an all heel wrestling federation?

[One to Remember]

After watching RAW recently and developing an affinity for the likes of Nexus and remembering how I was a huge fan of the NWO and how team WWE has guys like Jericho, Orton, and Edge alongside guys like Cena it got me thinking, could an organization survive populated with nothing but heels and the closest thing to a face being a antihero?

I remember WCW being the most popular when the NWO was dominating. I remember that the form of Sting that fault them was perhaps not a heel but a darker form of Sting, a neutral Sting. I remember Rocky Maivia being booed while the Rock who was Maivia turned bad began to get over and continued t be over without really transitioning traditionally to face.

 

[Viola Moonlight]

Relying on the traditional, yet simple, way of booking wrestling with the bad guy vs. the good guy, this idea wouldn't work in the slightest. For any of the heels to exist, you need face characters to combat them in order for them to be considered heels. Otherwise, how would you distinguish between everyone? Eventually the crowd is going to start cheering the guys that are either the least heelish, are an "anti-hero" and/or are better than the rest at professional wrestling. Those guys who get booed won't be boo's of intentional hatred, but one of not preferring you over the other guys... eventually, you are going to go back to the good guy vs. bad guy format. It's quite limiting to the characters if all of them are going to be heel... what happens when their character is done in terms of exploration? Create an entirely new one? That's going to be pretty tricky when you are the likes of CM Punk. He can't change gimmicks, per se... but to keep it fresh you need the option to go from face to heel.

Professional wrestling is best booked simple. Using the heel/face mentality is the simplest form of booking you can get, so eliminating the faces would be quite stupid and/or hard. The only thing I can see happening is giving face characters the amount of gimmick development that bad guys get.

 

[One to Remember]

no you don't. a Heel is a HEEL not a counter face. Actions as much as opponent determine what is and isn't a heel. A heel does things like break rules, bends rules, demonstrates a bad attitude, attacks the fans, home town team, etc. Your forgetting that underneath the circus train wreck we call wrestling their still lies a combat art based on a once legit sport. The object in wrestling is still to win a competition. I think ultimately in a heel vs heel showdown sides would be chosen based on things other then being closer to face. look at the NWO. It promoted itself as an organization like WCW. Would you had not been interested in a match c. 1997 between Scott Hall and Nash or Konnan and Hogan?

 

[Rayne]

I'm not sure you know what a heel is.

The terms come from the guy the audience is supposed to cheer for (babyface), and what lies anatomically as far way from the face as there is, the heel. You can have a face who smacks people with chairs, puts his feet on the ropes, etc.; it's not about what the character does, but it's about how the audience reacts to them. It's that those tactics have become so associated with "heels" that people mistakenly think that someone who hits someone with a lead pipe must be a "heel", because good-guys-don't-do-that.

It's not whether an organization like this would work; an organization like this is a conceptual impossibility. Heels exist so fans have a contrast for the face; this is why you so rarely see heel vs. heel matchups. They never draw.

Now, if you're looking for an organization where the good guys use dirty tactics to win, I would direct you to 1990's ECW.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

All Heels? Really?

Don't you need the good guys for there to be bad guys? Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't WCW have their own factions and neutral wrestlers to combat the NWO? Even neutral characters have to be cheered for in order for the opposing characters to be "heel" which in turn makes them technical faces. I hate trying to educate someone on the methods of a show but....there is no conflict if there isn't a good side to the force there chief. Just sayin.

So, in other words, the very idea sucks. No conflict equals no ratings.

 

[One to Remember]

if thats the case how the hell does UFC and NCAA work? How does tennis work? How does any other legit sport work? This is the problem with wrestling beig scripted, its not about the competition anymore butthe drama. To a fan of SPORTS I think that is blasphemy.

Orton right now is simply a heel yet has moved up. People appreciate his intensity and agility despite the fact that he breaks rules and swerves constantly. There are more components to wrestling then soap opera. Ask Frank Gotch if you don't believe me.

The bad boy is always popular but I have never heard of a limit on how many you could have in an area. There are more reasons to cheer someone then some cliche epic battle of good vs evil and the cheering of bad things by bad people does not legitimate a person, thats not even logic.

