Originally Posted by
KNIGHT OF THE LAKE
Nah I'm going to disagree with this. Shawn utterly flopped during his championship run, business was tanking, and his home town turned on him. He was never going to make it in that role. They smartly turned him heel and put him in DX which was a stroke of great booking and a stroke of luck that he was involved in the screwjob that got him even more heat. Shawn run as a maineventer and top guy was defined by failure and he needed the heel turn and left as a heel. Years later he came back as a nostalgia act against heel Triple H and got cheered, then he was never positioned as the top guy. He could work with a top guy, but his role was the legend who could still go and put on amazing performances. He just wasn't top guy material.
Rock was different. Rock was uber popular with the fans....TO A POINT. Whenever he was paired against a star that was very over, he was booed. He could never get cheered against Austin, he didn't get cheered against Hogan, and he got booed when the fans were riding the Rock bandwagon. Also it's no secret that when the Rock was given the nod over Austin at WM X7 the fans rejected it and business started tanking. Rock worked when Austin was out and they needed someone to fill in and the only top level star around was super heel heat Triple H. When given the choice, the fans always choose the other guy. Rock was a good Randy Savage, he wasn't a Hogan. He could get the run when he was threatening Austin (just like Savage), but when it came down to it, they wanted Austin.
Randy Orton is another one. They've been trying to push him for YEARS. YEARS. They never could get him to Cena's level. They dedicated WM24 and WM25 to making him a mainstream star heel wrestler and it never stuck. He got hot every once in awhile but the candle always burned out. Fans just didn't want him in that role. And if it wasn't for Bryan they would have tried him there again for WM XXXX\
The key is to get someone over organically and not change their character and be malleable. Shawn's problem was they tried to make him white meat. To an extent that was Cena's problem but he was so damn over with a certain segment of fans that they could still use him as a cash cow and ignore the boos. Roman's issue is that he isn't a big business difference maker, however the company now has so many revenue streams that they will make money despite themselves. If Braun is hot and the fans keep supporting him, no reason to not make him chance.
WWE has one primary problem. They want their guys to "prove it to them" and they want their main event champions to do a very specific role that Cena did. The whole point of wrestling is to enhance your talents strengths and cover their weaknesses. WWE will inevitably want Braun to go out and cut 20 minute comedy promos that he shouldn't do to open each Raw and do the 20 minute underdog main event style match which doesn't suit his character.