10 Things WWE Did When It Was Huge (And Need To Do Now)

As recently pointed out by Bryan Alvarez of Figure Four Weekly, prior to AJ Styles' MSG house show U.S. Championship win, there were just two babyface title holders in WWE. One, Asuka, remains in the process of a slow-burn heel turn.

WWE does this to sustain the dying episodic TV model. There has to be some hook with which to drive viewership week on week; increasingly, in recent years, that means ceaseless heel runs in which the likes of Seth Rollins (2015), Kevin Owens and AJ Styles (2016) and Jinder Mahal (2017) use chicanery and shortcuts for which they're never fined (and are thus never given a reason to stop doing) to hold onto their gold. Fans are conditioned to tune in on the promise of something good that might happen. No: your hero has been foiled again. He's looking like a moron at this point, falling for the same old tired carny sh*t.

Is it any wonder that viewership continues to dwindle, year on year? Whatever happened to the great babyface runs of yore? When a Bret Hart or a Steve Austin would fend off all challengers, building their legacies and their bond with the audience as people you can believe in? When they were cheated, it actually meant something, and wasn't some blue balls-inducing norm to inspire a feeling closer to apathy than anticipation.

Those runs weren't a promise of elusive gratification but a guarantee, and it's hardly outdated.The lines of character alignment aren't as distinct, but Kazuchika Okada is doing it right now in NJPW to both unprecedented critical acclaim and impressive box office numbers.