Unanimous audience heat for a superstar

[Hazardous]

The live Audience plays a huge role in character portrail.. Usually. When the crowd likes someone, they cheer them (The Rock). When they hate them, they Boo (Cole, Truth). The people come into play on who is a Face, and who is a Heel. Orton was the top Heel, untill people started cheering for him more and more, to the point where they couldn't hide it anymore.

Years ago, you knew who the Faces were because everyone cheered. When the glass shattered, and Austin came out, the roof came off. When Vince came out, you could barely hear him on the mic due to the overwelming "Asshole" chant that drown out what he was saying. Whatever happened to that chant anyway?

Yet if you really listen to them, these days they seem to be split on almost everyone. Miz gets heat, yet you can hear pockets of people cheering. CM Punk, Christian, and to a small degree dolph are all in that same catagory. It's kind of sad when they only time the whole crowd agrees, is when Cole, or Vicky are on screen.

What happened? What changes happened that almost everyone gets a split reaction? Will we ever have an active superstar who everyone agrees on again?

The last time I can think of that would count, is when the entire live crowd booed Cena, and ALL cheered for RVD. Granted it was the old ECW arena, so a little bias was expected, but thats still the last time I can remember where something like this happened.

 

[wwerulestnaisbad]

I agree i mean look at zack ryder. Hes just got that heel look. But hes a face because of the fans.


WOO WOO WOO I KNOW IT

 

[NotoriousMEAT]

I think it's just the times man. People are gonna cheer for who entertains them or maybe even who they respect. Not bashing Cena here, but he's just the easiest example. Yeah, he's a mega face. He's THE face. But there's a lot of people who are bored of Cena and don't like him. They aren't entertained by him anymore (assuming they ever were), so why would they cheer for him? I don't like The Miz, but a lot of the people I talk to love him. They respect the hard work he did, how much he improved, and his character being fresh to the main event scene entertains them, so they'll cheer him. Then when you get to cities like Chicago, New York, Philly, and other places where there's a lot of "smark marks" and people who watch high indy wrestling and enjoy TALENT, you're gonna find CM Punk getting overwhelming cheers over the likes of John Cena. That's just how I see it anyways.

 

[LaCosaNostra]

being the "bad guy" has always worked to get your character over. as soon as you turn heel, you get heat, which turns to love.... as long as you are a half decent preformer! its good to be bad... just look at stone cold... he wanted to be a bad guy, but the crowd loved him. look at orton, the more "he became the apex predator" the more the crown loved him. and if you could hear the reaction for punk tonight, he is over with the "wwe universe" which is amazing because he beat cena tonight. as a liftime wrestling fan, it shocked me to hear that reaction... but when you think about it, it's not unusual! i know cena gets mixed reactions, but from the way it sounded on tv it was 75-25 in favor iof punk

 

[BillAlfonso]

I think it's because most people are a bunch of jackasses that think they have a degree of control on who's face and who's heel. Why the fuck would you cheer a heel? Even if you like/respect him, he doesn't want you to cheer him because he's trying to be a bad guy. Stone Cold was white hot but they still turned him heel when they wanted. Orton turned face because they were going with youth and it's easier to build young stars as heels because they can feed off of cheap heat like The Miz did for a time so they made Orton face to make room for the new heels. It had nothing to do with who the fans cheered for.

 

[The Suplexer Perfecter]

What happened? What changes happened that almost everyone gets a split reaction? Will we ever have an active superstar who everyone agrees on again?

It's very simple really. The ones who boo the faces are ones who know and act like it's fake and only care for the performers they like.

Remember the various "you can't wrestle" chants for Cena over the years?

It didn't happen for Hogan since there wasn't an internet to explain it's fake and make people "smarks".

I was there live for when the Cena sucks chants started in 2005 with people cheering for the heel (Jericho) over him, and they haven't ended.

The cheering for Cena has a lighter tone, which is the voices of Women and children, while the Punk chants were louder and more deeper, obviously men.

Cena even did a joke promo with it when he was "fired" saying he wanted all the women and children to say "let's go cena" and the men to say "cena sucks".

WWE has just gotten used to it by now I think.

 

[bigbootydaddyV]

I don't think the problem is as much the crowd as it is what the heels are doing. A "bad guy" being so just because he beats up john cena won't get the crowd against him because the crowd hates john cena. A heel like punk saying he's better for being straight edge won't get everyone against him bc a lot of ppl can relate, some fans just like that I don't give a fuck attitude and can relate to it. Now, take Randy Orton when he gave stephanie the DDT and kissed her in front of HHH... if i recall ppl still booed him bc that was the heel taking it too far and no one wants to relate to that or cheer for that. So if you have an egregious enough heel you can still get that white hot heat... but right now when you heel is just beating up john cena you are going to get a lot of cheers because half the crowd wants to do the same. Get that same heel to do something crazy like go after Cena's mother or something and I bet you'd get a different reaction.

