Favorite "Heel" Persona

[Jtrivera]

Over the years in WWE we have seen different types of Heel characters/Personas develop, some were extremely successful while others not so much, my question to you is what type of Heel persona is your favorite, examples are...

Dirty heel- The type of heel who will do almost anything to get the job done without question (Eddie/Ric)

Cocky/Arrogant heel- We all know somebody that's always full of themselves, always boasting and being self centered (Miz, Dashing Cody Rhodes)

The Bad-A$$ Heel- the type of guy you don't want to mess with at all, (ABA Taker, Randy Orton, Triple H)

The Rebelious Heel- Goes against Authority, hates listening to rules (CM Punk, Austin,)

The Cowardly Heel- Runs away from a fight has other people do their dirty work for them. (Seth Rollins, JBL, Edge)

Now I'm not asking you to pick from the superstars I've written down, those were just examples with each type...Which Type of Heel Persona do you like the most? And if I missed any type feel free to list it..

Personally I like the cowardly heel, there's just so many different directions you can go with him, so many different opportunities, Seth Rollins is doing amazing with this role right now, because even when he's hiding behind J&J he's also showing how good he is in the ring.

 

[Prince Vee]

For me its personally The Badass Heel. These are the guys who're worth to put up a fight against and can push the faces to the top. Without these guys there aren't any faces.

I like the Cowardly heel as well but only on some certain characters in those heels. There were a plenty of Cowardly heels over the years but I don't like them all except a Few when it comes to characters. For instance Cm Punk, Seth Rollins and Edge!

Cheers!!

 

[Jonyboyuk2]

I think the best kind of heel has aspects of all of these personas. Look at the Rock when he was a heel 16 years ago for an excellent example -
Dirty heel- The Rock would cheat to win; he screwed Mankind over for the WWF title at Survivor Series Deadly Game to reinforce his heel persona.
Cocky/Arrogant heel- The Rock was the most cocky and arrogant heel there ever has been - he was so good on the mic; it turned him face.

The Bad-A$$ Heel- I remember the Rock walking out to the Ring and confronting the Undertaker and Kane as they beat down his faction of friends in the NOD and he stood there being a total bad ass in their faces.(For me - that one angle made the Rock a star in my own eyes).

The Rebelious Heel- The Rock went against the fans cheering him. He pretended to embrace them in October 1998, before crushing their dreams at Deadly game.

The Cowardly Heel- The Rock would always be up for a fight as long as he could do a sneak attack. He would run from Mankind or Stone Cold.

There were others who were effective heels using all the same traits and were excellent heels- Kurt Angle, Steve Austin, HHH, HBK, Bret Hart, CM Punk - they all used all of the above.

 

[John McCass]

Talking about the heel, I want you to remind y'all that The Miz is the best heel as a performer on the current roster. I am talking about performance,not ring ability. It is the Miz's tactics which made Damien Sandow a great character. Seth Rollins is also great. But,in delivering performance Miz is slight better than Rollins. It you account ring ability as well then, Rollins is far better than The Miz. So,currenty The Miz and Rollins are the best heel IMO on the current roster. Personally, I like the bad ass heel (yes, everyone likes it). Bad ass heels bring great excitement and there are so many points to like a bad ass heel. Bad ass heels are also successful (Lesnar, Owens etc.). Hell, Sheamus was also great as a heel. Face turn ruined his career. Ok,come to the point, my favourite heel of all time is Shawn Michaels (he is my all time favourite also). He did all type of heel tactics very brilliantly. His in ring ability was also unquestionable.
Current favourite :- Mike "The Miz" Mizanin
All time favourite :- Michael "Shawn Michaels" Hickenbottom

 

[Mustang Sally]

I like two types of heels.....both come at us from opposite directions but often wind up doing the same things.

First, I like the 'tweener; the guy whom you can never figure. He's not fighting for all that's good (Mom, apple pie & the girl you left behind) yet he'll come to the rescue of someone who's in dire trouble from the bad guys. At the same time, while he won't have anything against those ultra-baddies during everyday living, he might join with them if he sees something he wants and can get it by joining forces.......or, he might attack the very good guys you thought he was coming to save. He's the ultimate opportunist.

Randy Orton did this role a lot better than I thought he could and I hope he goes back to it after an initial "face" period when he returns. The very contradiction of the 'tweener's behavior is something pro wrestling never had before the 90's. Back then, when you saw a wrestler running toward the ring, you knew damn well what he was there to do.....for good or bad.

