the Impact Zone the same group would mostly show up there)

I don't doubt that the same group of people are going to the Capital Wrestling Center, that said unless the plan is to have NXT do it's own Tours (which somewhat defeats the purpose of NXT) there's really no way around it.

[EoE: Well There's Your Problem]

Oct 24, 2022 4:30:05 GMT -5 clifford said:

Oct 24, 2022 4:21:23 GMT -5 EoE: Well There's Your Problem said:

I like how you say “doing a Full Sail impression” as though that crowd didn’t have the same issues.

Yeah, fair; Full Sail definitely had their own shortcomings as a crowd. But they actually felt like wrestling fans, instead of this weird CWC set up.

Like, Full Sail played along and did everything that was expected of them, sure; but it felt like they were wrestling fans who were committing to something. This current crowd feels like they are doing it but don't fully understand why they are doing it. I'm probably not explaining it right, but it just feels so *fake* to me.

To be clear, I'm not saying I really liked the Full Sail crowd either. But they didn't take me out of the show, or actively stopped me from being able to watch it, like this crowd does.

I suppose the difference could be… WWE owning the current facilities gives it a bit of a “NXT was filmed in front of a live studio audience” vibe, perhaps?

[clifford]

OK, here's a great example of it- you have a shot of the crowd cheering for the ambulance showing up for the ambulance match? Why? Cause that's what WWE thinks fans should be doing in this situation. Like when crowds used to pop for the cage lowering down before a cage match.

OK, but look at these people- it's so corny and just not...authentic. It's all staged. Why even have people in the crowd there, it makes no logistical sense if you are trying to watch the event. I'm just expecting someone to shout 'cut!' after this shot ends and they all go back to looking at their phones or something.

WWE are trying to manufacture their crowd's enthusiasm. It's lame as shit.

[lucas_lee]

You act like the CwC and Full Sail crowd don't have the same people watching the shows. Some of the people from Full Sail are there.

[clifford]

Oct 24, 2022 5:38:15 GMT -5 lucas_lee said:

You act like the CwC and Full Sail crowd don't have the same people watching the shows. Some of the people from Full Sail are there.

OK, my bad for bringing up Full Sail. That's on me. Didn't think it'd be such a counterpoint to what I'm saying but whatever. Feels like my point is now being missed.

I'm not trying to make this 'Black and Gold NXT vs. New NXT'. Was just using the Full Sail crowd as a way to get my point across that this current crowd weirds me out. Yeah they probably do have a lot of crossover. And maybe a good chunk of the old Full Sail crowd are now doing the thing that weirds me out. So what? It's still lame as shit!

[EoE: Well There's Your Problem]

All right, mate, no need to get snippy. I'm sorry I pointed it out, I was just like... "Full Sail wasn't THAT different from the Performance Center set-up, was it?".

[Legion]

There are definitely some regulars in that crowd that have some influence on how it performs, but I think you'd get that in any small venue in the same place.

They're a loud, involved crowd that has fun seeing a show. They may not act like you would, or like what you like, but I dont think that makes them a planted crowd.

[Mayonnaise]

Isn't the CWC crowd invitation only? If so you're basically going to get people that are doing what WWE wants or finding ways to stand out since they are going to want to keep getting invited back.

[Push R Truth]

I always get conflicted over the "same" crowd stuff. On one hand I love how they tend to be more alive and into everything. On the other hand, sometimes they get so detached from reality that you end up with shit that's wildly over and a week later it's in front of a live crowd in a different city and the same act is a crowd killer and lame AF.



That and the crowd chants that are a paragraph long are painfully stupid. Let's be real, it takes a miracle for a "natural crowd" to get a strong chant going that's just 3 simple words.

[government mule]

Only issue I ever had with the taped crowd was the jarring nature of seeing the same people for like 4-5 weeks. Wouldn't be so bad but there was always this one tall dude usually in an Everton shirt that was front and centre for like damn near every episode and it took me out of the moment seeing this dude trying to get himself over every week and I couldn't unsee it once I took notice. Recent crowds haven't bothered me at all in that regard since they went live, and I LOVED the Takeover crowd noise in the Black & Gold days.

[Hypnosis]

Oct 24, 2022 6:54:31 GMT -5 government mule said:

Only issue I ever had with the taped crowd was the jarring nature of seeing the same people for like 4-5 weeks. Wouldn't be so bad but there was always this one tall dude usually in an Everton shirt that was front and centre for like damn near every episode and it took me out of the moment seeing this dude trying to get himself over every week and I couldn't unsee it once I took notice. Recent crowds haven't bothered me at all in that regard since they went live, and I LOVED the Takeover crowd noise in the Black & Gold days.

That "Sam's Town" sign that was used for multiple ROH shows several years ago bugged the hell out of me.

[clifford]

Oct 24, 2022 5:58:57 GMT -5 EoE: Well There's Your Problem said:

All right, mate, no need to get snippy. I'm sorry I pointed it out, I was just like... "Full Sail wasn't THAT different from the Performance Center set-up, was it?".

I wasn't trying to be snippy, so apologies if I came across that way. I myself apologised for being the reason the tangent happened initially is all, and I wanted to clarify that I wasn't really getting at that. I take yours and others points about the Full Sail/CWC crowd. To me that isn't the interesting part of this. Just wanted to see if it was putting others off the product like it is me.

Oct 24, 2022 6:54:31 GMT -5 government mule said:

Wouldn't be so bad but there was always this one tall dude usually in an Everton shirt that was front and centre for like damn near every episode and it took me out of the moment seeing this dude trying to get himself over every week and I couldn't unsee it once I took notice.

Oh man, that dude was the worst. He got embarrassed by Kip Sabian at the first AEW Dailys Place show and since then I haven't seen much of him, WWE or AEW.

[MrElijah]

Taped crowds are a old wrestling staple. It's just WWE, before NXT, haven't done the smaller studio setup for decades. Probably not since WWF Championship Wrestling.