Watch The Great SmackDown Live Beach Ball Slaughter Of 2017

Okay, I want to make this clear. In the past 24 hours, I’ve been quoted concerning my disdain for blow up pool toys. I don’t hate beach balls. What’s not to love about them? They travel easily and the scare my cats. It’s just when they get in the way at a WWE event that’s a different story.

It’s actually quite fun to bounce beach balls in the crowd at rock concerts and other group activities but pro wrestling really needs to have the attention in the room. After all, Vince McMahon is still trying to run a business.

But some people come to a wrestling event to bounce around beach balls and if that is the case there’s always a public park. WWE obviously agrees with this as they have started ejecting people from shows after smuggling in beach balls.

On Monday Night’s Raw, there was enough beach ball commotion that most fans didn’t even pay attention to certain matches on the show. Dave Meltzer noted WWE might have made a mistake by showing the beach balls on television because it could encourage repeats.

Cesaro actually ran into the crowd to pluck a beach ball out of the fray and destroy it to get intense heat. John Cena played to the audience which Bryan Alvarez pointed out might have been a mistake as well.

But WWE was more than ready for SmackDown Live the next night. Because beach balls were straight-up banned from the event. There were several beach balls at the show but security was ready for them this time.

We understand the defense for beach balls and they’re all extremely valid and well-written points. But it’s hard to argue it doesn’t distract from what’s going on. It’s also a liability and a bunch of more complicated lawyerings but that’s above my pay grade as a humble pro wrestling journalist.

As you can see in the brutal video below several beach balls were going at once on Tuesday Night but they all met the same fate at the hands of security. Rest in peace, beach balls… we hardly knew you.