3. Alberto Del Rio Vs. Jack Swagger (WrestleMania 29)
At least with the previous example, the roles were already defined: Triple H was firmly a scumbag villain, and Booker was a babyface that people wanted to see bust through the red tape. Ten years later, another racially-tinged angle was concocted over the World Heavyweight title, and this one involved some drastic recasting. This time, perennial heel Del Rio was suddenly a fun-loving Latin hero, while Swagger (with the help of debuting Zeb Colter) all of a sudden embraced Tea Party 'close the borders' rhetoric. The storyline tried to co-opt real-life cable news talking points, without any organic feeling. Not that the storyline was a great idea in the first place, as Del Rio was struggling to get over as a babyface, and Swagger had his own problems: a lack of credibility, and a very-public DUI arrest in February 2013. Del Rio and Ricardo Rodriguez's attempt to add a humorous spin by impersonating Swagger and Colter also fell flat.
Justin has been a wrestling fan since 1989, and has been writing about it since 2009. Since 2014, Justin has been a features writer and interviewer for Fighting Spirit Magazine. Justin also writes for History of Wrestling, and is a contributing author to James Dixon's Titan series.
