Ricochet stands to benefit the most from the return of fans

The lack of fans in attendance hurt a lot of wrestling promotions over the last year. Many wrestlers play off of the fans in the crowd. For some, like Ricochet, that’s their whole shtick, really. They feed off of that energy. In this piece, we’ll discuss why Ricochet stands to benefit the most from the return of the fans in the arenas.

In this case, we’re talking about that energy going back and forth between the wrestlers and the fans at ringside and in the nosebleeds; that energy acting as a beacon for stars like Ricochet to perform at a higher level than most. Although a daredevil like him definitely doesn’t need all that much to convince him to perform as he does, it definitely helps.

We’ve seen it already. Just this week on Raw, the oohing and ahhing that was customarily heard when he or others like him performed any one of his or their death-defying stunts could be heard once again. It was music to my ears, and to yours as well, I’m sure.

But with rumors of WWE possibly having to return back to the ThunderDome, where no fans are allowed, because of the emergence of this Delta Variant (and possibly rumored financial issues as well), we stand to lose that interaction with stars like Ricochet, and he stands to lose that feedback that he gets instantly.

With WWE making mass cuts — just this week, Bronson Reed, Mercedes Martinez, Bobby Fish, Ric Flair, and at the end of last week, Bray Wyatt –we’re forced to conclude that if they do return to the ThunderDome, it has a heck of a lot more to do with something else other than something that Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former head of the Food and Drug Administration, says, if fully vaccinated, is less of a threat than it is being made out to be, as has been reported by CBS News.

Financially, a lot of companies were hurt (some more than others), so it is possible that WWE is having trouble in that department, as the recent releases undoubtedly show. This isn’t a fact, but can definitely be considered food for thought.

But the pandemic and financial peril aside, it’s been a hard couple of years, and the ones that are getting the brunt of it are the performers and you: the fans.

Ricochet has been doing his best to acquire the acclaim that many in WWE get and deserve, and primarily because of the death-defying stunts they perform in the ring and around it, and as I stated, Ricochet happens to do the best in that environment, offering much more in the spectacular feats department of the wrestling business and the WWE product overall. John Morrison is a close second. The both of them never hold back, though; even when there weren’t any people in the stands, they always gave it their all.

Ricochet, whose real name is Trevor Mann, started in the business at a young age. He was 15 when he got going, which puts him in a very elite class of performers. Greats like The British Bulldog and Roddy Piper started young as well, as did so many others.

He started out at Chaos Pro Wrestling, and subsequently wrestled in IWA events, as well as Chikara, Insanity Pro, DDT Pro Wrestling, Dragon Gate, Lucha Underground, Pro Wrestling Guerilla, New Japan Pro and so many more. His titles at the aforementioned promotions include the Lucha Underground Championship (twice), the Young Lion’s Cup V in Chikara, a tremendous honor, and the list of accolades only goes on from there, folks.

Also, Pro Wrestling Illustrated ranked him at number 15 out of the best 500 singles wrestlers in 2016 — no easy feat.

In Chikara, he also wrestled under a mask as The Masked Helios, and obviously wrestled in a mask, his style mirrored the Lucha style that was so popular on the indie circuit. He’s also worked as Prince Puma in Lucha Underground.

He would reach WWE by 2018 and has been wowing audiences since his arrival; first at NXT, then on Raw.

He definitely stands out from the crowd, though, and by crowd, I mean the other wrestlers on the roster. Wrestlers like Ricochet tend to have their legacies endure because of the sacrifices they make in the ring.

I’m reminded of Rey Mysterio and Shawn Michaels when I look at Ricochet and hope that he will be regarded in that class as time goes on.

On the main roster, he’s held the United States Championship once and we hope he gets the nod to go for other more prized belts, like, say, the WWE Championship. That sounds nice, now doesn’t it? I’m sure he would appreciate it.

At the end of the day, we hope that WWE, as well as all the other promotions, can stay out there, and not just for Ricochet’s sake. We hope for the safety of everyone out there and the abolishment of the pandemic and sooner rather than later. But for now, let’s enjoy Ricochet live while we still can and hope for the best.