"In professional wrestling, a heel (also known as a rudo in Lucha libre) is a villain character.[1] In non-wrestling jargon, heels are the "bad guys" in professional wrestling storylines. They are typically opposed by a babyface or more simply, face (crowd favorite). Some tweeners (not explicitly regarded as good or bad) exhibit heel mannerisms. Heels are often portrayed as behaving in an immoral manner, breaking rules or otherwise taking advantage of their opponents outside the bounds of the rules of the match. Others do not (or rarely) break rules, but exhibit unlikeable personality traits. No matter the type of heel, the most important job is that of the antagonist role. Heels exist to provide a foil to the face wrestlers. If a given heel is cheered over the face, a promoter may opt to turn that heel to face, or to make the wrestler do something even more despicable to encourage heel heat."

There are degrees of villainous as well as other factors i what draws people to see a wrestler. There is a hole spectrum of black, white, and gray. I propose a dark gray vs black set up. A lesser of two evils type of thing. Bcause I cheer Nexus are the nexus now a face stable?

 

[Trill Co$by]

if thats the case how the hell does UFC and NCAA work? How does tennis work? How does any other legit sport work? This is the problem with wrestling beig scripted, its not about the competition anymore butthe drama. To a fan of SPORTS I think that is blasphemy.

Orton right now is simply a heel yet has moved up. People appreciate his intensity and agility despite the fact that he breaks rules and swerves constantly. There are more components to wrestling then soap opera. Ask Frank Gotch if you don't believe me.

The bad boy is always popular but I have never heard of a limit on how many you could have in an area. There are more reasons to cheer someone then some cliche epic battle of good vs evil and the cheering of bad things by bad people does not legitimate a person, thats not even logic.

"In professional wrestling, a heel (also known as a rudo in Lucha libre) is a villain character.[1] In non-wrestling jargon, heels are the "bad guys" in professional wrestling storylines. They are typically opposed by a babyface or more simply, face (crowd favorite). Some tweeners (not explicitly regarded as good or bad) exhibit heel mannerisms. Heels are often portrayed as behaving in an immoral manner, breaking rules or otherwise taking advantage of their opponents outside the bounds of the rules of the match. Others do not (or rarely) break rules, but exhibit unlikeable personality traits. No matter the type of heel, the most important job is that of the antagonist role. Heels exist to provide a foil to the face wrestlers. If a given heel is cheered over the face, a promoter may opt to turn that heel to face, or to make the wrestler do something even more despicable to encourage heel heat."

There are degrees of villainous as well as other factors i what draws people to see a wrestler. There is a hole spectrum of black, white, and gray. I propose a dark gray vs black set up. A lesser of two evils type of thing. Bcause I cheer Nexus are the nexus now a face stable?

A heel in wrestling is simply the person that is perceived to be the hater of the fans and the one that the fans boo. Randy Orton doesn't fit the bill as he's an anti-hero face... meaning he does it his way and gets cheers... much like Stone Cold did (or have you forgotten that part?)

As for would an all heel promotion work... HELL NO! The foundation of a simple MATCH is determined by the classic hero vs. villain scenario... the fact a promotion would have all heels is just asking for disaster, just as much as one with an all face would.

Heels may face off against each other in a rare scenario, but even then the more popular heel takes the cheers (ex: Jericho vs. Wade Barret).




As for sports, well you need to realize that it's been hell over documented that WWE is not a sport. It's sports entertainment, and even in real sports, you do have your "heels and faces". In football, the heels would be the away team while the faces would be the home team. Simplicity is key to victory children...

 

[Rayne]

if thats the case how the hell does UFC and NCAA work? How does tennis work? How does any other legit sport work? This is the problem with wrestling beig scripted, its not about the competition anymore butthe drama. To a fan of SPORTS I think that is blasphemy.

Professional wrestling isn't a sport.

How does any legit sport work? Because people believe it's an actual competition. The lid got blown off of professional wrestling in the 50's. Without the drama, professional wrestling is a bunch of oiled up men rolling around together in their underwear. Which is why we have heels and faces. People don't want to cheer for the guy they think is a little bit less of a douchebag then the other guy, but still a pretty big douchebag.

If you want SPORTS, watch boxing. Watch UFC. The smart fighters dial up the drama with name calling and race baiting before the fight (Rashad/Rampage, anyone?) to sell more tickets. But it isn't about the drama. That's something extra to bring in the fight marks. Everyone understands that in SPORTS, it's about the competition.

Professional wrestling is theatre masquerading as sport, and everyone (you'd think) understands that.