The Heel Today

[K Bro 30]

I've had this constant discussion with a lot of people, and I wanted to bring it to the forum.

Does the WWE today suffer from having bad heels? Like today, it is all about the guys getting themselves DQ'd, and cheating to win, avoiding fights, etc. I think that today, the heels look to vulnerable. They avoid fights and confrontations when they're called out, but they have no problem sneak attacking. Like the way WWE handled Sheamus vs John Cena. Sheamus was the champ, and called to the ring for his rematch, and he backed away.

In my mind, here is what should have happened: The night after TLC, Sheamus should have come out addressing the crowd, and yelled "The Champ is Here!" That would get some real heat from a lot of people, then he can trash talk Cena and tell people to take him seriously. Then when Cena comes out later and calls him out, Sheamus comes out, and agrees to the match. After some back and forth near falls, Sheamus just decides he's had enough, and after hitting a scissor kick, goes, gets a chair, and rips Cena apart. Yes, he is getting DQ'd, but he doesn't seem vulnerable. He seems like an animal.

Maybe it is just my perception, but we have too many heels that just don't do it for me. I understand the win at all costs mentality, but they seem more like pansies than bad guys. I think heels can still be heels while getting clean wins, and I think that we just don't see enough of it today. WWE needs someone to be cocky, to come out and do anything they want, who kicks the crap out of anyone who tries to stop him (without help), and looks like an unstoppable force. Until then, I just can't take the heels seriously, especially those who always have 2 guys at their side, or the ones who grab refs on their way down because they're scared of losing.

What do you all think? Do the heels today need to appear tougher?

 

[Ambiguous Turd]

I do think that a lack of unimaginative Heels is the problem. The WWE probably feels that the badass Heel could actually become a babyface (like Steve Austin did) and that is why they try to avoid doing that. However, I think with proper booking, you can have a badass Heel that goes out there and doesn't demonstrate fear. You just have to know how to work the crowd with him and book the guy properly.

I think a lack of colorful Heels in general has hurt the WWE. I would love to see characters like another Honky Tonk Man make his way back to the WWE. Someone who is cocky enough to think that everyone comes to the show simply to see him sing and dance. Right now this role went to Jillian Hall which is a complete waste because they aren't doing a damn thing with her at all. It should go to a male wrestler, and that person should be pushed to a Midcard title given how obnoxious the character is.

I'd also like to see another Ravishing Rick Rude in the WWE, as someone who truly has good looks, but flaunts those good looks in front of everyone and appeals to all the ladies out there. The Rude Awakening after all of Rude's matches was always a highlight and something like that would still work well today ... as it is something for the audience to look forward to. Speaking of which, Rude was another "badass Heel" that didn't back down, but was highly successful.

WWE did it in the past. And I still think they can do it today. They just need to be creative about how it's done to ensure it doesn't turn the wrestler face in the process.

They had this with Orton. They had a perfect badass heel with his IED persona. And it was complex too, because he went in and out of that phase. And they absolutely ruined it by abandoning it. Don't think I will ever forgive the WWE for botching the best Heel character they probably had in 7 or 8 years because of their absolute stupidity.

 

[IrishCanadian25]

I'd like to springboard on what Sidious said. To be honest, what I think is missing from the top heels? THE LITTLE THINGS.

When Shawn Michaels got over as the most annoying, arrogant young star in the business, aside from the strut, the look, the mirror, the music - was the fact that he'd jerk the curtain, and 25 minutes later, either The Fink or the curly blonde lady would get on the mic and announce "Shawn Michaels has left the building." The fans would yell "WHO CARES?" and even bring signs. It took 5 seconds to do that before another match - but it was a miniature detail that got Shawn heel heat without even being on camera.

Wrestling today is fairly black and white, with very limited color. I agree with Sidious that Orton has the potential with his IED angle and it sucks they blew it. I bet it was a special interest group or something that protested it.

 

[Dagger Dias]

I don't think that heels needing to be tougher is going to solve the problem because then that wrestler might have to turn face if he gets cheered. There really is a lot more to the problem of fixing the heels' characters than most of us might realize.

The problem with heels who are tougher is that they run the risk of the wrestler having to turn tweener or face if the crowd begin to cheer for him too much instead. That could be part of why Orton went back to being more of a cowardly heel, because he became even more popular in the past couple of years and a lot of his fans are cheering for him when you're "supposed" to hate him since he's the top heel.

Part of the problem could be how the faces and heels are nowhere near as black and white as they used to be, there is a lot of in between. Faces sometimes get booed. Heels sometimes get cheered. People we need to face the facts that the days of "superhero face VS evil villain heel" might never come back. The business has changed a lot over the past several years.

Cowardly heels have been done. Tough heels run the risk of getting cheered though, so the federation would need a plan on what to do with that wrestler if he does turn tweener or face. They would also need a potential new top heel for him to feud with. You have to always think one step ahead so you can have a backup plan if things don't go the way that they were planned to.

