Wrestling Fans Create Their Own Stars

This past weekend I notched my 4^th Wrestlemania experience in the books. It was cold, I had floor seats and couldn’t see the ring even if I stood on my chair. All this didn’t matter because the experience was thrilling and memorable as always. Perhaps not as memorable as it could have been, given my previous thoughts on Wrestlemania 29, but the WWE did its job in making me want to go next year. Plus is #30, you can’t miss that type of milestone.

Out of 4 Mania’s I have only been to one Raw the next night, last year in Miami. While I still maintain (and will tell whoever will listen) that the Friday night Axxess last year was the birth of the “Yes” chant for Daniel Bryan, Raw was the first time the rest of the world was let in on the epicness of Yes! Yes! Yes! That crowd was the best I’ve ever seen or been a part of. This year’s post-Mania Raw crowd might have taken the cake.

At any large paperview event, it is very hard to get the entire crowd on the same page. When you take 80,000 fans one night and condense it down to a little over 16,000 the next, you take all the wrestling die-hards and put them in one confined space. The result is RVD, DDP, JBL, and even Michael Cole chants during otherwise well booked matches.  You have chants for the ice cream man, pretzel guy, and Mike Chioda. You have a well deserved huge pop for one of the best wrestlers on the roster when he finally becomes World Heavy Weight Champion, although he is a bad guy.

The Raw after Wrestlemania in my personal opinion is where true wrestling fans come together, to enjoy a show exactly how they want to enjoy it. They will not be herded in the direction the WWE wants them to cheer, or chant, or purchase merchandise. Last year, fans let the WWE know exactly how they felt about Daniel Bryan being jobbed out in 18-seconds at Wrestlemania. They would not let the Brock Lesnar comeback stay a secret just to get a crowd reaction at the end of the show, the fans knew what was up and demanded Lesnar come out to F-5 John Cena. Hell, the dared the WWE to do it.

This year at Monday Night Raw, the WWE universe spoke, or rather sang, and created their next Daniel Bryan push. Yes, I am talking about Faaaaaandaaaangoooo.

Admit it, you’ve been singing his theme all week. I still cannot get it out of my head perhaps that is why I am writing this blog. The fact is fans are huge on Fandango. He is cocky, charismatic, and clearly has wrestling chops or else I have a feeling Y2J wouldn't have let him go over at the biggest event of them all.

At first, I thought Fandango was one of the stupidest characters the WWE has pushed out in recent memory. I felt bad for Johnny Curtis (that’s right I’ll say his name) being saddled with a dancer gimmick. I mean don’t we get enough dancing wrestlers with Brodus, Sweet T, and the Funkadactyls? However, as they let the character grow and Fandango kept delaying his wrestling debut, the more I fell in love with him.

Fandango gives off an old school vibe I feel is hardly portrayed anymore. From letting the A’s breathe in his name, to his salutary tango dancing for his entrance, to his refusal to wrestle until the grandest stage of them all. While his goal was to piss the fans off, he made some of us, including the 16,000 or so at the IZOD Center, fall for him. 

Now, last year the Raw crowd reacted the way it did in regards to Bryan because they were ticked off. Fandango won his match at Wrestlemania, therefore the crowd really did not have a direct reason to chant and cheer the way they did. This makes their singing and dancing in the stands even sweeter. They literally gave Fandango his own mini-push. One night, one show, and the path Fandango was traveling on is now completely altered.  Just as the “Yes” chant revolutionized crowd interactions for the entire past year, ChaChaLaLa (the name of Fandango’s music) will be impacting the road to Wrestlemania 30.

The best part of this Fandango revolution, just like the Bryan Yes! Yes! Yes! phenomenon, the WWE had nothing to do about it. Sure they picked his music, but it was we, the fans, who decided to run with it and take Fandango’s gimmick to a whole new level. The WWE did not tell the Raw crowd at IZOD to start singing and dancing along with his music and continue through the rest of the night. The fans took it upon themselves to create their own experience and fuel the beginnings of a potential rising star.

Two years in a row, the Raw after Wrestlemania has been directly affected by the fans. Wrestling fans took it upon themselves to show the WWE exactly how they feel and who they want to support. Last year in Miami, we used our voices as protest to what we believed a horrible injustice to a fantastic wrestler. Thus creating the marketing of t-shirts with Yes! No! Yes! No! Stop it! for Daniel Bryan. This year, the Raw crowd not only let the WWE know how they felt about every wrestler (including no selling a Randy Orton/Sheamus match) but created its next star to be highlighted this year, Fandango.

Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m looking too much into this. The fact is, its 3 days after Wrestlemania and I still have Fandango’s theme stuck in my head. While whistling it in the staircase at work, a person who I had never met joined with me! Not to mention, I was uberly sad when I went to make his theme my new ring tone to find out my close personal friend, Ray Ray Marz, beat me to it.  

Just like last year, the Raw after Mania created a new trend, put the spotlight on a well-deserving wrestler, and the WWE had nothing to do with it. The fans have created the Fandango epicidemic. I cannot wait to till next year to be a part of their next upbringing.