WWE: 5 Chants Fans Need To Let In 2017!

The New Year is a time for reflection and a time for setting goals. For wrestling fans, this means a time to look at how we express our fandom and at ways we could become a better fan in 2017. The best place to start is with our chanting. Chanting can be the most communal part of experiencing wrestling with a crowd of strangers at a live event. The performers in the ring often feed off the energy given to them by the roars of a raucous crowd.

Many of these chants can be clever and passionate, while others have unfortunately lived on well past their usefullness. So, as we turn the calendar to 2017, let us take a moment to grab these played out chants from the wrestling lexicon and stick them in the Undertaker’s urn never to be heard from again.

5. You Can’t Wrestle

Not only is this disrespectful, but it’s also generally not true. You chanted it at John Cena; a guy who is literally one of the top 5 professional wrestlers of all time. Now you chant it at Roman Reigns because he “only has 6 moves.” That’s 3 more moves than Hulk Hogan and he did alright for himself.

We all love seeing the spotfests of watching Kevin Owens and AJ Styles, but wrestling is about more than simply being able to do 1,000 moves. Anyone that has made it to the grand stage of the WWE can, indeed, wrestle. 

Except for the Great Khali, of course. 

4. This Is Wrestling

I know when you chant This Is Wrestling, you are letting the performers know that they are executing at the highest level and giving you the exact experience you paid to come witness. I appreciate the sentiment, but I think you can do better. Wrestling is the only spectacle that features a chant so literal. You’ll never hear a This Is Football chant break out during a Packers game or a This Is Golf chant during The Masters! 

Also, besides just being overtly obvious, the This Is Wrestling chant is played out. Let’s try find some new ways to praise our favorite WWE superstars.

This Is Transcendent! 

3. CM Punk!

If Stephanie McMahon’s dig at Punk only lasting 2:15 wasn’t enough to shut you up, I don’t know what will, but these CM Punk chants have to stop! I get it. I loved CM Punk too. Without he and Daniel Bryan breaking through the indy wrestler glass ceiling, this entire ‘New Era’ would have likely been one long Sheamus vs Randy Orton feud. But here’s the thing; CM PUNK IS NOT COMING BACK! 

Not anytime soon at least. More importantly, CM Punk doesn’t love you as much as you love him! He’s done nothing but dog wrestling since he left to become a UFC fighter. When a girlfriend dumps you and moves in with another guy, you don’t stand outside her house and chant her name do you? 

I know this is going to be especially hard for those of you that live in Chicago, but I have a solution. There’s another wrestler from Chicago and he’s in the WWE right now! So, chant it with me: JASON … JORDAN! It really has a nice ring to it. 

2. You Effed Up!

This one really gets under my skin. WWE athletes literally sacrifice their body night after night for our entertainment, yet you feel the need to try and embarass them in the middle of a match because of one slightly mistimed dropkick? That’s just ridiculous. How would you like it if a group of people came to your work and started chanting You F****D Up every time you put the wrong paper in the copy machine or sent out an all user email that should have clearly only gone to Brenda in accounting? 

Yeah, I don’t think you’d like it either. Maybe the next time someone botches a move, instead of pointing out their mistake, you could think about how hard the maneuver was to attempt in the first place or just wait a few seconds for the next move to come along. There’s a bunch of them.

1. What?

If you still listen to Crazytown and Ja Rule, then by all means, keep interrupting wrestlers by chanting WHAT during their promos. Otherwise, let 2001’s hottest catch phrase die! When Stone Cold unleashed the WHAT phrase on the WWE, it was funny. When you say it 15 years later, it’s awful. Just the absolute worst. You may be bald and drink a lot of beer, but you. my friend, are no Stone Cold. 

I’m not saying you shouldn’t chant during boring, 20 minute long promos (of which there are many), but come up with something new for crying out loud!