10 Genius Ways WWE Wrestlers Survived “Go Away” Heat
7. Bo Dallas
When one thinks of early marks of greatness in NXT’s run as the developmental brand, it’s the likes of Bo Dallas and the Bolieve campaign that come to mind. Debuting in the promotion as a good guy, the company clearly had big plans for the son of Mike Rotunda.
Dallas’ boring babyface schtick was so bad that when he went to the main event roster in 2013 that his run lasted only a few weeks. When he returned to NXT, the WWE brass continued to push Dallas until he captured the brand’s main title from Big E, much to the chagrin of the fans at Full Sail University.
The generic good guy persona of Bo caused fans to not only give the wrestler a cacophony of boos for every appearance, nor did it just mean his heel opponents were being cheered. Fans in attendance made a visual representation of their disdain by literally turning their backs on Dallas and refusing to look at him.
To respond to this, Dallas did not pull away from it... In fact, Bo’s character went even harder into the personality and thus became a pseudo-parody of naïve heroes.
The nauseatingly positive inspirational “Bolieve” vignettes were the kind of kitsch nonsense that connects with fans and, as such, caused the character to do a full 180. The babyface being booed was now a petulant, disingenuous heel being cheered.