One of the big things wrestling fans have brought up as one of the weirdest aspects about WWE performing events is that there is no one in the audience. It is just so odd not to see people in the crowd, so what is it like to wrestle in front of no one? When Cedric Alexander was a guest on our wrestling show, The Illuminerdi Wrestling Order, he talked about the experience and answered whether the lack of a crowd means he doesn’t have to try as hard.
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The Coronavirus has caused all wrestling promotions to make big changes. One of the biggest changes has been not having a crowd. I know wrestlers feed off that energy and use it to know what fans are reacting to. They then use that information to know what the fans are liking that night. However, the wrestlers can’t do that in complete silence.
It would be interesting to hear how the wrestlers react to the silence and if it hinders their performances in any way. Well we’re in luck because Alexander talked about just that.
“Honestly, I’ve wrestled in front of 15 people. I’ve wrestled in front of five people. I’ve wrestled in front of no one numerous times,” Alexander continued. “For me, I just kind of think what would the crowd like to see? How would they react to me? I just try to think about that. Every time I have a moment to clearly think to myself, I always think okay, the crowd is with me here, the crowd is with me here, and for me that’s something that I’ve always done. Even when I’m doing practice matches and training.”
Cedric Alexander When No One Is Watching
This is an area that the men and women from the indies have a huge advantage over the homegrown NXT Superstars. They’ve started their careers wrestling in high school gyms and swap meets. On the other hand NXT Superstars wrestle in-front of trainers at the very least. From there they perform in-front of diehard NXT fans. They lack the experience of wrestling in -front of no one over and over again.
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When the fans aren’t in the crowd it would be very easy to just mail it in. If no one is watching it would be very easy to fall into a mindset of not giving it 100 percent. Alexander talks about not falling into that trap.
“I never go 50 percent. I’m going 100 almost every time. I guess it’s a classic cliche now, my coach, George South, would always tell me ‘practice how you play’ and I want to play 100 percent because I want to be 100 percent all the time,” Alexander said.
Doing your job without a key component like a crowd must be hard especially when it has been years and years since they’ve had that experience. It is an amazing accomplishment to put on high level matches without a crowd and all the WWE Superstars should feel very proud.
Have you finally gotten used to watching wrestling without the crowd being there? Do you think it will be weird watching wrestling with a crowd again? For more wrestling talk be sure to watch and subscribe to The Illuminerdi Wrestling Order.
