9 Moments Fans Caused An Uproar At Wrestling Events

Professional wrestling fans are some of the most passionate fans in sports, making their opinions known not just all across social media and other spaces online, but also while they're seated in an arena while a show is taking place. The passion of the fans and the noise they make and the energy they bring can often make or break an event, even for those watching at home, as the liveliness makes for a better viewing experience for all involved when it hypes up the wrestlers in the ring to an even better performance. 

However, sometimes fans can go a step too far when it comes to showing how much they love their favorites. Fans have been known to cause an uproar in quite a few instances all across professional wrestling history, from back in the 1950s in Madison Square Garden, to WWE SummerSlam and post-WrestleMania events in the modern era. Fans have not only threatened to riot, like when a sign appeared in the crowd at ECW One Night Stand and alluded to dissension if John Cena won a match against a promotion original, they actually have, as was the case at MSG back in the day.

If riots weren't dangerous enough, fans have pushed the envelope even further and attempted to fight wrestlers in and around the ring when they felt as though they had been wronged. Others have attacked wrestlers out of the blue, and arena security has had to get involved. Despite those scary instances of fan craziness, sometimes fan uproar at a wrestling event can be entertaining, and even worked into a storyline.

Wrestling fans like to have fun at shows, but sometimes, it crosses the line in a rather annoying fashion, both to everyone else in the crowd, as well as the performers in the ring. One wrestler actually took matters into his own hands to stop the uproar when fans decided that throwing beach balls around in the crowd like they were at a concert was more fun than watching the wrestlers in the ring perform. Cesaro put a stop to what's been dubbed "Beach Ball Mania" at SummerSlam in 2017.

"The Swiss Cyborg" was defending the tag team championships alongside Sheamus against Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins at "The Biggest Party of the Summer" at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. When fans started to become more interested in the beach ball bouncing around, Cesaro jumped the ring barricade into the crowd and tore up the inflatable. The crowd ate up the heelish move, but Cesaro wasn't laughing.

Despite Cesaro going after the beach balls, more fans brought them to "WWE Raw" the next night and started to throw them around during a match pitting John Cena and Roman Reigns against Samoa Joe and The Miz. According to Dave Meltzer, following the "Raw" episode, a father and son duo were kicked out of the event after introducing beach balls into the audience, and a total of seven to ten beach balls were floating around the crowd that night.

While Cena found it amusing, WWE officials had finally had enough, and beach balls and all other forms of pool toys were banned from WWE events the following day. Beach balls were absent from "WWE SmackDown" that week and have yet to somehow find their way back into WWE events.

Bret Hart's match against "Stone Cold" Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13 went into a new wing of WWE's Hall of Fame this year, and the induction was certainly less chaotic than The Hart Foundation's induction back in 2019, when Hart was attacked by a fan while in the ring. A 26 year old man, who WWE called "an over-exuberant fan" initially, though it was later revealed the man was suffering from mental health issues at the time, was able to get through WWE security and briefly get into the ring to tackle Hart to the ground as fans in the arena and watching from home watched in shock.

The attacker was taken out by Ronda Rousey's husband, former MMA fighter Travis Browne, former WWE talent turned AEW stars Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler, Tyson Kidd, and Davey Boy Smith, Jr. After the man was escorted from the ring and things calmed down, the Hall of Fame ceremony went on as planned. Hart was shaken up and suffered minor injuries, but didn't need medical attention immediately. He visited a hospital to get checked out after the ceremony due to hip discomfort from falling. 

The attacker was revealed to be an amateur MMA fighter with a bizarre social media presence. He sent strange public posts to Vince McMahon, Triple H, and others within WWE for months prior to attacking Hart. The man was charged with two counts of third-degree assault, one count of criminal trespassing, and one count of violation of local law.

Extreme Championship Wrestling was known and loved by fans for being just that, extreme. During one incident in 1994, the fans themselves leaned into the extreme action in the ring and attempted to help out the stars, causing chaos instead of actually assisting. Mick Foley and Terry Funk went one-on-one in the main event of ECW Hardcore Heaven, but the match was thrown out when Public Enemy interfered. Funk and Foley fought back against the interference and asked for the crowd's help and signaled for them to throw them a few chairs. The enthusiastic Philadelphia, Pennsylvania crowd, however, went above and beyond for their beloved hardcore stars.

