The booking of WM35’s triumphant babyfaces after WM35

[EoE: Well There's Your Problem]

Barely six months ago, WWE somehow managed what seemed impossible and gave the fans what they wanted across three major title matches at WrestleMania. Seth Rollins, Kofi Kingston and Becky Lynch walking out with all that gold... Most expected one or two, but all three babyfaces winning was pie in the sky nonsense. But it happened.

Flash forward to today, and all three are still champions, but the shine seems to be gone. Rollins, who dropped the Universal Championship back to Brock Lesnar briefly before winning it back at SummerSlam in a much more convincing manner than he did at WrestleMania, has been haunted by comments he made in defending the overall quality of WWE’s product in the face of fan critique, and, with his babyface character never really being all that deep to start with, has found his support trending downwards. Kingston has fought a wide range of challengers and even put the ghosts of his 2009 feud with Randy Orton to rest, but has yet to return to the emotional heights that he reached in initially winning the WWE Championship from Daniel Bryan, and has found his support waning. Even Lynch, the woman that the fanbase fought so hard to get her into this position to begin with, has found herself with little-to-no strong opposition remaining as RAW Women’s Champion, and a character direction that doesn’t click when it’s looking down from the mountaintop as opposed to looking up from the climb.

So what’s going wrong? We have a rare time in recent WWE history where we have babyfaces that crowds actually liked that got big title pushes, who have strong win/loss records and aren’t being presented as “geeks” as many here would say, and it’s slowly gone pear-shaped within six months? Is it down to the things that were mentioned in the last paragraph? Is it as simple as a lack of unpredictability? Have all their runs just reached their natural conclusions? We got multiple threads at the moment on the individuals, but it really seems to be a common collective issue that we’re dealing with here.

[ChitownKnight]

They have all been booked as dominant but it’s time they drop the titles. Seth to the Fiend or AJ, Becky to Sasha, and Kofi... maybe to Orton to transition to KO

[Deleted]

Kofi's in the best spot out of those 3. He had the biggest high from a quality standpoint and the issue is that he's made it to the end of his run so it's not too bad. There's been no problems with his comments, no problems with him being too OP (the guy had his undefeated streak broken by Joe of all people), he's just made it to the end and as all things come to an end there's going to be detractors. Besides, he went up against Orton in the South which is bound to get you booed given Orton's mega-popular here. He'll be good, just needs to lose the belt to a heel.

Becky and Seth are tied for me as being the worst out of these 3 but also the worst booked champions these days because for as much as their social media and interview comments seem to be, they damage their divisions by how ridiculously strong they are and it doesn't seem to be stopping. With Kofi, we can see how his reign will end, it'll be a heel who's wanting to cement themselves who will get major boos going against a guy like Kofi but these other 2? Man, I don't see when they'll lose at all. Last night they both did some ridiculous shit. Even Owens was on Twitter complaining about Becky's fine of all things because it's so low lol. It's like the booking is twisted in their favor at all times. Last night for Rollins had that same ol "hey Reigns beat someone who fans like so let's have someone immediately show up to get the fans off their win" thing. Who do yall think will get those HIAC matches next month? Welp, apparently those 2. Guess who will win, we'll see but I know one thing, I know who you should place your bets on.

Seth and Becky are so strong that even the thought of them losing their titles is laughable. You're going to need Tsunade's winning lotto ticket to beat these 2 after the stunts they've pulled off.

[BorneAgain]

In Becky & and Kofi's case part of the issue was somewhat weak heel challengers until recently. Not every heel can be at the level of Orton or Banks certainly, but prior to both it was harder to get fully invested into their reign.

[Tiger Millionaire]

Because WWE doesn't book anything well we, the fans, don't know what the hell we want, we want long title reigns until they happen, then everyone be is OP, and then it's 50/50 booking. Let's face it, it's not the template that's broken, it's.how they present it and what we.expext from it.

[schma]

Kofi's run has been far better than the other two partly because of the variety of his opponents. Some were faces from his past, some were fresh. My only complaint was every single one of his challengers calling his win a fluke. It's not a fluke after that many successful defences.

Becky suffers from WWE being absolutely unwilling to build anyone up and thus was stuck with super green Lacey for four or five months. Seth meanwhile was stuck with Corbin for almost as long, then a played out Lesnar and finally a lame duck Braun. Seth and Becky could be on fire if they had compelling opponents to face but here we are. That said, they do need to have Becky lose the belt to Sasha to shake her up. What she really needs though is a division that's not MIA except for token title matches.

[Big DSR Energy]

It's 'cause you're all FICKLE! FICKLE! FICKLE!

