Zeb/Swagger face turn soon?

[Trip in the Head]

So I just finished Smackdown this morning and that little exchange between Zeb and Lana made me think - what a great oppurtunity for Zeb and Swagger to make a face turn. They are obviously all about the good ol USA and Rusev and Lana are representing the anti-American sentiment. I wonder if we will see Rusev mess with Swagger now or if he'll continue to focus on Big E. I realize both Rusev and Swagger are both heels ATM, so I figure Swagger would HAVE to make a face turn for the feud to work.

Would anybody enjoying seeing this happen? I kind of would. I think Swagger vs Rusev could be interesting if it's not another squash match for Rusev (which it shouldn't be IMO).

 

[Aids Johnson]

It'd be a huge way to build Swagger up instantly. It'd take probably a zeb beating to get it to fully go over, or a new real american, but i'd be down. Having two undefeated new WWE wrestlers to me per raw just kills my interest.

 

[Swift]

meh. I think swagger as face would be even more bland. Zeb probably wouldn't be as entertaining either. Pass.

 

[The GOAT]

Swagger and Coulter don't necessarily have to turn full-blown babyface for the feud to work. It could be booked as a heel versus heel feud. In almost every heel on heel rivalry, one of the participants is seen as the 'lesser evil', or in other terms, the 'babyface' of the feud, even though they were a heel before the feud began and immediately revert back to being one against other opponents after said feud is over. Corporation/Ministry, Smoking Gunns/Owen Hart and British Bulldog, HHH/Kurt Angle, Shield/Wyatts, Cesaro/Swagger, etc. are all examples of this (although in the case of The Shield, it was a prelude to their face turn. The same was kind of true of HHH as well, but his face turn lasted only a month before reverting back to a heel again.)

If Swagger and Coulter turn babyface for the long haul, Zeb's personality would have to be altered a bit, and not for the better. He couldn't rant any longer about how much he hates foreigners coming into his country because that is very much not what a good guy does, and that would mean he loses 99.9% of his entertainment value. The fact that he gets cheered for his xenophobic rants already (which he does because despite the intolerance of it, he's still entertaining while doing it) is irrelevant.

 

[Trip in the Head]

Swagger and Coulter don't necessarily have to turn full-blown babyface for the feud to work. It could be booked as a heel versus heel feud. In almost every heel on heel rivalry, one of the participants is seen as the 'lesser evil', or in other terms, the 'babyface' of the feud, even though they were a heel before the feud began and immediately revert back to being one against other opponents after said feud is over. Corporation/Ministry, Smoking Gunns/Owen Hart and British Bulldog, HHH/Kurt Angle, Shield/Wyatts, Cesaro/Swagger, etc. are all examples of this (although in the case of The Shield, it was a prelude to their face turn. The same was kind of true of HHH as well, but his face turn lasted only a month before reverting back to a heel again.)

If Swagger and Coulter turn babyface for the long haul, Zeb's personality would have to be altered a bit, and not for the better. He couldn't rant any longer about how much he hates foreigners coming into his country because that is very much not what a good guy does, and that would mean he loses 99.9% of his entertainment value. The fact that he gets cheered for his xenophobic rants already (which he does because despite the intolerance of it, he's still entertaining while doing it) is irrelevant.

Oh thats a good point. A heel vs heel feud might work even better.

 

[Trip in the Head]

I guess I like the idea of the Lana/Zeb interactions that could occur lol

 

[Aids Johnson]

Unless she goes AA on him and oversexualizes it I don't see it. She is a powerful woman and he is a bigot who would job to her 8 days a week in that situation IMO.

If we want the long term deal, i'd like to see Lana get some Announcers table time to take shots at Zeb specifically not worried about Swagger while they have a good 10 minute match. That way it sets up the vs and zeb has something to spite her over when the feud continues. The only deal is WWE is so hell bent on him having a monster streak, because it worked so well with Ryback. You can lose and make it a lot bigger of a picture than having squash matches week in and week out. People don't give a fuck about any 8 minute intro with a 2 minute match unless you're undertaker, and that includes Kane.

 

[Leo C]

Face Zeb would be terrible. Swagger I really don't care much about so I'd be fine either way but Zeb should remain a heel. Heel vs heel could work, I suppose. Although if this happened I'm sure Rusev would just destroy him anyway so there's no point.

 

[FN Punk]

Swagger and Zeb can stay heels and they'll get cheered anyways. It'll probably just be another victory for Rusev with minimal effort, but I'll cheer for Jack until the end.

Before the match happens, Colter needs to just slap Swagger a ton.

 

[Red Rain]

The turn was well done and executed. Coulter is fantastic on the stick and can work the crowd for a desired reaction.
I'm not sure how long Coulter can stay heel, but Swagger has an opportunity to take the bull by the horns.

 

[Snowman1]

Zeb the slightly insane yet lovable uncle we all have is just great.

 

[Wacokid27]

Just because the character of "Zeb Colter" has always been a heel doesn't mean that Dutch can't work face. He's done it before and successfully all over the country. In fact, without Zeb, there's no way that Jack could really work strongly face.

As it is, I actually think this would be a good time to allow Rusev to take a loss. It does a lot of things both for him and for Swagger.

1) It shows that Rusev, while almost unbeatable, can be beaten. If Swagger has to snatch a "dusty" victory from the jaws of defeat once or twice, it shows that it takes a cunning opponent to beat him, but it also makes Rusev more approachable as a character and more believable in the "Reality Era".

2) It builds Swagger. WWE has always been high on Swagger and giving him a duke or two over Rusev, who's beaten all comers convincingly, particularly if it's done by a little bit of trickery, gives Swagger a cunning side and shows that he's willing to do what it takes to win a match.

Of course, both of these are points of character development building two guys for the long term rather than focusing on the immediate, something WWE has historically not been very good at. But, they've also had huge successes in the character development area (Rocky, SCSA, Curt Hennig, Jake Roberts, John Cena, Daniel Bryan). So, i's worth it to try.

wk

 

[Trip in the Head]

WWE has always been high on Swagger

Such an ironic statement hehehe

 

[Leo C]

OK, I was wrong there. Face Zeb can be good as long as WWE doesn't ruin him as they normally do with babyfaces, in which case it would indeed be terrible, but I think he writes his own stuff so it's fine.

 

[alexb]

Well, I think it's rather obvious that we will have a match between Rusev and Swagger at the Battleground PPV but unlike most, I have a feeling that Rusev will at least win round one in this feud and remain undefeated for just a little while longer...