WWE Hall of Famer JBL appeared on an episode of “Something to Wrestle” with Bruce Prichard, where he discussed various topics, including the acoustics involved in competing at a stadium show.
JBL said, “You can’t hear the crowd when it’s outdoors like that. The noise goes up. I know that sounds crazy, but when you have 60 or 70,000 people in an outdoor arena, it’s nothing like an arena that’s tight, like the Rosemont. A full Rosemont or a full Garden, where the crowd is basically right on top of you — these great, well-built arenas that are built for basketball or boxing type events, where the crowd is right on top of you and there’s a roof.”
On the conversation he had with Steve Austin:
“A lot of times when you’re out there you can’t hear. I remember talking with Steve after his WrestleMania match — I think it was with Kevin Owens. I said, man, that was awesome, the crowd was on fire. And he said, well, I couldn’t really tell.”
On what that does to a match:
“A lot of times you’re feeding off the crowd, but in these football stadiums, or over there soccer stadiums, when they’re open, the noise goes up, not in, and it’s a completely different dynamic. Sometimes you can’t really tell. You don’t really get a good feel, because you’re not used to working outdoors like that, about what the crowd is buying and what they’re not buying. It’s a different feel.”
On advice for wrestlers performing in stadium shows:
“It’s cool to be there, and it’s cool to be able to see it. And what I always tell guys when they go out to these stadium shows is take mental pictures, because the rest of your life you want to remember what it felt like to be out there. Not just a picture from what you’re going to see on the internet, or from the ringside photographers — take a mental picture. Look around and kind of memorizes what’s going on, because it’s really a cool time, and you might not be there again. You don’t know.”
You can check out the complete podcast below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
