10 Biggest Wrestling Hometown Pops Ever
When hometown heroes get their due.
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00:00 The pop is one of the most important things in wrestling. For bookers and writers, it can show
00:04 them how their work is being received, and for performers, it's the adulation that they strive
00:08 for. Naturally, the chances of a star getting an even better crowd reaction is a matter of timing.
00:13 Pairing a key storyline moment with the perfect location creates atmospheres that transcend
00:18 most others. I'm Si for WhatCulture.com, and these are the 10 biggest wrestling hometown pops ever.
00:24 10. Trish Stratus in Toronto - Unforgiven 2006
00:28 You don't get a memorable pop without a strong emotion behind it. The reaction of a live crowd
00:33 is the greatest demonstration of emotional investment in this soap opera with super
00:37 kicks and spandex. Trish Stratus is quite rightfully lauded as one of the most important
00:41 women in sports entertainment history, and as such, she had a connection with the WWE audience.
00:46 In August 2006, long-time rival Lita kayfabe leaked Stratus' intentions to retire, which Stratus
00:52 confirmed. The time was right for Trish, as in the next month, the WWE were heading to Canada
00:57 for the Unforgiven pay-per-view. There, Trish and Lita had their final showdown for the Women's
01:02 Championship. Whilst they only had 11 minutes with which to work, the Toronto crowd was invested
01:07 throughout. Ebbing and flowing, the bout ended with Trish cinching in a sharp-hooter, prompting
01:12 certainly the loudest cheer during a women's match to that point. Stratus left Toronto and
01:17 the WWE for the time being, claiming the prize for the seventh time, and fans were truly stratified.
01:23 9. John Cena in Boston - Survivor Series 2008
01:28 Cena's ability to routinely come back from devastating injuries in half the predicted
01:32 time or less is legendary. The first time this occurred was October 2007 with a torn pectoral
01:37 muscle. Cena had been predicted to be out for six months to a year, returning instead in three
01:42 months at the Royal Rumble to the sound of jaws hitting the floor. In August of 2008, Cena was
01:47 put on the shelf with a herniated disc. Again, WWE's statement said that he'd be out of action
01:52 for a year, so naturally he was back in less than three months at Survivor Series.
01:57 Cena had already spent a few years dividing fans as he was catapulted into the position of the
02:01 face of the brand. Here, however, in front of the red-hot Boston crowd, he was given a superhero's
02:06 welcome. Survivor Series 2008 is remembered as an extremely lacklustre event, but the highlight is
02:12 certainly the adulation of the crowd for the super athlete winning his first ever World Heavyweight
02:16 Championship. 8. Taz in New York City - Royal Rumble 2000
02:21 As the first man to instigate a tap out in wrestling, the creator of the Extreme
02:25 Championship Wrestling logo, and a wrestler of lesser stature in the era of giants,
02:30 Taz truly has left his mark on the business. It's these things, and his long-serving loyalty
02:35 to Paul Heyman's counterculture that made his debut elsewhere such a big deal.
02:39 Taz began his career in ECW before it was Extreme, under the original banner of Eastern
02:44 Championship Wrestling. Over the course of 13 years, he became a fixture of the show,
02:48 rising to the top of the card before finally looking for greener pastures at the turn of
02:52 the millennium. In December 1999, teasers of Taz's incoming to WWE were dropped,
02:57 through his trademark orange lighting and his logo appearing on the Tron.
03:01 Royal Rumble in 2000 emanated from Madison Square Garden, just 30 minutes away from his home of
03:06 Red Hook, Brooklyn. Here he filled the unannounced opponent slot for the oblivious heel-curt angle
03:11 to a roaring crowd that got even louder when he tore the towel off his head to stare down
03:16 the Olympic gold medallist. The match was short, vicious and shocking as the human suplex machine
03:21 ended Angle's thus far undefeated streak in front of an elated home crowd.
03:25 7. Shawn Michaels in San Antonio - Royal Rumble 1997
03:30 Michaels' time with the belt in 1996 wasn't as big of a success as the WWE hoped. As such,
03:36 Vince and company decided to have their top babyface drop the belt to Psycho Sid. This way,
03:40 he could return once more to the scrappy underdog role and eventually reclaim it.
