It’s amazing that with their enormous roster that the WWE lacks top heels on Raw. Even worse, it’s their own fault for burying top talent like AJ Styles and the OC (Literally and figuratively). Their mid-card is full of potential heels, but they need to start working on developing them.
Zelina Vega’s stable has been growing and getting a good push, with Andrade the closest to being in the top heel category with Angel Garza close behind. While Andrade has the larger body of work and does a great job of selling himself, Garza is the far more communicative one via his expressions and personality and could be more ready to move to the upper ranks than Andrade, despite Andrade’s solid match against Drew McIntyre.
Reminiscent of bygone eras
There’s always a dearth of faces or heels at some point. This is why we had the Mr. McMahon character appear in the ‘90s and continue on for years afterwards. It’s why Shane or Stephanie McMahon often come out to play spoiled rich kids heels. But there’s another way of creating heels, and we got to see some of that last night.
In previous eras, mid-card talent was used as fodder for the champions but did so with a good showing as believable threats, just like Andrade was last night.
Sure, we knew he wasn’t going to win, but there’s always the chance. Just like Don Muraco facing Hulk Hogan to set up a feud with King Kong Bundy, Andrade set up the feud between Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre. The problem here was Bundy and Muraco were in the same stable, meaning this would’ve been a fun rivalry with Vega’s stable for the next month or two.
While they wouldn’t have been a serious threat to McIntyre one on one, as a group they had potential to wreak havoc similar to Sami Zayn’s group and his winning the Intercontinental Championship.
Instead, the WWE threw its whole lot behind Seth Rollins as their top heel instead of doing a slow burn build. It’s smart in many ways as this will get fans’ attention and hopefully start to right the listing ship the WWE has become.
But we need more
This isn’t a knock against Rollins, but we need more heels.
We need more bad guys that can walk in and be a legitimate threat to McIntyre. One they have on the roster that fits that description perfectly is Randy Orton, and now that his feud with Edge is over, Orton is free, but it’s doubtful he’d get tagged for this. For one reason or another, he’s always been slated as a second thought despite having the capabilities to lead the promotion as the top heel or face.
Some other potentials are Apollo Crews and Bobby Lashley. Even Aleister Black can be a really awesome heel if they decide to turn him, but he’s one that would be better served as the anti-hero he is. Just let him look for a fight and the rest will be history.
Another potential that could fill this void if they take the time to do so is Killer Kross. Or even Samoa Joe when he comes back. Sure, he turned face to counter Rollins, but wouldn’t it be awesome to see Joe be allowed to go full bore against McIntyre at some point? Maybe they could even team up before imploding?
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?
But until they work out what else to do and start building, Rollins will have to fill the void.
He’s more than capable as long as they keep the belt off him. He’s a far better heel when hungry than when on top of the mountain.
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