10 Worst WWE Gimmicks Of 2017
3. "Prodigal Son" Jason Jordan
The abject failure of Jason Jordan, Kurt Angle's babyface son, isn't strictly the result of its biological impossibility. EC3 got over under similarly phoney pretences as the "nephew" of Dixie Carter because he played the entitled brat with a sense of credibility. On this week's RAW, we even bought WOKEN Matt Hardy's proclamation that he'd fought on battlefields alongside "Genghis Khan!" because it was so bloody entertaining.
No, Jordan failed in the face role because he was depicted, literally, at face value. If Jordan was immediately presented as a spoiled brat, leveraging his bloodline to stroll into marquee matches and cry his way out of genuine competition, the act may have caught on; as the absolute state of Stephanie McMahon suggests, undue favouritism is repellent. But no: Jason Jordan, actual babyface, was the initial blueprint. Hero worship of the father is the stuff of the playground, and thus the earnest, dry, blue chipper Jordan was not the apple of the Universe's eye.
Lines such as "You're the expert in getting boos, Miz!" punched the gut of those lamenting the lameness of WWE babyfaces, and with no winks in our direction, the character was as directionless as he was unanimously rejected.