10 Ups And 8 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (April 5)

Downs...

8. Game Of Misdirection

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The Raw after WrestleMania is known these days for its raucous, irreverent crowd, as thousands of smart fans fill an arena and let loose an array of chants and cheers that in many ways make them the center of attention. In some ways, it€™s great that they€™re so vocal, because they rebel against the usual WWE nonsense. But it drives the WWE brass crazy.

To counter that, the announcers kicked off Raw Monday by basically giving what amounted to a warning to the fans at home, describing the crowd as €œa non-traditional audience€ of €œpassionate fans€ who exercise their €œfreedom of expression.€ Above all, they€™re €œjust having fun€ by doing unconventional things, as they will €œboo people they normally cheer and cheer people they normally boo.€

Basically, the announcers tried to tell the fans that this crowd is in no way reflective of the general opinions of WWE fans. If WWE tells you that Roman Reigns is a great guy but the Raw after WrestleMania crowd boos him, don€™t believe what the fans are selling. They€™re just €œnon-traditional€ and €œhaving fun.€

Nice try, WWE. But you€™d have to include Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Brooklyn and a host of other cities where the fans have rebelled against what the company thinks, not just one internationally flavored audience.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.