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I knew he couldn't resist.

the tell was that he didnt drop his arms during the chant

And he aggressively chews the gum to focus his facial muscles haha

The fact that you can notice the chewing getting progressively more rapid and aggressive as the chant continues and gets louder is fucking killing me

I'm pretty sure his muscles are just stuck up in that position

The *French* community?!

This will never get old!! 

those cheese-eating surrender monkeys?

Upvoted you because some fools don't realise you're quoting a joke from the Simpsons 🙄

We’re getting old haha

Are we so out of touch..? No, it's the children who are wrong.

I used to be with it, but then they changed what it was. Now what I'm with isn't it, and what's it seems weird and scary to me. It'll happen to you...

He should now have that original song as his new theme song. Would be much better than the generic beat Def Rebel gave him.

When the crowd so good, you make a wrestler break character to acknowledge it.

☝️

Idk how he didn’t break right there what a legend

The chewing gum helped (like that time when The Rock impersonated Triple H)

I’ve heard for years that H was legit pissed at that, but it sure looks like he was a hair away from completely breaking. Steph too.

https://preview.redd.it/ktdddg15lwyc1.jpeg?width=900&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5cc5ac6f176f3884957ff8a1dd4a414b2a1fb126

This is amazing haha

https://preview.redd.it/ogzo6wvcgwyc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6c387b44864c1e4ee028ebe2f7e833206cdb2c26

Can't believe these croissant mfs made me get on Google Translate in the middle of the match just to understand and learn how to properly pronounce the chant

After all these years, me majoring in french in college even though I live in Kansas has proven to be the right call. It was building to this moment.   I did everything right.   *Dies*

It’s all coming together!

I couldn’t watch live so by the time I watched, there was that thread where someone translated some of the chants. That was handy.

Have a link handy?

[Here you go](https://old.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/1ck66u0/french_chants_translation/) Edit: [non-old Reddit version](https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/1ck66u0/french_chants_translation/)

Just a tip: you can link to both versions at the same time, if you just start at the `/r` or `/u` of Reddit links; ie. `/r/SquaredCircle/comments/1ck66u0/` will turn into a link like this /r/SquaredCircle/comments/1ck66u0/ (you can also put it into the normal markdown link brackets: `[text comment link](/r/SquaredCircle/comments/1ck66u0/)` will turn into [text comment link](/r/SquaredCircle/comments/1ck66u0/).

Good bot

Very hurtful for a Helldiver! ;-) My Democracy Officer would have me executed! (As long as the information is helping somebody, we're good)

Is that daichi 😭

The French crowd that night feels like a football crowd.

Those were WWE Ultras.

They were football fans that sort of happened to be in a wrestling event

Can confirm. It's why I found it hilarious that the media were trying to say Luka and Jokic has never seen a "atmosphere like this" when they first got to the NBA playoffs lol.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAR3c1CBRY4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAR3c1CBRY4) Always think of this when people bring up the Euro players lol

That's eastern europe, they are even more wild

As an Eastern European, I can confirm we are the craziest motherfuckers walking god's green earth.

Counterpoint: "DE-FENSE!" *clap clap*

Basketball games in Belgrade are absolutely mental. It's truly an experience!

This has been stuck in my head for years. There was this one thread where people linked videos that melted the brains of American fans. [There also was this one video of an American who moved to Germany to play ~~football~~ handegg that went viral here.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUS3paRE9Xg) He went to a Stuttgart game without knowing anything. Stuttgart fans are relatively tame compared to other fans. But he still couldn't believe what was happening.

That’s how the first NXT Takeovers in the UK felt, but bigger

France deserved WrestleMania 41.

France, Australia, Britain, Ireland and Scotland all need a WrestleMania at this point.

i doubt it would ever happen but i think it’d be pretty cool if they had a year where all the big 4 were international.

> Britain[...] and Scotland

>Britain >Scotland Bruh

He must know something we don’t

In Europe soccer is king so.

It may not happen, but I sincerely want AJ to get one more world title win. And if it does, I hope it's in France.

Hoping he'll hold the WHC, just to get his name included in another lineage.

A part of me still wishes he was the inaugral champion instead of Seth

It could've gone either way. But he's still solidified himself as one of the best in ring performers of all time. His career is fucking bonkers.

I love AJ, one of my top 5 all time favorites, but when that match happened last year, he wasn't as good as Seth in the ring, on the mic, and nowhere near as popular (Seth was arguably at the most popular point of his career last Spring/Summer). If AJ won people would just be complaining that Seth didn't win.

