There’s two audiences the WWE is trying to appeal to:
The young kids and the teenagers. Sure, there’s longtime fans like me-
but we tend to stay with the fed thick and thin. The WWE thrives as a business when they
appeal to one or both of those audiences.
In the Hulkamania years they appealed to the 7 year
olds. And it worked- until the 7 year olds grew into teenagers who
thought that Hogan wasn’t cool, and they weren’t able to recapture his appeal
with anyone else (Luger, Diesel)
In the “Attitude” era, the appealed to the teenagers.
And they were incredibly hot for about five years. But then the teenagers
grew out of wrestling- and since they hadn’t appealed to kids, they was no next
generation of fans ready to watch them.
So since then, they’ve been trying to appeal to both.
And in this John Cena was a boon. He was the uberface the kids could get
behind- so the WWE could always rely on him, and concentrate on appealing to
the teenagers with other cool faces (HHH, Orton. Punk). They had other faces
that appealed to the kids- Undertaker, Rey Mysterio- but Cena was the absolute
cornerstone.
((As an added bonus, Cena was so fun to hate for the
teenagers that whoever Cena was facing would usually get face heat from the
teenage crowd))
But now Cena’s nearing the end of his run. He’s been
the face for a decade- twice as long as Hogan, Rock, or Austin. That’s
incredible. But it’s ending- and while the WWE has people to fill the
‘cool face’ role to appeal to the teenagers, who is going to fill the role for
the 7 year old fan?
They’ve tested out other guys to be that uberface- remember
smiling Shaemus? But it hasn’t taken.
I’m suspecting that the reason Brock Lesnar is getting such
a megapush is that they want to build the next kids uberface- and what better
way to launch him than to beat the guy who broke the Undertaker’s Streak and
damned near squashed John Cena?
Right now, they are looking at Roman Reigns for that
role. And honestly? He’s probably their best bet. I don’t
know if he can appeal to kids the way Hogan or Cena did- but I KNOW guys like
Shaemus can’t fill that role. Reigns might be able to (notice the
emphasis on the ‘Superman punch’? Tell me that’s not appealing to kids)
In retrospect, losing Daniel Bryan really hurts- because
Bryan was the only guy who appealed to both sets of audiences equally.
The kids loved him because of the “YES” chant, the beard, and that he was so
small that he was the underdog. But he pulled off fantastic matches and
had enough snark (“Mr. Small Package”) to appeal to teens.
But they have guys who can appeal to teens- Ambrose leads
the pack right now. Ziggler might be able to do that. Hell- I still
have hope for Cody Rhodes.
But they need that uberface for the kids- and I think the
whole purpose of building up Lesnar is to sacrifice him for that next uberface
to the kids.
And if I’m wrong and he loses the belt back to Cena- or to a
part-timer like the Rock? Then it tells me the WWE doesn’t think they
don’t have another uberface close to being ready.
