In this week's episode, our ragtag(-team) group of podcasters discusses the biggest, the most powerful, the longest-standing champion in professional wrestling history: the crowd. 

Far from being passive spectators, the crowd actively makes the event through its participation. When you're at a show, you're temporarily more than yourself as an individual, you become a part of the Crowd. As Chris puts it, "It's sort of like when you're struck in traffic: you simultaneously are in traffic, but you also *are* the traffic." Maybe that's not a great metaphor for the thrill of being at a show, but you get the point...anyway....

Of course, there was the surreal moment in 2020 when the crowd's vanished, making pandemic-era wrestling an altogether different kind of show. We structure our episode as a continuum through this period, thinking about how the crowd historically worked to shape wrestling, what happened when the crowd had to stay home, and now, the return of fans to arenas. 

We take some time to enumerate key events in wrestling that were forced take place without a crowd, or as we call them, pops without a pop. Chris discusses the introduction of Sting at AEW, which would have brought the house down if there were fans in the arena. Noell agrees and compares the introduction of Brodie Lee. 

We also stop to ask which wrestling gimmicks are most shaped by the crowd. Dave brings up Stone Cold Steve Austin here, and you won't want to miss Chris' performance the New Age Outlaws' opening monologue. 'Cause if you're not down with that, we've got two words for you...fast forward. 

Crowd in and join us as we break the fourth wall on this week's episode of Reading Wrestling.