The Hottest Trend In WWE This Season: The Heel Turn

From Dean Ambrose and Johnny Gargano to Daniel Bryan and Becky Lynch, it seems like the hottest trend in WWE right now is the heel turn. Is that good news for fans, or are we going to be burned out from all the broken friendships in just a matter of months?

There must be something in the air at WWE, or maybe a full moon perhaps, but it seems like everyone on the roster is feeling just a little more devilish and devious lately.

It all started with Becky Lynch, really. Lynch was fed up with her best friend, Charlotte, and decided beating down Flair was the best solution to her problems. While most fans didn’t see her actions as a heel turn, it sure was presented that way by WWE.

I don’t think anyone would disagree with saying that Lynch’s heel turn was for the best though, to say the least, but what about all the other betrayals we’ve seen lately?

Next up after Lynch, if my memory serves me correct, we saw Dean Ambrose stab his Shield brothers in the back after winning the Raw Tag Team championships with Seth Rollins. Now, that was a real heel turn no matter how you look at it, since earlier in the night Roman Reigns had to relinquish his Universal Championship due to his battle with leukemia.

Honestly, a fully heel Ambrose has been a dream for many fans though, so its probably save to chalk this one up as the right call for now.

Oh, but we’re not done turning people heel yet. What about Johnny Gargano embracing his dark side and attacking Aleister Black, or how about Daniel Bryan’s underhanded tactics leading to his WWE Championship win against AJ Styles? Sure, those all seem to be the right storyline decisions now, but I think we’re starting to reach a critical mass here.

For whatever reason, maybe it was too much joy heading into the holiday season or simply everyone copying off each other’s story notes, WWE seems intent on giving us as many heel turns as we can handle this year.

While, as you can tell, I think that these heel turns have been largely for the best so far, I’m beginning to worry. At what point are we, the fans, going to tire of seeing all these heroes betray their friends and fans? On top of that, as some have already begun to point out, what faces will be left for all these invigorated heels to feud with after their current rivalries?

Personally, I think WWE has begun to see the danger in having so many dubious and deceitful villains running around the company as well, and has already started to make some course corrections.

We saw Becky Lynch embrace Charlotte on Smackdown this past week and choose Flair as her replacement at Survivor Series, perhaps signaling a change of heart for the Lasskicker that is more in-line with the crowds’ reactions to her.

Ultimately, I think more changes like that are needed in order to keep WWE feeling fresh as we head towards WrestleMania 35. In the coming months, if WWE continually inundates us with the same storyline beats of friendships exploding and fan favorites turning their backs’ on audiences, I fear fans will become more tired of these angles than they expect.

Lynch’s recent turnaround is just an example of one of the small tweaks I think we should expect to see WWE make in the coming weeks.

The other change I feel is rapidly approaching could come in the form of the rare double-turn, where we see a traditionally heel character turn face to offset one of the recent turns to villainy from WWE’s top babyfaces.

I think this face turn would most likely come from a heel fans already want to cheer, like say The Miz or maybe even Alexa Bliss, in order to restore balance to the face and heel sides of each brand for the future without making too drastic of a change to a superstar’s character.

At the end of the day, changes like those shouldn’t come as a surprise for fans over the next few weeks.  After all, its in WWE’s best interest to keep its biggest stories as fresh and lively as possible, in order to keep the momentum its captured from all the recent exciting heel turns, as we head towards the company’s biggest shows of the year.