WWE in 2004: Who was the face?

[CelticCorey]

With Austin carrying the company in the late 90's and the Rock in 2000 and again from like summer of 2001-summer of 2002 as the top babyface, Brock Lesnar soon took over as the guy. Lesnar was supposed to be the next guy to be the face of the company; but Lesnar left in 2004. Meanwhile, John Cena was working his way up as an upper mid-carer; but obviously not the face of the company just yet.

So who was it? Was it Eddie? Was it Benoit? In 2004, I'm not so sure if WWE had a definitive face like Hogan of the 80's and early 90's, Bret of the mid 90's, Austin late 90's and early 2000's, Rocky early 2000's, Lesnar for like maybe a year and supposed to be more and obviously Cena now.

Who in 2004 was the face of the company in your opinion?

 

[holdingholder]

Man that's kind of tough. I think it was mostly just a feeling out period where vince was looking to see who could lead him into the next generation. While guys like Eddie and Benoit had good ( and well deserved at the time) runs. The two newer stars who were getting the biggest reaction from the crowds came out on top in John Cena and Batista, and lead WWE for the next few years afterward.

 

[Tech N9ne]

The closest thing to a "face" of the company would have been Eddie. But then, later that year he turned Heel and did all sorts of dastardly things to Rey & his family.

I think as far as 2004 goes, there really wasn't a Top Face. Triple H was the overall Top Guy for sure. 04 saw the Undertaker make a return to the Deadman gimmick. HBK was there.

I think it was more of a collective thing, as many guys started to leave the company. 04 was when The Rock and Austin both stopped making regular appearances. Goldberg and Lesnar both left. Some of the bigger names in the company were Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Undertaker, Booker T, Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio, Randy Orton, Big Show, John Cena, Batista and a few more...

For probably one of the only times ever, WWE was without a clear "Face". But like I said before, Trips was definitely the TOP GUY though.

Kind of funny, the theme for that year's Wrestlemania... Wrestlemania 20 "Where It All Begins Again"

That is exactly what happened then. They had to discover a new Face for the company. Almost start over in a sense.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

2004 was a year of transistion for the WWE and I believe that there were two faces of the company at different points that year. Before going any further I would like to divide 2004 into two parts, before SummerSlam 2004 and after SummerSlam 2004.

WrestleMania 20 to SummerSlam 2004

As we know that at WrestleMania 2004 Chris Benoit won the World Heavyweight Title and became the champion of the Raw brand while Eddie Guerrero had become champion at No Way Out 2004 and had retained his title at WrestleMania and was the champion of the Smackdown brand. Both guys were the faces of their individual brands but of the two I would say that Eddie was more popular among the fans as well as the star attraction of his brand unlike Benoit. Benoit was the champ but he often found himself wrestling lower down the card at some PPV's like Badd Blood due to the presence of more popular stars like HBK and HHH. So in conclusion Eddie Guerrero was the face of the company till SummerSlam 2004.

SummerSlam 2004 to the end of the year.

Now at SummerSlam Chris Benoit lost his World Title to Randy Orton and Orton turned face soon after. On Smackdown JBL had been champion even before SummerSlam and Eddie had fallen down the card. The main adversary of JBL at this point was The Undertaker. After SummerSlam 2004 WWE tried to push Randy Orton as the face of the company on Raw while on Smackdown JBL went through a number of babyfaces in order to establish himself as a heel. Randy's push ultimately fizzled out but from SummerSlam 2004 till the end of the year I do believe that Randy Orton was the face of the WWE.

So in closing Eddie Guerrero was the face of the company in the first half of 2004 while Randy Orton was the face of the company in the latter half.

 

[ted sheckler]

With Austin carrying the company in the late 90's and the Rock in 2000 and again from like summer of 2001-summer of 2002 as the top babyface, Brock Lesnar soon took over as the guy. Lesnar was supposed to be the next guy to be the face of the company; but Lesnar left in 2004. Meanwhile, John Cena was working his way up as an upper mid-carer; but obviously not the face of the company just yet.

So who was it? Was it Eddie? Was it Benoit? In 2004, I'm not so sure if WWE had a definitive face like Hogan of the 80's and early 90's, Bret of the mid 90's, Austin late 90's and early 2000's, Rocky early 2000's, Lesnar for like maybe a year and supposed to be more and obviously Cena now.

Who in 2004 was the face of the company in your opinion?

IMO

80's-93 was Hulk Hogan..
Who can deny that during this time it was all about Hulkamania running wild.

93-95 The Pink and Black Attack
Bret Hart during this period was considered to be the face of the company and the "leader of the new generation".. He carried the company through the start of the decline in ratings and popularity..due to forces outside anyone's control.

96-97 The Headliner..The Showstopper..The Main Event..The Icon that can still go.. Mr Wrestlemania.. The Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels was the face
of the biz at a very dark time in WWE history but if I'm to quote the Dark Knight.. "The night is always darkest right before the dawn..." and this proved to be the case when he helped change the direction of WWF which led us to..

98-00 The Attitude Era led by Steve Austin
Athough he didn't do it alone he certainly was the face of not only WWE but the wrestling industry for this period.

00-02 The Rock.. This always seemed to me to be a time when Austins star seemed to shine just a little less bright and this allowed Rock to take the reigns as the leader of the show.

