Which top WWE Superstars would be better suited to being Tweeners?

[L@RISANO]

Being a Roman Reigns fan, I have been thinking about his possible role, when the Shield break-up happens sometime in the next few months.


Many believe he could be the possible new "Face" of the company in a couple of years provided he is built properly and gets over even more than he already is.


That said; I don't see Roman Reigns being too good as a smiling,goody-goody Babyface character at all.
He does seem to have that "IT" factor that everyone talks about, but, he seems more BadAss Stone Cold Steve Austin/ American BadAss Taker type than a SuperCena/Hulkamania type, in the event he becomes the Top guy in the company.

So what I want to discuss, is, Which other Top Guys currently on the roster(those who can be considered Upper-Midcard and Main Event level) would be better served being Tweener types who are in it for themselves and no one else?

PS: I hope the Shield, based on what occured on SD with Kane, become pure Tweeners who are in it for themselves. I am sure the crowd will embrace them even more if they go completely in defiance of the Authority.

 

[Eddie Menuek]

I've never been convinced that the idea of a 'pure' tweener is one that is really an option. The lines are blurred a lot, but generally, WWE either portray a character for you to get behind, or for you to want to see fail. As I said, the lines are blurred; the idea of an 'antihero' is often confused with a tweener, but they're completely babyfaces. They can act like a heel, but you're supposed to like them (and I'd guess, after the segments with Damien Sandow and Kane on Smackdown, that this is where The Shield are headed in the short term at least). On the other toss of the coin you've got somebody like Bo Dallas who acts like a good guy, but nobody is supposed to like him. You're supposed to want to see him get his ass kicked.

Somewhat ironically I'd say that the closest thing to a 'tweener' that exists on the roster is John Cena. It seems ridiculous because he's as 'good guy' as it gets, but there came a point when WWE and Cena stopped trying to get everybody behind him and, in my eyes, reverting to doing what he does - and if something gets a lot of boos, he'll do it even more to make sure that those people are still invested.

 

[Broski_of_the_week]

Personally, I question whether or not Tweeners exist as a form of wrestling disposition (like heel or face). Really, in history, all tweeners I can think of were either heels who got cheered and then turned or were heels who were slowly turned face (or back heel to start a program v the face they were aligned with), thereby having a very short period as a 'tweener' where they keep the heel gimmick but work with faces. I think its a good way to get the fans behind edgier wrestlers before making them full-blown faces, and also keeps you questioning whether the face is really safe whilst trusting the tweener.

Onto your point though, Unfortunately WWE doesn't use these 'tweeners' anymore, possibly because creative just arent good enough to write this kind of story, but if they did it would be good to see all of the Shield get the tweener treatment for the next few months, as alluded to in the last Smackdown. They are popular enough to carry on their run, it would keep them fresh then could lead to a perfect way to split them due to lets say, Rollins and Reigns wishing to remain face but Ambrose wanted to turn back heel. Apart from that though I couldn't really give any other examples because it all depends on the wrestlers situation at the time and like I said earlier, I dont think its something permanent. Especially in todays era of keeping faces face forever (like Cena, Kingston etc) then its hard to predict or even judge who would be suited to it as people are so set in one character it would be tough to work out a non-corny way to turn them tweener and see any character changes that would suit the role for them.

 

[lbastone6]

My prediction of roman reigns is he actually is going to be that smiling nice guy face eventually. He has a badass look but I think he will be similar to a Batista type face. Batista was the goody good face not to the extenrvof cena but he still was. He originally was a bad ass in evolution similar to reigns in the shield which leads me to believe reigns will be a complete face and he just wouldn't be a good tweener.

The closest thing we have had to a tweener was CM Punk 2011. This was before they turned him full face which was a dumb move by them. He was technically the heel against Cena and the jerk down talking the company but the fans loved him because like SCSA, CM Punk was doing this very organically because that's how he was as a person. I think a similar thing could be said about randy Orton in 08 when he was RKOing everyone and their mothers, but he was obviously more of just a damn good heel.

 

[BestWrestlingOpinions]

Wow, personally, just as I was reading your post, the bad-ass Undertaker gimmick with the motorcycle and all would be fitting so well for Reigns. Imagining it now, it seems like it would be so awesome for that guy to be like this, no matter if he is a face, tweener or a heel. I don't know if that gimmick would be outdated but it seems pretty interesting and intriguing to me. Sure, it has been done before, but I think it would work. After all, everything has been semi-done before anyway.

 

[kadroan]

Cesaro - I think they'd ruin him if they turn him face. He has an edge being a tweener now. The fans like when he does that big swing and they like his moves.

