5 Ups And 6 Downs From WWE Survivor Series 2016

4. Catching Some Zzzzz’s…

preshow tag
WWE.com

Some will defend and point out that the crowd was still filing in, but you can’t deny that the two kickoff show matches largely played to the sounds of silence.

And while fans were still settling into their seats, they did come alive for parts of the cruiserweight six-man tag match – specifically, whenever TJ Perkins or Rich Swann was in the ring – so you can’t blame a less-than-full arena. Fans just didn’t care much about the other cruiserweights, and they also were fairly quiet during the Kane/Luke Harper match.

It’s an age-old issue: If you give fans a reason to care and/or get invested in a performer or match, then they’ll react. Look at how popular Heath Slater has become after his trials and tribulations. But why should anyone react to Noam Dar or Drew Gulak? It’s a shame because these wrestlers put on a great performance at the Cruiserweight Classic and can connect with fans, but right now, it’s silence.

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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.