Kevin Nash's 358-day title run has become the go-to example of bad title runs. Appearing near the top of all the "worst champion" lists, Nash's reign from November 1994 to November 1995 is held responsible for WWF surrendering their ratings to WCW, not getting them back again until the Attitude Era was in full swing. Whether you pin all of WWF's failures at that time on Kevin Nash or not, it certainly seems to have cemented Vince McMahon's belief that a top babyface is needed to drive a wrestling company forward. Hogan had left, Lex Luger had failed, so back in 1994 Vince had begun to question his ideal of booking a face-led company and turned to a heel. Nash, playing his Diesel character at the time, was booked as the monster champion that nobody could stop. He was chosen to be the guy who represented what the company was about. Going back to Paul Heyman's description, McMahon was banking on us wanting to see a babyface fight from underneath to overcome Diesel, but it backfired. When Bret Hart finally took the championship from Kevin Nash instead of feeling rewarded that Hart had finally pulled it off, we felt relieved that Nash was no longer champion. You can trace this failure directly to why the current WWE relies so heavily on John Cena. McMahon's foray into a heel-led company failed miserably, and he hasn't really tried it since. Sure, there were brief moments when the heel has been on top, particularly between "eras" where there was a distinct Top Guy, but never to the extent of being a heel-based company.
Michael Palmer is a contributor at whatculture.com and thelineofbestfit.com, and he probably likes WWE slightly more than most people would call "healthy".
