6 Times Wrestling Companies Edited Crowd Chants

One of the ways to have a good wrestling show is to have the crowd participate as much as possible to set the tone of a match. The thing is the crowd has a mind of their own. They applaud who should be booed, chant “This is boring” during a high-profile match, or just don't participate at all. The real secret behind fixing this, besides providing a better product, is to pipe in chants.

Production usually includes pre-recorded roars and chants in a show to make it more exciting for the viewers at home. The audio tracks are included in matches to motivate the crowd that has little to no participation.

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Not every inclusion of audio works according to plan as there are fans who attend the shows and post to social media, with some audio clips exposing the reality of live shows. Without further ado, here are some of the moments when wrestling companies piped in crowd noise to their shows.

6 Boos For Roman Reigns In Madison Square Garden

During the most recent episode of SmackDown in Madison Square Garden, Roman Reigns along with The Usos and Paul Heyman addressed the crowd by asking the crowd to acknowledge him, but they were instead greeted with cheers during the live event. However, on the YouTube upload, boos were added to the segment to add to the heel persona.

With Reigns currently being the best wrestler in the company, his heel character isn’t bringing in the heel heat that WWE wanted. Fans like the new Reigns and they won’t boo something they’ve waited for, his heel turn.

5 AJ Styles Over Rusev Day

The Rusev Day gimmick was a fan favorite with Rusev (known now in AEW as Miro), Aiden English, and then later the inclusion of Lana. Everyone loved the group, except for the company.

During a live episode of SmackDown in April 2018, fans chanted "Rusev Day" during the Paige and Shane McMahon segment. However, during the uploaded version of the segment, chants of "AJ Styles" were edited into the segment.

Miro was released along with other superstars as part of the 2020 budget cuts. His wife, CJ Perry aka Lana, was released a year later as part of more budget cuts.

4 Boos For Becky Lynch

Becky Lynch hasn’t been the most popular star following her controversial win over Bianca Belair during SummerSlam. Though the finish to the match was not the best, many wrestling fans still dig The Man.

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During an episode of SmackDown in Jacksonville, Florida, when Lynch denied Belair her rematch, there were accusations of the company adding boos to the segment.

Lynch is meant to be a heel, but the fans will not accept her heel turn similar to her first heel attempt against Charlotte Flair in 2018. How can fans hate someone who relinquished their Raw title to become a new mom? Just a simple case of WWE trying to tell their audience who to like and dislike.

3 Goldberg Chants

From the start of the icons' theme music to the knock on the door, chants of GOLDBERG fill arenas when the Hall of Famer performs. Former WCW producer Neal Pruitt admits to adding Goldberg chants to enhance the crowd.

The whole chant was not just enhanced audio as it was mixed in along with crowd reactions to add more to live shows. That may still be relevant as fans who uploaded videos from SummerSlam barely feature the chant.

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Fans have expressed their dislike of the company’s use of the icon after his previous matches against The Undertaker and The Fiend.

2 Nikki A.S.H. Cheers On Raw

After cashing in her Money In The Bank briefcase to defeat Charlotte Flair for the Raw Women’s Championship in July, Nikki A.S.H. addressed the crowd on the following episode about her win.

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During the segment, however, as Nikki spoke about her dreams and being almost a superhero, crowd chants were heard during her speech. However, the roars didn't match the crowd as you can see the crowd was not as interested in the promo, with some fans being on their phones.

The Nikki A.S.H. gimmick was not received well from the WWE Universe, this was evident as she dropped the title back to Flair just weeks later at SummerSlam in a triple threat match, which also involved Rhea Ripley.

1 The ThunderDome Era

Like it or not, the ThunderDome Era tried to help fill in the missing piece of the puzzle, the crowds. The LED screens provided videos of fans watching from home, and there were piped in reactions such as booing, applause, and “This is awesome” chants. This became part of each week's Raw and SmackDown shows from summer 2020 to July 9, 2021.

The chants were supposed to set the tone for the heels and babyface talent. It became awkward when the stars had to respond to the piped-in crowd noise such as Daniel Bryan doing the Yes chants, or Reigns, no pun intended, acknowledging the “You Suck” chants.

Though the company is back on the road in front of live crowds, this will not stop the use of piped-in noises from being added to control the direction of shows.