10 of the most hilarious fan chants and the stories behind them
Fan interaction is the backbone of professional wrestling. You can put two of the industry's most talented performers in the ring and have them create a visual masterpiece, but if the fans in attendance are just sitting on their hands in silence, the occasion will fall flat.
Fans ought to be encouraged to make their voices heard because at the end of the day, wrestling is about entertainment and people do pay a lot of good money to attend shows. In 2017, however, fan involvement has gotten so pronounced that they are even starting to influence the way the booking goes and how characters are developed.
Chants can certainly come out of nowhere and still leave a lasting impression on the business as a result. To celebrate this 21st-century phenomenon, here are 10 of the most hilarious fan chants in WWE history and the stories behind them:
#1 Blue-tista!
I think we can all agree, the less said about the return of Batista in 2013/14 the better. The Animal was brought back to the company at the worst possible time, as fans were not really looking to celebrate big names from the past in late 2013. Instead, a large portion of the audience was actually pretty happy with how things were going in the WWE. CM Punk had turned babyface again, Daniel Bryan was fast becoming the most popular superstar on the roster, and The Shield were making a name for themselves as the most exciting faction we'd seen in years.
With all this in mind, Batista's return just felt a little unnecessary. The situation was then made much worse as fans quickly realised that Dave wasn't just being brought back to make up the numbers but was actually scheduled to win the Royal Rumble and go on to face WWE Champion Randy Orton in the main event of Wrestlemania 30 — a prospect very few were looking forward to.
Due to a number of different factors, plans were eventually adjusted to allow Daniel Bryan to enter the main event match and walk out of Wrestlemania as the champion. If the company hadn't gone this way, they would have been forced to put together one of the least anticipated main events in their entire history. Batista received so much heat for winning the Rumble that Vince had no choice but to save face and turn the Animal heel.
Post-Wrestlemania, Triple H and Randy Orton joined forces with Batista and reformed Evolution, minus Ric Flair. In a six man tag team match at WWE Payback, the Rumble winner bizarrely decided to wear blue wrestling trunks to the ring, along with blue shin pads and arm protectors. In what was supposed to be a high-intensity match with The Shield, fans instead decided to devote much of the first half of the bout to chanting 'Blue-tista!' It was enough to send the whole stadium, and quite a few people watching from home, into hysterics.
Dave would soon leave the company and has not competed in a WWE ring since.