The next top face in WWE

[Troy]

Randy Orton is suspended and because of that John Cena and CM Punk both have to work Smackdown shows as well as RAW to try to cover the loss in star power. That is a pretty bad sign that WWE are having to over work their two top stars to help out the other brand because WWE simply don't have enough top faces that can convince fans to buy tickets and buy merchandise at the shows. WWE have been pushing Sheamus as a key face on Smackdown for the past year and he is reasonably over but isn't near the level of a Cena, Punk or Orton. Other than that there really aren't that many top faces on either brand. There are guys that are floating around the mark in the upper midcard but have yet to make the leap into the mainevent. They also have some top veterans on the sidelines like Mysterio who should return from his suspension soon and then Jericho who could always go face again but they would only be short term solutions to the problem.

On RAW beneath Cena and Punk the cupboard is really bare when it comes to faces. Santino, Kofi Kingston, R-Truth and Zack Ryder are literally the only other faces on the brand that appear on a regular basis. Three of them have comedy based characters and simply don't have what it takes in their current form to make it as maineventers. The only face on RAW that would be able to make it is Kofi Kingston and he has had his chances before. He has always been popular but he has never really been able to make that last step up to maineventer. His best chance was his feud with Orton a few years ago but after that feud ended with him coming out on the losing end he was back in the midcard in no time. WWE never seem to know what to do with him and so they simply chuck him in an oddball tag team, first with Bourne and now with Truth, as a way to keep him relevant and on the show each week. WWE are in such a position that they have no choice but to push him again as a singles wrestler and this time give him some big wins over the top names. Kofi has enough talent and enough of the crowd behind him that I think he could make it in the RAW mainevent if given the chance.

On Smackdown with Orton gone they really only have Sheamus as the top face and after that they aren't much stronger than RAW. They made the right move in bringing back Christian as a face for his latest run because they simply don't have enough top faces on the brand. After that they have the also recently returned Sin Cara, the recently traded from RAW Brodus Clay, Ezekiel Jackson, Ryback, Yoshi Tatsu and then two tag teams in The Usos and Kidd & Gabriel. Out of that list WWE will be desperate that Sin Cara can again start turning over that merchandise and get the fans behind him again. He is a great asset and should be able to fill one of the top face spots on Smackdown easily but unfortunately he will never be the top guy because he can't cut a promo in English. Yoshi Tatsu and Ezekiel Jackson are only used as enhancement talent these days and will only ever put others over. Brodus Clay has a decent following but his act is still centered around him dancing rather than what he actually does in the ring, after Show KOed him the other week on RAW hopefully this brings in a more focussed Brodus Clay. He needs to get into a feud with one of the top heels to see if he can take that next step. Ryback seems to be the guy that Vince is pinning his hopes on but as for now all he has done is defeat guys that aren't even on the roster, give him some real opponents and the crowd will be more interested.

WWE simply needs to take a risk and start pushing some of these guys. They have way too many heels on both brands and desperately need to find more top faces that can actually fill the arenas. What will happen if Punk or Cena go down whilst Orton, Mysterio and Jericho are still out? What if both guys go down with injury? WWE would be screwed because all of their top draws would be out and they don't have anyone to cover for them. WWE need to get back to the situation they had over a decade ago where they had a dozen top guys that could fill that mainevent spot and there were never any issues when stars went down. It is a bad business plan to invest everything into a couple of guys especially in an industry like wrestling where injuries are common.

Who do you think can take that step and become a maineventer as a face on RAW or Smackdown? Who should WWE get behind to push them up the card and make them star?

 

[The Cork]

Ryback.

R-Truth could of been mega over as a babyface had they continued with his crazy character and not binned him off in a rubbish tag team nobody cares about.

 

[The New F'n Show]

Like Ziggler and Rhodes but both work better as heels so hope they don't turn them like they did Orton. Don't really see that guy sitting there in the mid card right now. Sheamus has already been elevated and I think they are going to have to try to ride him as much as they can.

