12 Radical Ideas That Could Save WWE Smackdown

5. Stop With The Fake Noise

Stop piping in the crowd reactions you want on taped shows like Smackdown. Stop editing the wrong reactions out of taped shows like Smackdown. It€™s terrible, terrible programming, and the audience can tell the difference between cheap, piped in heat and organic, real life heat. It destroys the illusion you€™re trying to create, and ruins that all-important suspension of disbelief. If your performer isn€™t getting the right reactions, try looking at why that is and fixing the problem, not faking the reaction you want for television in an attempt to train the people at home into reacting the right way. It€™s weird. We€™re not performing monkeys. We care about who we care about, we€™re not going to start cheering for people we€™re not interested in just because we saw a show where you manufactured a fake pop. If you€™ve got a marquee performer you want to get over, take the time to do it properly and have the good grace to change your plans if they€™re not working out €“ and if someone else seems to be inexplicably getting over when they weren€™t supposed to, try giving them the ball and letting them run with it. Messing with crowd reactions on Smackdown (at tapings and in the editing suite) to make it seem as if someone€™s over when they€™re not is some seriously manipulative crap€ and it doesn€™t actually work. Stop it at once.
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Contributor

Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.