Elias Samson vs. Jason Jordan Feud Proves Jordan Must Turn Heel

Elias Samson vs. Jason Jordan has been a strange study of a bizarro babyface (Samson) battling a bizarro heel (Jordan). 

Clips of their matches consistently rank near the bottom of Raw's weekly YouTube viewership—as of time of writing, their heavily advertised Guitar-on-a-Pole matchup drew just 338,000 views—and one reason could be confusion resulting from the obvious miscasting of both characters. 

Samson exists in the vein of an old-school heel, using tried-and-true tactics to get heat. He strums a guitar like the Honky Tonk Man, serves up deadpan insults of local markets like Ravishing Rick Rude and often uses said guitar as a weapon like Jeff Jarrett. 

But in changing times within the wrestling industry, these antics tend to draw cheers. A recent singalong performance of Oasis' "Wonderwall" by Samson during WWE's European tour is a prime example of his growing, albeit ironic, popularity.

With each passing week, his question of "Who wants to walk with Elias?!" draws more cheers. Fans have even been known to clap along with his faster-paced musical stylings. 

The perception of Samson's guitar-act insults has quickly gone from dastardly one-liners to terms of endearment. 

Jason Jordan lies at the opposite end of this spectrum. 

Like Samson, WWE is using old-school tactics to book Jordan. Unlike Samson, however, old-school tactics used to book babyfaces do not result in ironic cheers but rather apathetic silence. 

Jordan's squeaky-clean bona fides have hardly endeared him to live audiences. That same European crowd that sang along with Elias during his "Wonderwall" performance booed when Jordan was announced as the fifth member of Team Raw for Survivor Series, as seen in the tweet below: 

It may not be completely accurate to say Samson has been miscast as a heel due to his growing popularity. Popularity just comes with the territory of being a WWE heel in 2017. But this whole Jason Jordan experiment has felt like a long, drawn-out farce from the first day.

It boggles the mind to think WWE legitimately felt that using an outdated model of the smiling, straight-up babyface would work in this era. During a 2015 appearance on the Stone Cold Podcast, Triple H noted a time when "a white-meat babyface was dead in the water in [heel] towns." 

The fact that WWE subscribers still remain stuck in the 1.5 million range, per its latest Q3 2017 earnings report, suggests its current following comprises of a mostly hardcore demographic with a pronounced ceiling. Translation? Just about every town is a heel town these days, and these fanbases live to eat characters like Jason Jordan alive. 

WWE has a golden opportunity to right the wrongs of an otherwise talented Jason Jordan by turning him heel during the Team Raw vs. Team SmackDown traditional Survivor Series elimination match. Teaming alongside his "father" Kurt Angle for the first time gives Jordan an opening for the heel turn many fans thought was coming months ago. 

When it comes to creating characters who connect with live audiences, WWE has done an admirable job with villains like Elias Samson. As the promotion's ongoing struggles in booking babyfaces continue, the time has come to move forward with Jordan as a heel. 

Alfred Konuwa is a Featured Columnist and on-air host for Bleacher Report and Forbes. Like him on Facebook.