The Harder Character: Face or Heel?

[simpsons_fanatic742]

My question in this thread is simple, what is harder for a wrestler to be, a face or a heel?

In my opinion, I believe it is easier to be a heel. I think this because it is easier to make people hate you and boo you than it is to have people like you and cheer for you. Also, there's a lot of factors for a face to get over. If the wrestler is bad on the mic, the crowd won't care and won't cheer, if they stink in the ring, again they will be booed. But, in the situation of a heel, if they suck they'll get booed, which in the end is exactly what they want.

A face has to be able to connect to the crowd. Even in real life, it's hard to make everyone like you, but one move and you can get a hell of a lot of people to hate you. I just feel, in my eyes, that for a wrestler it is easier to portray a heel than it is a face.

What are your thoughts?

 

[The Holy One]

Yeah, I believe it's easier to be a heel for the very fact of "cheap heat". If any heel just insulted the town they were in, they would be instantly booed. They may not be very good heels like Orton, Edge, Jericho or Punk, but they would have done they job which is to get people to hate you.

 

[People's Elbow]

Heel is easier hands down IMO. Just think of X-Pac heat as a prime example of why. There are many more ways to get the crowd to hate you then like you. Such as bad mic and ring skills, insulting the state your in, cheating to win etc.

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

It's tougher to be a face. Because you have to do things that people "LIKE". That's real tough to do for most fans. Unless you're from the same city as the location of a certain event, it's tough to get face reactions.

Like what was said above me, it's easy to come out, tell people to shut up, rag on said city event is in, and cheat. If you don't do any of those things and aren't good on the mic or in the ring, then you may as well start being a janitor or something. It takes quite a bit of ring psychology and knowledge of what certain fan bases like. It also helps to beat up a heel that everyone wants to see get their ass kicked.

 

[S prince]

yeah much easier to be heel. if you are a face, you have to avoid somehow sounding toolish on the mic b/c the crowd won't get behind you. originally cena was a huge tool and he got boo'ed, wen he started to sound more normal and not rapping every ring segment, fans got on board.

 

[The Instant Classic]

by far a heel is easier. all you gotta do to get over with the crowd as a heel is just insult them and if they are a proud city then insult their city/sports team. plain and simple. that wont get you to the top of the heel mountain but its always guarenteed heat and can get you noticed by the crowd.

being a face you have to cater to every single fans whim. if you do one thing wrong it will end up getting put on some thread where millions of people across the world will read it and slowly but very surely people will not be into you and your done.

 

[conradhunter]

i agree with simpsons_fanatic742 cos to be a heel all u have to do is be a bitch to the fans and turn on a face and bang ur a heel so yeah its easy u just have to cheat as i said before be a bitch to the fans being a face u have to work hard to over as a face with the fans

 

[Panic Switch]

It is far harder to be heel. Heels generally cut more promos and have to wrestle a completely different style, eg. use dirty moves like thumb to the eyes etc. Whereas being a face you can go your whole career without cutting more than 1 promo. Look at Kofi, all he has to do is smile and he is face.

 

[Irish Enigma]

I believe it depends on the superstar. For some it may be easier as a heel, but for others who have spent there entire career as a face may not be able to adapt as a heel. Heels have to have certain qualities that makes people dislike them. For example people like Chris Jericho can flow as both a heel and a face but while portraying a heel its his cocky attitude and he superior self-righteousness that makes people dislike him.

 

[HBK-aholic]

It's tougher to be a face in my opinion. It's pretty easy to get someone to 'cheer' you if you're a heel..simply bad mouth the town you're in, or attack on of the crowd favourites such as John Cena. As a face, you generally have to make the crowd care about you, or you're left facing no reaction at all. There's not really any such thing as 'cheat cheers' as there is 'cheap heat'.

 

[Blue Chipper]

Yea, I agree with the majority here that it's tougher to be a face and easier to be a heel. A heel can generate heat with less elbow grease; they can just hurl insults at the crowd or taunt a face. The fans won't approve of the heel casting out cheap heat by ridiculing them and their town. That's all it takes for a heel to garner antagonistic heat and pops.

Whereas the Face will need to put more labor into their work to get over. A face's charisma and promo ability are more vital than a heel's; they have to intrigue and charm the fans (of which require charisma/ passable mic skills), otherwise it would become harder to get over. You don't necessarily have to have charisma as many have gotten over with barely any (ie. Bobby Lashely and Batista), but it's a more important quality to have as a face than heel - as a heel can spout out virtually anything and catch heat.

Furthermore, I always notice faces struggling to get over, but heels capturing instant heat immediately after they grab a mic.

