10. Stop Heel Champions Having Anti-USA Gimmicks
WWE has the tendency to give heel United States champions gimmicks in which they hate on the USA. Such examples include; Shinsuke Nakamura with his ‘NakAmerica’ gimmick, and Kevin Owens who dubbed himself as the ‘Face of America’. This sort of thing was even seen in 2015 when Alberto Del Rio returned with Zeb Colter and spoke of his vision of ‘MexAmerica’.
This simple copy and paste attitude to heel champions makes them one dimensional. Tommaso Ciampa and Daniel Bryan, for example, are two of the greatest heel champions of recent times, and both have more complex characters than simply hating the division that their title represents. For example, imagine if Ciampa had a gimmick where he would hate on NXT… no one would invest in it.
I am not saying they never work, because sometimes Anti-USA gimmicks do suit certain storylines, particularly when the heel is eventually beaten for the title by a national hero who represents the country, for example, John Cena beating Rusev at WrestleMania 31. These characters are simple and one-dimensional, and we’ve seen them all before. Giving heel champions and even challengers different motivations than we’ve seen before will create more interesting storylines and build interest around the title picture.
5 years ago by Wrestle Talk
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