A Compelling Deep Dive Into Top Heels

WWE released its eight-part docuseries, WWE Evil, on Peacock Thursday as it continues to roll out scripted and unscripted original content. What resulted was an entertaining collection of origin stories from the perspective of the villain.

WWE Evil features stories of famous heel characters in “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan, The Miz, Sasha Banks, The Brothers of Destruction, Randy Orton, Stephanie McMahon, Ric Flair and Roman Reigns. Every story focuses on the psychology behind these characters, both real and storyline, as the series offers a uniquely in-depth look at what goes into pulling off a heel gimmick.

The era of the WWE Network has given way to overexposure. WWE talent is ubiquitous in behind-the-scenes documentaries. WWE Network’s library is inundated with mostly captivating—though at-times repetitive—series chronicling the journeys of various WWE Superstars. This includes, but is not limited to WWE Chronicle, WWE Day Of, WWE Icons and WWE Legends, which was recently announced for Season 2 on A&E. In fact, WWE and A&E plan to release 130 hours of new programming.

Amid a tidal wave of programming, WWE Evil manages to stand out from most docuseries by immersing itself in the heel’s world. These days, WWE’s audience is comprised of mostly hardcore fans who are already familiar with every WWE character’s origin story. But in addition to retelling memorable moments, Evil features famous WWE heels—flanked by a deep roster of talking heads—as authors of their own (kayfabe) crimes.

“You never make children cry…Sasha Banks does,” said Banks while recalling her memorable run-in with Izzy at NXT TakeOver: Respect.

The John Cena-narrated series features eight hourlong episodes focusing on eight heel personas, and as a result, Evil is able to perform a series of effective deep dives, heel-first. Peacock’s first WWE original series makes it a point to display both the character and real-life names of the featured subject (i.e. Hulk Hogan as “Terry Bollea” and Sasha Banks as “Mercedes Varnado”) to create more delineation between the person playing the character and the character itself.

Everything from the villain’s mindset to their motivations were dissected, apologized for and downright celebrated. Instead of simply being another wrestling documentary, WWE Evil launches into a near-forensic analysis of why certain stars in WWE were so good at being bad.

WWE’s production and distribution of original content was a talking point at the most recent WWE earnings call, where WWE announced a historic $1 billion in revenue. With so many stories to tell (and retell), creativity will be key for the quality of WWE content to remain consistent. By zeroing in on deeper layers of its top stars, as was the case in WWE Evil, WWE can continue to conjure up fresh stories from familiar faces.