WWE forced these guys to change their costumes or lose their ringside seats at 'Monday Night Raw'

If you were watching the live broadcast of the most recent episode of WWE's "Monday Night Raw" on the USA Network, you might have noticed an unusual change occur in the first hour of the show. For the first two segments of last night's taping in Des Moines, IA,  a group of fans sitting at ringside were seen dressed as such WWE superstars of yesteryear such as Ric Flair, Ultimate Warrior, "Macho Man" Randy Savage and IRS.

Approximately 30 minutes into the show, the costumes were gone. The fans had changed into what appeared to be an assortment of WWE t-shirts.

Here you can see the fans in costume:

And here's a shot of the fans after being ordered to remove the costumes:


We reached out to WWE for comment, and while they did not address the reason for the change, they issued this statement:

"WWE apologized to the fans for the inconvenience and offered them tickets to an upcoming show."

Business Insider talked via phone to one of the fans forced to change his costume. Des Moines-based accountant Chris Andersen, 33, went to the event dressed as Ric Flair. Andersen said that after the second segment of the show, a WWE representative politely informed the group that they would either have to remove their costumes or be forced to give up their ringside seats that were in clear view of what's known as the "hard camera," or the main camera that shoots the in-ring action.

Andersen said that the WWE official told the group "we love your enthusiasm, but it's a distraction."

Andersen said the official presented the fans with a stack of WWE t-shirts they could wear for the rest of the broadcast.

According to Andersen, he and his 9 friends each paid about $107 each for the ringside seats.

Today a reddit post about the incident became the top post on the popular pro-wrestling sub-reddit known as Squared Circle. One of the fans posted this email that he sent to the WWE:

Andersen forwarded Business Insider the WWE's response to this email, wherein the company said this:

"We apologize for any inconvenience you encountered.  We would like to offer you and your 9 friends tickets to the next WWE event in Des Moines.  At your convenience, please e-mail back your mailing address and phone number so we can work on the specific ticket arrangements.  Thank you very much."