 

[Chris]

The IWC won't like it at all, but I honestly think they can get away with making Ryback a full Goldberg 2.0, I mean mirror Goldberg's career exactly until a taser got involved.

 

[Andrew]

Sheamus is already a draw, so he's pretty much the next face.

Everyone seems to like Sheamus, I can't think of people hating him like Cena... So I'd go with Sheamus...

After that you've got Christian but once those guys go out the door... That's a tough task. I'd love to say Tyson Kidd but he'd never be elevated, Sin Cara maybe?

 

[Chris]

Can't ever see Cara getting to Mysterio's status, but that's a possibility. Sheamus actually has a good bit of haters, not me, but I've seen quite a few. He's a good face though. I'd love Kidd to be the face, but yeah, that probably won't happen, it should though, Kidd is awesome.

 

[Darth Shizzel]

Ryback is a great possibility but I think he needs to wait a couple of years first, Dolph Ziggler, Daniel Brian and Sheamus need to be pushed a bit harder, Sheamus needs to be more aggressive a guy who doesn't take shit from anyone that will get him over more then he is right now, Daniel Brian's character can be face or heel doesn't really matter and he's getting a great reaction at the moment and Dolph just needs a push to the top but he needs to drop Swagger quickly.

 

[Aniking]

I don't think Sheamus should even be mentioned quite frankly. He's in the group of main eventers alongside Alberto Del Rio, Big Show, Chris Jericho, Christian, CM Punk, John Cena, Kane, Mark Henry, Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio. Guys like Brock Lesnar, The Rock, Triple H and Undertaker go without saying, but they're only special occasion main eventers, so they don't really count.

The WWE have so many options for guys who need that consistent push to get them to the top bunch, and for me they're Brodus Clay, Cody Rhodes, Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, Kofi Kingston, The Miz, R-Truth, Tensai and Wade Barrett. At the moment, Bryan is the closest to joining that group as I think he needs a little more time to settle into the main event area and he'll be set. The Miz used to be there for me, but not anymore. Most of the others have all been close at some point but have never been given a consistent push and used properly all the time. They have their high moments for a little bit, then followed by low moments that kill all the momentum they had.

You've then got the three unknown quantities - Antonio Cesaro, Damien Sandow and Ryback. All new, all undefeated, all have impressed in different forms. The WWE need to keep their momentum going and make it permanent, kinda like Del Rio's situation. He was immediately pushed strongly, came up with the goods, and now he's nestled in the main event group. He's an example of what kind of power the WWE have with developing new stars but constantly refuse to use it.

Anyway, my answer to the thread question is this - I don't know.

Nobody in the WWE is a bigger face than John Cena. For as long as Cena is in the WWE, he'll remain top. Behind him are definitely CM Punk, Randy Orton and Sheamus, followed by Christian and Rey Mysterio. With two of them suspended, WWE only have four top faces to use across two brands, which is very thin. It's tough to suggest any current faces joining that list, especially when the list is only Brodus Clay, Kofi Kingston and R-Truth. They need to start evening out the numbers and stop turning guys heel. Filling the holes with guys like The Great Khali, Santino Marella and Zack Ryder isn't the way to go when they're never going to get to the top group.

So yeah, I really don't know, but if I had to suggest anybody than it'd be Kofi Kingston.

 

[Kingslayer]

It's gonna be somebody we don't know yet.

Orton is a failure as a potential megastar, has been for 10 years. Pushed and pushed and pushed, RKO'd 6000 people and never drew a dime (to re-word the famous quote about Jeff Jarrett). He's plateaued.....and even IF he hadn't, you still can't push a guy with 2 out of 3 suspensions as the face of your company, it's too risky, because if they fail a 3'rd, it's a guaranteed year without your biggest draw, and even when you re-sign them the first 2 strikes don't go away. That is, of course, assuming they don't find a way to cover it up. I have a feeling about that...

