Details Only The Live Crowd Saw At WWE Money In The Bank 2023

Money in the Bank 2023 went down mostly a success, and the raucous UK audience certainly added to the occasion to make the night a special one. For those fans in attendance, the experience is certainly different to those who are watching the show at home, and there will be several details that only the live crowd in London’s O2 Arena saw.

With details before the show, certain things that happened off-air, and more, there are a fair few things that made the event unique as a fan inside the hot atmosphere as opposed to watching through the TV screen. This will look at some little extra bits from the SmackDown show prior to Money in the Bank show as well, with it featuring much of the same live crowd.

8 ‘Sir’ Michael Cole

Back when Michael Cole was a hard-to-watch (and to listen to) heel ring announcer feuding with Jerry Lawler, he was knighted by a fake Queen in the ring during one of WWE’s UK tours in which they brought Raw and SmackDown overseas. Even today, WWE is keeping up with this kayfabe.

When the voice of WWE made his entrance prior to the show starting, he was announced as ‘Sir’ Michael Cole upon his walk to the ring, keeping in line with this piece of WWE history. It is a nice addition and nod to a decade-plus old segment that only some fans will likely remember.

7 Hero’s Welcome For Wade Barrett

During WWE’s visit to the UK for SmackDown and Money in the Bank, there was quite a bit of focus on British stars such as Butch, Pretty Deadly, Drew McIntyre, and more, with the hometown fans giving them a big reception.

Someone else who got a massive reaction was commentator Wade Barrett, who was greeted with a massive ovation when he made his entrance before the show started, with fans going wild and joining in with the “boom” of his entrance song. The former Intercontinental Champion got a lot of love from his fellow Brits at the O2 Arena.

6 Mexican Wave

Although WWE’s UK crowd (and other “bizarro land” audiences) have been accused of hijacking shows in the past, this past weekend saw the fans very invested in the wrestlers they were seeing rather than chanting and cheering about random things.

Often, when a Mexican wave is pulled out, it can be due to boredom and to distract from what is happening inside the ring, but in this instance the only Mexican wave came before the show even started. During the one-hour pre-show, fans had nothing to do apart from sit in the arena, so made enjoyment out of nothing with many chants and an arena-wide Mexican wave, in which all sections of the crowd joined in, which was a great sight to see.

5 Extra Notes About SmackDown Taping

Although Money in the Bank was live, it was obvious upon a rewatch of SmackDown that some of the audience had been muted and changed, with certain chants removed and silenced. Adding and taking away crowd noise has been common for WWE in recent times, and that was no different here. For Money in the Bank, with it being live, the crowd seemed unedited.

Additionally, the SmackDown crowd in the O2 Arena got to see a surprise and unannounced appearance from legend Rey Mysterio, who defeated Austin Theory in a dark match, and led the crowd to send some unsavory insults the way of the United States Champion.

4 Extent Of Love For LA Knight

It was very clear on-screen that the audience were going crazy for LA Knight, giving him some of the biggest pops of the night. For those who were in attendance at the O2 Arena over the weekend, the extent of the love for LA Knight was something to behold.

Choruses of “yeah” would break out at random moments outside shops, in toilets, and outside restaurants, and in the arena itself before the show started and in ad-breaks. There was certainly an LA Knight fever in London for Money in the Bank weekend.

3 Wrestlers Interacting With The Crowd

At the ends of segments and matches, whilst those at home were seeing video packages and adverts, wrestlers were still making their way to the back and showing some love (and hate) to the audience. For instance, the likes of Drew McIntyre and The Usos had extended celebrations, with the post-show seeing a nearly full crowd remain for an extra few minutes to join in with The Usos’ celebrations.

Following John Cena’s shocking return and segment with Grayson Waller, the Aussie was giving it to the crowd upon his walk to the back, getting into people’s faces and flipping off the audience, playing his role as a heel in a great way.

2 Terrible Organization At The O2 Arena

Whilst this was more the case on the SmackDown before Money in the Bank, the queuing system for getting into the actual arena itself was a complete mess. With some staff members ordering fans one way, only for other staff members to turn them away and send them to the back of the queue, it was quite hectic at times.

Lines were a little more orderly by the second night of proceedings, but there were still many butting into queues and ending up in the wrong lines.

1 Turn The Lights Off

Above the ring, there were several big spotlights that shone into the crowd. For certain portions of the audience, this was very jarring and blinding. It was very clear in the arena itself when those sections weren’t happy, with chants of “turn the lights off” happening.

Unfortunately for certain audience members, lights were glaring in their direction for most of the night. There are likely reasons for this on WWE’s part, but it isn’t ideal for some of those in WWE’s audience.