In his latest blog post, Jim Ross spoke about TNA's problems and his thoughts on how live crowds should react to wrestling crowds.

On live crowds: "Some thoughts on pro wrestling's live audiences.....St. Louis wasn't great for WWE Monday night and the lack of noise adversely affected the broadcast IMO. Here's how I look at that matter: No one buys a not so cheap ticket, packs up the car,drives to the venue and parks to come in and have their mind made up to NOT make noise. The commitment to get to one's seats is too great to come and act as if one is watching golf or tennis. The product that one sees before them is what is going to motivate a crowd to emotionally invest and to be loud and proud. The St Louis crowd, normally a very good wrestling crowd, apparently did not see enough to make the show sound special. There were moments but not enough of them over the three hour show."

On TNA: "TNA had a PPV a week ago where the smaller crowd in a sound stage was embarrassingly quiet and provided little to no motivation for the talents some of which had excellent bouts. TNA is in an especially precarious position as they are in the closing months of their TV rights deal with Spike and have zero momentum or leverage with which to negotiate. Trying to save money by having the TV's in the same venue more often than not in Orlando is the kiss of death. If the crowds that attend Impact events there don't react to what they saw on the loaded, PPV card then they are unlikely to 'pop' for much of any thing. That makes the TV show sound uninspired and not 'must see' TV. It's a good thing that Impact is going to do some of their tapings outside the Orlando sound stage going forward as that scenario is one designed for failure."

On how stories should be told: "Perhaps the days of the 'traditional' pro wresting villains have left the building but I remain steadfast that there still must be heroes and villains in the conflicts played out in pro wrestling. I also realize that some fans who are defiant in nature simply like cheering for the "bad guys." Nonetheless, the shades of gray booking is ill fated and neuters the audience emotionally in my view. Fans have to want one wrestler to win and the other to lose which lends to the definitive antagonist or protagonist philosophy."

Read more at http://www.411mania.com/wrestling/news/321493/Jim-Ross-Comments-On-Why-Wrestling-Crowds-Might-Be-Quiet.htm#E86u2JLFaU9xG1U6.99

Sacrifice actually wasn't quiet, from what I could tell. It was at a couple of points (namely the knockouts match) but the rest they were pretty decent...considering the Orlando crowd is usually full of idiots <_<

And crowds are pot luck. People are not into wrestling like they once were back in the day, as they have a ridiculous amount of access to wrestling content, so that anticipation to see a live show isn't the same as it used to be imo.

They actually seemed pretty quiet to me on thursday.

I ain't seen that one yet. Wouldn't shock me, like I said, the Orlando crowd is usually full or morons...all you hear is women screaming half the time.

When they were in the first soundstage they were pretty loud and into the show. If they arent going to interact and just sit on their asses now, why even go?

It often sucked back then too. I think most are just tourists anyway. I think having several tapings in several day blocks doesn't help.

I guess wrestling fans are not as vocal now anyway. In the UK they are. When I went to an Impact house show the crowd was insane....and that wasn't even on TV.

That's because the UK doesn't get the chance to see live shows that often, so when they go, they get loud as shit.

True, but when you think about it, TNA and WWE only go to the certain parts of the USA maybe once or twice a year, so it's not that different from over here.

In general, wrestling crowds are not as good as they used to be...I swear the Raw after Mania' one is only crazy because it's become the thing to be that way.

Part of the equation is that shows are getting ridiculously long.

Went to Raw a few weeks ago and it was basically four hours from dark match to dark main event. It's hard to keep a crowd pumped that long, especially with commercial breaks built in ... so you get them up and they get into it and then a match or segment ends and you're sitting there for 5-7 minutes and it's like a reset.

I suspect TNA's long tapings, doing 2-3 shows in one sitting (and in front of a crowd that probably knows little about the product because it's just one of the attractions in the park and not the thing they came there to do) saps a crowd the same way.