FOXSports.com picked up on the group of WWE fans who were dressed like WWE Legends in the front row of Monday’s RAW in Des Moines, Iowa. As noted, WWE security took the fans away from their seats a few minutes into the show and had them change their clothes.
FOX Sports reached out for comment and a WWE spokesperson said the company apologized to the fans for being inconvenienced and offered them free tickets to an upcoming event. Apparently the group were told that their outfits were “too distracting” for the broadcast, which is rumored to be a Kevin Dunn pet peeve. Here is a letter that one of the fans sent to WWE and posted on Reddit:
“As a life-long fan of your product, I was very excited to attend your show last night (Des Moines 3/16/2015). I had secured 10 tickets in the front row at $100 a ticket. By my math that is $1,000 that we paid the WWE to attend your event. The seats were in the front row. Being a huge fan, I made sure to invite 9 other rabid fans and we all made the decision to pay tribute to our favorite wrestlers and dress like them. Within 10 minutes of the show starting, we were told that our outfits were “too distracting” and to change clothes, or we would be moved. I assure you none of the members of our party were being in any way unruly or belligerent. You can watch the taping and see for yourself. We were merely watching the show. Now, I have heard rumblings in the past of people being booted from their seats for costumes, but I always sided with the WWE and assumed that those fans HAD to have done something else to lose their seats, and WWE wouldn’t boot people for simply dressing up. Now I know that they indeed will do that, regardless of how respectful you are. This seems to contradict your “Be a Star” promotions (which ironically enough was running on the screen as we were being scolded by WWE producers) that seem to encourage fanaticism.
I guess at the end of the day, all I am looking for is an explanation as to why you would boot fans who spend the time, energy, and money on advocating your product. Seems like just the kind of people you would want in your corner.
For the record, I am still in your corner, however disappointed I may be.
Thanks for your time, Matt Sheridan
PS – Had we all been dressed as John Cena or Roman Reigns would the outcome have been different? Please advise so I can let the other 9 guys know for future shows.”
As a long regular for live WWE events in Des Moines, the fans forced to change clothes try to get the crowd to pay attention to THEM. I don’t know anyone from here that LIKES that they dress up, get front row, and then try to make the show about them instead of the show WE all paid money to see.
Plus, they were so late, they barely made it for RAW, so there could have been empty seats for the beginning of the show. Honestly, they don’t care about the product, so why should we care about them?
Really? That is, by no means, a valid argument. Had they wanted to make the show about them, they would have caused a scene in front of everybody; but, to my knowledge, they didn’t. One chose to privately write a letter to WWE, which was apparently exposed to the general public, as it should have been. There is no reason they should have been asked to change clothes. The man payed 1,000 dollars, obviously not including tax. That’s money that he probably worked laboriously to earn. And he gave that money to WWE. So he should have been able to wear whatever they damn well please.
^^^Nice try Vince McMahon