02-05 Belonged to the King of Kings... no not Jesus.. the other one.. Triple H. This started with his HUGE return to MSG from the quad tear and I'd say lasted right until he put over Cena at WM22.. In this period Trips was involved in 99% of the main event feuds and title matches..

2006-20010 John Cena took over the reigns as being the Hulk Hogan like center of attention. Although the fans have turned on him many times he has maintained his role as the face of the company for a long time.

 

[Dr. Mantis Toboggan, M.D.]

This is a hard one for me to answer. There was so much going on. Over on RAW you had guys like Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and Chris Benoit all on top. And SD had Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker, Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero all doing good things. I'm actually split between Triple H and Kurt Angle, because WWE treated the brand extension like an actual brand extension.

I'm going to have to go with Triple H. He led WWE from 2002 all the way to 2005. That's when he won most of his titles and that's when he was at his best. Triple H by far was the face of the company in 2004.

 

[falconpawnch]

Personally, I've always felt that if Edge were given more of a push during the early 2000s (when he was at his best) he would have been the dominant face of the WWE.. that's just me though.. but to answer that question, I'm not really sure. Like it was said before, it was more a transitional time.

 

[justinept]

You all need to stop confusing the top draw label with the face of the company label. They are not synonymous. The top draw is the guy who brings in the most revenue ... the face of the company is the guy who the WWE builds their marketing around.

You can't just take the most popular wrestler at any given point and say that he's the face of the company .... there are times when the company has a collective face - it's marketing is built around the product more than any individual wrestler. This is the situation the WWE was in from the time Lesnar left until the time Cena took the reigns.

Why wasn't the face of the company Eddie Guerrero or Chris Benoit, you ask? Well, how many Eddie shirts were produced? How many Benoit shirts? I'm not saying the guys lacked merchandise, but you can usually tell who the company is building around based on how many different shirts and novelties the company produces for that wrestler.

That's why you see so many Cena shirts on sale ... it's why Austin got a new shirt every other month ... as did The Rock ... it's why HBK had two action figures out at the same time (one with red/white pants; one with black/silver pants) ... it's why Bret Hart marketed Hitman glasses and black leather jackets ... and it's why Hulk Hogan's name was on everything from VHS tapes to mittens...

The guess here is that Lesnar was supposed to become the face of the company - that the WWE was gearing up to build their marketing campaign around him - and when he left, the marketing department didn't really catch its footing until Cena took the reigns at WM 21.

 

[goldbergiswrestling]

With Austin carrying the company in the late 90's and the Rock in 2000 and again from like summer of 2001-summer of 2002 as the top babyface, Brock Lesnar soon took over as the guy. Lesnar was supposed to be the next guy to be the face of the company; but Lesnar left in 2004. Meanwhile, John Cena was working his way up as an upper mid-carer; but obviously not the face of the company just yet.

So who was it? Was it Eddie? Was it Benoit? In 2004, I'm not so sure if WWE had a definitive face like Hogan of the 80's and early 90's, Bret of the mid 90's, Austin late 90's and early 2000's, Rocky early 2000's, Lesnar for like maybe a year and supposed to be more and obviously Cena now.

Who in 2004 was the face of the company in your opinion?

If you remember 2004 the way I do, (of coarse I was 14) The face of the company (and that term is used very loosely) was Triple H. Granted Triple H was a heel, but in those days he was leading Evolution, held the world heavyweight championship almost the entire year. He was unbeatable, on all the covers in the movies (see Blade Trinity)

 

[Rocky!Rocky!Rocky!]

Very intriguing question...back then the lines between the two brands were much more defined so you could argue that the WWE were trying to create two faces to carry the two brands. However, the roster was arguably the strongest it has ever been in WWE history and you could say that there was no need to have one or two main guys to carry the two brands as there was so much main event talent around. You had HHH, HBK, Benoit, Jericho and Orton on Raw and you had Angle, Eddie, JBL, Undertaker and Cena on Smackdown. With so many guys like that there was no need for the company to have one main guy.

 

[Elementz of Fear]

I'd have to agree with what a couple people have already said in Triple H being the face of not just 2004, but the few surrounding years in between the end of The Rock era and the beginning of the John Cena era. I never really accepted the whole "Triple H is in his spot because he is married to the boss' daughter" because of that time period. Brock and Eddie were there but they were on SmackDown and it is no secret that Raw has always been the A show. Even when Benoit and Orton won the title in 2004 they feuded with THE guy in Triple H. Without going over The Game they wouldn't have gotten over at all on Raw. There was a time period where Triple H was the centerpiece to build the brand around and 2004 was right in the middle of that.

 

[wrestlingfan]

Triple H could be considered the face butt I don't think there actually was a face at this time. They were trying to propel Cena, Batista and Orton to take over.

 

[mrbrownstone]

HHH without a doubt. Look at the facts here, out of 14 PPV's throughout the year, HHH was in a Main Event match at eight, of those eight six were for the title, also of those eight six of them were the final match on the card, of the two that weren't one was at the Royal Rumble and the other was a title match that didn't go on last. Of the PPV's he didn't main event, five were Smackdown exclusive events and one was Summerslam where her had a 20+ minute match with Eugene.

Whatever way you slice it those stats don't lie, HHH was in over half of the PPV main events of the year and he was in every single one of Raws PPV main events, sometimes going on after WHC matches. Whether people like it or not HHH was the face of the company in the WWE's eyes, whether or not he was in the fans eyes is a different story but in the WWE's eyes HHH was the top guy.