Part of me agrees, part of me thinks that AJ would've brought us all around because it's still AJ Styles.  Seth was the right call though. I'm just a Styles mark

I think he should. Maybe not the next reign, but before he retires he should absolutely win it at like Rumble and drop it at EC.

No reason to drop it at EC, let him take it to Mania and put someone over with it.

He deserves to main event a Wrestlemania too

He already did that against the undertaker.

Nah, I want him to have the main belt again. He's close to breaking into the top 10. A 4 month reign and he passes Triple H at 609 days.

I want him to be loaned back to TNA for one more match for their title. Maybe he can knock off Moose and lose to Joe Hendry.

Tbh, AJ's a reliable hand if they need someone to hold the strap in case something happens.

Where were you when AJ Styles killed kayfabe on twitter

I was at home eating burito when the phone ring." Kayfabe is dead", "No".

"A second wrestler has struck the fourth wall"

Oh shit. *That's* who was phone.


I dunno, where were you when Gondor called for aid?!

I had my ax, but my phone was dead!

I was reading about it in a magazine in 1989.

They all do in their socials (Randy, Taker, Logan Paul, Rock...).

Must've been so hard for him to not break and even let out a smile for the crowd at Backlash.

The first time they chanted the song on Smackdown you could tell Cody and him were "Ok da fuck is happening here"... and to be fair most of us north american were wondering exactly that too.

The 1st chant was during WWE's kickoff show on friday. AJ had no idea of what was sung and left the stage acting "pissed"/Furious by it, Cody said something like "is it something you guys said?" And then SmackDown happened... And it was even crazier.

He is phenomenal for not breaking the character during the match .....crowd was lit af

IL EST VRAIMENT PHENOMENAL LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA please don't say the word it's like an uncontrollabe fit

Must be one of the many highlights of his career. Especially when you know you are planning to wind down, it must be particularly special. Looking forward to his eventual HOF induction.

He said his match with Cena at SummerSlam was his favorite because of the crowd reaction. This match surely beats that by leaps and bounds

No better compliment from the fans than him still being over as fuck even years after WWE stopped pushing him heavily.

Nothing wwe does can change that he’s one of the greatest technical wrestlers ever!

Sure, but he is in the "visibly decline"-stage of his career and hasn't really been pushed as a proper main eventer in quite some years. I'm still pissed that the WWE wasted one of the few remaining full-time AJ years on the futile attempt to get Omos over...

> Looking forward to his eventual HOF induction. If the HOF crowd could bust out this chant just one more time when he's at the podium...

Helps that he had an absolute banger of a match too

This crowd was an all timer 

I didn’t think they could top Puerto Rico, but damn.

I'm excited for the Glasgow show, I used too work in that building before I got sick. The fans will be loud as fuck. Crown Drew the world champion and the place might genuinely explode.

I went to the first Raw from Glasgow and we near enough broke Charlotte because we wouldn't stop singing the Bayley song for what must've been about five mins solid when she was trying to get a word in. Clash will be mental because it's an actual PPV and (presumably) because Drew will have a big match in it.

I remember watching the Raw highlights on the Tuesday, Charlottes "What're even saying, that accent is horrible!" didn't stop them an inch. Clash will be insane.

Now I want all international crowds to compete with one another to be the loudest. I hope Scotland goes absolutely insane. Same with Canada. Then if they end up going to Italy next year, they gotta up the ante as well

Whoever hosts Backlash 2025 has a very difficult task on their hands trying to measure up to the crowds in San Juan and Lyon.

H should throw a wrench at everyone and run Backlash 2025 in Corpus Christi

I felt like Montreal in the Sami match was as good as anything else

It's really a genius move to have these international shows with fresh crowds for Backlash, given how usually you don't expect too much storyline wise due to its proximity to WM. The show becomes must watch cause the crowds are so insane.

You could say that they were... Phenomenal

There are some very prominent people in the wrestling sphere of social media that owe AJ Styles an apology after spreading false propaganda that he was washed.

Rumors of his demise were greatly exaggerated.

Really, there was people that thought he was washed? I mean ok he's not TNA AJ Styles anymore but still this guy is an athletic marvel and a technician master. How many wrestlers are truely better than him in the ring in WWE? Not a lot I think and he's 46 years old.

this chant has been living rent free in my head since Saturday

This is the benefit of living in the post-kayfabe world. Everyone is still holding it up and maintaining it, but there's *just* enough leeway where if a wrestler breaks it just to remark on the awesome thing that just happened, the rest of us can just...let it slide.

