As most wrestling fans know, WWE essentially has two separate entities within its roster. There are heels, and there are faces. (I don’t consider tweener a group). This has always been the status quo for WWE since Day 1. But when does there come a point where WWE gets infused with reality? Where wrestlers are allowed to be themselves and not be subjected to a script that they practice before hand? Here is a modest proposal, the end of heels and faces in WWE.
It’s a rather simple concept. You see, WWE is basically a never ending play that is on the road for most of the year. Wrestlers are given certain lines to say, they are given an opponent and they have a scripted match, with one playing a heel and one playing a face (though in some cases you will have both of the same simultaneously). But what if we just tore all those scripts apart and let wrestlers be who they actually are in real life. Just think of this. Randy Orton was a face when he was battling Dolph Ziggler at Night of Champions last year. During that match, he flipped off the Boston Crowd. Sometimes, WWE wrestlers just doesn’t seem comfortable in the role that they are asked to play sometimes. But if wrestlers were to be more true to who they actually are, I think that it would not only make more sense is that it would certainly make their characters more dynamic, but that it would be less confusing outside the ring. If audiences see a person, like say, CM Punk during his heel run last year promoting Susan G. Komen’s foundation, wouldn’t it look out of character? A man who threatened to kill legend Jerry Lawler in the ring is now promoting a non profit organization? Now if CM Punk is a jerk in real life (which I think he is), then it would make much more sense it that it wouldn’t surprise anyone because he is just being himself. Some people are just born to have people hate them and some can’t get enough of the wicked crowd reactions, like a Kofi Kingston. I think you will see that WWE will have more people that are comfortable with their role.
Now admittedly there are certain wrestlers that thrive in the role that they play. But one thing that I feel like WWE is missing now a days is the truth. Honesty. How do WWE wrestlers really feel or how they really interact when they aren’t on television. Now sure, fans will most likely not pay deep attention to their behavior outside the ring like some psychologist. It is nice to be a little bit suspicious though. If I may, I would like to take you back two years and a couple of months ago on an edition of Monday Night RAW In 2011. CM Punk cost John Cena a match against R-Truth, made a retreat to the front of the stage, popped a squat, took a microphone and spoke the truth. You could tell that he wasn’t given a script. The fire in his eyes. The conviction in his voice. The piercing words. You knew that this was all Punk. Don’t you think WWE would be much better if we could have much more of WWE creative allowing wrestlers to be themselves? I don’t think that it would hurt the current product because I believe that there is simply just an imbalance of heels and faces in WWE. The top faces in the WWE are easy to point out. Right now, it is Punk, Bryan, Cena, and The Rhodes Brothers. As for the heels, its Orton, The Shield, and possibly The Wyatts. Those are the big time names right now. Now sure, storylines are still going to have to occur and wrestlers will have to switch feuds on the fly. But throughout the duration of said feud, what would be the harm in letting wrestlers say or act how they really feel towards it. If they are given a script and they disagree with it, don’t you think that they would be at least a little bit unsteady?
WWE is one of, if not the top entertainment industry in the world. Its very hard to top it. But i just can’t shake the feeling that a huge chunk of WWE’s employees feels as though that what they are doing seems out of place. Like something is missing. What I believe is missing is morality. Truth. I am a realist. I see things for how they are. WWE isn’t bad by any stretch of the imaginations. But wouldn’t it be the least bit interesting if heels and faces were no more and wrestlers can be their natural selves, while letting the crowd speak for whether or not they like or hate who they really are? Vince McMahon seems to be at least entertaining the idea.