I also like a "special edition" of the 'tweener.....I don't have a name to describe him but the role was played to perfection by the Kane of years ago, around the time he was working programs with X-Pac. He was bad, bad, bad.....so damn bad that no one was safe from him. He'd willingly work with partners in tag matches and use teamwork to defeat the other team; then, when his victorious team celebrated, Kane would choke slam them, too........or, he might not. You never could tell, which was the best thing about it.

It was during this period X-Pac and his girlfriend Tori (not Torrie Wilson) got Kane to utter his first words ("Suck it!") and we thought it meant he might be headed to the side of good, right? Not right.....it was then he would knock Tori out of the way, decimate X-Pac, the referee and anyone else standing in the area.

Love those bad guys at the extreme ends of their "badness."

 

[OYDK]

Personally, I like the cocky/arrogant heel with a little bit of bad-ass mixed in there, circa Shawn Michaels 1997-98. I think if somebody can pull off the cocky heel attitude really well and make you actually believe that they think they're better than you WHILE backing it up, than there's no way they won't get over with the crowd. As I already mentioned, Shawn Michaels was easily the best at this role imo, and people hated him because they knew he believed in his "gimmick" (if you can even call it that).

Hell, I hated Shawn Michaels with a passion in 1998 and sure he was a giant dick at this time, but I could still realize how great his work was. To a certain extent, I agree with Jonyboy in the sense that a heel has to have a little bit of all these criteria to truly be great, but a the same time the heel also has to have a defining quality. I think the best defining quality to have as a heel is underlying arrogance.

 

[Hem]

The best heel is obviously one that makes you want to throw all of your trash into the ring or brings you to really want to hate him/her.

Leadership: CM Punk took the role of a cult leader with ease and made it into a staple of his career.

Bad ass: HHH portrayed the role of a bad ass so well it showed how great he was/is.

Smart: Chris Jericho..during the HBK and CM Punk feuds I thought he was above freaking gold.

Cocky: Cody Rhodes was just great when he had a mustache and the IC title as well.

Chicken: The chicken has always got a place in the industry..the best was Edge and now it is Seth Rollins.

OVERALL: When you combine all of that or just ask me for my favorite heel than I would say Randy "The Legend Killer/Head Punter" Orton.

Honorable mentions go to Sheamus, Mark Henry & The Miz(really!)

 

[LBGetBack]

Dirty heel and/or bad ass heel.

Most heels don't even cheat anymore! Where are the eyerakes and eyepokes? Taking off the turnbuckle, low blows, feet up on the corner ropes on a pin attempt, brass knuckles, chair shots when the ref is out or distracted, etc. The heels mostly wrestle the same way the faces do. Why are we supposed to hate them, again?

Also, the bad ass heel can be awesome when done correctly. I remember in 2005 when HHH brutalized Flair.....and then whenever HHH showed up at the same time as Flair, I was legit scared for Flair. LOL.

 

[That N Word]

I think the best kind of heel has aspects of all of these personas. Look at the Rock when he was a heel 16 years ago for an excellent example -

Exactly, I agree 100%. The Rock is who I study as a heel of the future in WWE. I will say everything you said but with different examples.

Dirty heel- The Rock audio of Mankind saying "I Quit."

Cocky/Arrogant heel- The Rock telling Lillian "she get's wet being in his presence of something like that"

The Bad-A$$ Heel- The Rock got face-to-face with "The Big Show" Paul Wright. He was face-to-face with i'm calling him a big pile of monkey crap. I was like holy shit. Even though they were in the same damn stable.

The Rebelious Heel- (See Above)

The Cowardly Heel- The Rock would always be up for a fight as long as he could do a sneak attack. He would run from Mankind or Stone Cold.

The Bad-A$$ Heel- When he told Bill Goldberg "Just Bring It!, Bitch!!!" I couldn't stop laughing. I was like "Who say's that to Goldberg."


The Cowardly Heel- That segment in '03 when Rock after Raw when Rock was scared to get in the ring with Stone Cold. I remember the two was acting like friends and Stone Cold told him to have a beer with him and he wouldn't stunner him. The Rock would slowly walk down and pause and talk trash to the fans and say something along the lines of "i'm coming but this fat motherfucker right here won't quit laughing at The Rock." Eventually Rock got in the ring to brawl with Stone Cold and then they were brawling up the ramp with Rock overselling every punch. That was gold!!!

 

[wwelory619]

The best Heel of all time is probably the HeartBreak Kid Shawn Michaels in hos years after the Rockers.
But at the moment, the 2 guys I see getting booed the most in any arena are Seth Rollins and The Miz, with the second of the two being way better on the mic.

