GREG:
Ummm…what?

Triple H told us a while back: Roman Reigns doesn’t need to turn heel, he’s already there. When asked about turning heel, Roman Reigns said it himself: “Aren’t I already there?” Listen to Something To Wrestle with Bruce Prichard, episode 94 (I know this because I just started it). Bruce says it best: Vince McMahon loves someone who gets the type of emotional response that Roman Reigns is getting. LOVES IT. He’d know better than you, me, or anyone reading this.

Braun Strowman has been a heel for most of his singles run in WWE. He’s been a bully, he’s attacked people for no reason, he’s destroyed property. He mocked one of the best tag teams in the world by teaming with a child to defeat them at WrestleMania. He basically forced Kevin Owens to “quit” by inflicting unnecessary violence.

Becky Lynch, the “heel,” is probably the most relatable character in WWE today. She got screwed by her best friend. How many people watching Smackdown have wanted to haul off and nail their best friend for something they’ve done? In fact, it’s not even a stretch to say that Becky Lynch is “Stone Cold” Steve Austin (the character the fans can relate to) and Charlotte Flair is Vince McMahon (the person who wronged them, and whose ass you want to kick, but can’t/won’t).

In fact, stressing a face/heel alignment goes AGAINST everyday thinking. Am I a face, or am I a heel? Depends on the day! Depends on the circumstance. Depends on my environment. We’re all faces and heels at different points in our lives–hell, we’re all faces and heels at different points of a single day!

Internet wrestling fans love to claim WWE is insulting them with their storytelling. Yet they can’t get their minds off of a face/heel dynamic that ceased to exist a long time ago. Yes, the WWE does have some faces (Daniel Bryan) and heels (The Miz). But not everyone falls into a bucket now, and they don’t have to.

WWE employs Hollywood writers, many of whom didn’t write action hero movies with set good guys and bad guys, but writers who put out weekly television shows that had characters in conflict, not faces and heels. WWE doesn’t need faces and heels to tell every story–they need a protagonist and an antagonist. There needs to be conflict, and good vs. evil is merely one type of conflict they may employ.

Internet fans need to realize that WWE isn’t insulting them with their storytelling, they’re giving you multilayered stories that you (the internet) actually might not be ready to absorb. Who is insulting who?

NICK:
I had a feeling you were going to come out with what Triple H and Roman have said. The thing is, nobody would have ever asked that question if the crowd reaction was what they originally desired. I’m sure Vince does love that Roman gets a big reaction, the same way that he loves/loved Cena getting that reaction. But it’s not by design. He’d love it even more if the entire crowd uniformly stood in line to join the Roman Reigns lovefest. He’s been trying to make it happen for years, and if it worked it would make him even more money than he’s already making on Reigns merch, since you would have a large group of people who presently would rather buy AJ Styles shirts buying BIG DOG stuff instead.

I can accept a reality in which what is happening now is the newly intended design… they saw that pushing Cena as a babyface no matter how the crowd reacted ended up turning him into a living legend, so they’re going the same route with Roman. I won’t concede that it was the original plan. However, I could definitely see the course being altered intentionally (for example) after Triple H got cheered when he won the WWE Title in the 2016 Royal Rumble. It makes sense. They had the crowd no matter what, so why not just do what they wanted? The people who are already Roman fans will stick with him, while you further alienate and piss off the people who want him to go away.

How does that last bit make sense? Because that would make up for the merchandise sales they aren’t getting from those people. Instead of buying Roman shirts, they’re buying AJ shirts, and OGBC shirts and Monster Among Men shirts, possibly as much as they can, in order to try to show Vince that THESE are the guys they want, not Roman. Inadvertently, of course, all they are doing is funneling the money in through a different tube that lands in the same vault.

Well, shit. I don’t know if I believe it, but I can accept it as a possibility. Something still tells me that deep down, Vince’s ego wants Roman to be the guy everyone loves as much as he does. Whatever the truth is, I don’t find it to be entertaining television, which is why I tend to avoid it. I’ve only started watching RAW again because of this debate, and it’s pretty much strictly for research purposes. I think I actually enjoyed doing research papers in high school more than I enjoy watching RAW in 2018.

