So I went to Scotiabank Theatre at West Edmonton Mall last night with a friend to watch the Rumble with several hundred other people (sold out and absolutely packed). Boy, does it ever open your eyes to the Internet Wrestling Bubble and how we nitpick everything and are all cynical and jaded and hypercritical.
Vince changing finishes because everyone "knows" the result is foolish. Most of the people in that theatre were MARKS. All they knew is what they saw on TV. I swear, half of them probably don't know wrestling is fake. Seriously. When Punk pinned Rock, I thought there was going to be a riot in the theatre. These people were PISSED and started yelling stuff at the screen.
At one point, I was doing some fantasy booking with my friend and said that the Shield should do a run in but attack Punk and turn Rock heel, and this woman next to us chimed in and said, "The Shield can't interfere because then Punk will be stripped of the title!" And she said it like I was the dumbest person in the world for not remembering that stipulation because that's what Vince decreed, and Vince was the boss, of course! And listening in on other people's conversations through the night was mind-boggling. They talked about wrestling entirely as if it were real.
When Rock pinned Punk, the guy behind me said, "Finally, our 434 day nightmare is over!" with the tone someone would say to their doctor, "Thanks for getting all the cancer." This guy was genuinely relieved that Punk was no longer the champion. And needless to say, when the Rock won the title, the theatre went absolutely batcrap crazy.
Out in the real world, wrestling fans are exactly what the stereotype says they are. And that's who Vince books for. They cheered when the babyface team of Del Rio and Rodriguez cheated to tie Big Show to the ropes. They cheered Cena beating Ryback at the Rumble. They went nuts when Jericho returned. They're sheep and WWE pushes their buttons and they react.
