IMPACT Paid The Indian Audience To Show Up, Told Them Who To Boo, When To Do The Wave

In this edition of OFF-TRACK with A-TRAIN, we examine how wrestling promotions can get their fans to cheer the face and boo the heel. Just bribe them!

Welcome to another edition of

OFF-TRACK with A-TRAIN

where I focus on the weird and the wacky
in the world of wrestling

in this episode

IT'S AMAZING WHAT A LITTLE BRIBERY WILL GET YOU

Tonight, on IMPACT Wrestling, the first episode from the tapings in India is scheduled to air.

If you watch, pay attention to the crowd.

Notice whether or not they seem slightly richer than usual. More affluent.

Paid off.

According to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, everyone in the crowd was paid 250 to 400 rupee to show up. Now, apparently this is just standard practice for television shoots in India, but it's still funny.

400 rupee works out to be between $3.80 and $7.60 in US Dollars, but in India, it's enough to buy you four beers at your local watering hole. So, not too shabby. Go see some American wrasslin' and then when the show's over, head on down to The Blind Tiger and plunk your 400 rupee down on the bar and buy a round of India Pale Ales for you and your three best mates.

But really, this is just a simple transaction. We pay you 400 rupee, you show up and you make this stuff look good. We tell you when to cheer, that's when you cheer. We tell you who the good guys and bad guys are, you react accordingly. Let's all be professionals here and we'll all get through this together.

Apparently, to keep it simple, IMPACT had all the heels enter from the left side of the stage and all the faces entered from the right side. Explanations used the terms "heroes" and "villains," though, instead of the more inside graps parlance of heels and babyfaces. No word yet on if there were any smarks who insisted on booing the good guys, but we'll have to see when the show airs tonight.

By all accounts, the crowd performed their duties well, giving great heel heat to EC3 and cheering the local boys Mahabali Shera and Sonjay Dutt. Another fun note is that the crowd was instructed by the MC to do the wave at a certain point. 

The Wave.

Because this is 1994 and they were at an Atlanta Braves baseball game. And the MC was Jeff Goldblum.

Anyway, my absolute favorite part of all of this is thinking about when Vince McMahon hears about this.

"What? You mean I can just pay 'em five bucks and tell them to cheer for Roman and they have to do it? Why didn't anybody tell me!?"

And then he moves his entire company to Mumbai.