More than just a few fans in attendance helped out, and soon, Foley, Funk, and Public Enemy were buried in chairs. They eventually had to leave the ring due to safety issue,s and fans had to be asked to stop throwing things into the ring. In some clips that live online of the event, one half of Public Enemy can be seen throwing a chair back into the crowd. No one, performer or fan, was reportedly injured in the chair-throwing incident.

Foley reminisced on the incident on his Instagram account back in April 20,22 when the match was featured on "Best of ECW" on Peacock. He said the night was one of the more surreal times in ECW and "that was saying something." Foley ended the post with "Don't Try This At Home."

Another chaotic incident took place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in November 2021 when a fan got past security and attacked Seth Rollins during an episode of "WWE Raw." The fan attacked "The Visionary" after Rollins ambushed Finn Balor before a planned match. As trainers checked on Balor in storyline, Rollins walked up the ramp alongside a referee to get to the back, but was caught by the fan who left his mid-level seat and jumped the barricade to tackle Rollins. Rollins and the referee were taken down by the man, and security and WWE producer Michael P.S. Hayes ran over as the camera cut away. Rollins kept the man in a headlock until security quickly dragged him away, and the camera cut back to him on stage, where he was shown laughing at Balor and talking trash to the crowd before the segment ended. Rollins told TMZ the following day he wasn't injured by the man.

Rollins later opened up about the attack on an episode of "Impaulsive" and explained more. He said the man was "catfished" online by someone pretending to be Rollins, and the man reportedly sent the fake Rollins money. He explained it's something online that usually happens with female stars in WWE, including his wife, Becky Lynch. Rollins sympathized a bit and said the man had reached his breaking point.

The man was charged with attempted assault and attempted violation of arts and cultural affairs (disrupting a live sporting event) for his attack on the star. Rollins said on "Impaulsive" that when the NYPD asked if he wanted to press charges, he just asked that the police try to find a way to help the man.

Wrestling in the 1950s was serious business, not just to competitors in the ring, but to the fans who loved them, as well. Such was the case on a chaotic night at Madison Square Garden in November 1957. At the time, matches were oftentimes competed under "shoot" rules, meaning, real fights, to determine who was tougher or who would be champion. At the time, matches at "The Garden" were booked by Capitol Wrestling (later WWE, and led at the time by Vince J. McMahon) and the bouts were getting increasingly rowdy over the years. On the night of the riot, crowd-favorites Edouard Carpentier and Antonino Rocca were set to take on the heels, Dick the Bruiser and Dr. Jerry Graham in front of almost 13,000 fans in the arena.

Graham and Rocca bloodied each other up in the ring up until five minutes before New York's 11 p.m. curfew on wrestling. The referee called the match in favor of the heels. However, The Bruiser and Graham continued to beat down on Rocca, and the Puerto Rican fans in attendance were incensed enough to defend their hero. Hundreds of fans surged toward the ring, some arming themselves with pieces of broken chairs of even bottles to defend Rocca from the heels who were continuing to cause real harm to the star. The NYPD arrived to help MSG security and even staff, including ushers and ticket takers, calm down the crowd. However, only Rocca could calm his fans and asked them to stop while the other wrestlers were escorted to the back by police.

According to a LIFE magazine article published after the riot, two officers were injured, hundreds of chairs were damaged by the surging crowd, and Graham's $500 ring robe was stolen. Around 500 people were estimated to have been involved in the riot.

The early days of professional wrestling weren't the only times with riots, however. In December 1997 a crowd in Little Rock, Arkansas thought they were attending an episode of "Monday Night Raw" during the iconic Attitude Era, when in fact, they were attending a house show, as "Raw" had been taped the week before to be aired that night. The fans weren't aware and were upset from the start and began hurling things at the ring and would even spit on wrestlers as they went by on their way out to their matches. Fans were warned the main event would be cancelled if they continued, which only upset them more.