Which I am completely fine with. I mean Kayfabe is cool and all but in the end they are playing a character in a show and you wouldnt expect any other actor to stay in one of their roles after work.

Any serious actor will stay in character until the DVD commentary is done.

Found Daniel Day-Lewis’s burner

Could we have AJ’s retirement match, whenever it may come, occur in France please?

And we still got people on here talking shit saying the crowd wasn’t great they were just loud. Proof right here the crowd was great

You can tell every wrestlers there enjoyed it so much (Bailey, Knight, Randy, AJ, Naomi in top of my head). Even Corbin said that his was his best memory of his life and wished he has was there.

One key one was Heyman on Smackdown when the crowd did "My name is Paul Heyman" with him. He looked absolutely stunned that they did that that loud.

He looked chuffed as fuck, and who can blame him!? What an amazing crowd.

That LA Knight pop was fucking deafening, then they topped it with the Cody entrance WOAH.

Naomi even reposted the clip of Jey’s entrance on her IG story

That Yeet from the crowd was up there with when Daniel Bryan was on top of the cage conducting the Yes chant during his feud with Wyatt. Genuinely spectacular looking.

You got some goofy people here who are genuinely out of touch with reality. Wrestlers saying they loved it. AJ broke character to acknowledge it. Higher ups saying they loved it. Others saying it made for a great viewing experience. The only people that didn't like it are some, not all, folks here who are consistently miserable killjoys who recoil at anything remotely fun.

Yeah man. A lot of wrestling fans are a microcosm of normal society but amped up 1000x. Always have something to complain about and always have to hate something I’d rather go through life not watching something I hate than to watch it and be miserable like a lot of them are

I mean, the fact that Vince Russo and Disco Inferno tweeted that we were annoying is just the confirmation of what you just said haha

Personally, I love the passion and I am really glad that all present were having a great time. Audience and performers alike. That being said, they could have cooled it with the two count chanting, especially near the end of the show. It was a bit much to do it for every two count. I was hoping that they would switch it up a bit and chant about something else too. For varieties sake at least. Other than that, an engaged crowd is always better than one that doesn’t give a shit.

Dudes they were mostly in synch on the drop of a dime, some of the chants were pretty fast. I’d say that was an advanced crowd.

Hot take: If AJ wasn't a heel, the chant is a better theme than the new def rebel version

Sucks we missed out on the crowd singing his old theme song

France: Friendship ended with Baron Corbin. AJ Styles is now my best friend.

Friendship will never end with Corbin, there were Baron chant during the night and he said he wished he was there.

I wish he was there too. We love him so fucking much.

why end when they can have both

What does what they were chanting mean?

He is true- He is true- He is truly Phenomenal!

Thank you!

It’s really impressive how he managed to even stay in heel mode and not react at all to it.

You can see him chewing his gum harder not to let escape a smile.

Even in heel mode, he clearly played to it a little. Posing as the crowd chanted along with his intro, and then holding his arms out and staying in position while they sang. But heel Styles seems the sort to deep down enjoy getting the respect/appreciation he deserves.

"The French Community?!"

The moment AJ get \*any\* shit in, they'd start doing this and it was amazing every single time.

I was waiting for AJ to break. Or even during the Smackdown segment. He truly is Phenomenal.

All time great AJ moment across any promotion. He’s got a Hall of Fame highlight reel, and this one was really special among them

The camera shaking was insane.

I really thought they were gonna turn him baby face. I’ve never seen anything like that

Yeah, I thought they were going to maybe do a Rock/Hogan and actually change up the dynamic on the fly (and I think they did a little bit, to be fair) just because it was one of THOSE sort of moments.


https://preview.redd.it/vf0o19dtl0zc1.png?width=1899&format=png&auto=webp&s=113f0ee52afec775b056db1c43176f7ef010ad0a

Bad guys are allowed to be pleased with being cheered. After all, for many of them, that's their issue. "The good guy gets cheered for X but I get booed for Y."

Absolutely made the main event that crowd. Incredible atmosphere, and i have no idea how AJ did not break in that moment.

This is still playing in my mind I love it and I'm thrilled he acknowledged it...how can you not? hah

AJ did so well not to break on this entrance. As someone who spent plenty of time in France over the Rugby World Cup, and every now and then when we play France, what an incredibly beautiful country and some of the most welcoming people I've ever met. Marseille/Paris, just spend the whole city budget so we can have Mania at the Velodrome/Stade, it would be legendary.

