Yep. The whole thing reminds me of professional wrestling, with one person blatantly cheating, the entire public watching it happen, as the "referee" is pretend

Yep. The whole thing reminds me of professional wrestling, with one person blatantly cheating, the entire public watching it happen, as the "referee" is pretending to be distracted by something else. So the public is going crazy, screaming at the ref to look over there, all agreeing to pretend the match isn't a scripted act performed by a single party. And the entire public just stays, acting like they don't have something better to do.