Last week on Smackdown, Dolph Ziggler turned heel. He attacked first Kalisto, and then Apollo Crews. Whilst a heel turn usually results in the crowd booing a competitor, Ziggler's turn was accompanied by resounding "YES!" chants from the Smackdown Live audience.
Ziggler's turn had been coming for months. When he was facing off against Dean Ambrose for the WWE Championship and started to doubt himself, and seemed to be going to a dark place, it seemed to be coming. That was at Summerslam in August, almost five months ago.
WWE creative finally pulled the trigger at the start of 2017 and the decision to do so was roundly supported by the WWE universe. The fans now are a lot smarter than they were when I started watching in the 1990s.
They realised that this was a great decision. Ziggler's character had become a bit stale, he hadn't been winning matches and they couldn't justify putting a title on him for more than a couple of weeks when he won the Intercontinental Championship from The Miz before losing it to him shortly afterwards.
The line between faces and heels has become less clear, especially over the last couple of years. The guys that WWE tell us are the biggest good guys are now actually two of those who get most resoundingly booed.
John Cena comes out to his theme tune being sung by the crowd with the lyrics "John Cena sucks" and everytime there is a "Let's Go Cena!" chant, it is immediately followed by another part of the crowd chanting "Cena sucks!"
Roman Reigns is the guy that they seem to be building up to replace Cena as the top face as his career winds down. Yet Reigns may be the competitor who gets the most boos out of anyone on the roster, and yet he's supposed to be the one everyone loves.
The fact that these two guys are disliked may be the way that WWE has perhaps over-pushed them in the past. The fans like to see guys who deserve it get pushed to the top. John Cena has been part-time in previous years. Roman Reigns doesn't have the mic skills that go with being a main eventer. These guys are the ones that have been shoved down our throats whilst others who the fans see as more deserving such as Daniel Bryan, Bray Wyatt and Dean Ambrose have been overlooked. And the fans have disliked this and been vocal about their dislike.
The fact that these two guys are disliked may be the way that WWE has perhaps over-pushed them in the past. The fans like to see guys who deserve it get pushed to the top. John Cena has been part-time in previous years. Roman Reigns doesn't have the mic skills that go with being a main eventer. These guys are the ones that have been shoved down our throats whilst others who the fans see as more deserving such as Daniel Bryan, Bray Wyatt and Dean Ambrose have been overlooked. And the fans have disliked this and been vocal about their dislike.
Out of the top 8 superstars on WWE shop, there are the Universal Champion Kevin Owens and WWE Champion AJ Styles. Both of these guys are the top heel on their brand but also both are loved by the fans. This is because they are great at what they do. Not just in the ring, but also on the mic. They are great at generating heat which now, perversely, actually makes the fans love them because they are good at their craft.
There are very few guys who are genuine heels now. I'd say only The Miz and Charlotte are completely loathsome out of the whole WWE roster at the moment. This is more to do with the characters they have created, rather than the fact that he is poor at what he does. In fact, I think he has improved substantially since the brand split.
The characters of Kevin Owens and AJ Style are less harsh. The Miz and Charlotte are purely selfish and arrogant. They also have comedy aspects about their characters at times.
There are very few guys who are genuine heels now. I'd say only The Miz and Charlotte are completely loathsome out of the whole WWE roster at the moment. This is more to do with the characters they have created, rather than the fact that he is poor at what he does. In fact, I think he has improved substantially since the brand split.
The characters of Kevin Owens and AJ Style are less harsh. The Miz and Charlotte are purely selfish and arrogant. They also have comedy aspects about their characters at times.
There is no definite line between heels and faces these days. If WWE creative are smart, this should allow them to do some amazing storytelling. The Jericho-Owens bromance has been the best thing on Raw recently, and this is perhaps an indication of how future storylines might go. I really hope this is the case and that they learn from this and continue to improve their product.
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