 

[WWWYKI777]

It's kind of sad when they only time the whole crowd agrees, is when Cole, or Vicky are on screen.

Interestingly the common factor here is neither one is an actual wrestler

I think the reason for mixed reactions is because the smarks respect and like even heels for their abilities and skills

So the only way I think you could get unanimous heat while being a wrestler would be to be a wrestler AND suck at wrestling at the same time

 

[martymcfly]

Yet if you really listen to them, these days they seem to be split on almost everyone. Miz gets heat, yet you can hear pockets of people cheering. CM Punk, Christian, and to a small degree dolph are all in that same catagory. It's kind of sad when they only time the whole crowd agrees, is when Cole, or Vicky are on screen.

I guess I don't quite understand this perspective. Why is it sad? Does everyone need to conform and feel the exact same way about everyone on the roster? Would you prefer to see everyone cheer who the WWE has currently decided to be a face, and to boo everyone the company has chosen at this moment to be a heel?

I think it's great that you can get mixed reactions from audiences about most folks. It shows that some fans like who they like based on something they like or respect about the wrestler himself, and want to cheer for that individual whether he's a face or heel. It shows too that some fans are not going to let the WWE dictate who they should like or not like, and it also shows that some fans are not going to just follow the crowd and like someone just because everyone else around them does.

Now I'm not saying there's anything wrong with a fan who cheers for the faces and boos the heels. But let's just take someone like Chris Jericho for example. Maybe you have fans that really respect this guy and what he can do in the ring and what he's done for the business, so whether he's a heel or a face, these fans will cheer for him. Even if he is a heel and the majority of the crowd boos him, these d jericho lovers will cheer, and I think that's great too.

 

[Hazardous]

I think it's great that you can get mixed reactions from audiences about most folks. It shows that some fans like who they like based on something they like or respect about the wrestler himself, and want to cheer for that individual whether he's a face or heel. It shows too that some fans are not going to let the WWE dictate who they should like or not like, and it also shows that some fans are not going to just follow the crowd and like someone just because everyone else around them does.

I get what you mean. I do. What I'm referring to though, is look back at the time of say.. The Corporate Ministry. Or the McMahon-Helmsly Era. Shane, Vince, HHH, and Undertaker would have the whole arena chanting "Asshole" to the point that superstar would get drowned out. It didn't matter who they were against, the crowd booed them out of the building. At the same time, whoever they were against, be it Rock, Austin, Kane, or even X-Pac would get huge pops. Now are you saying people didn't respect the Heels? No, it was because they did Heelish things, and people wanted to see them get their asses beat for it. Someone pointed out the Orton/HHH thing a few years back. That was a prime example of it. Punting Steph, Shane, and Vince got mega heat. People couldn't wait for HHH to get him. JBL use to get mega heat as well. His Anti-Mexican campaign was brilliant!

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

I think that this is because of the manner in which characters are built up these days. Look at Cena for example. He openly admits that there are sections in the crowd that do not like him a lot. You could say that Cena has been forced to say so but I think that by acknowledging the fact that he gets booed, he is actually encouraging some of the fans to do so. By having Cena admit that he gets booed, the fans realize that they have made Cena take them seriously and suddenly booing Cena becomes the cool thing to do.

A babyface getting booed is nothing new. Hulk Hogan was starting to get some negative reaction towards the end of his face run in both the WWF and in WCW. But he never acknowledged it and that is why that is why it did not catch on as much as Cena's negative reactions have.

As for heels getting cheered, I believe it is so because their characters are somewhat ambiguous. Jericho says that he is the best at what he does. That can imply a dozen things. Jericho has worked for the WWE for a number of years, wrestled in quite a few good matches and entertained fans for a long time. He is also popular outside the world of wrestling. By saying that he is the best at what he does some fans are tending to agree with him as that is a somewhat ambiguous statement.

Another example is when HBK turned heel on Hogan in 2005. In a somewhat shoot like promo that HBK cut on Hogan he mentioned about giving his life for the WWE night in and night out. The crowd cheered wholeheartedly for that. Why? Because not only is that true but it is also the manner in which WWE has promoted HBK for all these years.

Fans are tending to sympathize with heels because heels are cutting promos that have some semblance of truth in what they are saying. That needs to be done away with if you want heels to get a totally negative reaction. Have them lie out of their skin or twist the truth to exaggerated degrees to suit their motives. That is the way you will get a totally negative reaction.

 

[Stein Lager]

I think wrestlings just changed... It's not as black and white as if used to be, it's not as simple.

People are starting to respect wrestlers for who they are, how they wrestle, how hard they've worked and cheering them for this whether they are heels or faces, and vice versa.

The line between face and heel is starting to blur. Hence mixed reactions from crowds. Look at Christians heel turn, no doubt you can still hear a decent amount of the crowd still cheering him.