January 4th 1999. Suffice to say that January 4th 1999 was an important date for the professional wrestling industry. It was the start of a fresh new year for WWF and WCW. The WWF had thrived from the revolutionary feud between the man of the people Stone Cold Steve Austin and the evil boss Mr McMahon, while WCW had created mega stars out of new blood in the likes of Bill Goldberg. The wrestling industry was arguably at its peak as the Monday Night Wars raged on. Both products were exciting as the companies pulled out all the stops going into the start of 1999. The first shows of the new year were vital as huge title matches were signed for RAW and Nitro. It was a WWF title match between the beloved underdog Mankind against the corporate champion The Rock on a taped edition of RAW while WCW hosted a huge live edition of Nitro in Atlanta as its hometown hero Goldberg seeked to regain his WCW title against Kevin Nash in the big rematch from Starrcade. WCW were confident – surely a live WCW title match would decimate a taped WWF title match right?
All they had to do was spills the beans on what the competition was up to and proceed with their plan, which saw hometown hero Goldberg NOT get his WCW World title shot live in Atlanta. Why was that? He was arrested following false allegations from Elizabeth and as this was going on, he was replaced by nWo leader Hollywood Hogan. Have no fear though. The promise of a star-studded main event, with Hogan fighting for a world title, was surely a much better way to bring in the viewers right? Tony Schiavonie, continuing a new “ploy” to stop people from checking out the competition, revealed the results of that particular taped episode of RAW. It was revealed that Mankind, otherwise known as Mick Foley, would win the WWF Championship. “That’s gotta put butts in seats heh,” Tony exclaimed. No one would think to ignore Hogan in the main event and see Mick Foley’s victory right?
SPOILER ALERT from nearly twenty years ago, but things did not go as planned for WCW. Instead of watching the same old heel shenanigans from Hogan and the nWo over on Nitro, several hundred thousand viewers switched to RAW to watch the loveable underdog Mankind and Stone Cold Steve Austin foil the schemes of the evil Rock and Mr McMahon. And what did the loyal WCW faithful, who ignored the message from their lead play-by-play commentator and stayed around to see Hogan vs Nash, get for their loyalty? Hogan and Nash lingered down to the ring. The two opposing nWo leaders squared off as the WCW World title was on the line. Then, after one finger poke…. it was over and Hogan was the champion.
They SWERVED this Atlanta crowd, who missed out on their hometown hero having a WCW World title shot, with the grand reveal that Hogan and Nash were in it all along. Let us think about what happened next? WCW was defeated, they never ever beat RAW in the ratings again and the World Wrestling Federation still lives under a new name. When I say live, I mean live a MISERABLE existence.
Back in 1999, Stone Cold, Mankind and even The Rock all became the conquering heroes of the thriving Attitude Era. In 2016, few “conquering heroes” are around in either WWE RAW or SmackDown! While the WWF were bringing in record viewership for their product in 1999 with the adventures of these heroes, WWE have been getting record low ratings in 2016 with no top babyfaces around to cheer for.
We’ve got Kevin Owens as the heel Universal Champion and Chris Jericho by his side, with both of them being more “over” than supposedly the top babyface on RAW Seth Rollins. The United States Champion Roman Reigns has been almost universally hated as a top babyface since his major singles push began in 2014, with the evil Bulgarian Rusev even being more liked than him. The heel Brian Kendrick is now the Cruiserweight Champion, with the whole storyline being that he has no confidence in himself. The New Day are the tag team champions for the SOLE PURPOSE of beating Demolition’s title record. This left us with, before the main event of Hell in a Cell, Sasha Banks as the Women’s Champion…
I had been against the idea of the Women’s title match going on last at Hell in a Cell throughout this entire build-up toward the RAW October pay-per-view. I didn’t feel that the storyline and the heat was strong enough to justify the girls being booked higher up the card than Kevin Owens vs Seth Rollins, with fears of these girls hurting themselves also shaking me to my core. We know what Charlotte and Sasha Banks are like as in-ring performers. They take risks that I dare say that they shouldn’t take. This match was a risky endeavour in my eyes.
The night before the show, I took an alternative look at this potential main-event and I looked at Sasha. WWE have done many things wrong with this girl, including beating her a number of times in crucial matches for the title that she should have won. Despite this, she’s still the most over woman in the entire company. In fact, I don’t think there’s been a female in WWE that has been this over since Trish Stratus. Unlike Sasha though, Trish had never been in a pay-per-view main event. Sasha WAS and that actually got me thinking. This is Sasha’s big moment in this main-event. Rollins and Reigns were both struggling as main-event babyfaces and RAW needed a new fresh babyface, so WHY NOT have it be Sasha?
