WWE Made Fans Change Their Costumes or Forfeit Their Seats During Raw

[CMPUNKFAN]

Below is an email that one of the fans in costume sent to WWE:

Hey guys. I was Macho Man last night at Raw. Here is the email I sent to WWE.com in response to the actions taken by WWE last night.
As a life-long fan of your product, I was very excited to attend your show last night (Des Moines 3/16/2015). I had secured 10 tickets in the front row at $100 a ticket. By my math that is $1,000 that we paid the WWE to attend your event. The seats were in the front row. Being a huge fan, I made sure to invite 9 other rabid fans and we all made the decision to pay tribute to our favorite wrestlers and dress like them. Within 10 minutes of the show starting, we were told that our outfits were "too distracting" and to change clothes, or we would be moved. I assure you none of the members of our party were being in any way unruly or belligerent. You can watch the taping and see for yourself. We were merely watching the show. Now, I have heard rumblings in the past of people being booted from their seats for costumes, but I always sided with the WWE and assumed that those fans HAD to have done something else to lose their seats, and WWE wouldn't boot people for simply dressing up. Now I know that they indeed will do that, regardless of how respectful you are. This seems to contradict your "Be a Star" promotions (which ironically enough was running on the screen as we were being scolded by WWE producers) that seem to encourage fanaticism.
I guess at the end of the day, all I am looking for is an explanation as to why you would boot fans who spend the time, energy, and money on advocating your product. Seems like just the kind of people you would want in your corner.

For the record, I am still in your corner, however disappointed I may be.
Thanks for your time, Matt Sheridan

PS - Had we all been dressed as John Cena or Roman Reigns would the outcome have been different? Please advise so I can let the other 9 guys know for future shows.

http://www.wrestlingnewssource.com/news ... eit-Their/

[Everlong]

Fuck this company.

[Everlong]

[Str8Shooter]

I don't know how WWE doesn't know that this kind of stuff gets out there now more than ever and makes them look dumb as hell and no fun at all.

Although now that I see that whole crew, I can see how it would likely be distracting to a viewer with all of them right on the hard camera the whole night during everything

[The Legend]

I don't know how WWE doesn't know that this kind of stuff gets out there now more than ever and makes them look dumb as hell and no fun at all.

Although now that I see that whole crew, I can see how it would likely be distracting to a viewer with all of them right on the hard camera the whole night during everything

Yeah, if I were watching them all night it would have taken away from the product and what was a really good RAW IMO.

[Viazon]

I really think some people are over thinking this. Especially the WWE. Sure, people would have noticed them but I doubt they would have paid attention to them the whole show.

What would be great is as a protest, every single person going to watch Raw next week should dress up as a wrestler.

[Hanley!]

I don't know what Raw you were watching, John.

Also, back in the good old days when the shows used to actually be a bit of fun, people dressed up like this all the time. It never took away from what was going on in the ring. Because that stuff was actually engaging enough to stand on its own. And because a crowd having fun never takes away from a wrestling show. It only gives it more energy.

I don't see any defense for this kind of asshole move. It's just the company being fucking horrible to its fans, and oblivious as to how to deal with them. They're actively bringing down the mood in arena by pissing off fans there through confiscating their signs or their outfits. Why should people who paid to see a wrestling show be allowed to have any fun?

Isn't this sending mixed messages too? This piece of news is obviously going to get around the internet, but even though they don't want guys there dressed as Hulk Hogan, they'll want us to pay to see the next Hulk Hogan tribute show. They don't want people paying homage to Macho Man, but we're supposed to buy his DVD and tune in for the Hall of Fame? I don't get it.

The motto of the WWE these days: "You don't like what you like. You like what we tell you to like."

Fuck this company. They're just the worst. People should just stop giving them their money until they learn to ask for it nicely and be grateful upon receiving it.

Assholes.

[Str8Shooter]

Also, back in the good old days when the shows used to actually be a bit of fun, people dressed up like this all the time. It never took away from what was going on in the ring. Because that stuff was actually engaging enough to stand on its own. And because a crowd having fun never takes away from a wrestling show. It only gives it more energy.

I've watched a shit ton of Raw in my day Steve and I don't recall ever seeing a full row of guys dressed up as wrestlers opposite the hard camera.

[Hanley!]

I can't remember if I've ever seen a full row of it, but I don't know how relevant that is. We've both seen fans dressed up in crowds a bunch. Frequently in threes or fours. And if anything, a whole row of these guys would probably just make things less distracting. They'd be more distracting if they really stood out.

We used to see a bunch of this stuff anyway though. How often was sign guy down in the front with massively attention-grabbing signs. There were times when he'd pass out signs to everyone in the front of the crowd. Stuff like this used to be seen for what it was - part of the fun. If it doesn't offend anybody, if it doesn't actually detract from what's going on in the ring, then what's the harm?

I reckon it would be easier to try and argue on WWE's behalf though if they weren't confiscating Daniel Bryan signs on the same night. That makes it a lot clearer that they weren't just worrying about viewers being distracted.

[The Legend]

I don't know what Raw you were watching, John.

Did you watch RAW last night, Steve?

[Hanley!]

Yeah, I threw it on because I was still up. St. Patrick's day is a bank holiday here so I don't have work today. I missed the first half hour though.

I thought nothing much seemed to happen really. There definitely wasn't enough story there for this close to Wrestlemania. I felt little urgency or intensity all night. The only real story going on was the Rollins thing, which was done well enough, but you could see it coming a mile away. It's something WWE have done before and better.

Not the worst episode of Raw I've seen over the last year by any means, but some colourful characters in the crowd could have definitely improved it. It was all a bit meh, and while I haven't watched many episodes of Raw this year, I've been reading the results on occasion and it sounds like most of this show already happened on previous weeks.

[The Legend]

Yeah, to each their own, but I did in fact like the show. Just to do a bit of a run down on it:

You can say that they've done the angle before and maybe better, but I thought the stuff with the Authority where their cracks are starting to show was pretty well executed. They actually had me wondering where it was going to lead until Rollins grabbed a mic right before the match. Obviously the Authority wasn't going to break up two weeks before Mania, but they are going to soon and the way they did things starts that path pretty well.

The Miz and Mizdow stuff is currently my favorite thing going on and it's one of my favorite in a long time. the two of them just can pretty much do no wrong right now from what I've seen.

The Cena and Rusev thing is a bit Rocky and Bullwinkle and a little silly, but they've developed a pretty good rivalry and have me bought into their feud and seeing the conclusion at Mania. They've done a good job building this one and the contract signing was one of the better segments they've had and was building a good amount of heat for Rusev.

The Lesnar interview was brilliant and captivating. And I didn't think that Lesnar had been doing a great job for much of his title reign.

They've managed to do a great job building the Andre the Giant Battle Royal to the point that I think they actually build it better than the Royal Rumble currently. I'm enjoying pretty much everything they are doing.

Heyman and Reigns did a good job building on the title match with their promo, even if he didn't interact with Lesnar himself. Even so I have low expectations for this match, so I'm not overly critical of it because the IC title match, Rusev vs Cena, the Battle Royal and Sting HHH are all holding my interest and making me want to see Mania even if I'm expecting a letdown in the main event.

And to close out the positives, Bray Wyatt is doing the best work he's done in a really long time in this feud with Undertaker and he's doing great.

On the downside. The Divas stuff was pretty stupid and that was far more obvious as showing cracks in the temporary tag team, but it had a minor role on the show.

New Day vs Kidd and Cesaro served to show Los Matadores was still employed in WWE, but not much else. I'm curious to see how Kidd and Cesaro develop, but this one didn't really show it.