Does The Man come around to play the villain or anti-hero? Tommy goes into what the scuttlebutt currently is!

Hey, remember when they tried this same thing at SummerSlam three years ago?  Remember how splendidly this worked out for WWE, as Becky Lynch became WWE’s top female villain, and fans vehemently showered her with boos each week on TV?  Oh, wait… you’re right.  It didn’t work at all.  In fact, their plan to turn Becky heel tanked so hard that WWE were, not only forced to turn Becky babyface, but she was voted “Most Popular Wrestler of 2019” and received the number one ranking in the “PWI Female 100”, according to Pro Wrestling Illustrated.  So by that logic, only in WWE’s perverse mind would they try and duplicate the exact same story from three years ago and expect a different result.  It’s actually quite comical in hindsight.

According to Mike Johnson’s report with PWInsider on August 22, multiple sources had confirmed that Becky will be positioned on SmackDown as the “top heel.”  In addition, new reports have disclosed that Becky had requested this heel turn.  This, according to a recent Figure 4 Online article from Dave Meltzer on August, 23.  This news has garnered much attention in the last few days, as wrestling fans seemed to be left perplexed and dumbfounded by this announcement.  Becky has arguably been WWE’s top babyface wrestler over the last two years, male or female.  Her unexpected return at SummerSlam this past Saturday generated the biggest crowd pop, arguably bigger than Brock Lesnar’s return following the main event Universal Championship Match.  Fans had not seen Becky in a WWE ring in approximately fifteen months.  Obviously, the company knew in advance that she was going to receive nothing short of a warm welcome for her evident return.  So, how exactly did they envision Becky’s character as a villain upon return?  Perhaps, the idea of her steamrolling Bianca Belair in under thirty seconds to win the SmackDown Women’s Championship was enough to justify their rationale.  Bianca had been the top female face on SmackDown for the entirety of 2021.  Unfortunately, the execution of the squash victory did not result in Becky receiving a massive heel reaction.  If anything, she received mixed reactions with fans mostly cheering.  Now, WWE expects their audience, who have invested three years behind The Man, Becky Lynch as the most beloved star in the company, to view her as the top villain upon her fifteen month hiatus.  Some would say this is illogical; others would argue it is just plain absurd.

Ultimately, here is the important takeaway that we need to bear in mind:

WWE does not dictate who the fans cheer and boo.  Yes, they can pump in artificial crowd heat.  Yes, they can have Becky perform every distasteful, despicable act in the book in order to try and generate boos.  Yes, they can establish multiple story scenarios to make Bianca Belair a sympathetic character.  However, this fundamentally boils down to whether or not the fans are ready and willing to boo Becky and get solely behind Bianca.  According to various sources, people seem to be generally upset about Bianca losing the SmackDown Women’s Championship to Becky in less than thirty seconds at SummerSlam.  The question is, “Are they upset with Becky?  Or are they upset with WWE?”  If they are upset with Becky, then it is probable she will receive the reaction WWE wants; if they are upset with WWE, fans may continue to cheer Becky to spite the company.

Sources:

• Johnson, M. (2021, August 22). PWInsider – Wwe News, wrestling News, wwe. SPOILER: YOU WILL NEVER BELIEVE WHO WWE HAS TURNED HEEL | PWInsider.com. https://www.pwinsider.com/article/150045/spoiler-you-will-never-believe-who-wwe-has-turned-heel.html?p=1.

• Lutete, I. (2021, August 24). Becky Lynch reportedly requested to turn heel. Sports news. https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe/rumor-becky-lynch-reportedly-requested-turn-heel.

• Meltzer, D. (2021, August 24). Daily Update: BECKY LYNCH, FRIDAY ratings, Adam Cole. WON/F4W – WWE news, Pro Wrestling News, WWE Results, UFC News, UFC results. https://www.f4wonline.com/daily-updates/daily-update-becky-lynch-friday-ratings-adam-cole-351001.