Is It Possible To Be A Heel Or Face For Forever In Pro Wrestling Today?

[Mitch Henessey]

During my daily browsing for wrestling news, I ran across an interview with Randy Orton. In the interview, Orton talks about his recent face turn. Orton is white hot as far as popularity goes, but he said he would have preferred to be a "heel forever". Here's the interview: http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/WWE_News_3/article_43092.shtml

Of course Orton's face turn wasn't up to him. As this article points out, it was crowd reaction and booking changes that dictated Orton's face turn. Orton had a pretty intense feud with Triple H last year, and he was an evil heel. Fast forward one year later, and Orton has become one of the most, if not the most popular faces in the WWE.

Can wrestlers stay heel or face throughout their careers now a days?

I don't think it's possible for wrestlers to stay heel or face throughout their careers in the modern world of pro wrestling. Back in the day, Ricky Steamboat was able to stay a face throughout his entire career. I remember how Ric Flair said something like "Steamboat just couldn't be hated" in his book To Be The man. That might be true, but back then, pro wrestling was in different time period. The world of kayfabe was still in full swing, and you had a different type of wrestling fan back then. Things have changed a lot.

Fans don't just boo the heels and cheer the faces anymore. They root for who they like. We've also seen this in TNA recently. Desmond Wolfe will receive pops, and it doesn't matter how many heelish antics he performs. The fans still cheer him. Another example would be Triple H's return after injury in 2002. HHH had been a nasty heel for years, but when he returned at Madison Square Garden, he received a thunderous ovation.

So much power can be in the hands of wrestling fans, but I'm wondering, is upsetting the natural order of things good or bad?

When I say the "natural order of things", I'm talking about the traditional structure of a pro wrestling storyline. You know, root for the good guys, boo the bad guys. This is crucial because fan reaction can really throw everything off. John Cena has been a victim of this many times. Cena was booed and heckled during his Wrestlemania match with Triple H and things were even worse during his match with RVD at One Night Stand 2006. Crowd reactions play a huge part in all of this, because it's kind of hard to ignore thousands of people cheering a person they're suppose to boo or vice versa.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Ferbian]

Can wrestlers stay heel or face throughout their careers now a days?

I'm not sure really. I mean it has been possible before, I believe Ricky Steamboat remained face his whole career. At least I believe someone on here noted that.

However Steamboat isn't around today. So it's a completely other thing, We have yet to see anybody that truly have been face or heel their entire career, with exception of the young guys that have yet to truly have any years in a career.

I would guess the one we get closest to is Rey Mysterio, I don't believe he has been a heel either (I'm not too sure about his WCW days - KB?) So in a way, I guess if Rey Mysterio fits into that category, then it is possible.

And really it should be considered possible, because in the end, the fans doesn't turn one heel or face in the terms of who they feud with, who they're in the ring with and how they cut their promos. Randy Orton for all I know could be cutting cheap heat promos as a heel, and feuding with John Cena, but I'm sure he'd still get cheered today.

John Cena is still a face, even if a good part of the fans boo the guy. However he has been heel before, so he doesn't apply to the "whole career". However he's the epitome of how the fans in the end, can be ignored.

So much power can be in the hands of wrestling fans, but I'm wondering, is upsetting the natural order of things good or bad?

Depends how you look at it. In a way if someone like John Cena is destined to be a face, and remain like that. The power in the hands of the wrestling fans is definitely a bad thing if they constantly urge for WWE to turn him heel for example, just because they think he's getting stale and can't wrestle. They don't realize that he's obviously the money cow, and that turning him heel would kill a large income in WWE.

And the same goes for any promotion, if someone is made to be one thing, but the fans want something else, and it doesn't make sense for the heel turn. Well then obviously it won't happen, and the power that the wrestling fan has is bad.

However if we look at the good aspect, Randy Orton obviously turned "face" (Tweener to be honest, but people obviously consider him face), and it worked very well for Randy Orton's popularity as well as what I can imagine WWE's income. The same goes for a decent handful of people. There's guys that sells well, and is very over with the majority of the fans (Rey Mysterio for example), I'm sure WWE doesn't turn him heel due to the popularity, and it's a good thing for WWE income wise as well as for the product. While it may not be the greatest thing for the booking at times, he still makes sense as a face, and it's an overall good result.