7 Things WWE Could Learn From NJPW Dominion 6.9
2. How To Promote Good Guys & Bad Guys
Expressed with stunning visual beauty in the six-man tag team match pitting Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jushin Liger and Rey Mysterio against Bullet Club collective Cody, Hangman Page and Marty Scurll, the dividing lines between heels and babyfaces were drawn in vibrant red, white and black.
The heroes were synchronised not just in colour but in visibly apparent nobility compared to the scowling notoriety of the vicious villains (in one case quite literally) on the other side of the ring.
Cody, Page and Scurll were fantastic pr*cks, ravenously feasting on the tried-and-tested cheats and shortcuts that have worked for decades against their opposing babyfaces that have literally worked for decades.
To a new fan, a clearer indication of the pro wrestling's achingly simple grasp on good and evil could not be found. How on earth would that same fan respond to top face Roman Reigns causing a crush at the exits before his Backlash main event against Samoa Joe even concluded?
No company has a direct line to the eyes, hearts and souls of children like WWE. Make the heroes actually heroic. Make them win again. And when bad guys win, for f*ck's sake make it down to them being bad. Comeuppance must (and will) await them, and the response will eventually reflect that - the vuvuzela-like chorus that greeted Tomasso Ciampa at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans spoke to that.
Where lines are blurred for WWE, find the magic formula (in Roman's case, it's been feuding with Vince McMahon and surviving Braun Strowman) and ride that horse until it drops dead.