Tim Cooke Posted April 2, 2018 Report Share Posted April 2, 2018 Loudest pop you've been a part of? Best crowd connection you've experienced? Sandman returning to the ECW Arena in October 1999 is my answer to both questions. It was incredible live. In fact, it's my favorite live experience from any form of entertainment and I still go back to watch it a few times a year. Some others.... RVD had an amazing connection with the crowd when I went to eight ECW Arena shows in 99-2000. Fans would chant "RVD" hours before the show while waiting in line. And this didn't just happen once or twice. It was every single time. Then there was the time they chanted "Van Terminator." Yes, they chanted for a move that hadn't even been seen yet. That's how over RVD was. You kind of had to be there to truly appreciate just how much that audience loved RVD. Loudest pops other than Sandman's return are just any time I saw Austin at the Baltimore Arena from 98-00. The roof blew off the place every single time. As an Austin hater back then, I gave up booing the man like 5 seconds after seeing him for the first time. It was a futile endeavor. My feeble little boos were never going to catch on. Flair had a great connection with the Baltimore crowd at the August 2002 Raw show I attended. Dark "match" was a Flair/HHH brawl with the crowd just going nuts for Naitch. But the coolest part happened afterward when I heard "WOOOO's" and saw people strutting around downtown Baltimore well into the wee hours of the morning. And I can't forget about Cheetah Master at all those early 2000s ECWA shows I attended. During the (awesome) Cheetah vs. Nana cage match I realized this was as close as I was ever gonna get to seeing Lawler in Memphis or the Von Erichs in Texas so I just embraced the glorious absurdity of it all. Yeah agreed some of the loudest pops I've ever witnessed live were for RVD and Sandman at ECW Arena. The loudest pop I've ever witnessed was at an ROH show at the Arena from like 08. It was a 3 way steel cage match and Delirious stabbed Daize Hayes with a spike. For some reason the building went fucking nuts. Kind of unsettling. As for best connection with the crowd it would be RVD back in ECW or Danielson on his indy/ ROH run. They were working smaller buildings sure, but they had the entire crowd just eating out of the palm of their hand. Biggest ROH pop I witnessed live was when Aries beat Joe for the ROH title. Really should have included that in my original post. The place came unglued. A few hundred people sounded like 10,000+. That finishing stretch + pop makes it my all time favorite live match (I've been to about 70 shows). It's my all time favorite ROH match as well. Joe, Punk, Dragon, Ki, Daniels, and even Aries all had a pretty good connection with ROH Philly crowds at one time or another, but those guys had NOTHING on 02-03 Paul London. Philly loved London during that period. We sort of adopted him as Our Guy. At least I know I did. He was the first true homegrown ROH star and it happened right before our eyes. The "Please Don't Die" chants in the ladder match with Shane....the near unanimous crowd support he had against Xavier during their woefully underappreciated Final Battle 2002 match.....People genuinely liked and cared about Paul London. Another indie name I'll throw out who had a special connection to his fans was Teddy Hart. Don't laugh! The Tedster had "it" more than any other indie guy I saw during my early-mid 2000s "drive 60 miles plus to an indie show a few times a month" phase. There was no in between with Teddy. You either LOVED him or HATED him. And, tbh, he had like 80% rabid crowd support the handful of times I saw him live at CZW & JAPW shows. Cant believe I forgot London vs Danielson. Both the 12/7/02 and 4/12/03 matches. London had a special connection for those 9 months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alucard Posted April 2, 2018 Report Share Posted April 2, 2018 I remember this feeling in every London match that something really bad could happen at any second. The sort of feeling you have watching the high wire act at circus. Speaking of which, London said a couple days ago he took a bad landing and dislocated his shoulder, fractured his clavicle, and tore ligaments connecting the shoulder/clavicle. Ouch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrzfn Posted April 2, 2018 Report Share Posted April 2, 2018 I know there's a not a big CHIKARA following here but I have to mention Quackenbush coming out of retirement to wrestle Gulak on his last night before going to WWE. It was a total surprise and we made about as much noise as a couple hundred people possibly could. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheU_2001 Posted April 26, 2018 Report Share Posted April 26, 2018 The biggest pop Ive seen in person, was when Austin came out at WrestleMania X-7. It was insane! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabe Posted May 8, 2018 Report Share Posted May 8, 2018 My exposure to live wrestling is relatively limited but, without a doubt, the biggest pop I've ever been present for was... New Blood Rising, Vancouver, BC. Bret Hart comes out and the place went absolutely insane. I'm not even a huge Bret fan and I was standing on my chair screaming. It was an amazing moment and just about deafening. Watched it later on video and WCW just destroyed the sound, turned it way down and really killed the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Waco Posted May 8, 2018 Report Share Posted May 8, 2018 Tank had an incredible connection to the crowd in the Chattanooga area thats hard to fully explain if you arent from here. He was treated as a local Brock, the heir to Terry Gordy, the vanguard of southern wrestling AND the importer of non-Southern tropes. Very hard to fully grasp. Biggest pops would be Sting coming down from the rafters at Uncensored 97, AJ debuting at the Rumble, Hardyz return at Mania, and a couple of RnRs matches when I was a kid. Maybe my favorite reaction was AJ kicking out of the Cena super AA at Summerslam 16 with people literally running up and down the aisles in mass and dancing in my section Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpecialK Posted May 13, 2018 Report Share Posted May 13, 2018 Seeing Atsushi Onita in person really made me understand how he became one of the biggest draws in Japanese history - he just has an aura. It's impossible to describe - you just feel it. It's very, very special. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soup23 Posted May 16, 2018 Report Share Posted May 16, 2018 Loudest pop is without a doubt Goldberg beating Hogan in 98. Best crowd connection is more nuanced. A more obscure choice would be Matt RIddle at the 2016 SCI. He was one of the big outsiders of the tournament and left as a favorite of both the travelling from outside the state crowd and the locals with the kids chanting Bro Bro Bro throughout his match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Redman Posted May 16, 2018 Report Share Posted May 16, 2018 I accidentally watched Cena vs Punk MITB recently and man, that crowd is absolutely spitting bonkers for him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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