1. Colter And Swagger Changed Nothing And Gained Everything Because Of It
WWE.comThe best wrestling characters are those who feel like real human beings with personalities amplified to 11. In the Attitude Era, everyone from Degeneration X to Steve Austin, The Rock and Mick Foley became superstars because you believed that they were humans who wrestled. Humans who wrestle are capable of a vast array of human emotions that they can feel without changing their core values. The Rock is many things, included in that list a vain, self-aggrandizing loudmouth eogist. As an egoist, we can cheer him when we want to be like him and he lets us into his experience. Similarly, he can also return from Hollywood and be pompous within the same human characteristics and make us hate him, too. As a "Real American," Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter can hate minorities and liberal Americans who pander to them. Also, as a "Real American," Colter and Swagger are absolutely also able to quote the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and use the defending said Amendment against those who use it for anti-American means, become mega babyfaces. Zeb Colter is everyone's angry uncle who fought in "the war," hates "them people" for the atrocities they caused, and carries his gripes with him for the rest of his life. There's a certain charm in a character that everyone can see in their own family or community that as much as it can engender hate, it brings a certain begrudging love, too.