Should WWE abandon heel/face distinctions?

[FromTheSouth]

Ever since Stone Cold Steve Austin started getting cheered, the fans have increasingly decided who they are going to cheer for. We are at a point the last three to four years where the second the WWE makes anyone a face, with exceptions, he starts to get booed. Some heels are funny and some of their movesets are exciting to fans and they get cheered. Some faces are just stale (Cena, poor guy, no matter what he does and how many amazing matches he puts on, he can't get cheered), and some just can't get over (Reigns, no explanation needed). The New Day were booed as faces and once they turned heel, they captured the audience to a point where their heel gimmick is their face gimmick. Everyone cheats, everyone cusses at some point, and with the exception of Cena, Bayley, Styles, Zayn, and American Alpha, no one in the company is a pure face. By that I mean, the eat prayers, say your vitamins type. There are fewer pure heels, and even they get cheered. I just watch some people chant for Baron Corbin.

My question is simple...

Is there a way to do away with the traditional alignment of heel and face and just let the crowd choose who they are going to cheer and boo in any given feud. My follow up is...On a week to week basis, would that make it easier for creative by allowing them to follow trends and write to the crowd.

I ask because I am a bit of a purist and I like to cheer the face and boo the heel 99% of the time. I like to mark out over turns. I hate that at this point, I don't know what side Big Show is on until I see who else walks out. Just an example. Don't turn this into a Big Show sucks thread please.

 

[Azane]

No, they just need to stop Putting people that have no charisma as faces.

Good vs Evil is a base story mechanism, one that makes having 1000's of stories a year work.

People cheering or booing is also what makes the live studio audience part fun, RAW/Smackdowns with dead crowds make tv boring, and it's a huge part of why NXT is having so much success, booing/cheering could happen without Face/Heel dynamics, but face heel dynamics make up almost every generic story in the E.

We don't need to make this a thread about Roman Reigns ruining wrestling, but the topic at hand is just an example of how WWE's creative decisions involving Reigns is making people question the foundation of the entire product.

 

[Vanilla Midget]

The audience will always need someone to get behind. Whether that person is a traditional babyface or not is irrelevant.

What constitutes a hero changes with the times. The Hogan archetype of say your prayers and take your vitamins has more recently been the doctrine of villains like Kurt Angle in his early WWF run. A person who behaves as Stone Cold did would have been a hated heel in the 80s or earlier, but he was cheered in his day.

What's a hero today may not be a hero 10 or 20 years from now. Maybe traditional pure heroes will become cool again, it's impossible to say. You still can't have characters that flip flop, that play the villain one week, and hero the next.

Randy Orton's 2010 face run quickly grew stale because he started smiling and slapping hands instead of being the Viper character that finally got him over bigger than ever. Lesnar receives strange booking. At Roadblock he's a hero vs Wyatt, three weeks later at WrestleMania he's the villain against the underdog Ambrose.

What makes a hero and a villain will always change, but you will always need heroes (faces) to get behind, and villains (heels) to loath and boo. Otherwise wrestling will lose a key element of intrigue.

The audience should always dictate who's a hero and who's not. They shouldn't abandon heel and face distinctions, they should allow it to evolve, follow trends, and accept who is charismatic and who is not.

 

[Heartbreak_Kid_707]

Not a chance... There is no possible way. Its not just heel/face. Its good/bad since the beggining of time. Examples? God/Devil, jesus/Judah, gladiators/Kings, superman/Luther, batman/joker, cowboys/Indians, bulls/Knicks, police/felons, citizens/government.... See where I'm going? There's always competing, which breeds the good and bad...

 

[jaywalker]

I think if your view point on what being a face is might be a bit ancient if you think cussing makes someone not a face. I think you might have some sort of view point that only cookie cutter boyscout CaptainAmerica/Superman like characters are face.

People who answered this have already said a lot of what I wanted to say, so I'll add some extra thoughts I have.

When it comes crowd reactions and changing characters based on the crowds I don't know if we'd have good heels. I think one of the problems these days is that fans seem to cheer anyone who they consider talented or interesting-unless they're in an authoritative role, or have some backstage stuff people blame for them being pushed-, and boo anyone they deem to be bad at the profession. Even badass monster heels get love/cheers, unless they can barely move and are just annoying blockheads. If Roman Reigns became this mean spirited heel, he'd start getting cheers because people would consider him a good heel or interesting to watch be a jerk pushing people around with violence.

