I've been watching the Rise and Fall of ECW, and I noticed a big difference between ECW then and everyone else now. They showed the Dudleys, and emphasized how they were the most hated wrestlers in ECW at the time. The reason, and they state it well, is that the Dudleys played to the crowd. WELL.

They showed a clip from Dayton, if you haven't seen it, in which Bubba is pointing out the different kinds of people in the crowd. He points out a woman there with her daughter and says something along the lines of "And this woman right here, who taught her daughter to SUCK DICK!"

My point in this is to ask, is playing to the live audience a lost art in modern wrestling? It's definitely why I didn't like RAW live, as I'm used to heckling the heels and getting at least a middle finger. But would it help TNA or WWE to get their respective workers to try to get the live crowd more involved? Would it help wrestling as a whole?

It's definetly entertaining. Like when Homicide makes fun of the Green Lantern Fan and gets a face pop.

But seriously, that's one of the greatest things about wrestling. Crowd participation. Anything that increases that is good in my book. Trust me, at house shows, Bubba is still a God at it, he's just a face now.

The WWF is the worst offender of this anymore. It seems they actively work against the crowd more often than not. I can't think of the last time the WWF gave a live crowd something they wanted.

I would have to agree. When I saw RAW, the only time a wrestler acknowledged anyone that I know of was when Edge winked at the Lita wannabe in front of me.

Speaking of Lita, anyone catch the "Lita is a Dumas" sign at Summerslam? Too bad she ignored it while running away from Kane.

I kind of think it's sad that these days people can cite the Dudleys as a good example of playing to the crowd. Anyone that's good at insulting people can do what they did.

Check out some old tapes of Johnny Valentine. Even somewhat more modern tapes of Don Muraco. Watch the little things they did DURING the match to rile up the fans. Subtle heel moves like that are what is a lost art.

I don't think what the Dudleys did is a lost art. Every indy show I go to these days has at least 3 matches where the heels do the "you're fat, this town sucks, you're a slut" routine. It gets old.

I'm not necessarily saying that the Dudley's crowd playing is a lost art, though I agree that subtle heel actions are lost on the current generation of wrestlers.

Point taken. But I think what the Dudleyz did is a really fun thing, and something I sorely miss about ECW.