Perhaps more than anything else professional wrestlers pride themselves on the crowd reactions they can generate.
Though the industry is wholly acknowledged as being storyline-based and with its incredible athleticism choreographed, many elements of wrestling remain ‘real.’
The bumps, bruises and serious injuries that are part and parcel of any genuine athletic or sporting contest are still very much present in wrestling, as is the grind of a grueling travel schedule.
Nothing, however, appears to hit home more for performers wrestling and performing in front of a live crowd than the energy they get from those in the seats.
From the first time they’re shown on the giant screens in arenas, to the first note or two of their trademark entrance music, fans love that first glimpse of one of their favourites.
That initial reaction – generally known as a ‘pop’ for an explosive cheer or ‘heat’ for excessive booing – gives an immediate indication as to how well regarded a performer is, so villains love being jeered loudly every bit as much as the good guys love a cheer.
In fact, the truest adage of any in wrestling is that any reaction is good so long as fans are making noise, and it turns out you don’t even need to be performing at the show to cause a racket, either.
Celebrity cameos have become a staple part of professional wrestling – from Mr T and Muhammad Ali back at the first WrestleMania in the 1980s, all the way up to the present day and Travis Scott’s involvement in the epic John Cena storyline.
Perhaps no celeb has endeared themselves more to modern wrestling audiences than the face of all our pasts – Hollywood legend Macaulay Culkin.
Now 44, Culkin remains a global megastar for the films of his childhood, the pick of the bunch being the brace of Home Alone films that remain a staple part of many a household Christmas.
From a very young age, the New Yorker has been a huge WWE fan – he was snapped in the crowd at WrestleMania 7 back in 1991 and has popped up at shows ever since.
He garnered one of the biggest reactions of the night when WWE launched on Netflix in January in a $5bn megadeal, and brilliantly repeated the trick this week as Raw aired from the iconic Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Panning across the seats at ringside, cameras picked up Culkin goofing around, revealing his face from behind a title belt to another thunderous reaction as he posed and waved to the massive audience.
The noise he generated would be the envy of many a wrestling star of this day or any other, a fact not lost on fans watching, who took to social media to applaud the movie veteran and musician.
“Macaulay Culkin really got a bigger pop than like half the roster,” read one post on X. Another echoed: “Macaulay Culkin is the GOAT of WWE crowd reveals.”
A third hailed: “Culkin has been a wrestling fan for years. Dude even recreated Home Alone spots in an indie match once.”
In a fourth post, another fan pleaded for WWE to snap up the star once and for all, saying: “Make him someone’s manager asap.”
Culkin’s epic cameo aside, fans in New York were treated to a stunning night of action, capped with Roman Reigns’ return to cause chaos at the end of the steel cage match between CM Punk and Seth Rollins.
Elsewhere, there was a return to Raw action for Chad Gable while Raquel Rodriguez defeated Bayley to become the top contender for the Women’s Intercontinental title.
