10 Ways To Refresh WWE's Stale Television Product
8. Fix Broken Alignments
The way heels and faces are presented to the audience has changed drastically over the past couple of decades. It’s no longer enough for the company to present somebody before the audience, then say “here’s a ‘good guy’ - now cheer him.” As fans become closer to what goes on behind the scenes, they’re more inclined to reject those the company presents as ‘The Guy,’ and root for the supposed villains instead.
WWE’s heels are often those drawing the loudest cheers, while babyfaces like Roman Reigns are jeered out the building. Part of this is down to the shifting fanbase dynamic, but WWE are just as complicit, and it’s impossible to call them good storytellers while they’re creating faces nobody wants to cheer, and heels everybody loves.
There’s no real joy in rooting for a Seth Rollins, who’s often as smarmy as the bad guys, and similarly, why would anyone ever boo supposed “monster heel” Braun Strowman when he’s beating up the most detestable character in the company?
Fixing this problem would go a long way to revitalising the WWE’s product. Wrestling works best when operating on a classic dichotomy of good vs. evil, and while shades of grey definitely save things from becoming too predictable, an over-reliance on them has made WWE’s roster composition muddied and confusing.