“Let’s put on a glorified Indy show, with glorified Indy workers, on a college campus, in front on immature college students and their monkey friends, encourage them to hijack the […]
“Let’s put on a glorified Indy show, with glorified Indy workers, on a college campus, in front on immature college students and their monkey friends, encourage them to hijack the show and then invite them all to Monday Night RAW to do the same thing.”
What brain surgeon came up with that concept over there at the WWE? Triple H? Stephanie? At what point did this concept sound good to anybody? I know it couldn’t have been the “paper stage” because if I would have read what I have just written—I would would have wiped my ass with the paper and proceeded to flush it down the toliet. What a bad idea. You create a monster, you feed that monster and then you proceed to invite it to destroy your entire company and every, single talent that works for you.
What I witnessed Monday night courtesy of the obnoxious, childish, immature, brainless, NXT crowd that showed up for RAW, was the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever witnessed as a 45 year-long wrestling fan. To pay money to go to an event—any event–with the sole purpose of hijacking the show in an effort to get YOURSELF over at the expense of those you’re paying dollars to see—is downright a level of immaturity you wouldn’t even experience at a nursery full of three year-olds. I’ve literally been to hundreds and hundreds of events in my day, from simply going to the movies, or a show, or the circus, or the ice capades, BeatleMania, every sporting event known to man, concerts, you name it, and never once did anybody around me disrespect the performers that we were there to see. It would be the equivalent of somebody literally coming to your work and basically heckling you 9-5. The NXT crowd is literally making a mockery of the wrestling business. They might as well just show up, laugh in the face of the performers and say—“Yeah, you go out there and bust your ass—and we’ll sit out here and make complete jackasses out of ourselves in hope of getting OURSELVES over.” Here’s an idea on how you can get yourselves over—get in the ring with Brock Lesnar, or John Cena, or Roman Reigns–they’ll surely make you idiots famous.
But here’s the thing–should I actually be getting upset with a bunch of brainless, spineless sea bass—or—those who created–then encouraged the problem–the WWE themselves. This “movement” was their brainchild. They came up with the idea, executed it, and now are getting screwed by it. As Vince, Jericho and Charlotte all experienced on Monday night—in the minds of that audience—THEY were the stars of the show—not the people talking on the microphones. Man, I hate to say I told you so . . . but, I told you so. I saw this coming a long, long time ago. It was the first time I ever watched NXT and experienced a group of people who had absolutely no regard, or appreciation, for the craft they were watching. All they cared about was themselves. They had an agenda . . . and they were going to see that agenda through. That’s why I stopped watching NXT. I’m not going to sit there and watch a television program with the volume turned down—nothing is that good.
But—the WWE embraced it. They, themselves became marks for it. They put it over and they encouraged it. So much so that the most important show of the year—the one after WrestleMania—was a full-fledged NXT show. They wanted it . . . they got it . . . and they spent half the entire night telling their own “fans” to shut up and cease the “beach ball” chants. Yup—you get exactly what you ask for. You made the decision to cater to those–WHO WERE ALREADY THERE—and ignore those who you lost. The worst business sense you could possibly imagine. Now—those few “normal people” who have been hanging on around the fringe—are starting to tune out as well—one by one.
Where are the Rosatti Sisters when we need them?
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Vince Russo's The Brand 
In my opinion, Triple H has a doubtful part in all of this. NXT is his ‘child”. NXT has been set up as the developmental brand of the WWE. There’s nothing wrong with that but the product has basically to be the same as the main roster product. Not that the product was that good on the main roster in the last couple of years but why do you make your developmental brand look like an indy show ? The hardcore wrestling fans now put NXT over as their favorite show and they start yelling NXT chants during RAW. They start booing guys who haven’t made a name for themselves in the indies (Reigns) and they think every wrestler who can’t do flippity flops is a bad wrestler. People like Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, King Kong Bundy etc etc would be booed out of the building nowadays. Chants like ‘you can’t wrestle’ and ‘boring’ would be heard when these legends would have wrestled in this era. Hijacking the show is not only disrespectful to the people working their asses off in the ring. It’s disrespectful to every worker who has paved the way for the current superstars.
Vince, you’re exactly right!
This is just ANOTHER reason why it is so HARD to watch the WWE product, whether it be NXT or the main roster.
At NXT Takeover: Dallas, the crowd were too busy trying to entertain themselves or too busy chanting; This Is Awesome or This Is Wrestling, BEFORE a match had even started that it put me off watching!
I read later that Nakamora vs Zayn was a “Match of the Year” candidate but to me the crowd ruined it for me and I actually had to switch the sound off when I watched it again later!
The Raw after Mania has always had some lively crowds due to it not being the normal crowd but WWE should not cater to them!
Take care,
NGB
Last night was the first episode of Raw I’ve watched in about 3 years and I couldn’t believe how far the product had fallen in that amount of time. I’ve been listening to you, Vince, talk about the show for several months and when you sounded optimistic about about this week’s show I decided that I wanted to see for myself if things would get better.
Let me tell you, this show was TERRIBLE! The promos were brutal. The crowd was brutal. The matches sucked. Everything I’ve been hearing you say for months I saw with my own eyes.
The show left such a bad taste in my mouth that I had to get online and pull up old Attitude Era promos and remind myself that wrestling doesn’t suck, just the product today sucks.
The WWE should be ashamed of themselves for giving us this crap.
The fans have to get behind an alternative promotion (probably Lucha Undergound). That’s the only way we’re going to get wrestling back to what it used to be.
I’m still in disbelief at what I saw. It’s just depressing.
– BroRocker
I really wanted to take my son to watch WWE, one day, he’s almost 5 and absolutely loves John Cena… He doesn’t even watch wrestling but it’s always “John Cena” or superman lol
Problem is I don’t want my son anywhere near these muppets..
As utterly annoying as these crowds are, there is a big part of me that would rather have this type of crowd than an “Eat what we feed you and like it” crowd filled with WWE marks just happy to be there, consuming anything put in front of them. Keep in mind the night after WrestleMania is a notorious hardcore crowd–most of which are from out of the country and have been there since Friday morning for everything WrestleMania related. They’re crazy.
Curious to hear from you guys—how do you guys compare these crowds with the old school ECW crowds?
when it was ecw they only chanted when it was ecw stars these nxt fan’s do it when its wwe talents and nxt talents
Those ECW crowds didn’t interrupt Bubba’s speeches, or chant “Dis iz awesum!” for a minor spot everyone had seen 1000 times before. When that talent hit the ring they didn’t chant for RVD when an unrelated match was going on, or “this is boring” when two guys were giving 110%. They would cheer a jobber the same as a star. Don’t forget, ECW fans were the smartest of marks you could possibly have in the 90’s, and yet they knew how to respect the talent.
it’s so true vince now you here nxt chants on wwe tv watch summerslam this summer it will be no different by doing an nxt special along with there wwe events will see this in august again
People act like I’m nuts when I complain about how horrible crowds like this are. Thank you, Vince, for making me realize I’m not the only one that feels this way. The crowds have ZERO respect for anyone in the ring when they act this way. Unfortunately, that’s the way of the world today. It’s a sad commentary on the world we live in.
Preach on brother Vince- there are many, many more of us who agree with you in this. We live in the “selfie” generation- me, me, me, please notice me…As if they don’t get enough attention via social media.