AEW star Bryan Danielson has shared a fascinating and bizarre story from his time contributing to WWE's creative process during the pandemic, revealing an "unusual approach" that former Chairman Vince McMahon had regarding the use of canned crowd noise. Speaking with Phid McAwesome of Fightful and DownUnderTheRing, Danielson was discussing some of his creative ideas from that period, including a pitch for Damian Priest to debut as a top star against Roman Reigns.
Danielson explained that Vince McMahon would intentionally instruct the production team to manipulate the levels of the canned crowd noise to either enhance or diminish the perception of a superstar's popularity. He said that McMahon would tell producers to turn up the crowd noise for certain talent, and then strangely complain that it was "too loud" for other talent that were not in his favor at the moment. Danielson admitted that the logic "didn't quite make sense to him," but it was a clear directive from the top.
He recalled that when he was pitching the idea for a Damian Priest vs. Roman Reigns program, he made sure to include a note about the crowd noise. He said that if they were going to debut Priest in such a high-profile spot, they should make sure to "turn that way up" for him, a clear acknowledgment of the creative reality of the time.
The use of canned crowd noise was a staple of WWE's programming throughout the pandemic, both in the Performance Center and the ThunderDome. The company continued to use a general layer of crowd audio even after fans returned to the arenas, but has reportedly "heavily leaned out of canned audio" since Monday Night Raw moved to the Netflix platform earlier this year.
Vince McMahon is currently facing a lawsuit from former WWE employee Janel Grant, which accuses him of sexual assault and sex trafficking. McMahon resigned from his positions at TKO and WWE after the lawsuit was filed and is no longer involved with the company in any capacity. The full interview with Bryan Danielson can be found on Fightful's platforms.
