What's the deal with heels today?

[BillAlfonso]

Where to begin. Let's wind the clock back, remeber when Stone Cold and The Rock were getting started as heels? They couldn't wait to get their hands on whomever they were feuding with and, as far as I know, they rarely cheated in their matches, if ever. So my question is, whatever happened to "badass" heels? Whenever I turn on WWE, I see Orton "picking his shots" or Edge "taking advantage of an opportunity" or Jericho "whining." At some point, you're just being a pussy. Look at Austin's first real match against Bret when he really became Stone Cold Steve Austin, he may have fought like a heel but he didn't cheat if you can smell what BillAlfonso's cookin' to steal a phrase. Speaking of The Rock, look at the match where he lost the WWE title to Mankind, he actually forbade Ken Shamrock, who was his stablemate, from working Mankind over. Another examples is Brock Lesnar, even though he was a monster heel and this is what monsters do, he ran through every opponent one on one. Even Ric Flair would wrestle straight up until it was evident that he wasn't gonna beat you, then the rest of the Horsemen would join in. But back to my question, whatever happened to "badass" heels?

 

[LokiCobain]

The only thing I can think of goes back to the PG rating. This may sound completely ridiculous, but bare with me. The Rock, Stone Cold, Flair, and Lesnar made "bad guys" look good, and eventually, even when they were heels, slowly started turning into fan favorites. That would equate to bad guys = popular. That's an awful message to send kids. I always thought "bullying" was blown out of proportion as a legitimate problem, but perhaps by showing bullies dominate, it kinda says it's okay? I don't really have any other answer than that, but it's a good observation. WWE still tries with guys like Mike Knox, but they lose to Rey Mysterio, so it's kinda pointless. If Mark Henry had the gimmick he has now back then, rather than Sexual Chocolate, he would've been more successful. With the PG rating, the good guys are going to get over more, and the bad guys have to do things that make them look weak, like picking opportunities and whining and calling for backup.

Great observation and post though.

 

[oheyitsmatt]

I agree with LokiCobain. Heels now need to actually play unlikeable people because otherwise, we'd cheer them. Hell, lots of us cheer them anyway. But can you imagine the kind of positive reactions Randy Orton and Edge would get if they not only talked as well as they do, but their characters gave it their all in the ring, too? Those who whine, cheat, and steal outside the ring need to whine, cheat, and steal inside the ring, too. Otherwise, the WWE runs into the problem of SCSA again... trying to build up a badass heel whose wrestling puts him so over with the crowd that he ends up becoming the biggest face in the company.

The only people who still get monster heel pushes are those who are really billed as monsters... Khali, Umaga, Knox, etc. Unfortunately, most of these guys also have no charisma whatsoever and the crowd won't get behind them at all. And once they lose to John Cena or HHH, where does the character go from there?

 

[Cebeards]

The reason is, the title pictures are so damn cluttered (especially on raw) that they have to make the bad guy so clearly a bad guy so there are no faded lines. I'm getting sick of it. I think edge needs to go back and forth a little bit, make him an almost bad guy.

Could you imagine if Randy Orton actually was allowed to shine in the ring?....I swear to God if I see Shane beat him up one more time I'm gonna punch myself in the face. Randy, actually doing his thing, instead of being a pussy would make him go over so much faster than the stale faces on Raw, it wouldn't even be funny. Vince just has to realize that what he is making Orton into is too cheap to further anyone's career beside maybe HHH's. If Orton dropped the "i can't beat anyone" we would see a real age of Orton, he really is that good.

The best we have seen in the past few years were good as heels and faces but usually made huge runs as heels. If we are gonna continue this trend then we need a few respectable heels. I thought we were gonna get one when Orton had his huge build up before WM25, but we all saw how that went....wasted.

 

[kbrill21]

I was just thinking about this last week. I have no idea, its like the bad guys can't beat anyone, and god forbid Cena or HHH lose a match fair and square. Jericho has done well to win a few without cheating, but other than that.... nothing.

 

[ghoat]

Here's something to consider: From the start of Hogan's first WWF Championship reign (January 23, 1984) through Bret Hart's last championship win before the Screwjob (November 9, 1997), a heel never cleanly won the WWF Championship.

The possible exception is Ric Flair. His first title win came by winning the 1992 Royal Rumble; while he didn't explicitly cheat to win, he won because the already-eliminated Hogan pulled Sid over the top rope. I don't know the circumstances of his second title win (over Randy Savage at a house show September 1, 1992).

 

[BillAlfonso]

The only thing I can think of goes back to the PG rating. This may sound completely ridiculous, but bare with me. The Rock, Stone Cold, Flair, and Lesnar made "bad guys" look good, and eventually, even when they were heels, slowly started turning into fan favorites. That would equate to bad guys = popular. That's an awful message to send kids. I always thought "bullying" was blown out of proportion as a legitimate problem, but perhaps by showing bullies dominate, it kinda says it's okay? I don't really have any other answer than that, but it's a good observation. WWE still tries with guys like Mike Knox, but they lose to Rey Mysterio, so it's kinda pointless. If Mark Henry had the gimmick he has now back then, rather than Sexual Chocolate, he would've been more successful. With the PG rating, the good guys are going to get over more, and the bad guys have to do things that make them look weak, like picking opportunities and whining and calling for backup.

Great observation and post though.

Thanks. If that's the case, you could have the heel behave like Bret Hart did when he and Austin switched at WM 13, he legitamately beat Austin but went overboard with it and Austin, being the badass that he was wouldn't give in. So really you'd still have the heel being a heel in kickin' a little too much ass and the face being a face in never giving up.