Noid actually watches Official Raw Thread

[Tom Guycott]

Originally Posted by Conspiracy Victim Vito Because most fans are terrible I fully expect the crowd to turn on Drew shortly after Mania because god forbid anybody ever get behind someone the office is trying to push.

Originally Posted by Triple A Is it the fans' fault that they book every1 like shit though...

Originally Posted by Conspiracy Victim Vito Nope but the second the fans realize the office is behind someone, they will turn. It’s been that way for like 15 years.

Kind of a double edged sword there. When the company gets behind someone that the fans like, there is a tendency to strip away what made the fans get into them in the first place. Cena is a great example. People were behind him when Vince wasn't. When Vince hopped on that train, he slowly transitioned from cool bad boy rulebreaker what does freestyle rapping to Neo Hogan SuperCena who is a generic smiley good guy who never loses.

There is a habit in the last couple of decades to not give any reason why we should care about anyone they decide to push. If they bother to construct one, it's often one dimensional. When that doesn't work, then it's somehow the fans' fault or the wrestler's fault. Never the company for misreading their audience or bad fucking storytelling/world building. For example; Erick Rowan is doing more right now with this Seven-esque "what's in the booooox" gimmick than his initial supposed singles push where he just was supposed to coast off of wearing the sheep mask to sell to the kids and get over on the fact that he makes his own wine in his spare time? The fuck?

The Rock didn't become The Rock just because of a heel turn (which was always one of those oversimplified criticisims about Cena later)... it was that heel turn that started him down the road to transition from one dimensional, force-fed babyface. There started becoming depth beyond just turning on "you people/you fans"; he had a reason for it, which was the backlash from his sustained and shoehorned babyface push. Then, he started becoming an egotistical jerk. Then an egotistical jerk that says funny and memorable shit. And when the fans started getting behind him... they didn't stop making him an egotistical jerk that says funny and memorable shit because babyfaces don't do that. He was still the same asshole as a face, but they allowed him to be a likeable asshole who turned his heelishness towards other heels instead of making him revert back to a bad haircut and grass skirts.

Point is, this is the start of something intresting for Drew, but it has to *stay* interesting. If he gets steamrolled by Brock with no rematch and that's the end of that (like with Samoa Joe and Kofi Kingston), it was a waste. If he changes from intense badass back into 3MB comedy Drew who is made to look stupid and jobs all the time, it will be a waste. If they get it into their heads that the fans only like him because he's winning and goes on a win streak that just takes all the stakes out of everything because they're telegraphing him beating the world in every situation for the next 3 years, it becomes boring and once again, a waste.

Insinuating the fans will just arbitrarily turn on him out of nowhere only on the merits of him finally getting a push is pretty flawed logic.