On the latest episode of the DDP Snake Pit podcast, DDP, Diamond Dallas Page and AEW’s Jake Roberts talked about working for different crowds all over the world.
Both spoke about working in Japan, with Roberts revealing that he was not that big a fan of the Japanese audiences.
“Yeah, they are different,” Roberts said. “I don’t enjoy the Japanese audiences at all, man. They’re very reserved. You go out and bust your ass, you want some type of reaction out of these people. But they’re very reserved and very inside. And you might get (clap noise) and that’s it. ‘Now wait a f*cking minute, come on! Is that it?’ I believe I was wrestling Boss Man (when that happened), I think.”
DDP however was much fonder of Japanese crowds, recalling a positive reaction he got when touring Japan with WWE back in 2002. DDP also pointed out what he felt had been an evolution of Japanese talent since that time, and they’ve combined their style with in-ring storytelling.
“What’s interesting about that is it just shows you what American culture and wrestling, how it changes the way people are,” DDP said. “We were there in 2002, WWE, and I was on that card. And Shane McMahon, he was the one who was coordinating everything of that trip. And I’d seen all the quiet clapping and ‘oooh’ and no big pops.
“Well now we’re there, and I’m hearing what sounds like, kind of like what our crowds would be. And we went out there and I said, ‘hey, on the way out there, Shane, let me do my thing. Let me go out there, grab the mic, and let’s see what the people do.’ And he goes, ‘sure, go for it.’ I went out there and they hit all of the catchphrases, ‘it’s not a bad thing, it’s a good thing.’ I was like, ‘wow. They know those words.’
“You’d think they don’t speak any English. They could speak it. It’s like learning a song. And really, it’s changed a lot over the years. That was still 20 years ago. Today, and I look at the way some of their guys work today, they’re still stiff as hell. But those guys, they tell stories too, their stories.”
