10 Loudest Wrestling Pops You Didn't Know About
AEW returns to full crowds at Double Or Nothing - but can Sting rival one of his earliest mega-pops?
At Double Or Nothing 2021, AEW welcomes a full capacity crowd back for the first time since March 11, 2020.
The euphoric relief of a world returned to normal isn't quite felt because we are still in the present tense. It was naive, in retrospect, to think there'd be a magic switch into we've-reached-herd-immunity-let's-f*cking-go: the tremendous success of the vaccine roll-out is tempered by jab hesitation and the lingering uncertainty of variants. The optimism is of a cautious strain.
Astutely, AEW has assembled a feel-good crowd-pleaser of a card: super-popular living meme Orange Cassidy working a main event banger; folk heroes Eddie Kingston and Jon Moxley exacting vengeance on obnoxious rich punks; Sting working a live match.
It's going to be wonderful, though when the camera rests on a front row populated by knackers wearing a mask as a chin-strap, if they're wearing one at all, a mild feeling of unease might undermine the feeling of what pro wrestling is meant to be.
Ahead of this scorcher of a day - with an ominous cloud threatening rain - there's no better time to relive that which was too depressing a few months back: spine-tingling mega-pops...
10. Kenta Kobashi Returns From Cancer
Life-affirming is a grand word, but it's the only word that captures the feeling of King's Road legend Kenta Kobashi returning to the ring after his cancer diagnosis.
Kobashi's epic career trajectory allowed him to forge a unique bond with his people. He was the indefatigable babyface upstart booked to earn his spot inch by inch, and when he earned it - and earned is the word - he rewarded his fans with blow-away performances every night. The greatest ever purveyor of babyface fire grasped this incredible skill - really, it was a natural extension of his wonderfully human personality - and applied it to incredible matches. His firing up resonated all the more after enduring such harrowing (read: awesome) punishment.
The man who never took a night off took over a year and a half off between 2006 and 2007 before making the ultimate, defiant babyface comeback.
Life-affirming is the only word.
Hearing an entire Budokan Hall roar KO-BA-SHI in perfect sync - united in their adoration - is the sort of moment that genuinely makes one feel introspective. How bad can this world possibly be, when human endeavour is rewarded so resoundingly?
Layers of misanthropy are stripped away, replaced by goosebumps, as Kobashi stops and registers it all.