As the wrestling industry has grown and matured over the last 40 years, it has become increasingly clear that there are several ways to skin a cat. Lucha Underground focuses on high production values, and a comic book style storyline that forces you to stretch your suspension of disbelief. Chikara shines a spotlight on the absurdity and abstract nature of simulated combat. In the aforementioned promotions, the companies rely on an even balance of heels and babyfaces. In the times of classic wrestling territories, before promotions dropped the pretense that professional wrestling was real and not scripted, a strong heel would rise to prominence by carrying the World Championship and taking on babyface challengers from all around the country. The promotion would be built around one strong heel, but there was never a shortage of babyface contenders waiting in the wings. Contrarily, Vincent J. McMahon carried the WWWF to success on the back of Bruno Sammartino, a strong babyface character that he built the company around. When his son Vincent K. McMahon led the WWF to national syndication and began stomping out territories one by one, he did so by building his company around a strong, larger than life babyface character. It started out with Hulk Hogan, then led to Steve Austin, and then John Cena until his defection to EBWF.

Despite the seemingly endless number of ways that a promotion can be organized, they all share the same common theme - Good versus Evil. The balance of good guys and bad guys that can often teeter one way or the other, but that balance must remain to keep the audience invested in the characters and storylines.

Such is the plight of EBWF, run by charismatic everyman Wes Ikeda. Ikeda’s success as an antihero of sorts has had a profound impact on the company’s direction. It seems the art of the babyface has started to dissolve, until we’re close to a situation where I am finding myself unable to relate to a large portion of the active roster. If you look at the landscape in EBWF, there is a disproportionately high number of heels. That’s perfectly fine if you’re a company like WWE that builds its brand around a number one babyface and puts all of their eggs in one basket. EBWF has found more success not having a centerpiece. The problem is that of those that would be considered fan favorites, the talent of EBWF seems much more interested in being an antihero rather than a babyface. With the sudden exit of John Cena, the injury of Randy Orton, EBWF finds itself in the position of needing to prop up Chris Jericho as the top babyface in the company. I am as big a fan of Y2J is the next guy, but at this phase in his career he should be working with younger talent instead of carrying the company on his back. Based on the current storyline going into Wrestlemania against Wes Ikeda, it would appear that they are teasing a heel turn by Jericho which has the potential to exacerbate an already precarious position that EBWF finds itself in. That leaves one nagging question at this point:

Who can step up and resolve the EBWF babyface problem?

The issue comes down to the lack of identity that seems to be a problem for EBWF right now. Who can say what precipitated this issue? Perhaps its an attempt to overcompensate from the exposure of John Cena that had many criticizing the company for making the same mistakes as Vince McMahon. Perhaps EBWF sees the savvy antihero character that worked for Randy Orton for so long, and is attempting to apply that template to everyone else. If that’s the case, then I would urge the company to reconsider their current strategy. There needs to be a clear delineation that separates the good guys from the bad guys. There is no dispute that EBWF currently boasts one of the most talented rosters of this era. The focus now needs to be on Creative and moving characters further away from the center, and perhaps having a couple heels jump ship to the other side of the spectrum. Without that, pure babyface characters like Bayley and Sami Zayn will continue to get more endangered. While the storylines can still be compelling, EBWF sacrifices something by making it more difficult for the crowd to buy into the story. This could, in turn, start chipping away at EBWF’s lead over the former number one promotion, WWE.

This is not a situation where the ship is sinking, and EBWF has shown its ability to right the course when necessary. With Wrestlemania this week, EBWF has a great opportunity to work on this as this time of year always affords a wrestling promotion the ability to hit the reset button and start moving pieces on the chess board. I have faith in this promotion’s ability to shake things up, but it is high time to do so. Let the story of Good versus Evil shine through, and return to the formula that caused this company to do what every analyst and wrestling journalist thought was impossible: topple the giant known as WWE.