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Yeah, I agree. They're trying to fit square pegs into round holes. If they listened to fans they'd be able to identify who are the faces and who are the heels in their story very easily. And I do agree -- they put very little effort into actually going deeper than "This dude smiles; he is nice." There are like stock characteristics they associate with being a good guy and being a bad guy, and they just have guys switch between face and heel and do those things. Worse though is that fans seem to think this is the way it is supposed to go. I had an argument with someone recently who was trying to tell me that heels are always supposed to cheat because they are the bad guys. Duh. I wanted to pull my hair out.
WWE might want to separate themselves from professional wrestling. Why? I dunno -- I think it's dumb, because the professional wrestling tricks work in movies, politics, boxing and MMA. But they want to remove all the heat, credibility and violence out of their product. That's fine. They want to tell "stories" and be "entertainment." The frustrating thing about that is that they are shit at it. Without thinking about faces and heels for a second, they fucking suck at creating a protagonist. Their stories are hollow and make no sense.
Something I agree with Destor on: Roman Reigns is a heel. People boo him, and people that pay money are doing so to see him get his ass kicked. That is what a heel is. They don't want him to be a heel; they very clearly want him to be the protagonist of the WWE story. But he is a heel, because being a heel is an effect you have on people. If you come out smiling and kissing and you get booed, then you are doing your job as a heel marvelously. If you come out drowning puppies and get an ovation, you are such a damn good babyface it's ridiculous. They just make things hard for themselves by fighting against the natural story there.
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