The Monday Night Raw after WrestleMania has always been a charged event. The audience has lots of hardcore wrestling fans from out of town and there’s a lot of residual energy from the biggest pro-wrestling event of the year. The last two post-WrestleMania Raws have been particularly noteworthy. In 2012, the crowd was absolutely nuts for Bryan Danielson, since many felt that he was shafted by only getting 18 seconds of WrestleMania wrestling time. This year, the smarks (smart marks) totally took over the show; they completely overshadowed the Sheamus vs. Randy Orton match with out-of-nowhere chants (Mike Chioda?!?), made Fandango’s theme song shockingly popular, and became a bigger part of the show than most of the in-ring action.
Some are calling the post-WrestleMania Raw “Smarkageddon,” while others are using the terms, “Monday Night Marks,” and (my personal favorite), “Smarks After Dark.” Whatever label you prefer, it’s a beautiful case of the inmates running the asylum. If you missed out on the shenanigans then check out the clips below.
It’s too bad the WWE didn’t post the entire Sheamus vs. Orton match. The crowd was so unruly that it caused Orton to forget a line and had both wrestlers distracted at various points in the match. It was one of the most remarkable things I’ve ever seen from a WWE crowd. I’m used to such behavior at smaller, smark-filled shows like those held by Ring of Honor, Dragon Gate, and Pro-Wrestling Guerilla, but I’ve never seen it happen with a crowd that big, sustained for the entire show.
Some dirt-sheet writers feel that the crowd response “sent a message” to WWE and will start a trend of the audience upstaging the talent. While I expect several chants of Fandango’s “ChaChaLaLa,” I sincerely doubt there will be another show with a crowd as boisterous as the last Smarkageddon…until next year’s Smarkageddon.
What did you make of this year’s post-WrestleMania Raw? Do you think there will be a crow like that again in the near future? Or do you not expect to see an audience like that until Smarkageddon 2014?
That was pretty nuts! I kind of wish I watched it live lol.