I don't want to blame WWE fans, hell this might be an entirely societal thing considering how many people prefer Loki over most of the Avengers, but there's a current climate among fans that I don't think is very possible for WWE to work around because they love villains(again unless those villains are authoritative IE: Slave owners, rich business owners, a high ranking member of an army, galactic overlords, etc). Unlike movies and tv shows WWE has an actual crowd making noise during shows, so it kind of works bad for them when they're villains don't really get booed out of the building and the faces get lukewarm responses.

Then again, I watch Lucha Underground and they don't seem to have an issue with cheering faces and booing heels, minus Pentagon Jr who seems to be getting cheered so much he's going face. So maybe I do partly blame WWE fans in particular, but maybe it's WWE's fault as well for creating a fan culture that seems to be more about boooing and cheering based on what they consider good quality wise rather than good or bad morality/storyline wise.

 

[jholcomb22]

I actually think WWE is starting to do this already. They have been putting together more matches that aren't heel/face and more just guys who can go. Look at the card for Mania. New Day and League of Nations were both "heels" until the audience chose a side. Dean and Brock both get huge pops, now the audience will have to choose one. Same with Shane and Taker. The only real heel/face match on the card is HHH/Reigns and one could argue the audience has switched their roles. I think WWE would rather the lines be more and more blurred.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

I don't think they should abandon it but you should teach the younger generations of wrestlers how to be a heel and the arts of keeping the crowd against you no matter what. For exemple, take a guy like kevi owens. The guy is probably the best heel in the business right now and while some hardcore wrestling fans will cheer for him, the rest of the casual will believe in his character and hate him no matter what. That's what agreat heel is. On the other end, take for exemple the new day, who the whole gimmick was based on them being heels, the problem was that they didn't change their style and stuck to what they knew and that was being a babyface team. So the continue to play to the crowd and at some point, thewhen back to be babyface instead of being heel. If they would have just found a way really annoy the frans to a point we're they couldn't stand them, you couldn't have one of the greatest heel tag tqm ijce the freebirds instead of this comedy act

It's the job of the performers to make peoples love or hate them, if they cares more about what they are doing in the ring instead of developing their character that when the fans will decide if they like you or not and if the fans likes you and your suppose to be a heel, then you fail at your job because the fans shouldn't dictate who a heel and who's a babyface the performers should.

 

[Azane]

I actually think WWE is starting to do this already. They have been putting together more matches that aren't heel/face and more just guys who can go. Look at the card for Mania. New Day and League of Nations were both "heels" until the audience chose a side. Dean and Brock both get huge pops, now the audience will have to choose one. Same with Shane and Taker. The only real heel/face match on the card is HHH/Reigns and one could argue the audience has switched their roles. I think WWE would rather the lines be more and more blurred.

New Day Portray heels, but they are very much faces in the eyes of fans. They're so entertaining that they transcend the heel role. League is cookie cutter heel.

Brock is a Heel, he attacks people, he beats them up, and he doesn't care about anyone but himself (maybe Paul E). Dean panders to the crowd and tries to make them cheer. Brock just gets cheers because he has a huge fan base among casual and hardcore fans alike, but he is very much playing the heel here.

Shane and Taker, they're booking Taker as a heel, but Good luck, even though he could be murdering puppies, Taker would still get cheered, and Shanes the obvious face here, simply because he's bad mouthed the company, which makes you a face (somehow?).

Every match is booked like heel vs face, they just have some swapping sides for their particular feuds.

 

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

Well since the audience choses who to cheer and who to boo, WWE should just create "characters" with "personalities". Depending on how the audence likes this character (cheer or boos) WWE would go with making this character either a heel or a face.

Instead what WWE does is debuting someone and forces the fans to cheer him or boo him.

 

[Weems2k]

You either die a Hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain....

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

No this is an awful idea.

Pro Wrestling has always been and should always be about heel vs. face. Sure you have a few tweeners here and there is face vs. face or heel vs. heel every now and then, but those are exceptions and not the rules.

WWE should just push who is over (Dean Ambrose and NOT Roman Reigns) and end this nonsense.

 

[Lord_Frish]

The thing that WWE used to do well but doesn't do anymore is a smooth transition between Face and Heel. Austin was a dirty, no nonsense, asshole heel. He turned into a dirty, no nonsense, asshole face. At first he was telling the crowd he doesn't care if they cheer or boo. After a while he started to play to the crowd, but not as a smiling happy babyface, but flipping them off and singalong catch phrases.

The main reason Austin's heel turn after Wrestlemania 17 didn't work was that everyone wanted to cheer him still. So he had to go over the top as a heel, he had to destroy his pissed off persona entirely to even have a chance to be booed. Which didn't really make him a great heel, it just hurt his character and he was never as over after that point.

