Diddy's Proud of his Minnesotan Roots - And The Crowd

There has been a bit of online uproar, and in fact, even a touch of ballyhoo, about the reactions of the Raw crowd in Minneapolis this past Monday. Some are claiming that the crowd was there to do nothing but get themselves over, rather than the product. That when McMahon comes to the ring to address the crowd, and he's met with a "boring" chant before even being able to open his lips, there's a problem with the crowd. That they were so determined to crap all over everything that they never gave the show a chance.

For the record, it's been said by a couple of eyewitnesses that these chants and the overall smarkiness was coming directly from a group of 20 or so people on the camera side. Not the whole arena... 20 people.

So here's the thing -- these crowds have been abhorrently dead for months, if not years. The product, in general, sucks. It never ceases to amaze me when I pull out an old Raw from the late 90's, when the crowd is SO into everything. A Los Boricuas / Disciples of Apocalypse match would get the same pop that today's main events get. And when a real legit superstar's music hit (Stone Cold, Rock, Vince, Foley), the roof came off the place. WWE is putting on a contrived, boring, repetitive, predictable product, and the crowd has no reason to be that into it.

That said... when the crowds are (justifiably) quiet, these small pockets of smarks are going to be heard above everyone else. If the product was more engaging and the rest of the crowd had reason to be as hot as they were 10 years ago, these fragments of the crowd would be drowned out by those cheering on who they're "supposed" to be cheering on.

I can appreciate that Sheamus has come out of absolutely nowhere to be given the title. I can appreciate that on Monday night, the Miz and MVP gave the promos of their careers. I can even appreciate the fact that they finally dusted off Bret Hart and put a cap on the the whole Montreal thing. What I DON'T appreciate is that they did what Bret said he never wanted to do, and that's to turn Montreal into "just another storyline." Bret and Shawn hugging like awkward teenage lovers? Made me grow a big rubbery one. What I DON'T appreciate is that recent history has shown that great promos by mid-carders are often forgotten about by the next week (Carlito telling off Cena, anyone?). And what I don't appreciate is knowing that Sheamus being hotshotted the title simple means that he's getting a quick push, only to be shoved aside in a few months -- remember when The Great Khali was an unstoppable monster with the World Heavyweight title, and quickly was relegated to comedy "kiss cam" segments? Yeah, that's in Sheamus' future. WWE 2010 might pull a one-off "big moment" now and then, but back when the crowds were hot, they were getting "big moments" every freakin night! THAT'S what draws viewers and THAT'S what keeps a crowd engaged -- an air of "anything can happen tonight." Did you notice how much more alive the few hundred people in the Impact Zone were last Monday night? It's because they were given reason to be excited, reason to think "who's going to show up here tonight and what will they do that actually MEANS something for the future of the company?" WWE, in the last few years, has very much fostered an environment of "anything new and exciting will be pushed aside and it will quickly be business as usual again, with Cena, Orton, Hunter, Taker, and Batista in the top spots."

I will give them this, though -- Randy Orton has become, far and away, THE best heel in all of pro wrestling, maybe the best heel since Hogan turned. His legit outburst on Kofi this week only served to make him look even MORE devilish, and give the whole thing a sense of realism, something that's been far lacking in WWE for years. It's one of the few things that still gives me hope for WWE (and specifically Raw). And I just cross my fingers every week, hoping that the same fate that befell Cena and Morrison (entertaining, legitimately over heel gets turned face and stripped of all that made them interesting in the first place) doesn't happen to Randall Keith.

I, for one, as a native Minnesotan was proud as hell of the "Randy" chant early in the show, and the "Cena sucks." I'm glad they crapped all over the show. Raw has been a watered down, sanitized, lifeless product for a long time and I'm glad that this crowd had the balls to stand up and tell Vince to his face (literally) that his flagship is boring. If more crowds would react the way that little pocket of Minnesota Smarks did, maybe he and the writers would get the picture.