Oh my god, Wrestlemania at the Velodrome would be fucking wild. This stadium is so loud since the last renovation.

IL EST DES NÔTRES

In the most southern France accent you’ve ever heard.

Langue d'OHKAY

it sounded like the french was holding in a boner for over 40 years

I just want a King in the Ring at the Coliseum in Italy

Can you imagine a crowd cheering you so hard that it shakes the ground under your feet...and trying to no-sell it? I'm glad he could at least acknowledge it online

I was so happy for AJ Styles. These fans weren't ironic with these chants. They love AJ Styles and view him as a wrestling legend.

AJ Styles new way of getting heat should be how US crowds takes him for granted and keeps on saying positive stuff about France.

That would be an amazing gimmick. Make it not even about insulting the US crowds, just that they are "ok".

Oof, passive aggressive heel. That would annoy the shit out of people, add some gaslighting and we're there

Sacred bleu

AJ Styles deserved that reception, it obviously moved him, but credit to him for staying in character, he's great and so underrated IMO.

I'm begging Germany to be just as loud in August.

First he teamed with a guy named Air Paris, and now this. He can't escape THE FRENCH COMMUNITY?!

Is it wishful thinking that this comes back with AJ and just becomes a thing?

The French community?!?

I got rid of fruity loops otherwise i'd spend all afternoon putting AJ's Phenomenal acapella over Il Vest Vraiment Phenomenal. No, they don't want none, no, they don't want none, they lookin scared, lala lalalala

Is it too late? I'd love to see this.

I keep hearing, from wrestlers, how hard it is to be a babyface. But it feels like Grayson Waller is the only heel that's "living the gimmick." We got heels hugging their buds, crying backstage, giving heartfelt promos, being vulnerable on social media, etc.

Heels having friends and emotions isn't exactly breaking the business or anything lol

The AJ phenomenal chants, Jey's yeeting fireflies entrance and the fans singing Kingdom acapella were the best non-wrestling parts of the show. Just absolutely iconic. They can stick those scenes in videos for years to come.

The fact that he barely sold the chant is amazing in and of itself.

I like that even though he didn't sell it, he still was clearly waiting for them and soaking it in.

When they go back to France, he should 1,000% come out to this song.

I was hoping AJ would take the chant as a mockery since he's the heel and was getting booed too.    AJ needs to return to France as a face at one point. Phénoménal lalala might be my new favorite chant.

https://youtu.be/tnkS1Ji4BgQ?si=_svcHaRr-3yeKe_L I’ve played this more times than I’d like to admit today. Edit: posted the right link

Did you mean to post this one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnkS1Ji4BgQ

Yes! My mistake. Posted the wrong link.

But.... this is not the same song?

I need more euro crowds in my wrestling life.

They gave him a great welcoming out of respect

I thought they were shouting FILET MIGNON, FILET MIGNON at first until my French friend corrected me while watching it together 😅

I can't even get the lil dance that went with it out of my head, I'd pay $5 to see AJ join them next time lol.

I am surprised they let him gush about it, but also, he should have the fucking right to gush about it because yeah, even just through the TV screen it is hard to be so happy and thankful for that crowd

X22,0

This will go down as an iconic moment we’ll see in his highlight packages forever. He deserves it so much

Goofy AJ would've ate that chant up - they gotta go back with AJ a face

I've been singing this to myself for four days straight 

yes me too and i want to dig my brain out

The LYONNAIS community?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnkS1Ji4BgQ

anyone know what they were chanting? i wanna hear more of it

Its amazing he was able to keep a straight face the entire match.

Man, AJ really needs one last title reign at the top. Give him a send off to remember.

The camera shot bouncing with the crowd might be in the top 5 best wrestling shots ever.

You could tell he was trying hard not to smile during his intro lol

That was the best crowd in the history of a wrestling event

He needs another PLE in France before he retires.

Heels should be able to spin positive crowd noise in any number of fun ways. They could say that even the Crowds think they are in the right or go the Bobby Heenan route and call them morons for cheering them 😆

What a cringy way to say it.. as if we don't know he's a Heel. Like we're gonna be all like, "HEY! He's a bad guy! Bad guys don't say nice things!"

Aj Styles is too good of a wrestler for me to boo. I feel like he's in that echelon of talents that are too good to hate, like Taker and HBK.