Thursday, December 20, 2012

Best Crowd Interaction

From David Shoemaker's summary of last weekend's pro wrestling events:
To the tag team of Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas, who have wrestled in Ring of Honor intermittently since getting laid off by WWE, and who hear tons of snarling sass from the crowd because of their WWE tenure (you might remember them as Kurt Angle's cronies). They indulge the boos by copiously flipping off the crowd. The fans' hatred of them felt especially virulent because Benjamin and Haas's opponents were indie regulars Rhett Titus and B.J. Whitmer. The match had been billed as an "NYC Street Fight," and in honor of the holiday season, it included a Santa bag full of weaponized candy canes and a plastic Christmas tree along with the usual supply of kendo sticks and tables. At one point in the match, Benjamin was on the verge of striking one of his opponents with a kendo stick, but the crowd intervened. "Use the tree! Use the tree!" they chanted. Benjamin flashed an evil grin, picked up the tree, and seemed to ponder what it would be like to bash somebody with it. Then he went stone-faced, tossed the tree onto the floor outside the ring, and flipped off the now-apoplectic crowd.