WWE's crowd-free Smackdown Live! was like watching a "stage play and you’re the only one in the audience"

The A.V. Club

"Wrestling, obviously, is scripted and choreographed, but the seams show a bit more when there isn’t a captive, roaring audience suspending its disbelief along with you," says Randall Colburn of last week's Friday Night Smackdown, which was moved from Detroit to WWE's performance center in Orlando. "The sheer awkwardness of the taunts and grunts and the hollow thundering of the mat, all of echoing into a void, is both eerie and lonely. It’s like watching a stage play and you’re the only one in the audience." Colburn adds: "We say all this with love, of course. And, to be honest, as much as the constant hum and raucous cheers of an audience are integral to wrestling’s appeal, it’s nice to not deal with the 'what' chants that have plagued live shows since the late ‘90s. But, if we had to choose—and the wrestlers likely feel similar—we’ll take the live audience any day."