Many top "Raw" stars were on the show, despite it not being televised and D-Generation X was set to be involved in the main event. When Shawn Michaels was hit with something on the way to the ring, however, he grabbed a microphone and announced the show was over, with a ring announcer also confirming.

It was then that various fights broke out and the riot began. Fans fought security and even each other and according to history, only around 20 security guards were on hand around approximately 6,000 fans. Police were called and used tear gas to break up the riot and around a dozen fans were arrested. Despite the same situation, including a cancelled main event, happening the night before in Memphis, Tennessee, the then-WWF didn't increase security measures in Little Rock.

One of the most remembered, and most recent, threats of a riot in a professional wrestling crowd came at ECW One Night Stand in 2006, when WWE was working to revitalize the once-extreme brand to bring it in as a new show under the WWE umbrella. The main event of the show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was set to be WWE's golden boy, WWE Champion John Cena, versus ECW original Rob Van Dam. RVD had won the Money in the Bank contract at WrestleMania 22 and chose to challenge Cena for the title at pay-per-view in Philly. It all led up to one of the most iconic images in wrestling history, a fan holding a sign with the simple phrase "If Cena Wins We Riot" clearly visible to WWE cameras from the balcony of the Hammerstein.

The "Leader of the Cenation" was met with boos, and when he did his usual entrance routine of throwing his shirt to the fans, they threw it back into the ring. The ECW fans also threw toilet paper rolls at him. The chants during the match directed at Cena were vicious, including "F*** you Cena," "same old s***," and "you can't wrestle." The crowed relentlessly mocked Cena throughout the 20 minute match. RVD won the bout and became WWE Champion so fans didn't need to actually riot, but the threat from impassioned ECW fans was certainly there.

Roman Reigns wasn't the first man to defeat The Undertaker at WrestleMania, but the fans in the crowd at "WWE Raw" after WrestleMania 33 would certainly have anyone who didn't know better convinced it was Reigns who ended the streak. "The Big Dog's" victory at "The Showcase of the Immortals" was during a time where WWE was pushing his babyface character down the throats of fans who didn't necessarily want to cheer the former SHIELD member. WWE made an interesting choice when they put Reigns out in front of fans on the notoriously rowdy "Raw after 'Mania" that year.

Reigns' music hit to open the show after a video package aired of his match with 'Taker. When Reigns got into the ring and his music stopped, the crowd broke into a raucous chant for The Undertaker. That chant was followed by many others, including "Roman sucks," "shut the f*** up," and even "DELETE," a la the "Broken" Hardy Universe.

The fans in the crowd at the Amway Center that night were relentless and would not let Reigns get a single word out. Reigns stood in the ring, looking to the crowd, for what felt like forever, but was likely only a few minutes. When the crowd finally quieted just enough for him to speak, he declared it "was his yard now," and dropped the microphone and left the ring to another loud chorus of chaotic boos.

Hulk Hogan's heel turn when he aligned himself with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash as "The Third Man" at WCW's Bash at the Beach in 1996 is one of the most iconic heel turns in professional wrestling history. Fans in the crowd were outraged and began throwing garbage in the ring at the New World Order, but there is one, lesser known incident that summer night that really caused chaos.

One fan was so upset at Hogan that he jumped the ring barricade after getting past security and charged into the ring. Hall explained what happened next on an interview with "Inside the Ropes Radio" in April 2013. Hall said that "Kev knocked this cat OUT" and he also "put the boots to the guy, full shoot." He said that while it was funny at the time, it could have been dangerous had he and Nash not noticed the fan. 

Video still exists of the moment during the already chaotic "Third Man" segment, and once the camera cuts over from Hogan sending Sting, Lex Luger, and Randy Savage packing, the man can be seen entering the ring and almost immediately taking a punch from Nash. The man then falls to the canvas as Nash and Hall stomp on him, using the ropes for leverage. The Outsiders quickly kick him out of the ring, as the incensed crowd continue to throw trash.