03:44 To make this even more special, this redemption would occur at the Royal Rumble in Michaels' home
03:49 of San Antonio, Texas. San Antonio showed up in their droves with a reported attendance of 60,000
03:55 fans that were more than ready to lose their minds for the heartbreak kid. The Hebner Special Super
04:00 Slow-Mo Count created a pregnant tension that released a cacophony of crowd noise when Michaels
04:04 scored the three count. 6. Sami Zayn in Montreal - SmackDown 2023
04:10 When Sami Zayn answered John Cena's United States title open challenge in 2015 in his home province,
04:16 the ovation was massive. Furthermore, Zayn put in an incredible showing despite blowing out his
04:21 shoulder soaking in the atmosphere before the bell. Sadly, in the years since then,
04:25 his WWE career has tended to be rather up and down, as it can be in the company's midcard.
04:30 However, starting from April 2022, Zayn began to align himself with Roman Reigns in the bloodline,
04:35 bringing us eventually to our most recent moment on this list.
04:39 Sami Zayn on SmackDown in Montreal wasn't a revolutionary moment. This wasn't a debut,
04:44 a return, or even a great match. He cut a simple promo, that is, after five minutes
04:49 of constant crowd noise. However, it's in the wider context. Just a few weeks previous,
04:54 Zayn had finally turned on his supposed allies by intervening on their attack on Kevin Owens,
04:59 putting the target on himself. In the weeks leading up to this moment, he had minimal TV
05:03 time, but the year-long story was so well built that it was all anyone could talk about.
05:08 As such, walking out in front of a raucous Montreal crowd just 24 hours before Elimination
05:13 Chamber and the biggest match of his career against Roman Reigns, Zayn was vindicated.
05:18 For a moment, the underdog from the underground was the hottest commodity in wrestling,
05:22 and Montreal made sure he felt that way. 5. Steve Austin in Houston - WrestleMania 17
05:29 When talking about huge crowd reactions, something would be amiss without the mention
05:32 of Stone Cold Steve Austin. Austin absolutely wasn't the only person of his era with a sort
05:37 of front bumper at the start of his music, but the sound of glass shattering is so iconic. It
05:42 is surely the reason almost all theme songs today in WWE start with something designed to immediately
05:47 generate a reaction. Because, quite simply, that sound routinely sent shockwaves throughout
05:52 audiences, with Austin's biggest hometown reaction coming at WrestleMania 17. As he
05:57 stepped out for the night's main event, Austin's music was drowned out by the hometown Houston
06:02 crowd reacting to the sound of breaking glass. The midpoint of the Rock N' Austin WrestleMania
06:06 trilogy is often called the best, but it's not just about match quality. The coming together
06:11 of the two biggest stars in the world and the undeniably perfect pairing with Limp Bizkit's
06:15 My Way video package made this the culmination of an era. Fans in the Astrodome audibly relished
06:20 their part to play in wrestling history. 4. CM Punk - Money in the Bank 2011
06:26 Ever since the WWE kicked off the Attitude Era and gave themselves a counterculture slant,
06:30 it's been hard to come back from. As such, fans who stick with the sport are also drawn to
06:35 underdogs, dark horses and alternatives. So, when the company cements a clean-cut babyface like
06:40 John Cena as their pride and joy, it's stars like CM Punk who find themselves as the voice
06:45 of the voiceless. This was the perfect backdrop to the Summer of Punk 2011, a storyline which saw
06:50 the Second City Saint cut through the pristine PG product of WWE to workshoot a break in the story.
06:57 Punk threatened to win the company's top prize and walk out the door with it, capturing the
07:01 imagination of fans who were disillusioned with WWE's tired product. Best of all, he would do this
07:06 in front of his home crowd of Chicago, who were 100% on Punk's side. This blurred the line of
07:11 reality further and added an atmosphere that has made the match one of the best of its decade.
07:16 The roar of the crowd from his first steps onto the stage to him skirting over the barricade to
07:20 leave never let up, exploding like a grenade when their hero claimed the belt.