 

[mkw1962]

I think a great heel has a little bit of all of those that you mentioned. I like the cocky and bad a$$ myself, but a combination of all is perfect. The Rock and Shawn were the perfect heels, awesome in the ring and on the mic. Right now I would say Seth and Miz are the best now, but do not forget Bray and Rusev are good.

 

[wwelory619]

Yeah, but the problem of The Rock and Bray Wyatt is that they were and are Heels, but would and still get cheered. Just watch when the Rock went to Toronto in 2003, he got cheered even if he insulted everyone. Bray Wyatt gets cheered at Live shows and house events, otherwise no one would raise their cellphone for his entrance. In the categories I wolud also put Charisma, because the Heels have to have it but in a negative way.

 

[kadroan]

I like Bad Ass heel the best. Taker perfected that role. He was the greatest Hardcore Champion of all time. I wish he'd come back as the ABA one more time.

 

[ComeOnVince]

Vince is the best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be at any category of heel persona.

My 2nd would be his doofus son-in-law. HHH was a great heel, and was great at many (if not all) of the categories listed.

 

[Hem]

Bad a5s heel: BROCK LESNAR!

 

[stonecoldstunner]

The Miz gets booed because he sucks. Rollins got cheered at the house show I went to more than Cena...

I would say the Anti Amercia heel is always a safe bet...Shiek, Volkov, Muhammad Hassan, and now Rusev....love it!

 

[chuckmdubya]

With the choices given, I guess I'd say the cowardly heel, but not exactly. I like the rich or boss heel. Example would be Ted Dibiase and Mr. McMahon or even Bobby Heenan. I like the heels who have body guards or employees or just in general underlings. They sacrifice these underlings on Raw and on PPV's to top faces. The payoff is when the face finally gets his hands on the boss heel.
I love watching someone try so hard to get to a person and then they finally get to them at Mania or Rumble. The payoff for the fan is great, you sit there and think "he's finally gonna get to him, I wonder whats gona happen."

 

[wwelory619]

Honestly, for how much I personally hate him, The Miz does not suck. He is very good on the mic, way better than Rollins. His job is to get hate, and to get people chanting Miz Sucks. As for Rollins, he got cheered by a minority in the house show I saw, and infact he got booed for most of the show. On Rusev, I will say and will not accept any discussion, he has 0 mic skills (but has Lana for that). His ring work is pretty unorthodox, so it's also pretty awesome. His finisher should be better, but at least in the USA he gets booed a lot, while in Europe he gets cheered. Same thing is for Cesaro, that for some-what reason got broken up with Heyman. If he gains the titles with Kidd, he could slightly be in the spot light and maybe get a push. But he is a Heel for his unsuccesses and not for his in-ring work. Hopefully he will get a push and a manger half as better as Heyman.

 

[wwelory619]

BTW the best Heel persona is probably cocky, because it gets booed worldwide. So at the moment The Miz is on top.

 

[stonecoldstunner]

The Miz is not the top heel...please...his boos are just a circumstance of Mizdow getting cheered. Miz is ok...but not even close to a top heel...

 

[LionheartY2J]

My favorite herls have always been the arrogant ones; the guys who become unintentional faces, IE Y2J, HBK, Edge, and of course, The Natureboy.

However, in terms of the most effective, it's the all out monster heel.

 

[Oldschoolersrule]

I was looking at the different heel persona descriptions, and the one name that comes to my mind is Rowdy Roddy Piper. He could cover all of the criteria without breaking a sweat. Also, people like Nick Bockwinkle, Larry Zybisco, Stan Hansen, Dirty Dick Slater, and Dick Murdoch all deserve mentioning, as they too covered most of those personas during their careers.

Personally, I think a good "HEEL" character/persona should encompass ALL those different criteria at one point or another in their run, depending on the program and who they are working with. Limiting yourself to only being a coward, or a cocky heel limits what you can do if you decide to turn face.

 

[FightOwensFight]

For me it is either Dirty Heel or Cowardly heel. In my experience those are the ones where, when they eventually get what is coming to them, it is the best payoff. I used to get more and more livid as the dirty heel kept cheating to win. Same with the cowardly heel that would run from a fight (or take the count-out when they were losing). When the tables are flipped on those guys (or girls), it is that much sweeter.

 

[wwelory619]

I'm not saying that The Miz is the Top Heel, but he is the best genuenly hated wrestler of recent time. I hated him even as a Face against Barrett at WM29! From the moment he was on TV, every one hates him. He is Cocky, good on the mic and runs away. It's not because of Mizdow.