Randy Orton - Seems like he's distanced himself from The Authority. He can't get over a heel by himself. He seems to still have fans despite being one of the biggest heels in later 2013.

Brock Lesnar - fans like him, hate Heyman which gives him heat. Fans can't deny the powerful moves he does. I still remember when he came back at WM and beat up 3MB, the fans cheered.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

None. Tweener is a stupid ass idea. You can have a "badass babyface" or a guy like Cena. Let guys do their thing. Some may cheer, some may boo, that's how it is.

 

[itsAONE]

I agree Cesaro is great being a "tweener." He has a great moveset the crowd enjoys (he should bring out more of his old moves as Claudio btw) and has a great mouthpiece with zeb in his corner.

Sidenote: his matches with Sami Zayn are must see if you love wrestling.

 

[Dirk]

Being a Roman Reigns fan, I have been thinking about his possible role, when the Shield break-up happens sometime in the next few months.


Many believe he could be the possible new "Face" of the company in a couple of years provided he is built properly and gets over even more than he already is.


That said; I don't see Roman Reigns being too good as a smiling,goody-goody Babyface character at all.
He does seem to have that "IT" factor that everyone talks about, but, he seems more BadAss Stone Cold Steve Austin/ American BadAss Taker type than a SuperCena/Hulkamania type, in the event he becomes the Top guy in the company.

So what I want to discuss, is, Which other Top Guys currently on the roster(those who can be considered Upper-Midcard and Main Event level) would be better served being Tweener types who are in it for themselves and no one else?

PS: I hope the Shield, based on what occured on SD with Kane, become pure Tweeners who are in it for themselves. I am sure the crowd will embrace them even more if they go completely in defiance of the Authority.

Why not just turn them face, then?

It would seem that we have a fundamental difference in what we understand under the term face. The way I understand it, booking the Shield in such a way that the audience would support them would be a face-turn.

From what I gather, you understand "tweener" as a wrestler who is loved by the crowd, but behaves poorly. To this, I put Austin, Eddie and Flair. Even as faces, their characters were never pillars of morality.

The way I see it, there are only two people in the WWE right now who are close to tweeners - Steph and Trips. Mostly they are controlling and abusive assholes, but they also bully Randy Orton and get cheered for it.

What you're describing, is an antiheroic face who's not corny and cartoonish, but edgy and unpredictable, very much in the same vein as Orton's run as the top guy on Smackdown, or Edge, just before that. Punk was also like this, but a lot more whiny.

I would prefer it if there weren't too many characters like this, because I believe it's a very negative and expensive way of booking. If you match up a face who acts like a heel against a heroic face, the latter becomes boring, because he is much more restricted in the things he can and cannot do and say. If you match up a heel with the antihero, it kills some of the heel's menace, since the antiheroic face is often cheered if he is even more cunning than the heel.

 

[L@RISANO]

Why not just turn them face, then?
It would seem that we have a fundamental difference in what we understand under the term face. The way I understand it, booking the Shield in such a way that the audience would support them would be a face-turn.
From what I gather, you understand "tweener" as a wrestler who is loved by the crowd, but behaves poorly. To this, I put Austin, Eddie and Flair. Even as faces, their characters were never pillars of morality.

Indeed.

However, I don't think they would all be loved by the crowd per se. I was more thinking along the lines of a character who is in it for himself. Like Randy Orton for instance, should be the Tweener character ever since HHH and Stephanie started to belittle him. In essence he would be a Heel for all thoughts and purposes, but one who is purely in it for himself and would prove that by beating the Babyfaces as well if required. In essence, that is what his Viper character should have been,lMO. Funny enough, on the last RAW, he did just that when he measured up his prey and hit an RKO on Batista, but just the same, he seemed to enjoy smashing Daniel Bryan as well when he got the chance.

I would prefer it if there weren't too many characters like this, because I believe it's a very negative and expensive way of booking. If you match up a face who acts like a heel against a heroic face, the latter becomes boring, because he is much more restricted in the things he can and cannot do and say. If you match up a heel with the antihero, it kills some of the heel's menace, since the antiheroic face is often cheered if he is even more cunning than the heel.

I do agree with the above. My thread was just to ask the members who they believe would be better suited to being an in-between,edgy character rather than a happy,jokester type or a monster, shady type character.

Guys like Cesaro and Reigns for instance just seem to be guys the crowd would love, but should never be pictured as guys who pander to the crowd like a normal Happy-go-lucky babyface would. Austin, as you said, was very much like that. On the flip side, Randy Orton in his viper persona, would be a guy totally on his own, but would never quite be loved by the crowd even if he would do some actions to get cheers, such as his RKO on Batista last RAW.