If you follow pro wrestling, if you go to small independent shows, there is almost always one guy in the front row, with a WWE belt, taunting wrestlers. Because you see, those wrestlers are nothing, and no matter how cool they are, whether or not they win the match, whether they win that indie promotion’s title, they’ll never be the WWE champion. And, sure, I guess? But not everyone cares about that. And even if the wrestler isn’t going to be WWE champ, they’re far closer than that guy is.
If a wrestler’s really well liked it can be really hard to turn them heel, or even stay heel if they were heels in the first place. MJF and Swerve were basically forced into stopping being heels. Even the tradition of assaulting Tony Schiavone only gets boos for a couple weeks.