I think that they need to come up with something new. Not a cowardly heel, and not a tougher heel either. I'm having a hard time coming up with anythin off the top of my head right now that hasn't been done before. It gets harder and harder to come up with original ideas as time goes on. Now, if I were to come up with the ultimate heel it would be someone along the lines a mix of all the following....

• Jericho's heel mic skills
• Edge's ultimate opportunist actions
• Triple H's dominance
• Orton's disrespect for legends
• and does not care what anyone thinks, ever.

Someone like that would be the ultimate heel, but even then they STILL run the risk of this guy getting a face reaction because a lot of fans like heels these days. I won't lie, I'm one of those fans too despite also being a Cena mark. Finding a solution to the problem with heels may be tougher than we think because there are so many different things you have to consider when coming up with a new type of heel or even a way to fix the current types of heels. Maybe someone will figure it out one of these days.

 

[Monkey_Mania]

I've noticed that a lot of heels today are afraid to go the route of cheap heat. Like IC said, Shawn Michaels used to do that, it was so cheap and people HATED him for it. Heels that beat the crap out of people by themselves are going to look tough, something a heel should only do in the ring. Not during promos. Hogan would get called to the ring, and then he would get on the apron, only to turn around and walk away. Man, people HATED that. Heels today think they need to look legitimately bad ass to get their point across. When in fact like stated cowardly heels are the ones that get hated. Or the ones that would cheat their way to victory while the refs back is turned. The art of the heel is gone. Only a handful of people can pull it off, and the ones that can are so loved by the fans now because of their contributions to the wrestling business that it's almost impossible to turn them back again.

 

[Ryander88]

I have also had this same problem with heels in the WWE. This problem is also feeding into the problem of frequent title changes. The WWE makes such weak heels that it quickly gets to the point where creative cannot justify the cowardly heel winning the titles matches; i.e. Orton losing the title to Batista in the cage and losing the title to Cena in the Iron Man Match.

The last powerful heel champion was Brock Lesnar. The man who began the weak heel champion was JBL (did he ever win a championship match on his own? Seriously?)

Sheamus, as an example, doesn't even make sense the way he's been booked. He can't seem to handle Cena at all in a match, but the second the match ends, he can turn around and knock him out with one boot. Why can't he hit that in the match? Where is that strength in the match? It's really freaking stupid.

 

[Hulkamaniac]

They should run something like the Million Dollar Man. He was the perfect heel. Nobody wants to root for the rich who buys his way to the top, makes his own championship, has a man-servant he treats like crap, etc. The last guy to do anything like that was JBL, and guess what, he got crazy heat. That's the key, IMO. Any heel like that is going to receive almost unanimous boos.

 

[JayBriscoe2010]

Actually I think theres more lack of good Babyfaces as opposed to Heels these days. It's been "cool" to like the bad guy since the Hogan turn and after Austins 96 KOTR coronation. A true Heel needs to give you absolutely no reason to like them, which someone like Vickie Guerrero excels at. CM Punk is the perfect example of the "cool heel" not saying he isnt great which he is but he got off on a HUGE indy rep and his classic promos in ROH, and of course the trilogy with Samoa Joe. Punk says all the right things to make you hate him, he digs in your head and attempts to Frankenstein you with what he wants you to think is right and whats wrong, which is what a Heel should do.

 

[King Douche]

Actually I think theres more lack of good Babyfaces as opposed to Heels these days. It's been "cool" to like the bad guy since the Hogan turn and after Austins 96 KOTR coronation. A true Heel needs to give you absolutely no reason to like them, which someone like Vickie Guerrero excels at. CM Punk is the perfect example of the "cool heel" not saying he isnt great which he is but he got off on a HUGE indy rep and his classic promos in ROH, and of course the trilogy with Samoa Joe. Punk says all the right things to make you hate him, he digs in your head and attempts to Frankenstein you with what he wants you to think is right and whats wrong, which is what a Heel should do.

Well people these days do not like goody goody guys, prime example John Cena. Thats why babyfaces not cool anymore like they use to be. I agree they messed up the Randy Orton lunatic gimmick, man they could of went places with that thing but once again the wwe writers screw everything up.

 

[Ryander88]

This issues, of heels in the WWE, has really been bothering me lately. Personally, I think the lack of good heels is ruining the product. It was said that the lack of good babyfaces is the real problem, but a babyface doesn't need much more than an opponent the fans want to see get put in his place. So, what's wrong with the heels?

There are several types of heels in wrestling:
- The Monster (Andre the Giant, Yokozuna, The Big Show, Brock Lesnar)
- The Brash Talker (Roddy Piper, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho)
- The Blue Chipper (Mr. Perfect, Owen Hart, Randy Orton, Drew McIntyre)
- The Alpha Male (Ted DiBiase, Rick Rude, HHH, Kurt Angle)
...these are a couple of examples of arch-type heels the WWE has used over the years, some a combination of arch-types, and each are lost in the WWE today.

