From Almost a Superhero to Completely a Supervillainess

Superheroes have gone to the dark side before. The X-Men's Jean Grey has been consumed by the Phoenix in various comic storylines, as well as in TV and film adaptations--including the live action film, Dark Phoenix. Even in WWE, The Hurricane ditched his mask and cape in 2005 and became a bad boy, which led him to capture the Cruiserweight Championship in 2006. So if full superheroes aren't vulnerable to the temptation of evil, "almost" superheroes certainly aren't, and the January 10, 2022 edition of Monday Night Raw proved that to be true in regards to Nikki A.S.H.'s heel turn.

The formerly named Nikki Cross had a very interesting 2021, which actually started with her appearances on TV being very minimal. It was in the summer of 2021 that Nikki Cross debuted her new gimmick, which consisted of an eye mask, superhero outfit, and a cape, while now going by Nikki A.S.H.: Almost a SuperHero. The unorthodox gimmick led many fans to believe that creative was making Nikki look ridiculous, but in actuality, this was Nikki's own brainchild, and it was working. She was getting over in the early months of the gimmick, and it led to her ultimate achievement, winning the Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match.

On the following day, Nikki cashed in on Charlotte Flair and captured the Raw Women's Championship; her first major singles title in WWE after two reigns as Women's Tag Team Champion with Alexa Bliss. Nikki ended up losing the title at SummerSlam, but shortly afterwards, she ended up in a partnership with Rhea Ripley, which resulted in the pair capturing the tag titles from Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler--marking Nikki's third tag title victory. The pair lost the titles to Carmella and Queen Zelina nine weeks later, and that's when the problems began.

In the weeks that followed, Nikki developed a semblance of an inferiority complex, with the obsessive feeling that Rhea thought she was better than her. Nevertheless, they continued their attempt to regain the tag titles, but they still came up short, and it was on the aforementioned latest edition of Raw that Nikki announced in an in-ring interview segment that she wanted the pair to challenge for the tag titles again, only for Rhea to state her feelings that they should go their separate ways. Nikki then accused Rhea of forgetting about their friendship, and even went as far as to claim that she was the true star of their partnership, but supported Rhea anyway. What started as an attempt at an amicable split became heated, but cooler heads appeared to prevail when the pair shook hands--however, Nikki would later attack Rhea and leave the ring, while proclaiming that "almost superheroes don't need any friends."

Nikki turned heel for the first time since 2019, which was the early stages of her partnership with a then-villainous Alexa Bliss, and her insidious grin following her attack towards Rhea told the tale: she has truly embraced the dark side. This was the first official turn of either kind in WWE in this relatively new year, but this wasn't a surprise; Nikki's heel turn was several weeks in the making. Overall, it was well done, and I'm glad that they didn't go the predictable route and turn Rhea, because the whole "big bad heel attacking smaller babyface" thing has been done to death. From what I saw on Raw Talk, Nikki's heel gimmick seems to show some similarities to Bayley's "Role Model" character, as she claims that everyone needs an "almost" superhero, and that she's a hero to little girls. Time will tell what this will lead to, but one has to think that Nikki will eventually ditch the cutesy superhero attire and start donning a more darker "supervillainess" look.

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