Ex-Impact President Comments On WWE Fans Cheering Heels Like John Cena, Seth Rollins

Several of WWE's heels, like John Cena and Seth Rollins, have been cheered when going head-to-head with top babyfaces in the promotion, and former TNA President Scott D'Amore has discussed how WWE could combat it.

In his recent piece for "Yahoo Sports," D'Amore recalled having a conversation with the '70s tag team California Hippies, which consisted of Mike Boyette and Mickey Doyle, about how they were heels in some places and babyfaces elsewhere in the US. D'Amore believes that WWE fans will now decide if they like or hate stars like Rollins or Cena.

"I asked Mickey, 'Well, what did you do to make 'em stop cheering you?' And he told me they didn't do a thing — they let the section of fans who wanted to cheer, cheer. He explained that, if anything, hearing some fans in the arena cheer only made the section of fans who were booing get even louder. And that's what WWE is going to do with Seth Rollins: Let the audience make whatever noise it wants, as long as it makes plenty of it," said D'Amore.

But he added a caveat that cool heels shouldn't make the promotion's babyface look weak, which was a problem in WCW when the nWo was running roughshod. D'Amore thinks that the heels have to look powerful at first, before the babyface catches up to them. 

"The nWo were the coolest bad guys in the world and they were always going to get cheers, but the WCW wrestlers were made to look so feckless that fans washed their hands of them. The WCW side was betrayed over and over, conned again and again, and beaten down so often that no one saw it as heroes anymore, but instead as eternal victims. Victims have to fight back — and win — at some point in order to become heroes," he added

He also believes that modern-day wrestling fans are clued in more than ever before, and they too "want to look cool," which is why they may not always root for who they are supposed to cheer for.