I was recently watching WGN America, Chappelle show reruns I think, and during the commercials there was WWE Superstars commercials. They showed some in-ring action of one superstar, had the guy that usually does their voice overs talking about something, and had the same superstar say whatever the tagline for the show is, something like "expect anything". I saw 2 different superstars do the commercials, the first was Randy Orton and the other was Edge, the top heels on their shows. Now I don't know for a fact that these are the only commercials for this show, but I saw each one of those commercials atleast two times and figured that if they had others I would have seen one of them. Either way, the WWE decided that to get people to watch their newest show that Randy Orton and Edge would be the guys to draw people in.
That's what this thread is about, while I don't know the numbers I would think that the big faces in the WWE (Cena, HHH, Batista, Hardy, Mysterio, Undertaker, HBK) more than likely have better merch sales than the heels (Orton, Edge, Jericho, Show). Now I'm sure that that has to do w/ the fact that the kids (teens and younger) like who they are "supposed" to like and want to be like them, and the best way to do that is by buying their favorite superstars gear. But the point that I'm trying to make is that isntead of using any of those faces to sell their new show, WWE went w/ the two top heels. Is that b/c the kids that like the faces are going to watch no matter what, but the other fans or the casual fans want to see the heels on those shows? Or is it b/c that people don't like the heels so much that they want to see them get beat by their favorite faces?
For whatever reason that it may be, I think that heels make people watch. If the heel isn't good then people don't care, and I know that this isn't anything ground breaking b/c without a heel there are no faces. But if you look at wrestling right now heels are the big draw. Back in the day you had Hulkamania, like him or not, the biggest face ever, Austin not that long ago. He might not be the stereotypical face but he was the biggest star for awhile and was face. Now the biggest face is Cena and besides the extreme amount of hate that he gets from wrestling boards there are times that full arenas will boo him. There are people that dislike Cena so much they won't watch when he is on, maybe it is just more advertised w/ the internet and everything, but I don't remember that much of a backlash for Hogan(Hulkamania) or Austin, atleast at the time of when they were on top.
Now if you were to pull a Family Fued and ask 100 random wrestling fans to name their favorite superstar on each show I think that the top faces would either have only a few points more or even lose to the heels. Continuing w/ the Family Fued reference, I think that Randy Orton would be the number one answer for Raw and Edge would be close to the top for SD!. And I haven't watched TNA in some time but I'm pretty sure that the Main Event Mafia has some of the biggest stars in the buisness. Maybe not right now but I see the new Hart Foundation being the (very near) future selling point for ECW.
So, while faces might make the company money, heels get the company veiwers.
That's what this thread is about, while I don't know the numbers I would think that the big faces in the WWE (Cena, HHH, Batista, Hardy, Mysterio, Undertaker, HBK) more than likely have better merch sales than the heels (Orton, Edge, Jericho, Show). Now I'm sure that that has to do w/ the fact that the kids (teens and younger) like who they are "supposed" to like and want to be like them, and the best way to do that is by buying their favorite superstars gear. But the point that I'm trying to make is that isntead of using any of those faces to sell their new show, WWE went w/ the two top heels. Is that b/c the kids that like the faces are going to watch no matter what, but the other fans or the casual fans want to see the heels on those shows? Or is it b/c that people don't like the heels so much that they want to see them get beat by their favorite faces?
For whatever reason that it may be, I think that heels make people watch. If the heel isn't good then people don't care, and I know that this isn't anything ground breaking b/c without a heel there are no faces. But if you look at wrestling right now heels are the big draw. Back in the day you had Hulkamania, like him or not, the biggest face ever, Austin not that long ago. He might not be the stereotypical face but he was the biggest star for awhile and was face. Now the biggest face is Cena and besides the extreme amount of hate that he gets from wrestling boards there are times that full arenas will boo him. There are people that dislike Cena so much they won't watch when he is on, maybe it is just more advertised w/ the internet and everything, but I don't remember that much of a backlash for Hogan(Hulkamania) or Austin, atleast at the time of when they were on top.
Now if you were to pull a Family Fued and ask 100 random wrestling fans to name their favorite superstar on each show I think that the top faces would either have only a few points more or even lose to the heels. Continuing w/ the Family Fued reference, I think that Randy Orton would be the number one answer for Raw and Edge would be close to the top for SD!. And I haven't watched TNA in some time but I'm pretty sure that the Main Event Mafia has some of the biggest stars in the buisness. Maybe not right now but I see the new Hart Foundation being the (very near) future selling point for ECW.
So, while faces might make the company money, heels get the company veiwers.