[/Daniel Bryan]

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

Kofi has looked really good and I have no real complaint, it's just more so now it is the perfect time for him to drop the title as he has done everything he needed to do in a 6 months reign. The PPV matches haven't always hit but his TV angles have been really good and he has been made to look vulnerable and not a dominant champion. It has been believable that Joe, Orton etc could beat him so yeah I have no complaints

Becky, see the OP thread. She was already grating by the time she won the title at Mania and has been more so since her coronation. No one has been on her level and even Sasha who just came back got left laying and Becky walks up the ramp smiling

Seth has been a mixed bag. That feud with Corbin did not help and him having Brock on his back also didn't help. Injury bug has hurt him a bit in terms of opponents too. Also factors outside of wrestling has soured people on Seth as well

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

Sept 16, 2019 13:22:28 GMT -5 @kn said:

Seth and Becky are so strong that even the thought of them losing their titles is laughable. You're going to need Tsunade's winning lotto ticket to beat these 2 after the stunts they've pulled off.

You need Tsunade to bet against them cause lord knows she can't win a bet. She took out Jiraya betting against him lol

[saneiac]

Becky was hurt by lack of credible opponents. She had already dealt with Charlotte, Sasha took a break, Nia is hurt, no one knows where Ronda is, Alexa had too many nagging injuries so she ended up in a tag team to reduce her work load, Asuka has lost all her shine. That didn't leave much.

Kofi just hasn't had a great match since becoming champion, which is both disappointing and surprising. I don't know why they haven't allowed him to cut loose. Well, I know why with Orton, because Orton doesn't fight that way, but his matches with Joe or KO could have been as good as the WM match against Bryan. Instead, they were slow and dull. If Kofi was putting on bangers, I think fewer people would be calling for the end of his run.

I don't know how many people really wanted Rollins to be champ. They were just looking for someone that wasn't Brock.

[Ben Wyatt]

It hasn't been perfect, but I think they've booked Kofi's reign pretty close to what a babyface champion's reign should be

[Ben Wyatt]

Sept 16, 2019 14:17:01 GMT -5 saneiac said:

Becky was hurt by lack of credible opponents. She had already dealt with Charlotte, Sasha took a break, Nia is hurt, no one knows where Ronda is, Alexa had too many nagging injuries so she ended up in a tag team to reduce her work load, Asuka has lost all her shine. That didn't leave much.

Yeah, with Becky it was a case of "uh.....now what?".  A not remotely ready/over enough Lacey Evans was the worst possible feud for her.

[BRV]

The thrill is in the chase. Once the achievement has been accomplished, it becomes a combination of fear that they're going to lose and a larger sense of "okay, now what?"

The Boston Red Sox were America's darlings in the early 2000s as they were chasing the Yankees. But once they won a World Series in 2004 and broke The Curse of the Bambino, they became just another team. The Chicago Cubs were lovable losers for a century. They won the World Series in 2016 and now are wondering what's next for the franchise.

Everyone was excited about the build to Kofi Kingston's WrestleMania moment or Becky Lynch's main event victory, but nobody stopped and thought about what would happen the next day or the next week or the next month. That's largely the case with an underdog face in a championship pursuit - honestly, when's the last time an underdog babyface won a championship and went on to have a fulfilling run that was well-regarded by fans?

[ChitownKnight]

Sept 16, 2019 14:36:42 GMT -5 BRV said:

The thrill is in the chase. Once the achievement has been accomplished, it becomes a combination of fear that they're going to lose and a larger sense of "okay, now what?"

The Boston Red Sox were America's darlings in the early 2000s as they were chasing the Yankees. But once they won a World Series in 2004 and broke The Curse of the Bambino, they became just another team. The Chicago Cubs were lovable losers for a century. They won the World Series in 2016 and now are wondering what's next for the franchise.

Everyone was excited about the build to Kofi Kingston's WrestleMania moment or Becky Lynch's main event victory, but nobody stopped and thought about what would happen the next day or the next week or the next month. That's largely the case with an underdog face in a championship pursuit - honestly, when's the last time an underdog babyface won a championship and went on to have a fulfilling run that was well-regarded by fans?

Dean Ambrose and Eddie Guerrero both come to mind. Although their title reigns could of been longer

[fw91]

A lot of valid points being thrown around here. That being said, I’d like to raise the question- Is it time for wwe to revert back to shorter term champions? One one hand it can devalue the titles, but it also can keep things from feeling monotonous.

[rnrk supports BLM]

Sept 16, 2019 13:13:36 GMT -5 EoE: Well There's Your Problem said:

So what’s going wrong? We have a rare time in recent WWE history where we have babyfaces that crowds actually liked that got big title pushes, who have strong win/loss records and aren’t being presented as “geeks” as many here would say, and it’s slowly gone pear-shaped within six months?

I wouldn't put the blame on the performers, or even the specific booking of their title reigns this year. The gradual erosion of interest in WWE has been decades in the making, and we're past the point where new faces at the top-- even ones we're prepared to like-- can really do much to shake up what's become a very formulaic product.

They're going to need a really significant game-changer to generate genuine excitement again. The Fiend could be that, but they're going to have to commit to him.