In his last post, Alfonso referenced that this July's Great American Bash is only the third Pay-Per-View at Nassau Coliseum in the past 20 years.
I'm not sure at all about the financials of dealing with the Coliseum; I do know that high building-rental prices are the reason why WWE runs a lot fewer shows at Madison Square Garden these days.
But there's a bigger reason why WWE doesn't do many TV tapings at Nassau Coliseum.
You.
Simply put, it's hard to get the flow of a show at Nassau Coliseum because of the fans. They react less than the fans at most buildings, making it very difficult to get a TV presentation going on the right foot. I'm not quite sure why that is, but that's the reputation that's developed historically.
At SummerSlam 2002 at Nassau Coliseum, the Unamericans even alluded to that in their backstage promo, talking about how Long Island fans "sit on their hands" (referencing the fact that we as a group don't participate as much as fans in most other cities).
The fans are the wild card in every WWE presentation; a hot crowd can make a show and a cold crowd can break it. And more often than not, wrestlers and agents grumble at the lack of heat from Nassau Coliseum crowds, which means they're fighting an uphill battle from the start -- not what you want from a nationally televised event.
So if you want WWE back for more TV tapings at the Coliseum, go to the Bash and make some damn noise!
Comments (10)
It seems to me that, if the WWE is going to avoid doing TV/PPVs at an arena because of bad crowds, it's not a good idea to give that crowd what has traditionally been one of their worst pay-per-views.
At one TV taping several years back, didn't Paul Heyman (during a break in the taping) berate the Nassau crowd for being so bad?
They really are the worst WWE audience, I can't believe that they even give them TV tapings.
Whenever I'm watching Raw and Smackdown and the crowd is dead I can tell, without fail, that it's at the Coliseum.
They manage to make your stereotypical Japanese audience look rabid in comparison.
And yet at WCW tapings, the Nassau crowd was known for being so rowdy that it was creepy, throwing cups of urine and whatnot.
And yet that Summerslam show, when brought up for wrestling history's sake, is usually brought up because of the vicious anti-Rock/pro-Brock crowd reaction that was the real first step in the WWE audience turning on Rock, eventually resulting in WWE having to turn him heel.
So the Unamericans (and if there's a gimmick that really deserved more heat, its Christian and 2 uncharismatic Canadians insulting America) should have hung around to the main event.
There was also a Nitro at the Coliseum which the crowd so vocally shit on, by chanting "We Want Sid," who had the gimmick of powerbombing jobbers randomly to up his Goldberg-like streak, that the people on the WCW online show thought Sid was "super over" with the crowd.
I feel perplexed because on one end of the spectrum, The Long Island crowd could be great.........ROH Events.........TNA Event, then it could be a downer as for regular WWE SD Tapings. When you put it into the perspective of a PPV Event. There's only been 3 all time at Nassau Coliseum aka WM 2, SummerSlam 2002 and now GAB 2008. I can't wait for this event seeing as how I got tickets to it. I'm a pretty rabid fan of all promotions. I can't say for all the little kids but I enjoy having a good time and will do so 3 days after my 19th Birthday.
Long Island has a reputation for the least excited ROH crowds.
I agree the Nassau crowds are so quiet and its pretty odd in my opinion. I went to MSG,Nassau and Meadowlands shows between 1990 and 2003. My last Coliseum shows were awful, one was a WWE Raw in the fall of 2001. An earlier post referenced it. Heyman came out after Test beat Edge for the IC Title. The crowd was silent for a title change (come to think of it Test won a title so maybe their silence was the correct reaction). Heyman ripped into the crowd for 2-5 minutes. He was pissed off to say the least. Then SummerSlam 2002. The crowd was "awake" for Angle/Rey, HBK/HHH and the ending of Brock/Rock, but the rest of the time it felt like a funeral. I was whispering to a friend of mine instead of screaming to ask him if he wanted something from the concession stands.
Also can they tear down that god awful Coliseum and invest in an arena that is up to date with other state of the art buildings around America. Its like walking into the late 70s when you enter that place.
I can't say i disagree. They did the same thing in CT to the New Haven Coliseum which had a lot of WWE history. Luckily they waited until there was a new arena called Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport not too far away!
gab is going be good because they never been in the c a long time so they will bring great matches