The Monster Heel was in place for the likes of Hulk Hogan, Undertaker and Cena. Yes, much like today, these monster heels ran through the WWE mid-card in squash matches week after week, until they hit the biggest star in the company. Then, believe it or not, they would really put the champ to the test. They would dominate the babyface in the match, until finally the fan favorite was able to exploit a specific weakness and get the win. This always created supreme drama in the ring. Typically, these monster heels would all have a manager too (Andre - Heenan, Yokozuna - Mr. Fuji, Lesnar - Heyman) so that there was a buffer between the monster and his opponent. The buffer was important because without the manager, we have a monster heel like Sheamus; creative can't seem to find a way to make both Cena and Sheamus look strong at the same time.

The Brash Talker holds a special place in the heart of every WWE fan. This is the heel that can lose in the big match only because he will always win in the war of words. The WWE Universe (the phrase is kind of catching on) was hungry to see the big babyface finally shut this guy up and the big moment rarely disappoints. The problem in the WWE lately, is that these brash talkers never seems credible. 18 months ago, Chris Jericho was the best heel character the WWE had seen in years. He was brash, he was condescending and he also got it done. His program with HBK was amazing because he did a lot of talking, but he also smashed HBK's head into the Jeri-Tron and sucker punched his wife. The difference between his character then and now, is that he is simply the butt of the jokes, he isn't making any jokes himself.

The Blue Chipper is hated by the audience because they naturally can do what most people either cannot do or must work hard to do well. Mr. Perfect was an annoying heel because, despite telling the audience how good he was, he was also very, very good. That's why it was a big deal when Bret Hart was able to exceed the perfect one. Drew McIntyre seems to play a similar role in the WWE today, they just seem hesitant to let him actually perform. They don't want to damage their babyfaces, but they are neglecting that a good heel makes a great babyface and a great heel makes a superstar.

The Alpha Male Heel is essentially anyone who is what the audience isn't. A Million Dollar Man, the best physique in the country and an Olympic Gold Metalist; most men will never ever live the reality these characters lived and the audience hated them for it. In case you haven't notice, the three top babyfaces of all time: Hogan, Austin and Cena all represented the common man. Hogan was a 'Real American' and Austin was the 'Blue Collar Champion' and Cena is FUBU (for us, by us), or so they shove down our throats. The problem in the WWE today is that these characters exist in idea only. JBL was the most successful, recent alpha male heel in the WWE and they seemed afraid to allow him to ever truly compete in the ring (despite making him champion).

Essentially, the problem with the WWE is that they are over-concerned with protecting the integrity of their baby faces and are not allowing heels to truly compete. There was concern that Randy Orton's IED gimmick was gaining cheers and the WWE wanted to preserve his as a heel, so they made him cowardly. It was obvious why fans started to cheer for Orton, he punted Vince McMahon, the man who we were taught to hate over the last decade, in the head! What the hell do they expect?

Anyway, the reigns are too tight on heels in the WWE. They aren't allowed to be cool or interesting because the WWE is too afraid of discrediting their faces. An interesting note for WWE is that a lot of their more interesting and popular faces were formed out of awesome heel personas.

 

[JayBriscoe2010]

Is it remotely possible to be a true Heel if your great in the ring? Everyone loves to hop on the cool Heel bandwagon when they say/do dastardly things "Orton terrorizing the Mcmahons" Also Orton is good in the ring, people see this. Just like The Miz is a top Heel but he's entertaining and funny so how can you hate him? It's much harder to be a true Babyface than a Heel now a days as opposed to the 70's and 80's were Steve Austin would of been beyond hated and Cena would of TRULY been beloved. With all the internet access we have and knowing alot of the "behind the scenes" we smarks tend to love the cool Heel. I think Umaga was a great Heel for example because all he needed to do was fuck up the Good Guy and leave, he didn't need a 10 minute promo to say why he hates so and so. In a way there really isn't Heels or Faces anymore, that's been dead since WM 13.

 

[Big Nick Dudley]

Definitely agree with IC25 that heels are missing the little things. The little things made good heels GREAT heels. The big heels need to be involved more, with everything. Jericho, Orton and Punk are their best heel, in my mind. Punk is doing well with this straight edge business, and needs a few more guys around him. Jericho is the type of heel that NEEDS to cheat to win. We all know Jericho has top notch ability,b ut as a heel, he is far more entertaining when he cheats. Orton is good in a stable as well, a Horesemen or Evolution type stable best suits him. He is the ultimate bad ass heel. He can cheat to win and he can kick your ass when he feels like it. Definitely should have kept the IED thing going, great stuff. His feud with Hunter was epic.

But I honestly believe to have a great bunch of heels, you have to have a great group of face wrestlers, which is something WWE is really lacking. Cena is not over with the fans, and he is their top face. What other face do they have that is really over? Hardy was, but we know what happened there. Who else? Michaels and HHH? They are cartoons, they can't even be taken seriously right now. More depth at top-notch faces will make these heels look much better.