Matches Being Halted Or Cancelled Due to Fan Behavior?

[kidglov3s]

I was reminiscing about a 1996 house show I went to where the main event, HBK vs Goldust, was stopped halfway bc fans were throwing things and calling Goldust the f word. The wrestlers left and the announcer said they were going to end the show unless the crowd settled down. Then the wrestlers came back and finished.

2nd party verification:
twitter.com/Cortese129/status/982253691150336003

This isn't something I ever hear talked about, are there any other stories like this, like 90s onward?

[mcmahonfan85]

closest thing i can think of where a wrestler actually stopped because of a fan (that wasn't a work):

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

There was the Little Rock riot of 1997 where a crowd that thought they were getting a Raw taping got a house show, and then all the matches went under 10 minutes, so by the time the main event of Dude Love vs. HHH got underway, the crowd was at the breaking point. Someone threw an object at Shawn Michaels at ringside, so he got on the mic and said, "YOU JUST LOST YOUR MAIN EVENT!" And the crowd absolutely lost it.

prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/wwe-riot-house-show/

[kidglov3s]

Jan 2, 2021 0:22:26 GMT -5 Oh Cry Me a Screwball said:

There was the Little Rock riot of 1997 where a crowd that thought they were getting a Raw taping got a house show, and then all the matches went under 10 minutes, so by the time the main event of Dude Love vs. HHH got underway, the crowd was at the breaking point. Someone threw an object at Shawn Michaels at ringside, so he got on the mic and said, "YOU JUST LOST YOUR MAIN EVENT!" And the crowd absolutely lost it.

prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/wwe-riot-house-show/

Fascinating and horrifying.

I found this on wrestlingfigs:

"HBK was at a house show wrestling Goldust in '96 just after losing his title to Sid. The fans at the show began chanting for Sid, which infuriated Shawn. He got out of the ring, grabbed a mic, and said, "If I have to carry that stiff through one more match, I'm going to knock his teeth down his throat for real." "

Detroit, Little Rock, the night before Little Rock, This one... that's 4 times so far, all with Shawn Michaels interrupting a dark match or cancelling it. All within a 1.5 year period.

[DiBiase is Good]

The “Special Olympian” during Austin/Michaels at KOTR 1997.
One of the rare occasions from 95-98 where Shawn actually deserves credit for his handling of a situation.

[DiBiase is Good]

Not quite with the theme of the thread but I was in attendance at SummerSlam 1992. If you remember the layout on the floor, the seats were arranged to resemble a Union Jack. When wrestlers would make their entrance, hundreds of kids would run between the gaps in the seats to try and get to the aisle and see the wrestlers up close and maybe get to slap hands with them.
But it was chaos. It got so hectic at one point that The Fink had to tell people to stop doing this as it was an accident waiting to happen. And I think they were told if it carried on then the event would be halted until it stopped.
Obviously this never aired as even if the show was aired live, they’d cut to a backstage bit during it.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Would the fans throwing chairs into the ring during the Terry Funk/Cactus Jack vs. Public Enemy match count?

[kidglov3s]

Jan 2, 2021 1:52:25 GMT -5 El Pollo Guerrera said:

Would the fans throwing chairs into the ring during the Terry Funk/Cactus Jack vs. Public Enemy match count?

I think so. Any time that fan behavior induces an interruption of the planned event. Where everything just stops because the fans are being assholes.

[Vice honcho room temperature]

Jan 2, 2021 0:22:26 GMT -5 Oh Cry Me a Screwball said:

There was the Little Rock riot of 1997 where a crowd that thought they were getting a Raw taping got a house show, and then all the matches went under 10 minutes, so by the time the main event of Dude Love vs. HHH got underway, the crowd was at the breaking point. Someone threw an object at Shawn Michaels at ringside, so he got on the mic and said, "YOU JUST LOST YOUR MAIN EVENT!" And the crowd absolutely lost it.

prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/wwe-riot-house-show/

Wants 1997 Raw... Is angry the matches went under 10 mimutes... Geeze guys pick one

[bob]

Didn't the infamous Droz vs D-Lo match end because a fan threw something in the ring that caused D-Lo to slip and cause the injury?

[DiBiase is Good]

Jan 2, 2021 16:41:43 GMT -5 bob said:

Didn't the infamous Droz vs D-Lo match end because a fan threw something in the ring that caused D-Lo to slip and cause the injury?

