For years, WWE's announcers referred to Toronto as "Bizarro World" because of the crowd's tendency to boo babyfaces and cheer heels. A particularly memorable example came at SummerSlam 2004, when the audience booed hometown hero Edge and fellow Canadian Chris Benoit, choosing instead to cheer their respective foes, Batista and Randy Orton. The Toronto crowd was more cooperative at Roadblock, but they still expressed themselves vocally. The show's opener pitted The New Day against Sheamus and King Barrett, with the Tag Team Championship on the line. The crowd was vociferously pro-New Day, so much so that at one point, they began chanting "You Can't Wrestle" at Wade Barrett. That was pretty harsh, given that Barrett's turned into one of the more innovative performers on the roster. It's been a long time since his ring work has deserved any major critique, and while he has been out of action for a while, there's no ring rust of which to speak. Somebody owes the King of the Ring an apology.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
