WWE used "piped crowd sounds" for Stephanie McMahon when she was the Smackdown! General Manager?
 

Been reading lots of arena reports and reviews from around that time and a lot are saying that Stephanie McMahon was really receiving little to no crowd reactions at all, but it was mostly piped crowd pops that the WWE used to make her seem like a mega face.

Is this true?

I always watched Smackdown on Thursday nights and I never watched it live, so I can't say if this is true or not. Her character was pretty interesting and she was mega hot looking in her own unique amazon womanish way. But I do think a lot of her in ring segments and promos were a tad bit boring and dry.

I do remember a lot of people complaining back then about the McMahons dominating TV, but that was probably mostly smarks, the general population in the arena seemed to like her.

What are your thoughts? Did you guys watch it back then or get to watch any events live around 2002-2003?

Well it was never live and Smackdown use the piped crowd sounds today too. You can recognise them immediately. Its an irritating noise kinda like a big group of people squealing

Stef was a terrible face too so i dont doubt it

SmackDown! has had piped probably since it started, I'd think. But I really started to notice it 2002-2003.

I wonder if they piped in cheers for pre-taped shows in the 80s-mid 90s. I wouldn't put it past them, but I never noticed it.

Hmm yeah never thought about it, but it definitely seems like they did. I know crowds were hot back then but it always struck me as odd that Virgil and Sparky Plugg got the same pop as Bret Hart.

PROLLY CUZ BRET WAS SO BORING

Virgil had more fans than Bret though

Steph was so hot in '02-'03, probably got some decent reactions. I wouldn't doubt the E doing it though.

Also, Sparky Plugg was fucking over.

nah think crowds were just super positive back then

TNA does this so terribly. I was watching the opening segment with Sting and Bischoff the other day and the crowd was clearly fucking dead. Yet, the cheers were about on par with double what the Impact Zone could ever hold.

This weeks Raw had the worst piped in cheers I've seen for a while, especially during the Cena/Vince segment

Every major organisation has used the taped cheers I think. I seem to remember WCW doing it loads with the Goldberg chant's.

I remember attending a Smackdown taping around the time when Steph was feuding with Vince. They had some backstage interview with her that felt like it lasted about twenty minutes. The crowd in the arena was going BALLISTIC with boos and "BORING" chants. It actually looked like people were walking out of the show, and there was still like an hour left. It was hideous. I never got to watch the airing of it, so I don't know how it translated on TV, though.

I know exactly what you are talking about and it was just AS BAD on TV. They cut it down to about 10 minutes, but was still horrific.

Couldn't she of at least shown off her tits or something? Would that of even saved it?

Sorry if i'm being offensive, but staring at Steph's mug with her f**cked up hair cut and fake tears while she talks about stuff no one cares about for 10 consecutive minutes literally killed my soul and my penor.

Yes, that definitely sounds like the same segment. I doubt it was actually 20 minutes, but that's what it felt like.

Never really cared for face Steph, especially SD GM Steph.

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...WWE uses piped crowd sounds everytime John Cena's music hits, and I don't care who says otherwise.

The piped crowds don't really bother me too much. I can form my own opinion on the show without basing it on how the crowd is reacting. What's the big deal? Wrestling is fake.

God I fuckin hate that piped heat, its been happening ever since Smackdown started cuz I remember some real bad jobber matches with huge pops back in the day....all with the same horrible screaming you hear today.

They use the same stock footage of the crowd some weeks too lol

lol yeah. I remember someone posted a thread a while back about him showing up at a show despite the footage being 2 years old or something.

I wouldn't doubt the WWE would do something so deplorable, especially to make a McMahon look good on TV. The only time I think Steph was legit getting cheered is when Jericho trashed her. Other than that, her biggest pops were all off camera...

Deplorable, he says.

LOL "deplorable" is a bit harsh...

Dont be so fucking stupid

I agree yeah, thats another reason why i cant watch smackdown, that same irritating squeal cheer is really horrific. Makes everything come off cheap

There's also more wrestling on the show than Raw. I guess you have to take the good with the bad.

thats not good really though. If i ever do record sd i fast forward thru most matches. how can i give a shit about them if they only build up randy orton and one or two others? not fucked watching it if i dunno who im watching

Here's a good example, what do u think?

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Just seems kinda...Pointless to even HAVE a live crowd.

I don't have a problem with the idea of piped cheers. If they want to fake it to make the shows seem more exciting then go for it. Nothing wrong with that.

What bothers me is the crappy/lazy production of them. It should be at least somewhat difficult to tell the cheers are fake. But if they use the same sound each time, we're gonna notice. It wouldn't be that difficult to get the crowd to cheer before the show started when theyre all reved up and excited and record that to use later.

Well, I'm sure the few clips they have (probably less than ten) are balanced for insertion. But it's not like they don't have thousands of hours of footage to draw from. Even if you just consider the HD ones, that's still hundreds of hours to draw from.

They really should sit down and compile like 100-500 different cheers to draw from.

Digital crowds are the wave of the future, and you'd be foolish to think otherwise.

I can't remember when this was, but I could swear that one time I saw a video package featuring the Rock/Foley empty arena match and they piped in cheers when Foley won.

Maybe there was just a piped cheer in his theme music.