Face Vs Heel Vs Tweener

[Paralyzer Z]

The classic story of good guy vs bad guy, hero vs villain, or good vs evil has been played out in every type of media including pro wrestling.

But which one do you favor? a heel, face, or tweener. My pick are tweeners simply because they are more realistic than any of the other 2. Tweeners don't tend to be corny like faces are often, or repetitive like heels are often. Bad-ass is the word that describes for me, they take down anyone in their way face or heel.

Which type of wrestling character do you prefer, faces tweeners or heels?

 

[Yandzibar]

I know there are ways to separate tweeners and heels, but is it really that easy to distinguish between the two? From what I've seen throughout the years, not many people start as tweeners. It's usually a heel to tweener transition started by the crowd reaction and fans cheering the heels. I've been most entertained by heels throughout the years, and it's probably due to my cynical and pessimistic nature. I like the "easy way out" of most things, I'm a Sith at heart vs a Jedi, Renegade over a Paragon (props if you understand the reference) believe that cheating isn't cheating unless you're caught, etc. Perhaps I shouldn't feel like that because it's "wrong," but why fight it when I know it to be true? I wouldn't say that I like evil, just the methods used by those characters.

 

[Gunnar]

Well, as far as a promo-storyline standpoint, it's a lot easier to be a heel, just cheat, finagle (sp?) and insult every city you come to, being a face seems to be a bit harder to get a (good) crowd reaction because you actually have to do something to get the people to cheer, whereas being a heel you just have to get a boo.

And i've always found tweeners to be stupid, just because any momentum they gain in one direction can be taken away in a second, then they have to gain momentum in the other direction, and after awhile, the people just don't care anymore.

 

[mikde_]

Honestly, there is no such thing as a tweener! never has been and never will!

Just because a guy beats on both heels and faces it does not mean they are a tweener! People say austin was a tweener but he wasnt, he was booked as a face the majority of his career! just because he was a bad ass it does not mean that they are tweeners. CM Punk is the same. It's all about the way you are booked and you are either the good guy or the bad guy. There really is no middle ground.

 

[The Future Rises]

I prefer heels. Why? Their characters aren't just sucking up to the crowd and the "I'd rather everyone hate me for everything I am than love me for something I'm not" attitude is something that everyone probably has so in a way the heels are the ones who represent us. Plus the heels just have so much more interesting characters. The babyfaces are usually limited and are always sucking up to the crowd. The only babyfaces I can think of right now that I really got into their characters were The Rock, Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, John Cena(2004), The Undertaker, and now Sheamus and CM Punk. But when it comes to heels they're countless. I'm a huge heel fan and that's because they're usually much more interesting than babyfaces and tweeners.

 

[Dagger Dias]

I like tweeners the most because they are the best of both worlds. Faces are meant to get over with fans and get cheered when they get the big win. Some faces are cheesy and tend to lose fans rather than win them over if they run into that issue. Heels get to do really cool things and fans are meant to dislike them. Heels often are booked to be cowardly or cheat to win. I dislike that about many heels. The truly dominant heels are better, most of the time anyway. Tweeners can play either role as needed. They are arguably the most useful guys on the roster other than the top faces or top heels. Tweeners get to do the cool things heels do, but can still be cheered. That's more than enough to get my vote.

 

[stefankingston]

Tweeners nowadays don't stand for a long period of time, usually it's a not completed heel turn (seldom face turn) and eventually the person will turn completely heel. Take Mr. Anderson as an example, after he lost the title and didn't get his rematch, he went apeshit on everyone including RVD and heel Hardy, faked to join Immortal, but used underhanded tactics in his match while still get cheered, until he decided to join Immortal, then he completely turned heel. Even if there is a tweener there are little people that are able to do the job well. I think Samoa Joe and Cryme Tyme are both good tweeners, where the former just beats the shit out of everyone and the latter always used underhanded tactics against their heel opponents while they still get cheers.

 

[One to Remember]

At this point all three are nessecery parts of wrestling. In the older days things were black and white but the greyness of the tweener is more realistic as opposed to comic bookish. And i dont think every badass face that followed his own whims amounts to atweener. Thats a misconception. Latino Heat is a good example of tweener. Maybe the Wolfpac. Ric Flair at certain points. I personally favor heels like Kane, Mark Henry, Hollywood Hogan, etc.

 

[FlairFan2003]

The only thing really exciting about tweeners is you are left waiting for their complete turn to one side or another... like DDP, basically a tweener, no real alliances, did some rulebreaking in matches but not excessive, when he was approached by the NWO, classic heels, to join the group, you were interested not so much because DDP was a great character or particularly over with fans (at the time he wasn't) but because you didn't know which way he would go.

Brett Hart bounced around from heel to tweener a lot at the end of his WWE run, you waited to see if he would go back to full fledged jerk mode or maybe tilt the other way, since he had a long run as a popular face.

Ric Flair did a lot of tweener stuff, usually as a full fledged fan favorite forced to defend his title against another fan favorite, like vs Sting in 93 or Steamboat in 94. You were interested in the matches on paper but the most interesting aspect was watching if Flair would turn full fledged heel to keep his title or would he beat these guys fairly ?

Tweeners are good in certain situations, as long term character they dont work, they have to go good or bad to really engage an audience in their fueds.

 

[Ferbian]

I wouldn't say there's any specific alignment that I like the most. Every aspect has their own way of being interesting, and it all relies on how well the character is played for me to actually like it.

For example, you can be a boring face, or just a simple face that doesn't necessarily have any appeal to make me, or someone else truly interested, see Evan Bourne (In my case at least). This applies to many other wrestlers, where as if you look at someone like John Cena, who I really like, that's a face that could easily swerve me into thinking faces are my favorite.

Where as if we look at the tweeners, where someone like Undertaker, or Triple H have both been doing incredibly well in that aspect of their career, hell CM Punk is doing incredibly well with it right now. However, by itself it's not necessarily something that I would like, mostly because of (from a mark perspective) it's hard to know where they stand, and it can make a storyline somewhat complex. The only reason I really like this alignment at all, would rely on how well it's played, which the above mentioned names does incredibly well.

Same goes for heels, where we currently have one of the more lackluster ones (John Laurinaitis anyone?), but also have some really great heels with Christian, Dolph Ziggler and Cody Rhodes just to name a few.

So for me there's no specific side of it that I like more than the others, it all relies on how well the wrestler is able to play his role, and make that specific alignment worth a damn.