I’ll put it this way: if you want to convince me that faces and heels don’t exist, then you’re going to have to convince me that nothing the commentary team says is pertinent to the story.

I like the logic behind what you’re saying. It’s very sound logic. But you say that the “internet fans” feel they are being insulted by WWE’s writing, and that they are misunderstanding the point that WWE is trying to get across. The same way that you believe these people may be twisting the story to fit their negative narrative, I can say that you are twisting the story to fit your positive narrative. Trying to paint what WWE is putting on television as “multilayered stories” is an insult to anybody who has a set of ears.

As soon as Michael Cole stops praising everything Roman does, as soon as Tom Phillips and Byron Saxton stop calling Becky a poor sport and claiming Charlotte is being unfairly attacked by her former best friend — then I’ll concede, fully, that WWE isn’t pushing a face/heel narrative. Until they stop literally telling us who the good guys are and who the bad guys are, I’m not going to stop believing that faces and heels are still the intended goal. I won’t accept poor writing with tons of plot holes and shoddy continuity as “shades of gray”. I’ll accept it as poor writing with tons of plot holes and shoddy continuity.

GREG:
You had a feeling? That’s because you know it’s right. 🙂

The biggest criticism of WWE is that they don’t listen to what the fans want. And that’s just silly. History shows that successful wrestling companies listen to what the fans want. In 1988 Randy Savage was getting the best reaction of anyone in WWF not named Hulk Hogan. What did they do? They put the WWF Championship on him. Sting was getting amazing reactions in Jim Crockett Promotions, so they had him go to a draw with Ric Flair in an NWA Worlds Championship match that made a star out of Sting.

Steve Austin was losing matches left and right in his first year in the WWF. But he was getting over with his workrate, facial expressions, and making the most of his promo time. So he wins the King Of The Ring and ends up cutting a promo that basically started a wrestling revolution. Rocky Maivia was the blue chip baby face but he got a terrible reaction. So he was put in The Nation and ended up getting so over as a heel that the company turned him face. All because they listened to the fans.

John Cena was a rapping heel that started to get a babyface reaction, so Vince McMahon turned him face. He quickly was “shoved down our throats” and got a mixed reaction. What did Vince do? He turned it to eleven and made money on the mixed reaction. Now they are doing the same thing with Roman Reigns, and it’s working equally well.

The fact is that the best characters break the mold and are elevated above the face/heel reaction. I don’t give two cares what the commentary team is telling me, they’re there for person who doesn’t already know the story. They should have no bearing on your opinion. I watch the show and make my own decision. It’s the same reason why I don’t read movie reviews–I don’t want someone else telling me if a movie is good. Just like I don’t want three talking heads telling me if Becky is bad or Roman is good. Don’t insult yourself by using them as an excuse–you’re smarter than that, and they aren’t there for you.

And don’t even get me started on merch. I seriously doubt a ten-year-old kid says “Mommy, please buy me this Finn Balor shirt so we can show Vince McMahon that he’s pushing the wrong guy!” That’s just silly. No more than 4% of the audience thinks in a manner that says “I need to buy this specific merch to show the company who they need to push.” They made more Cena gear because people would buy more Cena gear. Now they’re doing it with Roman.

At the end of the day, the desired reaction, above all else, is AN EMOTIONAL REACTION. The company is going to start with a face or a heel, but they listen to the fans. They make and sell merchandise based on buying habits. They’re a business that is making tons of money and just signed a billion dollar TV contract to put Smackdown on network television (real network television, not whatever UPN pretended to be). They know how to use and get the most out of their audience. They didn’t just do it one Saturday night on a holiday weekend in Chicago, they’ve been doing it since the early 1980s. And because they know how to properly balance the face/heel dynamic and use your emotions to their benefit, there’s no end in sight.

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