WWE Raw: Could A Babyface Turn Be Due For Alexa Bliss?

Since she debuted on the WWE main roster, Alexa Bliss has played the ultimate mean-girl heel, and so far it’s gained her a lot of traction. It makes you wonder – could there ever be potential for us to see a babyface Alexa Bliss on WWE Raw?

Since she was drafted to the main roster during the summer of 2016, Alexa Bliss has made quite the impression on WWE. Two-plus years later, Bliss is a two-time WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion and a three-time WWE Raw Women’s Champion.

To put it simply – Alexa Bliss has blown up.

It’s largely in part to the character she brought with her; Bliss has seemingly perfected the role of the ultimate “mean girl”, a moniker that doesn’t really even do justice to just how cruel and cunning Bliss can be.

The character couldn’t have become more popular with audiences either, as fans began cheering week after week for Bliss, because the way she was eviscerating her opponents on the mic was wildly entertaining. Not to mention, the extreme of her character made her the perfect foil for the then-SmackDown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch.

Alexa Bliss has carried that persona now for the entirety of her WWE career, which in my mind begs the questions – where is the room for growth in this character? Is there a possibility that some time down the road, the tables could turn for Bliss, and we could see her working a babyface roll?

Does she need a a babyface turn right this moment? Probably not, as people are still reacting to her positively (or as positively as you could to a heel). I’ve personally found that the face/heel turn could often be a critical tool in helping characters develop, however, as it’s a good means for opening up paths to new story lines, feuds, etc.

A babyface Bliss isn’t really that hard to imagine either. Bliss has proven herself to be one of the most likable performers in WWE outside of the ring. That, to me, was always one of the most glaring details about Bliss’s character – how staunchly different it is from the person outside the ring.

She’s done tons of work with various WWE-affiliated charities. She’s been very vocal about personal struggles that have befallen her throughout her life and career and truly can be considered a role model in many ways.

One thing that I personally always resonated with was the relationship Bliss has with her mother. It’s always sweet to see when they show up an events together, like WWE Hall of Fame last year. It’s clear to everyone who doesn’t adhere strictly to kayfabe portrayals that outside of the ring, Alexa Bliss is a hometown girl who works her hardest and brings an air of earnest positivity to the company.

If you throw all that in with the fact that Bliss has never hidden the fact that she’s a fan of things like cosplay, Disney, and collecting small animals, it’s not hard to imagine that all of her drive, innocence, and enthusiasm could easily be translated to an in-ring persona.

The question that we’re confronted with when thinking about an Alexa Bliss face turn is, how? How could WWE take one of the most prominent heels on their entire roster, somehow get her to see the error of her ways, and get the crowd to believe it all?

Let me draw references from one of the most widely known (and quoted) movies of our generation (assuming you are, like me, a twenty-something who calls too many movies “my favorite”). That’s right – we’re talking Mean Girls.

Alexa Bliss is of course our Regina George, who luckily for this argument totes around Alicia Fox and Mickie James, her Karen Smith and Gretchen Wieners, everywhere. Bliss constantly surrounds herself with enablers who reinforce her terrible behavior, which is part of the reason she’s so powerful.

The only reason Regina was ever able to have a change of heart was because she had a Cady Heron and a Janice Ian willing to take everything that Regina thought was important away from her in a way that was so harsh and abrupt that it forced Regina to completely reevaluate herself.

I’m going exactly where you think I am – if we want to turn Alexa Bliss face, we may need to hit her with a bus.

Okay, maybe we don’t go that far, but perhaps the only way to turn Bliss face convincingly is to have her humiliated to the point where she’s forced to see herself for what she’s become. Quite frankly, I would even believe a story line where some of the Raw face performers actually try to infiltrate her group of friends to figure out how to tear her down.

Enter our absolutely perfect Cady and Janice – Bayley and Sasha Banks. What other performers in the Raw women’s division right now could have the kind of a vendetta against Alexa Bliss needed to pull off something that drastic? After all, Bliss just made fools out of Bayley and Banks this Monday when she made them fight for a Survivor Series spot that she never intended to give either one of them anyway.

From there, you have the two of them, or maybe even just one, pick away at Bliss’s assets from the inside until Bliss is left with absolutely nothing, no friends, not even a championship to comfort her.

There would a very steep learning curve for Bliss after that; a tiger can’t change it’s stripes that quickly, and Bliss will likely be caught in a “why can’t I find any more friends” predicament. Bliss could begin to see that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, and she’ll see that there may still even be superstars who like her without all the notoriety, the power, and the attitude behind her.

Braun Strowman could  play the roll of the lacrosse girls who aren’t afraid of her. Bliss and Braun, after all, struck up an unlikely friendship during the first season of WWE’s Mixed Match Challenge that fans were enthralled with. Braun would be the perfect person for Bliss to lean on while she learns that it’s possible to get what you want with honest kindness and not just use people as means to an end.

Whoever it is, it’s important to show Bliss (and audiences) that there are people still on the roster who’ve interacted with Bliss in a positive, even a neutral capacity, who she could easily take to.

From there, all that’s left to do is rebuild. As I’ve discussed, Alexa Bliss outside the ring has a tremendous following and is widely known for being, to put it simply, really, really sweet, so all WWE has to do is let that shine even a little, and there would still be fans in the crowd who love to cheer for her.

The best part is, even if she’s not a heel, Bliss still has the qualities that made her so popular in the first place – she’s fierce, she’s clever, and her mic skills are tremendous. It would be just as easy for her to do a witty face promo as it would be to do a condescending heel promo.

It’s not a necessity to turn her sooner rather than later, but it’s important to recognize that their are options when it comes to Alexa Bliss’s character. She doesn’t have to be pigeon-holed to the heel role forever, because really, her quickness and aptitude on the mic have the potential to take her to many more places on WWE Raw.