Welcome to another eWrestlingNews Question of the Day!

It’s long been talked about by some fans, but it was fully addressed on last night’s Dynamite that “Hangman” Adam Page is essentially the “main character” of All Elite Wrestling, and despite his tweener and heel tendencies at times, the overall hero protagonist. In comparison, MJF has always been the archenemy main villain of the story.

Naturally, that isn’t 100% true, as pro wrestling doesn’t have the same plot structures as other media. At times, Chris Jericho was the top heel. Jon Moxley has been both the top heel and face. Bryan Danielson, Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes, CM Punk and many others have been in those prominent positions.

Nevertheless, it can still be argued that Page and MJF, even when they take a back seat, do default into those traditional roles, and were set up as such from the very beginning.

My question for you today is “If that’s the case for AEW, then who are the main characters of WWE?”

Remember to answer with your response in the comments below.

As far as my answer…

Since WWE has been around so much longer, I don’t think it’s fair to say there’s only ONE main hero and ONE main villain that spans the entire company’s history. You pretty much have to go by eras.

Obviously, at one point in time, Bruno Sammartino was the main character. Bob Backlund eventually took over that role. Then, it went to Hulk Hogan, even when some guys like Macho Man Randy Savage and Ultimate Warrior came close to usurping that spot.

I’d argue the main villain for a good part of that era was Bobby Heenan, though there wasn’t one centralized Big Bad like an MJF.

Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, Diesel, and other New Generation folk shared the spotlight with each other too much to narrow any of that down.

It’s really when Stone Cold Steve Austin and Vince McMahon get into the swing of things in the Attitude Era that I think you have your first true definition of the main character and Big Bad. By proxy, McMahon is supplemented by The Rock in some ways, and eventually Triple H as the top villains.

I think the pre-Ruthless Aggression Era is much like New Generation in that there’s just a handful of guys, rather than one big clean cut. But eventually, we get the class of people like John Cena, Randy Orton, Batista, etc.

I’d argue that for the most part, Cena’s the main character then and Orton is the main villain, but Cena did frequently just get paired with someone Hulk Hogan style overall. I just look at Orton as his mirror image in some ways during that era, but I know some people would argue Edge should be in that position instead, and I can see why.

While Daniel Bryan could have reached this status, his injuries and WWE’s perpetual pushing of Roman Reigns over him really stunts his ability to take that spot. Even with all the backlash, Roman Reigns was clearly the main character of the past 10 years, with Brock Lesnar as the main villain. I don’t know why Transformers of all things comes to my mind right now, but think of Lesnar as Megatron and Seth Rollins as Starscream in that he’s almost the main villain, but he’s more so just #2.

Nowadays, you can argue it’s still Roman Reigns as the main character, but I think enough action has been taken for enough years that Cody Rhodes is being positioned as the main hero spot, even if things do still revolve a lot around Roman. Having The Rock take himself out of the equation really neutered The Bloodline’s influence on The American Nightmare’s run, and I think we’re just dealing with leftovers right now with Solo Sikoa rather than this leading to anything more.

Who would be the main villain right now? I don’t think Sikoa takes that cake, nor does Jacob Fatu (who arguably should turn babyface asap). Truth be told, I don’t think they have a true main villain in mind, but if they play their cards right, it could be Gunther, Logan Paul, Drew McIntyre or hell, even CM Punk or Dominik Mysterio in the long run. Yes, The New Day get massive heat, and Kevin Owens is doing his thing, but they don’t give me “overall main character of the entire roster for this era” vibes. I’d love for it to be Owens, but we’ll have to see about that.

What do you think? Drop your thoughts below!