During an interview with No Sports Report, C.M. Punk spoke on not being a fan of empty arena shows. Here’s what he had to say:
Pro-wrestling, I find it completely impossible to watch with no crowd, impossible. The audience is the 100%, and this is more evident than ever now, driving force behind what wrestlers do in the ring. When I wrestled, that was my boss.
The thing that separates the greatest wrestlers from the OK guys, when they’re in the ring, they’re the boss, they’re in charge, but the truth of that is the audience is in charge. The audience boos and cheers who they want, they tell you if they like the moves, if they’re emotionally invested in the match, that tells you where to take it. There’s a fork in the road, audience wants you to go a certain way, you can manipulate them, but they can also manipulate the match. Without all of that, fuck, I don’t know what we’re doing.
You can listen to the interview below:
Credit: No Sports Report. H/T 411Mania.