8 Things We Learned At WWE Live In London
You still can't boo The Man.
WWE Live! shows are a wrestling promotion unto themselves. Free from the shackles of storyline progression, and devoid of long-winded talking segments, they present the WWE product at, technically, it's most athletically pure. The fans turn up, the stars come out, and everybody goes home happy.
However, the lack of any compelling drama or narrative beats means that they exist in a bit of a bubble. Hardcore fans don't care for them because there's no chance of seeing anything particularly memorable, so the vast majority of those who do attend likely aren't keeping up with the product week on week. There are "WWE fans" there, but for most it's simply "a night at the wrestling".
So while you might think that they're a strange place to glean anything significant, they're actually one of the company's most vital testing grounds. This is where matches are refined ahead of big shows, in-ring chemistry is worked on in real-time, and where the company gets a direct look at how the product is resonating with the mass market.
WWE learns an awful lot from these events, so we headed down to their London show to do the same thing.
8. Yes Is Just A Wrestling Chant Now
Daniel Bryan does not exist anymore. There's a man in AEW called Brian Danielson who looks an awful lot like him, but as a wrestling entity, Daniel Bryan simply ceased to exist. He is gone and, in all likelihood you're never ever going to see him again.
But wrestling is all about legacy, and if he can claim to have left one permanent mark in WWE it's in the audible shape of a love crowds favoured retort. Twice at WWE London (and you'd suspect countless other times on this tour), his former colleagues put forth an idea and the crowd responded with a red-hot refrain of "YES! YES! YES!".
Finn Balor challenged Seth Rollins, Dolph Ziggler, and Robert Roode to face him and the Mysterios in an impromptu 6-man tag team match (YES! YES! YES!). Drew McIntyre promised the crowd he'd make it his mission to bring a major WWE PPV to the UK in the next few years (YES! YES! YES!).
Somewhere in Jacksonville, a man in an ice-white t-shirt cracks a knowing smile.