CM Punk is not gonna be the guy, because he's almost as old as Cena, for starters. Then you add on the fact that when he was on the hottest run anybody'd been on in years, WWE deliberately sabotaged his push so that he wouldn't replace Cena. They don't want him as the face of the WWE. For a few reasons, I can understand why. A guy with Punk's mouth, who shoots from the heart, doesn't say bullshit and tells you something sucks when it sucks instead of sugarcoating it like Cena, isn't exactly a good corporate pet. Then you also have the whole stupid thing about how CM Punk, the character existed before WWE. That's a HUGE no no in WWE. If Vince doesn't invent your persona, you have a ceiling and you're not going above it.

Then you have the work out buddy of the son in law, Sheamus. This guy fucking sucks, there's no other way to say it, he sucks. But he is the work out buddy, so are they opposed? I wouldn't say they are, but only on two conditions, which he doesn't meet. The first is again, the age thing. He's almost as old as Cena. The other glaring problem he has for this position, he's not from the United States. Vince McMahon's face is buried in Uncle Sam's red, white and blue ass. They incessantly promote patriotism, military showings for the troops, etc. Under no circumstances, knowing what Vince is like can I buy a non American face of the company. #2? He'll be #2, but not #1.

Rob Van Goldberg, no. Just no. RVG is nowhere near good enough to be the face of the company, and the Goldberg routine just does not work in 2012. There's no way he's gonna be marketable to the level of a John Cena.

The rest of the roster are either jobbers or career heels, so they're out. It's just gonna be some guy that comes out of nowhere, I honestly believe we haven't seen him yet. It's not like Cena is giving this up anytime. Sadly.

 

[Cwalker]

Truth be told, I was giving his some thought the other day and I came up with a logical yet somewhat far fetched answer; The Miz.

I think he's everything that Vince wants in a top guy. He does PR, he's got the look Vince wants, and I think he's a loyal WWE guy to the point where he won't burn Vince and leave the second a television or movie deal comes along.

A Miz face turn is inevitable especially with Marine 3 coming out soon. So with the movie, he'll receive a renewed push, probably back to the upper mid card if not the main event. Booking is what killed his title run the first time, but I think as a face, WWE will work it a little better

 

[Troy]

The Miz isn't a bad choice at all but I am not completely sold that he can become a top face, his character works perfectly as a heel and it would need some tweaking. As you said when the Marine 3 comes out he will get a push so that fans remember who he is and that then is a good opportunity to test the waters of Miz as a face.

 

[The New F'n Show]

I've always been up in the air on the Miz. I can see people getting behind him in short doses if he does Comedy promos but Comedy faces never last.

 

[We Are Legion]

Miz could definitely be that guy considering he's over as hell regardless of his inactivity and could easily be placed back into the main event scene as a legit contender. And because WWE hasn't committed to him in months, they could go literally any direction with him, face or heel.

 

[Deezy]

I'm just going to think some new guy will show up one day and just have the "IT" factor that will make him the instant face of WWE.

Because I don't see anyone on the current roster that screams crossover. Got a whole bunch of Bret Harts and Shawn Michaels running around and no Rocks or Stone Colds.

 

[Irish Mark]

Depends really on how u interpret the question. If u mean the next top babyface of the company, replacing Orton in the big 4 with Cena, Punk and Sheamus then I think it could be Daniel Bryan. He definitely has the fan suppost and always gets a big reaction from the live crowd.

If, on the other hand, u mean who will be the next face of the company, taking over from Cena, then it really could be anyone at this point. If u look back through history, the "face of the company" is a name only 4 guys can claim in WWE; Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold, The Rock and John Cena. WCW only really had 2; Sting and Goldberg. So whoever takes over from CenaNuff will be a babyface. I could see Dolph Ziggler or Cody Rhodes carrying the flag, but if I'm being really optimistic, Mike McGillicutty with a new name and 5 more years could be the guy. I'm deadly serious.