Australian sports fans intensified the controversy surrounding their jeering of the US national anthem by engaging in an extremely crude chant about a wrestling star at last Saturday’s WWE event in Perth.
The Crown Jewel show in the Western Australian capital was marred by controversy right from the start when the audience began loudly booing singer Sophie Foster’s rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner at the RAC Arena.
This reaction received significant criticism from Americans on social media, with comments like, ‘Sickening for the WWE fans in Australia (who are some of the most restricted “free” people in the world) to BOO the GREAT AMERICAN NATIONAL ANTHEM.’
Australian star Rhea Ripley, who has garnered a large following in the WWE, was in the middle of an interview with a panel of commentators when the crowd behind her broke into an offensive chant about her Japanese rival, Asuka.
The fans started chanting ‘Asuka’s a s**t c***’ relentlessly, prompting one of the commentators to remark, ‘It’s a family show!’ while another said the display was ‘a bridge too far’.
Pictured: The moment Aussie WWE star Rhea Ripley reacts to the crowd’s obscene chant about her rival, Japanese wrestler Asuka
Pictured: Some of the angry reactions to the crowd’s chant in Perth on Saturday night
Ripley couldn’t contain her laughter as she told the panel, ‘This is my country, guys.’
However, many fans didn’t find it funny at all.
‘Aussies have no class man,’ one wrote on X, with another adding, ‘Man, Aussies have dirty mouths.’
‘Aussie crowd are awful,’ another commenter added.
‘Aussies showed 0 class. Do not return,’ a fourth viewer wrote, with another calling the spectators ‘F’ing savages’.
However, many Aussies said the chant wasn’t as vile as foreigners might assume.
‘That’s not an insult, that’s an Aussie welcome,’ one wrote.
‘In Australia it’s just a colloquial term. Not really that offensive,’ another added.
Asuka (pictured) and her tag-team partner Kairi Sane lost their match against Ripley and her partner, Iyo Sky
Ripley (pictured) told the shocked commentators on the panel, ‘This is my country, guys’ after the chant broke out
‘Americans don’t understand Australian culture. I am American and I get it, America is too soft,’ wrote another.
Ripley and her tag-team partner Iyo Sky defeated Asuka and Kairi Sane by pinfall in their bout on the Crown Jewel card.
Western Australian Premier Roger Cook lashed out at fans for booing the US national anthem after the event.
‘It is not alright, it is never alright, to comment or make noises negatively about another country,’ he said.
Australian WWE star Grayson Waller said the crowd booed because it’s trendy to insult the American anthem at the moment.
‘It’s just, like, an in thing right now to boo the US national anthem,’ he told the West Australian.
‘It didn’t mean anything. People are making it bigger than it is.
‘It was just a situation where it was cool to boo the anthem at the time.
‘I’m just more proud that I got to hear the Australian national anthem at a WWE show.’
