{"id":33308,"date":"2016-10-10T14:15:11","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T19:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=33308"},"modified":"2016-10-10T14:15:26","modified_gmt":"2016-10-10T19:15:26","slug":"amadis-take-wwe-opportunity-dolph-zigglers-win-last-night-create-babyface-fans-can-unite-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/10\/10\/amadis-take-wwe-opportunity-dolph-zigglers-win-last-night-create-babyface-fans-can-unite-behind\/","title":{"rendered":"AMADI&#8217;S TAKE: WWE has an opportunity with Dolph Ziggler&#8217;s win last night to create a babyface fans can unite behind"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-1592049997\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">It\u2019s no secret that WWE has had trouble over the last few years with creating hot, marketable babyface acts. More specifically, they\u2019ve had trouble creating hot singles babyface acts. Due to the simplicity of the stories the company likes to tell in its tag team divisions, teams such as\u00a0the New Day, Enzo &amp; Big\u00a0Cass, Rhyno &amp;\u00a0Heath Slater, and American Alpha are all popular acts with live crowds. There are no mixed reactions when they make their entrance. There isn\u2019t a smattering of boos when they make their comebacks. They\u2019re babyface acts WWE can count on to get a positive reaction.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">WWE\u2019s inability to replicate this for singles acts presented itself in No Mercy\u2019s WWE Title match. A.J. Styles, the heel WWE Champion, was the most well-received wrestler of the three men competing for the title in the show\u2019s opener.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">John Cena will likely never receive a completely positive reaction from a live crowd. When Cena won his first WWE championship in 2005, fans didn\u2019t think he was ready for the top spot and resented him for holding it. \u00a0He wasn\u2019t the in-ring performer that he is today and his character wasn\u2019t as fleshed out or mature as it is now. Because WWE chose not to alter his character in any way or have him give a truly human response to fans booing him for the better part of a decade, he now, more so than even Roman Reigns, is the face of the company\u2019s apathy towards its fans. As a result, he\u2019ll always get a mixed reaction and at this point it can\u2019t be held against him or used as an example of what WWE is doing wrong in 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">However, Dean Ambrose is a different case entirely. There was actually a point in time where Ambrose could do no wrong in the eyes of WWE fans. He would get beaten down and beaten down, but he refused to throw in the towel and fans loved him for it. That is, until he won the WWE Championship.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Ambrose winning the WWE Title wasn\u2019t the culmination of his underdog story. Instead he cashed in his Money in the Bank contract and screwed Seth Rollins at SummerSlam, whom fans were actually happy to see win it first. He then adopted this undeserved confidence as champion where he would talk down to challengers and tell them they weren\u2019t good enough to defeat him, even though fans had seen him lose big matches over and over for years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So now, Dean Ambrose is the definition of a \u201cshades of grey\u201d character, when he\u2019d be more effective and valuable as an outright babyface on Smackdown. No Mercy\u2019s WWE Championship match was fantastic, but could have been even better if there was\u00a0a babyface the fans were truly invested in seeing come out on top (as all matches would be).<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The babyface that fans were truly invested in at No Mercy was actually one of the wrestlers Ambrose talked down to in recent months, Dolph Ziggler.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">WWE did a masterful job in telling the Dolph Ziggler story. He, much like Ambrose was before winning the WWE Championship a few months ago, was a loser. Except, WWE didn\u2019t just slap a title on him and pretend he wasn\u2019t a loser. They leveled with their audience and told us that he was a loser. Even after they identified him as a loser and the fans actually started to give up on him as a babyface, he lost some more.<\/span><\/p><div id=\"pwtor-3047616689\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">WWE gave Ziggler odds that casual fans and even observers of the industry didn\u2019t believe he could overcome. When his back was against the wall and he actually overcame them, the live crowd couldn\u2019t have been more excited to see it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Whether the company is able to capitalize on the incredible Dolph Ziggler story from here remains to be seen, but at No Mercy the audience was with him as much as they\u2019ve been with any babyface on either brand in a long time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Ziggler\u2019s chase of the WWE and Intercontinental Championships reinforced that wins and losses matter. WWE typically leans towards pushing invulnerable babyfaces who are such habitual winners that fans don\u2019t bat an eye when they lose and neither do the wrestlers themselves. With Ziggler, it\u2019ll be interesting to see whether the company squanders the sympathy he\u2019s built up or if they can use it to turn him into the top babyface they sorely need.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>NOW CHECK OUT AMADI&#8217;S PREVIOUS COLUMN:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/vip.pwtorch.com\/2016\/10\/06\/amadis-take-the-presence-of-samoa-joe-and-shinsuke-nakamura-is-beginning-to-do-more-harm-than-good\/\">AMADI\u2019S TAKE: The presence of Samoa Joe and Shinsuke Nakamura in NXT is beginning to do more harm than good<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<div class=\"entry-content clearfix\">\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><em>(Jason Amadi has been a columnist at MMATorch.com and now also writes columns for\u00a0PWTorch.com. Follow him on Twitter @JasonAmadi.)<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-tags clearfix\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-688525210\"><div id=\"pwtor-1204698275\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>It\u2019s no secret that WWE has had trouble over the last few years with creating hot, marketable babyface acts. More specifically, they\u2019ve had trouble creating hot singles babyface acts. Due to the simplicity of the <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/10\/10\/amadis-take-wwe-opportunity-dolph-zigglers-win-last-night-create-babyface-fans-can-unite-behind\/\" title=\"AMADI&#8217;S TAKE: WWE has an opportunity with Dolph Ziggler&#8217;s win last night to create a babyface fans can unite behind\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,4010,52,53],"tags":[257,242,116,502,505],"class_list":["post-33308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlightarticles","category-amadis-take","category-opnionandanalysis","category-opinion_stafftakes","tag-dean-ambrose","tag-dolph-ziggler","tag-john-cena","tag-no-mercy","tag-the-miz"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Ziggler_3x2Lunn.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33309,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33308\/revisions\/33309"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}