If you’re gonna do this “women’s revolution” or whatever we’re calling it, why not have the leader of the whole deal be Sasha? Why not kick it off with Sasha beating Charlotte clean once and for all, establishing an exciting reign with Sasha as the champion. I actually got excited as for the first time, a female had a legitimate chance of becoming the top babyface on RAW over the men. I had this feeling that they could have had their Austin 3:16 or Hulkamania moment with “The Boss” Sasha Banks in Boston. She could have been a star. But then…
After a very botched last five minutes, Charlotte defeats Sasha once again CLEAN in the middle to regain the Women’s Championship for a third time. They had to beat Sasha in Boston in the first ever female main-event of a WWE pay-per-view… and nobody cared. The crowd was brought to silence. They didn’t even boo the finish of the match… they were just quiet. This was not like the Bruno Sammartino title loss or Brock Lesnar ending the streak, where you could hear a pin-drop. It wasn’t the same feel as those two events were unprecedented and shocking. We’d seen Charlotte beat Sasha clean THREE TIMES in the last few months in the big pay-per-view title matches. The fans had just… given up.
They’d given up on hope in the women’s division. We did not get the Mankind moment from January 4th 1999. We got ANOTHER moment for the heel “queen” of WWE, Charlotte. The opportunity of a lifetime to get Sasha over as potentially the next top babyface in the ENTIRE COMPANY was squashed as they had to have Charlotte go over once again. The heel Charlotte proved to be the “better woman” over the girl that we’re supposed to cheer.
We had the moment on RAW in July, where Sasha won the title for the first time and we were all excited for change. We even forgave WWE for taking the belt from Sasha at SummerSlam, as she won the title again in September. The fans went crazy again as Sasha was the champion. We had those two moments and… it’s never gonna come again.
We’re never gonna have that big good-feel moment with Sasha that can create a star. Sasha was the champion for about 27 days for both her title reign and lost BOTH her first title defences fair and square to the former champion that had beaten her multiple times. Sasha’s title wins come off as flukes and Sasha is now vastly inferior to Charlotte.
To be fair, while we’re on the discussion of Mankind, HE had three short WWF title reigns and turned out to be a legend. Good for him. HOWEVER, Mick Foley, with all due respect, was never the top guy. He was never a Rock or an Austin. Sasha may be able to become a female version of The Rock or Austin. She has the look, she has the swagger about her, she can work at a top level, she can talk, she loves the business and is likeable. If they want Sasha to be a top babyface, which I don’t actually think is the case after watching this match, she’s not going to do it by losing to Charlotte.
FURTHERMORE, there’s no reason for Charlotte to be the champion right now either. We’ve seen this shtick for the last year. We’ve seen her be a champion in EVERY MONTH of WWE since September 2015. We’re all sick of it. Who could possibly care about Charlotte Flair as the champion after more than a year of her as the “queen” of the ring? If you see something in Charlotte being the champion right now that I don’t, I would actually welcome you to tweet me @TomRobinson5199 and tell me why you care about Charlotte after all of this. All I’m seeing is the same woman that I’ve seen since she became the champion. They’re having her be the ultimate accomplisher, giving her a Hall Of Fame-like push. That would be all well and good, if the woman on the receiving end of it wasn’t a heel and doesn’t come off as unlikeable. This is so much like Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, who want themselves to be cheered and liked but are still heels on television. I don’t get this.
If you to push Charlotte as the be-all and end-all, why not have HER be a babyface? If you REALLY WANT to push Charlotte as the ACTUAL female version of Ric Flair, have her be a babyface while she does it. Right now, the amount of heels winning all the time on WWE television are having a hugely detrimental effect on the product. As I’ve wrote this, it’s come out today that the RAW ratings have went down in the post-HIAC edition with the heels winning the big matches on the pay-per-view.
I don’t want to pick on Charlotte and this isn’t actually just about Charlotte. This is about everyone. When the babyfaces do well, the business goes up. I outlined the Mankind story from earlier, but I can give you even more examples of the babyfaces grabbing big ratings. Stone Cold was a ratings draw. Goldberg was a ratings draw. The Rock was a ratings draw. Why? BECAUSE THE FANS LIKED THESE WRESTLERS.
Is it THAT hard to make a babyface likeable? Is it that hard to make the fans want to tune in and see their top babyface? Even the top babyfaces on SmackDown! aren’t exactly that hot anymore, with Dean Ambrose and John Cena both being trumped by WWE World Champion AJ Styles. Even so, the tag team, Intercontinental and the women’s titles are all held by likeable babyfaces. They even made Dolph Ziggler, who was the biggest loser in the WWE at one point, more likeable and an interesting character to the viewers again. Why can’t RAW do this with their top guys?
The fact is, WWE have lost their way in terms of promoting a top babyface. That is a shocking state of events and it is actually heart-breaking, as it is killing their viewership year after year. In 1999, all the top stars had features about them that made them likeable whether they were babyfaces or heels. The Rock became a babyface after being liked as a heel. In 2016, there’s little reason to care or like any of the top stars in WWE anymore and it ain’t putting many butts in seats anymore.
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