WrestleMania 35 is a show where the storylines received the ultimate ending (unless you are Booker T) and the hard work that wrestlers have put in their characters since Royal Rumble pays-off (unless you are Rusev). It is one evening where casual fans from all across the globe meet to celebrate the sport they grew up watching. The pop that some of the wrestlers receive is insane and it just helps in making another WrestleMania moment.
This year’s WrestleMania‘s card is looking really good on paper. The blend of nostalgia and young blood is promising us of a memorable evening of wrestling. Wrestlers like Becky Lynch, Kofi Kingston, and Seth Rollins will receive some of the loudest pops when their music will hit and some of the heels like Brock Lesnar, Charlotte Flair, and Baron Corbin will start a series the abuses from the crowd when they would come out in the ring. Then there are other wrestlers who get a different response than their character wants. For Example, Roman Reigns was booed out of the building at last year’s WrestleMania despite being a babyface and Seth Rollins’ ‘heist of the century’ at WrestleMania 31 is still talked about with satisfaction despite him portraying a bad guy at that time.
Three Heels Going In At Wrestlemania 35 With Massive Fan Support
Even this year, there are wrestlers who don’t quite fit in this babyface-heel phenomenon. Let’s talk about such heels who has massive fan support going into WrestleMania this year.
Samoa Joe
Due to constant absence from the TV, the United States Championship has been feeling like a lost cause since last year. Champions like Shinsuke Nakamura and Jinder Mahal were only using it as a prop to brag about unsubstantial achievements and never got involved in any meaningful storyline. The championship desperately needed a good run to revive its prestige and to be considered as a reputed belt. That’s the reason Somoa Joe‘s current reign is so important.
Samoa Joe is arguably one of the best heels from the current roster. Everything from his promos to move sets is intriguing and is the result of the amount of effort he puts in his character. Yet he is one of those heels who constantly gets cheered whenever he makes an appearance. His promos have helped him in earning lots of hardcore fans all across the globe. The amount of respect that he got last month in SmackDown when he finally won the gold in the main roster was overwhelming. The “You Deserve It” chants were echoing in the entire arena and this just shows why he is such a popular wrestler despite not winning any championships since his call-up.
Even though he is portraying a bad guy, he is actually wrestling like a fighting champion and in his reign of just a month as the US champion, he has done much more for the belt than the previous champions ever did in the last couple of years. People would want to see him getting a long run with the belt, hence he has more support going into WrestleMania than his opponent, Rey Mysterio.
Drew McIntyre
Drew McIntyre‘s release from WWE in 2014 was the best thing that ever happened to him. He basically spent the next 3 years travelling the entire world, wrestling in different indie promotions and repackaged himself as the untouchable psychopath. He worked on his physic and technic to suit himself into an ideal champion’s mold. By the time he returned back to WWE as part of the NXT roster in 2017, he was a completely different man. The man who once was wrestling midgets wearing leather pants was long gone and what was left of him was a focused colossus who was back to reign on the industry that he once was “chosen” to do.
After coming to the main roster in 2018, he is the only NXT graduate from the class of 2018 who got some kind of push. Other heel characters like Bobby Lashley, Elias, and Dolph Ziggler never felt threatening, which makes it easier for him to become the biggest heel of Raw in just six months. His promo work in his current feud with Roman Reigns escalated the whole rivalry and the beating that he gave to Dean Ambrose on a couple of occasions was the icing on the cake. The momentum that he had got post-Fastlane is incredible. Even though returning Roman Reigns will have massive fan support on April 7, there will a large section in the crowd who would be cheering for Drew as well.
Batista
Triple H vs Batista‘s storyline has been booked to perfection. From the unexpected return to the shocking stipulation, everything has helped this rivalry to gain a lot of focus without doing much. Neither of them hogged much of the spotlight by delivering long promos on a weekly basis and the writers made sure to keep Batista’s appearance to the minimal to give him the sense of a returning hero at WrestleMania. Some might argue that they should have done more to hype their match, but they chose to bank on their popularity rather than the over the top appearances to give other wrestlers the time to build their respective matches. All they did was established their respective characters and storyline and then relied on their natural gift to connect with the crowd.
Being a Hollywood star will help Batista in getting one of the loudest pop at Metlife Stadium on that evening and considering that WrestleMania crowd consists of lots of casual fans who are there for nostalgia and Batista is a WWE legend who is returning to wrestle his first match after five years, his heel character will get completely nullified and he would be celebrated like a hero.
