10 Awful WWE Clichés That Refuse To Go Away
1. The Superman Babyface
The past 10+ years have seen WWE move away from basing their main event on a rotating cast of legitimate “top guys” to building everything around a single figurehead. It started with John Cena’s unstoppable rise from 2005 onwards, and it continues with Roman Reigns today. WWE’s entire main event is built around “The Guy,” and while Reigns might be working in the United States Title division at the moment, there’s no evidence to suggest that he’s not the golden boy anymore.
The Superman Babyface kills competition, and muddies every program he’s involved with. Fans know that no matter how much adversity they face, this character is probably going to win, and “overcoming the odds” has become their vocation. Such wrestlers rarely lose, and when they do, it’s through distraction, interference, or other shenanigans. They are bulletproof, and they rarely give anything to the opposition.
Fans turned on Cena for it, and Reigns has shown no sign of turning his own negative crowd reactions around. Effective babyfaces are supposed to be flawed but determined individuals with legitimate shortcomings to overcome on the road to the top, but these guys are the opposite. There’s no such thing as a flawless human being, but that’s exactly how the Superman Babyface is portrayed, and that’s what makes them impossible to root for.
Worst of all, however, is the way these characters routinely bury the opposition. Bray Wyatt, Wade Barrett, Rusev, and countless others have seen their own careers obliterated by being fed to Superman, and such casualties will remain commonplace for as long as this cliché is in-place.