Many fans who paid to watch WrestleMania 29 felt a bit underwhelmed. After all, they saw a better version of The Rock vs. John Cena in the main event the year before. Triple H also defeated Brock Lesnar in a mediocre match, and Mark Henry pinned Ryback. For some fans who traveled across continents to watch it in person, it may have been a bit frustrating. To blow off some of that built up steam, and to end the weekend on a high note, a group of hardcore fans from the UK hijacked Raw the next night. And it was amazing. By now, fans seem to take over various segments of Raw on a fairly regular basis. And while it happened on a few occasions before the night after WrestleMania 29, never was it so vocal and pronounced. Just think of this, because of this crowd singing along to Fandango's theme song, it shot up to the top 100 on the UK billboards within just a couple days. That's probably not likely to happen again. The announcers openly questioned if it was "opposite day" due to the number of raucous and unpredictable reactions. Perhaps the highlight of the night was seeing Dolph Ziggler receive the pop of his career when he cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on babyface Alberto Del Rio, and win the World Heavyweight Championship. To further add to the spectacle, Ryback turned heel on John Cena and received massive crowd support for it. That's probably not what WWE had in mind. For those who watched Raw that night, it was also hard to forget just how much disinterest the crowd displayed for Sheamus vs. Randy Orton. It was clear that the fans were tired of these two, and sent a loud message that they just didn't care. It seems that's where the night hit a fever pitch of oddness. After all, The Big Show got a "thank you Big Show" chant when he ended the match! We also had loud chants for Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, JBL, (which now seems to happen every week for the three) Diamond Dallas Page, Randy Savage and even referee Mike Chioda. While having a crowd like this every week would probably get tiring, it was an absolute blast to see how it organically developed and enhanced the entertainment of the show. The show was so much fun watching for free, that it made paying for WrestleMania the night before feel like a crime.
As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at."
Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week.
Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com
