KELLER'S TAKE A KELLER SHORT: Should Mr. Kennedy be a babyface; coffee shop eavesdropping Apr 29, 2008 - 2:59:45 PM

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By Wade Keller, Torch editor

-I'm working from a secret remote location today - okay, I confess, a local coffee shop - testing my abilities to work remotely on my laptop and actually get work done in prep for a vacation coming up in a few weeks where I'll be taking my work with me and hopefully nobody will notice I'm away from the office. Within five minutes of sitting with my iced cold press coffee (with soy and caramel), the two coffee shop workers begin discussing what "surprisingly good actors pro wrestlers are." Especially Steve Austin, says the guy, who then went on to talk about how scary Kane's movie was. Anyway, I don't get out much during the day, but does everybody talk about wrestling out in public? I want to hear your amusing stories of overhearing conversations about pro wrestling in random public places: pwtorch@gmail.com.

-In last week's Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter (click here for sub info), I published my annual BBL editoral ranking the Raw roster in various tiers and in order of push. (Smackdown, TNA, and ROH are coming up in future issues over the next few weeks.) The top babyfaces in the rankings were John Cena, Triple H, Shawn, Michaels, and Jeff Hardy. From there, not counting tag team werstlers, there's a big dropoff down to Val Venis, Hacksaw Duggan, D.H. Smith, and Super Crazy.

On the heel side, it's Randy Orton, JBL, Chris Jericho (so it seems), Umaga, and William Regal, after which there's also a big dropoff to Paul Burchill and Snitsky. Mr. Kennedy was on the list, too, but right now it appears he may be shifting from heel to babyface based on his confrontation with Wlliam Regal last night.

At first I thought WWE couldn't afford to lose Kennedy as a top heel, but looking at the roster, they probably could use him on the babyface side more, especially considering Jericho is in the midst of an apparent heel turn and Jeff Hardy is still on suspension (and who knows his long-term reliability).

So, the money-babyfaces who would be banked on for significant PPV matches line up nicely with the heels with Kennedy on the face side. There are four top babyfaces (Cena, Hunter, Michaels, Kennedy, and eventually Hardy) and there are four top heels (Orton, JBL, Jericho, and Umaga, with Regal joining their ranks apparently). So, given how good Kennedy came across as a babyface you'd root for to get in the face and push the buttons of a heel like Regal, it seems like a smart booking move to switch him from heel to face.

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