5 Worst Examples Of WWE Manipulation
4. Removing Crowd Signs
It’s one thing to remove an offensive sign or one that reads something taboo to WWE (e.g. ‘Chris Benoit Is Innocent’). But it’s another thing to take away innocent signs that give the WWE Universe their voices. Specifically, there have seen several reports going as far back as January of this year, where security personnel have been confiscating signs that are pro-Daniel Bryan, or anti-Roman Reigns.
WWE appears to be doing this in the hopes of convincing fans watching at home that Daniel Bryan has fewer fans than one would expect, while Roman Reigns has fewer detractors than what recent negative crowd reactions would indicate. In some cases, like in the one above, they even turn down fans when they have ‘too many’ of one kind of sign.
For many fans, getting noticed on TV, even for two seconds, makes their trip to RAW that much more worthwhile. Having a creative crowd sign is one of the best ways of getting noticed, but apparently, having a sign that disagrees with what WWE management likes is one of the best ways to ruin a fan’s experience and spread negative publicity about one’s company.
The other thing is, if WWE keeps this up, they’ll eventually think that certain wrestlers are more popular than they really are, and if they put all of their support behind that superstar and it backfires on them, they’ll lose a ton of money. So while it might be a small thing that very well might be some WWE production person being over-zealous about signs, it can have serious consequences if it becomes a regular occurrence.