WWE Gets Accused Of ‘Piping’ Oba Femi Chants

Jim Cornette has suggested WWE may be piping in the opening Oba Femi chants during his entrance, though he was quick to clarify he is not dismissing the reaction itself as fake.

Speaking on his Drive Thru podcast, Cornette raised the question of how a crowd could organically begin chanting in unison the moment Femi’s music hits.

“Oba’s music played, and I think they are piping, at first, the Oba chant. Hold on before anybody says, ‘Oh, now Cornette thinks Oba’s chant is bullsh*t.’ No, what, the people sitting there in the building wouldn’t know when to start chanting in unison, Oba, Oba, even if they knew that he was coming out next. You see what I’m saying? The logistical matter of, okay, are we gonna cue everybody, or what if, no, they’ve got an Oba thing as a preface to his music that tells people, and then they pop and you hear it, and then they start picking it up.”

Cornette’s suggestion is that WWE may be using a crowd prompt — a preface built into Femi’s entrance cue — to get the chant started, after which the live crowd picks it up organically. He is not claiming the reaction is manufactured, only that the synchronised opening beat may have a production assist.

Femi has generated significant crowd enthusiasm since debuting on the main roster. Kids and adults alike have been seen mimicking his entrance walk in arenas, and he has drawn spontaneous chants even during episodes of SmackDown on which he did not appear. He is scheduled to face Brock Lesnar at Clash in Italy on May 31 in Turin.