>>16321630People don't tune in to see the heel. They tune in to see the babyface. Even if the heel is champion, people watch to see the babyface come out on top. The heel is there to generate heat so that the fans are invested in him being overcome.
It's an unpopular opinion, but it's true. The ratings didn't suffer post 2001 because Triple H was on top on RAW. They suffered because there were no babyfaces left that enough fans wanted to get behind. RVD, Booker T, Kane, all these guys people said should have gone over Triple H, were not draws. If they were, then ratings would have spiked during their title chases but they didn't.
Triple H dropped the belt to Benoit, the smark darling, and all it did was crater ratings (just like Guerrero's run did simultaneously on SD). Finally when they did find a good enough babyface in 2005 in Cena the ratings improved a little.