07:25 3. British Bulldog - London SummerSlam 1992
07:29 The United Kingdom is a country with a starving wrestling audience who often know how to make
07:33 their presence felt. Across the late 90s and early 2000s, UK fans were positively
07:38 spoiled by today's standards with annual or even twice annual WWE pay-per-view events.
07:43 As such, many UK fans have fond memories of the likes of Rebellion and the crime against
07:48 English dictionaries everywhere, Insurrection. However, SummerSlam 1992 remains the high point
07:54 of the company's events in all blighty. Like a domino effect, the WWE's growing popularity in
07:59 the UK led to moving the event from the US to London. In turn, the excitement of the promotion's
08:05 first major event outside of North America meant a huge crowd all too keen to fill out Wembley
08:10 Stadium. And at the top of the card, Davey Boy Smith competed for the Intercontinental Championship.
08:15 From Bulldog's entrance to the finish, the capacity crowd got hotter and hotter throughout a match
08:20 that is the personal favourite of both workers and thousands of fans. When the three counts finally
08:25 came, Wembley erupted. Brilliantly, Smith's music doesn't play, instead his victory is marked with
08:30 one of the loudest pops in WWE history. 2. The Hart Foundation in Calgary - In
08:36 Your House Canadian Stampede It's one thing to get deafening cheers
08:40 as an over babyface, but to get one of the biggest positive reactions of the year as a heel is
08:44 something else entirely. WrestleMania 13 famously featured almost certainly the greatest double turn
08:50 in the business. It swapped the alignment of Stone Cold, allowing him to begin his ascent to the top,
08:54 and Bret Hart, whose act needed a refresh. Later that year, the Hitman adopted an anti-American
09:00 persona as part of the Hart Foundation's stable. Every week, Hart would talk smack about the United
09:05 States and bathe in the booze. However, he was still and would always be Canada's Golden Boy,
09:10 and the WWE knew it. So when In Your House Canadian Stampede rolled around, they lent into it. A video
09:17 package starts the event discussing the company's shades of grey characters and the paradox this show
09:21 would represent. Embraced as hometown heroes, every member of the Hart Foundation - Bret, Owen,
09:27 Neidhart, Davey Boy and Pillman - was met with main-eventer level cheers. The Hitman's entrance
09:32 in particular was deafening, and it continued into the 5 vs 5 tag match against various American
09:38 superstars. Bret never badmouthed his home country, and this - and Calgary in particular being the
09:43 home of the Harts - meant that the crowd had no reason not to cheer so loud that the hard cam shook.
09:48 1. CM Punk in Chicago - A.W. Rampage, The First Dance
09:53 There are few wrestlers quite so evenly divisive as CM Punk. On the one hand,
09:58 some fans simply can't see the appeal of the man's work and style, and are turned off by his
10:02 demeanour that can sometimes charitably be described as sour. But those that love him,
10:07 love him, and again Chicago has made their devotion to the Voice of the Voiceless known
10:11 to such a degree that it was impossible not to include two specific moments on this list.
10:16 After spectacularly burning his bridges with WWE and going into relative hiding,
10:20 it felt like a CM Punk return would feasibly never happen. In 2021, the rumour mill began to turn,
10:26 and even as A.W. named an August edition of Rampage, The First Dance, itself a Chicago
10:31 reference to spell things out, there was still a certain degree of apprehension that it was
10:35 actually happening. Cue a pop that was one part excitement and one part collective sigh of relief
10:40 as the Second City Saint finally walked onto the ramp. An emotional punk and an equally emotional
10:46 home crowd made that moment something incredibly special. It felt like time stopped as the audience
10:51 hung on his every word. Though the future of the Chicago native is still a mystery,
10:55 his return to wrestling has become one of the most unifying moments in history.
10:59 And that's the list! Let us know what you thought of this video down in the comments below. Which of
11:03 these hometown pops is your favourite? And of course, let us know of any others that we didn't
11:07 include. Make sure you like this video, share it with your friends, subscribe and hit that
11:11 notification bell, head over to whatculture.com for more content every day, I've been Si for
11:16 What Culture, and have a good week!