In case you haven’t noticed, WWE is entering a new era of character development. The line between faces and heels shifts weekly, making the definition of a “good guy” or “bad guy” increasingly ambiguous.
From its roots in the circus, good and bad guys have been storytelling staples for as long as wrestling has existed. Wrestling is, at its core, a theatrical art akin to movies and TV. In this narrative, fans typically root for the hero to triumph over the villain.
Think of wrestling legends like Gorgeous George, whose flamboyant antics antagonized fans in the 1940s and ’50s, or “evil foreign menace” archetypes like Ivan Koloff and the Iron Sheik in the ’70s and ’80s. These heels often clashed with beloved babyfaces like Lou Thesz, Bruno Sammartino, or Hulk Hogan.
It’s as simple as it sounds. The face is equal to a squeaky-clean, good guy, and the heel is equal to a big, bad, evil villain, right? Well, this dynamic has changed recently, and babyfaces and heels follow a spectrum of morality instead of being shoehorned as a goody-two-shoes or an evil maniac.
Following this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw, an example came to mind, in addition to two others in the back of my mind. Let’s talk about it.
Kevin Owens
One of the biggest signs that the dynamic between heels and faces is becoming increasingly blurred is Kevin Owens trying to explain why he is not the bad guy in this story. Out of all the justifiable heels in WWE, Owens is most justified in his actions.
Kevin Owens’ feud with Roman Reigns and the Bloodline began in December 2020 when Roman was relatively fresh into his Universal Title reign and had only Jey Uso and Paul Heyman by his side.
Owens had three opportunities to dethrone Reigns in late 2020 and early 2021 but lost each time due to interference from Uso and Heyman. After spending two years elsewhere, Owens returned to confront the Bloodline in War Games at Survivor Series 2022, where he catalyzed Sami Zayn’s official initiation into the Bloodline.
At the Royal Rumble, Owens lost to Reigns again after interference but became instrumental in Zayn’s face turn after a post-match attack. Initially hesitant to reconcile with Zayn due to lingering doubts about his loyalty, Owens eventually teamed up with him to defeat the Usos and win the Tag Team Championships.
A year later, Owens witnessed the fall of Roman Reigns’ historic title reign as his close friend Cody Rhodes defeated Reigns at WrestleMania 41, forcing him to take an extended hiatus.
Owens, Rhodes, and Randy Orton formed a fragile alliance to combat Solo Sikoa and the newly reformed Bloodline through the summer while Reigns was gone.
Wait, what? Cody and Roman are teaming up now? One of Owens’ good friends against his sworn mortal enemy? The man who terrorized him and his best friend for years? How will Owens feel about this?
Moreover, can we really blame Owens for attacking Rhodes after his tag team match with Reigns at Bad Blood? Additionally, do you blame Owens for turning on Randy Orton for siding with Rhodes?
Sure, Randy may be Cody’s mentor, but he has to know how it feels, as he was also taken out of action for 18 months due to Reigns and the Usos.
Okay, maybe Owens went too far when he gave Orton a piledriver on his surgically repaired back and shoulder on SmackDown, but still, you see where he’s coming from.
Sure enough, WWE also acknowledges this, as does Kevin, ending every tweet with the hashtag #KevinIsRight in the buildup to his match against Rhodes at Saturday Night’s Main Event.
Seth Rollins
Seth Rollins is a recent entry into this discussion despite having yet to officially turnZayn’s heel. Among all those who have issues with Roman Reigns, Rollins’s feud is the most storied. After all, it was Seth Rollins who drove a steel chair into Reigns’s back to break up The Shield in 2014.
Rollins later cashed in his Money in the Bank contract at WrestleMania 31 to defeat Reigns in the main event. More recently, it was Rollins who took the steel chair shot at WrestleMania 40, distracting Reigns long enough for Cody Rhodes to defeat him and take his title.
Rollins arguably knows Roman Reigns better than anyone else, which is why he refused Sami Zayn’s offer to team with him and Reigns at War Games.
Even when the New Bloodline recruited Bronson Reed, Rollins stood his ground. In Rollins’s place, CM Punk stepped in to ally with Zayn and Reigns, a decision that infuriated Rollins.
While Reigns is the man Rollins despises most, CM Punk is a close second. Since Punk’s return in November 2023, Rollins has been his main adversary. Their highly anticipated match at WrestleMania 40 was even scrapped after Punk’s injury at the Royal Rumble.
disdain for Punk made Zayn’s acceptance of Punk’s help feel like a personal betrayal.
Zayn defended his choice, explaining that he only teamed with Punk because Rollins declined to help. Rollins countered, acknowledging the impact of his betrayal of Reigns ten years ago.
He claimed that while the infamous chair shot changed Reigns for the worse, he paid the price for his actions at WrestleMania 40. Rollins sacrificed himself and his title to end Reigns’s reign and insisted his obligations to Reigns’s story were over.
In truth, Rollins’s reasoning holds weight. He wrestled through severe injuries at WrestleMania 40 to bring Reigns’s dominance to an end. Rollins’ chapter with Reigns is closed, and he sees no reason to reconcile with a man who has yet to apologize or evolve after everything that transpired.
Rollins’s refusal to team with Reigns may seem selfish, but his stance is grounded, and most people in his position would do the same thing.
Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods
Saved the best for last, didn’t I?
When Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods rejected Big E’s offers to manage them at the New Day’s 10th Anniversary Celebration, many were confused as to why they did so.
After all, Big E has been out of action since March 2022, so there was nothing he could do to help his friends in the ring when Karrion Kross and The Final Testament were terrorizing them.
At first glance, Kofi and Xavier’s dismissiveness of Big E’s life-threatening injury seems heartless and selfish, but it becomes far more understandable once you understand what they truly mean.
Kofi and Xavier didn’t want E to return to the ring in the last couple of years; they just wanted him by their side. They rightfully pointed out that while Kross and AOP were outsmarting them at every turn, Big E did not return to check on them.
Instead, Big E was at pre-show and post-show panels, finding love and doing everything besides checking on his friends. Forget wrestling again; you can’t even check up on your friends when they’re in need? What if they need moral support?
They tried Odyssey Jones, but that didn’t work out, now did it? They needed their best friend more than anything, only for Big E to leave them high and dry, only returning when they were at their wit’s end.
Sure, Big E returned, but why now? Why even bother at this point? You could’ve shown up ages ago when your friends needed you, but you decide to show up at the last minute, hoping they will accept you back like nothing happened?
Through years of wrestling, our brain has conditioned us to wait for the big return to save the day. Sure enough, that return happened, but WWE flipped it on its head and made things interesting.
Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods are now full-on heels. In contrast to their early heel run with the New Day in the mid-2010s, they are now angry and vicious heels, uniting in hatred against their former best friend who, in their minds, turned his back on them until the very last minute.
After all, can you blame them? Can you blame any of these guys for feeling some way? Are they really bad guys, or is nobody willing to hear their gripes because we have been conditioned to either cheer or boo unconditionally?
