How to deal with a ‘what' chant, according to Stone Cold Steve Austin

Just a few weeks ago, Charlotte stumbled her way through a promo on Monday Night Raw, clearly affected by the live audience chanting “what” at her during every pause. Stone Cold Steve Austin, the man who came up with said chant and was critical of said promo, gave an interview to SI.com recently where he actually laid out a formula for dealing with those chants, using Charlotte’s ordeal as a template:

Every time there’s a Monday Night Raw and there is a ‘What?’ chant, people say, ‘Steve, we love you, but we wish you never would have invented the ‘What?’ chant. It’s real simple–and Vince was on Raw a few weeks ago and just sped up his cadence and doesn’t give them an in. It rattled Charlotte, but she should have turned it on them:

‘I think you’re stupid for saying ‘What?’

‘What?’

‘You’re stupid.’

‘What?’

‘You’re stupid.’

‘What?’

‘You’re morons.’

‘What?’

‘See how stupid you are, you’re still saying, ‘What?’

“She could have totally ruled them.”

Yes, “what” chants are very bad, but we’ve seen great performers own crowds dishing them out before. Going forward, there are no excuses for getting tripped up by them thanks to Austin’s handy dandy template.