Coincidentally, the faces have always been the huger stars in the business and gotten more over than the heels, regardless of their more difficult means. I'd attribute that to how wrestling works, though, because of how the good trumps the evil.

 

[Reddannihilation]

I'd say it's completely dependent on the wrestler. Cheap heat is easy to obtain but at the same time it's "Cheap". Similarly it may be harder to get over as a face at first but once you're over it's harder to fail. Heel's can draw heat relativley quickly but it takes a lot of effort to stay heel. Only the best talkers can maintain heel status because it gets to a point where the fans stop caring.

 

[Southwind]

While I think it's generally harder to be a face I think it's harder to be a great heel as opposed to a great face. Once a crowd loves you it's going to stay that way especially nowadays but it's harder to keep a crowd hating you. Most arguments people have stated pertain to gaining cheap heat it's harder to get mega heat.

 

[Genius_Deadman]

it's easier to be a heel, just ask John Cena lol when your heel, you have no boundries or limitations to cross. if you go after another heel, your essentially turning them face. when your a face, there's certain lines you can't cross and you have to keep up with what the fans like, etc.

 

[WOLFPACK0524]

Easy. It is harder to be a babyface. Look at MVP right now. He was a really good heel but was transitioned into a face because people were cheering him to break his losing streak but no one really was. It was just a reason to do so. What else has he done to be a true face? Interrupted Orton once. I loved the reports that Lillian Garcia gets a bigger pop than MVP does. People seem dead when he comes out. I like the guy but something needs to be done before he gets lost in the mid-carder crowd.

It is easier to be a heel. It is more fun too I think. Just as Orton stated once, "if people are cheering you and you are a heel, then I'm not doing my job." This was before he started taking out all of the McMahon Family.

 

[Doomsday Device]

I think it was in Bret Hart's book, where he himself said it was easier and more fun for him to be a heel. You can literally just be yourself. Without fear of disrespecting or hurting someone (when I mean hurting, its if he was at a restaurant and didnt feel like signing an autograph, the fan would be hurt) If he's a heel at the time, its expected, cuz your a "bad guy".

If you're face, you almost have an obligation to be cool with the fans. Even out of the arena.

Faces have to be more self-disciplined, and do their best to please the fans. Its like they're almost more sensitive to fans' reactions.

I think Michaels said one time too that it was much more fun to be heel. At least back in the day

 

[Hacksaw Highway]

Face. It's tough to make people like you, but easy to make them hate you. Trash talk, use cheap shots, weapons and low blows, act cocky, insult the fans, and they'll hate you. People as good as The Rock and Cena have strugled to be cheered at times, because if the fans don't buy your gimmick, are bored of you, don't care about you, they will hate you.

 

[Marquis]

I agree with majority and say face. Getting someone to not like you isn't a hard thing compared to trying to get someone to care for you. If you want someone to not like you, then stereotype what they would not like and emulate it. Which i find is very easy to do in wrestling. Make fun of the crowd, insult their state, wear a opposing teams jersey. For your character, just turn multiply your personality up by 10x. Everyone has a bit of a ego i like to think, so just turn yourself up by 10x for a character. Natural characters always seem to work best. A face on the other hand has to find a character that a majority of people care for, identify with in some cases. And as someone pointed out, has to be very sensitive with the crowd in and out of the ring. Just praising the crowd doesn't work in the long run, you actually need a character they can get behind, identify with, or like, which isn't easy since you need to please so many.

 

[Sean Valjean]

There's not really any such thing as 'cheat cheers' as there is 'cheap heat'.

I don't know about that. There's always a good ol' fashioned "cheap pop". Just come out and say "I'm gonna wrestle here in *Insert City*!!!" Or just talk about how great the fans are and how you love them.

Anways, I believe it's far easier to be a heel than a face. Heels can pretty much do whatever they want. They can do more in the ring and generally get to say more on the mic. Faces have to try and stay on the good sides of millions, which can be very difficult. Also, faces have to watch what they're doing more because it doesn't take much for the fans to turn on you (CM Punk for example). Plus it's easier for people to dislike you than to geniunely like you.

 

[gd]

It is definetly easier to get over as a heel than a face. As long as you get mic time, it's easy to get the crowd to go against you. You just have to rip on their local sports team or talk shit about your face opponent and they'll be all over you.

As a face, you have to be interesting enough to make the fans want to cheer for year. Just yelling and trying to pump up the crowd isn't going to do it. A face has to bring something extra to the table. Just look at Yoshi Tatsu. He is different and has a unique, exicting moveset so he has gotten over with the fans.

Another way to get over as a face is to take down a really good heel. Mark Henry got over as a face simply by pinning Randy Orton. There are ways to get over as a face, but it's much tougher than being a heel.