WWE.comTake, for example, the Brock Lesnar and Undertaker feud that culminated at the Hell in a Cell PPV. Was either man truly face or heel? It was a tremendous rivalry, but not because fans rallied behind one and against the other. Sides were harder to choose, and the feud was not about morals, as traditional feuds often are, but about legacy and establishing dominance. The fans were faced with a legitimate question: who do they want to see come out on top? WWE did not force-feed the answer to them. Remember when crowds used to simply chant Lets go Cena during a John Cena match? The spaces in-between have been filled with Cena sucks! for about a decade now. WWE is not blind to this. It offers fans a choice: are you on the Lets go Cena side or the Cena sucks side? To officially turn John Cena heel would be an easy way out. The ability to choose sides augments, on a basic level, how an audience views the product. deviantartTo return to the question of Roman Reigns, WWE has established a failed hero. Time and time again he tries to smash The Authoritys regime and maybe one day he will. For now, fans are overwhelmingly on the regimes side when it comes to their dispute with Reigns. But when it comes to Shane-O-Mac, we would all love to see a wrench thrown in the corporate machine. But then again, wed hate to see The Undertaker humiliated at WrestleMania. Fans will undoubtedly divide along these lines as we approach 'Mania, and it is not unlikely that we will hear Lets go Taker chants alongside Lets go Shane chants at the Showcase of the Immortals. This weeks Monday Night Raw made clear that The Undertaker will try to bury Shane but has no allegiance to the rest of the McMahons. Will Shane and Roman band together in their effort against The Authority and 'Taker? We will have to wait and see. What is clear though, is that WWE are taking much bigger risks than they are given credit for in terms of building their product. A divided fan base is an active and engaged fan base. New debates are opened up as fans are able to argue beyond traditional stances and instead are able to argue about what is wait for it best for business. WWE has indeed made smart marks out of us all.