I’ve always read that as an extreme example to try and dissuade people from throwing things (as if fans need to be told reasons to not do it). In reality, it was just as likely to be sweat, oil or something of that nature.
I could be wrong but that’s always been my opinion. It was a botch that tragically, went the way it did.

[fw91]

I mean it’s easy to blame HBK for this stuff due to his past nature, but besides the chanting, could you really blame him for storming off if shit was being thrown at him?

[DiBiase is Good]

Jan 2, 2021 17:08:28 GMT -5 fw91 said:

I mean it’s easy to blame HBK for this stuff due to his past nature, but besides the chanting, could you really blame him for storming off if shit was being thrown at him?

As much as I dislike Shawn from that period, if he had found the fan who threw that battery at him and proceeded to kick him shitless, I wouldn’t have thought any less of him. The opposite in fact.

[ANuclearError]

Jan 2, 2021 1:02:23 GMT -5 DiBiase is Good said:

Not quite with the theme of the thread but I was in attendance at SummerSlam 1992. If you remember the layout on the floor, the seats were arranged to resemble a Union Jack. When wrestlers would make their entrance, hundreds of kids would run between the gaps in the seats to try and get to the aisle and see the wrestlers up close and maybe get to slap hands with them.
But it was chaos. It got so hectic at one point that The Fink had to tell people to stop doing this as it was an accident waiting to happen. And I think they were told if it carried on then the event would be halted until it stopped.
Obviously this never aired as even if the show was aired live, they’d cut to a backstage bit during it.

Having seen how kids act at smaller shows in the UK, this does not surprise me.

I remember making the mistake of going to one of the 5* tapings, and the kids were doing that very frequently. Also seen it happen an indie show Cody appeared at.

[Cyno]

Also we gotta give a lot of credit to the referees in these cases. Whenever something happens like a fan run-in, the refs act as the last line of defense and tackle the idiot and keep them pinned down until they can be escorted out by event security.

[Celexa Bliss 54]

Not the match being stopped, but at Halloween Havoc 1995, a fan ran in the ring during the Macho Man/Zodiac match, so they took things outside the ring while security dealt with it.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Kurt Angle’s first match was stopped because fans were booing him, so he cut a promo on them mid match.

Wasn’t in the plans, Vince called an audible in the back.

[nisidhe]

Jan 2, 2021 17:20:23 GMT -5 DiBiase is Good said:

Jan 2, 2021 17:08:28 GMT -5 fw91 said:

I mean it’s easy to blame HBK for this stuff due to his past nature, but besides the chanting, could you really blame him for storming off if shit was being thrown at him?

As much as I dislike Shawn from that period, if he had found the fan who threw that battery at him and proceeded to kick him shitless, I wouldn’t have thought any less of him. The opposite in fact.

It was a strange time. On the one hand, HBK was supposedly just being HBK and playing the heel. On the other hand, you had a growing Internet wrestling fandom primarily made up of university-educated folks (or those who knew university-educated folks) parsing Michaels' behaviour with the I-C title (within 5 years, he had dropped that title at least three times through abandonment or injury), and were getting info from somewhere that HBK was being an utter PITA in the locker room. A good chunk of this intel was getting into the arenas and creating a poisonous environment for Michaels - he couldn't work as a babyface, and was risking disaster for the company with his heel antics that seemed to go further than people were willing to tolerate.

He was being seen increasingly as unprofessional by fans to the point at which they would not have given him the leeway they might have given, say, Bret who, as a heel in the mid-80s, was having his car attacked after the matches but by 1997 couldn't be a proper heel no matter how hard he'd tried.

[Stu]

Jan 2, 2021 0:22:26 GMT -5 Oh Cry Me a Screwball said:

There was the Little Rock riot of 1997 where a crowd that thought they were getting a Raw taping got a house show, and then all the matches went under 10 minutes, so by the time the main event of Dude Love vs. HHH got underway, the crowd was at the breaking point. Someone threw an object at Shawn Michaels at ringside, so he got on the mic and said, "YOU JUST LOST YOUR MAIN EVENT!" And the crowd absolutely lost it.

prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/wwe-riot-house-show/

[Ultimo Gallos]

Supposedly,coming to me from my great aunt and grandmother,a early 80s Mid South event in Biloxi got stopped cause a fan threw a golfball into the ring and pegged the ref in the head with it. Ref hit the mat,and show was stopped.