7 Ways Modern WWE Heels Created 'Bad' Heat
In their effort to get their heels over, WWE end up getting no one over.
WWE is a heel-heavy company at the moment. From babyfaces having short title reigns to heels beating them in their hometown, the company is very much the land of the baddies. Part of the reason for this is the company’s drive to constantly generate heat for their programs.
Obviously, heat is an integral part to any feud. If the audience has no investment in the face or the heel, the program falls flat. The crowd has to want to see the heel finally get his comeuppance, and for that, he has to say and do dastardly things to become disliked. For example, last year, despite nobody really having any investment in Dolph Ziggler, they were on their feet as he, with his career on the line, got his revenge on The Miz after his months of cheating and gloating. It was the perfect example of a heel building himself up as a dragon to be slain.
However, in modern WWE, for every successful attempt they have made at generating good heel heat, there’s plenty of examples of their plans backfiring, and generating the dreaded "bad heat".
7. Paige Brings Up Charlotte's Dead Brother
Many will recall the infamous angle from 2006 when Randy Orton told Rey Mysterio that his late friend Eddie Guerrero was in hell. It was universally decried and won the Wrestling Observer award for Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic that year. But in fairness to that, it was at least used in a high profile feud for a world title. Charlotte and Paige didn't even have that going for them.
In their lukewarm tiff for the Divas title in 2015, the two former Team PCB teammates bafflingly received the main event of the go-home RAW before Survivor Series. Charlotte, still trying to find her footing in the main roster and using her family as a crutch, spoke of how she wrestled in memory of her brother Reid. Reid, a wrestler himself, died years earlier from a drug overdose.
For some depraved reason, WWE decided to use this horrible fact to get heel heat on Paige, who said, live on TV, “your little brother didn't have much fight, did he?”
Neither Ric Flair nor Reid’s mother were notified ahead of time this would happen, and the remark was met with universal disgust. To no surprise, it was never mentioned again in Paige and Charlotte’s feud.