Credit: WWE.com
Last night I listened to Solomonster's Backlash review, and when he got to the main event he talked about how Samoa Joe kept using "rest holds". Similarly, he didn't like Carmella using different holds to maintain her advantage over Charlotte. We wrestling fans long ago reached the point where we're so smart to the business it has made us dumb. People think the term "high spots" refers to high risk maneuvers and not emotion, which is what it is. It would stun these people to realize what they consider "rest holds" are actually "high spots" because it builds tension where you want to see what happens next. And this is why, in part, it is impossible to get heat nowadays.
Remove Roman Reigns from the equation with Samoa Joe. You probably automatically thought "yeah if it was anyone else who's actually over as a babyface it would have worked" and you'd be wrong. Because, again... wrestling fans, by and large do not understand wrestling psychology. They think that wrestlers actually applying wrestling holds is boring. I have always been a Randy Orton fan. People often call him "boring" and part of that is because he often employs chin locks and side headlocks. People do not understand that a guy who utilizes two finishing moves that attack the head, might benefit from working the head. As an aside... people do not consider that Randy is so good it looks like he is not trying hard, because he isn't. Because he's that good. And they hold that against him, instead of appreciating that. I digress. Samoa Joe uses a form of a chokehold to finish his foes. Doesn't it make sense for him to try to soften up his opponent's neck throughout a match?
By and large people no longer go along with the storyline or the work style of the competitors, to cheer the babyfaces and boo the heels. People often fall for cheap heat like nationalistic promos, trash talk about the local sports team and things like that. Most heel turns nowadays are cheered. And that is the main reason, aside from losing merch sales, that Roman will probably never turn. I see marks say all the time they think that turning him heel will make people like him. And that is the biggest blight on the sport of professional wrestling today. This idea that making someone the villain, will make him beloved. Marks want to turn everyone heel or babyface. I'll be the first to tell you WWE's creative is anything but creative, but even if it was on god levels of booking, marks would still complain even if it's perfect in a narrative sense. Marks hate inconclusive finishes. As much as a single loss can mean complete death and burial, the idea of no one losing is offensive. So AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura having a prolonged feud with multiple matches where they fought to a draw is bad. The Backlash finish was PERFECT. It did what it was supposed to: make me want to see yet another match. AND... something that NEVER happens nowadays, it is building to a gimmick match. They had a draw in a regular match, a draw in no dq, now they have to have a ladder match or a submission match or something like that where there can be no draw.
The lack of real heat on anyone not named Roman Reigns kills the business slowly. Imagine going to see one of them comic book movies and not caring if the bad guy wins. The entire premise of professional wrestling is built around "root for the good guy and boo the bad guy" and once you strip that away, you're there to see an exhibition of moves bereft of meaning. The art of professional wrestling IS "when the bad guy chokes the good guy, we want to see the good guy escape. Unless it's Roman Reigns, then we want him to sleep."