7 WWE Good Guys The Fans Hated

1996 was a year that Vince McMahon started to learn something about crowd reactions and it was the very beginning of the Attitude Era. With the sparks flying that would light the Attitude fire, Vince chose to debut a third generation star in Rocky Maivia at the 1996 Survivor Series. The same crowd that took a collective dump on Shawn Michaels. It was a risky move, although Vince would never have seen it that way. Maivia was heavily cheered in his debut match and indeed victory but that wouldn’t remain the case.

Rocky was a green, inexperienced grappler when he first debuted and it took him a while to get good at the in-ring aspects of professional wrestling. It would have been wise to have him build a reputation slowly. McMahon isn’t known for his patience and Rocky won the Intercontinental Championship in February 1997, just three months after his debut. He was well received up to this point but something about the push rubbed the fans up the wrong way. Maivia was being forced down their throats as a “blue chipper”. He was squeaky clean and a typical blue-eyed babyface hero of old. The fans slowly but surely turned on him.

The difference between the Attitude Era and all other eras of the WWF/E related to McMahon’s changes of booking. When the likes of Maivia had been booed in the past he’d book them to look even better to make sure the crowd reacted accordingly. With more live television than ever in 1997, the opportunities were no longer there to freshen up Rocky’s crowd reactions. He was booed heavily and received unflattering chants of “Die, Rocky, Die” and “Rocky sucks”.

A knee injury derailed Rocky’s run and when he came back it was as a heel. In 1998 The Rock became one of the hottest properties in wrestling, won the WWF World Heavyweight Championship and was one of the most popular wrestlers on the roster.

The Attitude Era gets praised for a lot of reasons and some of them unfairly. The actual in-ring product from those three-four years isn’t anywhere near as good as it is now. From a booking perspective however there are lessons to be learned. One of the biggest is that if you want your top guy to get over as a babyface, it’s a good idea to give him a big heel run first.

Roman had that in the Shield but not in singles. He certainly has the charisma and in-ring presence required to have such a run and it feels like a no-brainer that he’s not been turned, like the Rock was. I’m sure the Rock wouldn’t stand for a character that defiantly carries on regardless of reaction, as was evidenced when he supported Reigns at the Royal Rumble in 2015. The look on his face said it all.