My point is, WWE should keep the face/heel dynamic and lose the 'a face has to give high fives and smile' attitude they have right now. Have Randy Orton stay as the silent killer who will RKO whoever he feels like, but if he is giving that RKO to Bray Wyatt the crowd will cheer, if he is giving it to Dean Ambrose they will boo.

Reigns was over (as a face or heel) when he was with the Shield, and contrary to popular belief, it wasn't just because Ambrose and Rollins were so good. It was because he was a dangerous killer. It just depended on who he was killing the reaction he got. When WWE decided to run with him, they turned him into a Cena clone, a pretty big character change and the crowd didn't take to it. On the other hand, Ambrose always seemed slightly unhinged, and Rollins seemed like the smart one of the group. They turned these traits up a notch when the Shield broke up and the crowd loved them/gave the right kind of heat to them.

 

[vampirek]

Its been touched upon already in this thread but there has been a change in the way an audience reacts to the bad guys and this just isnt in WWE. Look at movies for example, villians such as the Suicide Squad, Loki etc are becoming focal points and now even have individual movies. The audience is bored of good guys so is it any surprise the WWE audience is too?

Look at the most over faces currently, Dean Ambrose portrays typical heel traits, anti authority and throws the rule book etc. Lesnar is a heel in the sense he is a lonely, does not care for anyone yet is a fan favourite.

Then you have the situation where the heels are just boring, like the League of Nations and thats because they have no actual face to run against. The New Day are heels but people want to see them continue what they are doing.

Then you have faces being hated because its forced and have no interest to the audience mainly because the good heels are actual cheered.

So as for the question, is there a thing as face or heel anymore? Yes I get the history of good v bad but it has to be recognised the audience wants to see bad overcome good at times. I dont think they need to abadon it but they should stop forcing it, the biggest names in the industry were not forced on the fans, the majority happened naturally.

If you look on the roster currently of the full timers, the top face is clearly Ambrose and the top heel is clearly Owens. In this sort of scenario the face v heel thing works.

 

[mancini999]

Hard to ever get totally away from the heel vs face thing. The major problem with this situation is that most Heels don't play a full on heel and still try to get some sort of pop. If the Heels would be more about getting heat than trying to come off as cool people might actually root against them.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

I'd argue that there is no such thing as a face or heel anymore. It's all based on who we like and find entertaining compared to "that other guy" that doesn't do as many cool things. The late 90s tarnished what we perceive as typical bad vs. good. Television shows today are running the same kind of characters which I'm sure someone in this thread has mentioned. We cheered for Walter White knowing his antics are obviously heelish. Tyrion Lannister, almost everybody's favorite character in Game of Thrones, did things that no face would have ever done. The concept of a pure goody-two shoes getting cheers is almost dead. Bless Bayley.

The early 2000s saw a shitload of great technical wrestling from the bad guys and the good. It is hard to boo someone when their moveset is impressive.

And sometimes I think WWE and other promotions rely too heavily on creating matchups on a red vs. blue basis. That's how we've gotten superficial faces and lackluster heels. The fans will cheer for who they like in the end anyways, and at times it can be really fun pairing two guys against one another who neither hate one another or are playing to that spectrum (Zayn vs. Nakamura comes to mind). So yes, I agree that WWE should abandon the heel vs. face mentality. Other forms of entertainment have.

 

[whoopin' ass]

Should? they pretty much did and look what the result is - the product is horrible. You can't get rid of faces and heels otherwise what's the point of the matches? Problem wwe has is when they think faces and heels, they think extremes and you either need to be like Cena to be face or just evil to be a heel which is why they let everyone kind of float around now. Look at The Authority - supposed to be heels yet half the time they act like faces. But when everyone is like that, why cheer for wrestler A over wrestler B when they are doing the exact same thing? I think wwe needs to do the reverse and embraces faces and heels again, just don't make them cookie cutter. You don't need an All American white bread baby face, he can have an edge but you just make sure it is clear they are the good guy. With the faces, push it a little. Today they all want to be the cool heel so you can sell merch and people chant your catchphrase but the fans are supposed to the the heel. They need to push it so fans really do hate them. And quit flipping them face and heel so much. That's another huge issue - how are the fans supposed to cheer for someone when they were a heel 2 week earlier? Stick with one and only flip when it make sense.

 

[Loveless]

They don't have to abandon the system, they have to stop trying to push & accept that it's the audience who will decide who to cheer. Forcing the issue simply does not work anymore, the audience is smart and they only respect talent.