Should We Chant “Boring” During Matches?
Wrestling fans are pretty miserable.
And I say this as a wrestling fan. We are harsh, nasty and down right bitter that wrestling isn’t doing what we want. Why aren’t they pushing Superstar X? How come Diva Y won a match in 2 minutes? Who had the bright idea of executing Storyline Z?
We always have a problem with something.
But you know, we should have a problem with something. I’m not disputing the fact that if we dislike a character or a storyline, we should be vocal about it. Similarly when a comic book movie gets something wrong about a person’s favourite character, we too should be upset when we feel like a deserving performer gets overlooked because somebody else had family ties to the business 20 years ago.
Heckling from the crowd is to be expected too. All major sports have live audiences, and each one involves heckling… except maybe Golf. But I’d be far more interested in the event if the audiences started an “STD” chant at Tiger Woods as he came up to the putt.
Clearly, that would be a more respectable than “Bunker”. Woods hired 6 prostitutes due to that one man, just to get over the burn
I remember at my very first WWE (and wrestling in general) live event back in 2003. I saw a RAW house show with the main event featuring Triple H & Chris Jericho teaming against Kevin Nash and Scott Steiner and Earl Hebner was the referee. At one point, Jericho goes for a pin on Steiner who kicks out, a young gentleman a few seats in front of me took it upon himself to shout, as loud as he could “that’s another Canadian you’ve screwed Hebner!” I still find this to be the best heckle I’ve heard at a wrestling show, not only was it funny, but it also stated the fans displeasure at seeing Jericho being under-utilised at the time after, what looked to be, his rise to major player status thanks winning the Undisputed Title.
Turned out Hebner will screw anybody, not just Canadians, regardless of how little sense it made…
All these things are fine, they have a place and a reason in a wrestling arena and community. However there is one chant/heckle that I’m not sure I fully agree with. That is the “Boring” chant.
We’ve all heard these at some point. Heck it’s even made its way into WWE video games if your characters stand around doing nothing for too long. The crowd starts a slow, monotonous chant by saying the word “boring” over and over. Unlike everything that has been pointed out in this article, this is a harmful chant and one that, to me, feels really disrespectful. When you cheer for a heel over a babyface, that is telling creative something. It’ not that the babyface is a bad character, or a terrible wrestler, it’s telling them that you enjoy the villain, you wish to see more him/her. Going online and declaring how you want Ziggler to have a run with the World title highlights the characters matches and personality to others who, may for some reason, not have noticed it before.
“Boring” does nothing to help anybody. It makes the performers in the ring look incompetent, the product as a waste and the audience, as a whole, pretty dickish.
Dicks
I’ve been a big critic of the Diva’s Revolution, as we all have been here at The Suplah. It’s a publicity stunt by WWE that is as shallow as puddle of piss. But when the audience started doing Mexican Waves during the middle of a promo, that was just disrespectful. Imagine if you were in the West End in London, or Broadway in New York to see a theatre production of “The Phantom Of The Opera” or “The Book of Mormon” and a group of people near the front of the stage started chanting “Boring” in the middle of a scene between two characters? Yes WWE has an element of sports where crowd interaction is expected, but it is also a theatre, a action driven performance in theatres made from arenas. The only difference is the people who pay money to see these events with their own eyes, and then use that as an excuse to ruin the fun for everybody, the production included.
“We are awesome”? At what? At being dicks?
Yes, we are fans. We are spending our hard earned money, our time and our energy at these events, at investing into these characters and their stories. I’m not doubting we don’t have a right to be annoyed when we think something isn’t doing what we would like it to. Heck The Suplah wouldn’t exist if that was the case. But let us use our voice to improve the product instead of burying it. Let’s encourage the writers and producers to make the right moves, and guide them to make shows and products we would like to introduce our friends or partners to.
Just don’t be a dick about it…
To be fair though… they probably still wouldn’t get it, regardless of how the audience reacts.
Do you agree or disagree? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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