Why does WWE love weak heels?

[i'm a cm punk girl]

As i was watching Smackdown and notice how bad they were trying to get sheamus over as a babyface from producing fake crowd pops to even using Daniel bryan's catchpharse. A catchpharse that got HIM over somehow sheamus gets to use it. I also loved the fact that the fans were chanting for daniel bryan and yet you still could hear that fake crowd noise.

The reason im saying this is very simple. If Daniel bryan was the one who might have got DQ'd at wrestlemania and sheamus had a look of disappointment on his face then maybe those pops for bryan could have been sheamus's pops? Or better yet the fans would boo bryan out of the buliding as he takes the cheap victory then they could really build the feud up!

Think about it people Sheamus is the BABYFACE and Bryan is the HEEL. The heel usually screws the face and the people feel sorry for the face and they get behind him. Thats heat that people want to invest their time and money to seeing sheamus kick bryan arse. But if he defeated him at wrestlemania, and Exteme Rules, even on a smackdown show and Bryan's the number 1 contender to cm punk's title and Del rio is sheamus's contender What's going on!?

Not only did Bryan look really weak getting his ass kicked by sheamus he was basically made to not even be a threat to cm punk's championship because he got beat by the same guy who took the title from him at mania, wrestled a great match at extreme but still lost to the same kick to the facr without looking really strong at all except for extreme rules so how can sheamus get more over as a babyface and how can bryan get over as a heel?

Brock lesnar vs John cena match and the extreme rules ppv in general. Lesnar comes in the wwe and causes destuction untill cena beats him at the ppv so that means they have to find a way to keep lesnar's heat from going away because of it. Mostly all the heels on that card of extreme rules lost except one who was put through multiple tables.

How can guys like Dolph ziggler or jack swagger get crowd heat without vickie gurerreo when their getting their asses handed to them by brodus clay week after week or expect a guy like Ryback to get over if he just squashes heels and people not caring one bit?

WWE protects faces WAY to much including the TOP ones most of heels in wwe are chickenshit heels. WWE loves those type of heels but wheres the aggresive heels? Wheres the heels that aren't afaid to fight? Brock lesnar was a breath of fresh air due to him not walking away or backing down from anybody but wwe fucked up with having cena go over. Now you have cena facing johnny ace and lesnar is off tv for cena's "Im taking a break" promo. So i ask what happened to all the strong heels?

 

[Jack-Hammer]

While I do agree that WWE does go overboard sometimes when it comes to protecting their babyfaces, they're certainly not the only ones. Making heels look weak, opportunistic and sometimes cowardly has always been the bread and butter of heels in professional wrestling. Every company has heels look weak sometimes, there's no getting around it or avoiding it. I do agree that it frustrates me to see guys like Ziggler & Swagger used so shabbily, especially as Ziggler was giving Punk great matches earlier this year over the WWE Championship.

Back in the day, how many times did Ric Flair get his ass kicked all over the arena by an opponent? How many times did he retain his title through getting disqualified or via outside interference? In TNA right now, Bobby Roode has been TNA WHC for more than half a year but I can't remember the last time I saw him win a match without some sort of interference or in some sort of flukey manner. Bully Ray, CM Punk, Stone Cold, The Rock, Triple H, JBL, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Macho Man Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, etc. are all guys that've been heels and have looked weak at times.

As for Daniel Bryan, I don't see how you see him as weak just because he lost to Sheamus this past Friday on SD!. If Sheamus had beaten Bryan 100% clean, then I could see the point you're trying to make. However, Del Rio did interfere in their match and a case can be made that his interference cost Bryan a potential win. Had Del Rio not interferred, Bryan may have countered the Irish Cross attempt and locked in the Yes Lock, in which Sheamus could have "passed" out from the pain just as he did during their match at Extreme Rules. Maybe Bryan would've floated over and rolled Sheamus up and gotten a win by grabbing the tights.

Bryan gave Sheamus a hard, competetive match while still making Sheamus look like a courageous babyface. Somebody has to win and lose in wrestling matches, that's how it goes. Bryan looked strong against the current World Heavyweight Champion and gave him a tough 15 minute match. Bryan did lose, somewhat at least due to Del Rio providing some interference. Bryan gave Sheamus a credibility building win while still looking like a main event level contender.

 

[The Voice]

this isnt going to be ppular, but its the truth. because wwe is PG again and aimed at kids. Lesnar vs Cena, blood and all, was the only feud for adults since it was TV-14.

 

[Darkdarkdays]

I think anyone could easily say that Bryan looked weak before he lost the title at Wrestlemania...did he have any really competitive/clean matches prior to that ? All i can remember is the pointless matches with Big Show that ended in no contests and him using AJ as an excuse not to fight.

WWE really does need a Supercena style heel...that so easily could of been Brock but they screwed that up really quickly, Ryback may be a big guy too but you need more than muscles to get a crowd to really hate you.....based on the recent 'Goldberg' chants, the crowd are mored humoured by him than hateful...

I think WWE need to go back to 'strength in numbers' meaning they need to create some huge heel stables again...like Evolution, who never looked weak based on their size and experience but would quite happily settle with a dirty win if it got the job done.

 

[whoopin' ass]

i think a large part of it right now is that they are trying to be child friendly and you can't really push a heel as hard now as you would before. think back almost a decade ago when HHH was a heel champ on Raw - he dominated, wasn't weak and was the top guy. now, they want all the faces to be the top guys so you can't have the heels be better then they are hence weak heels.call it the Hulk Hogan Syndrome - the face always has to overcome and end up on top even if it isn't good for business.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

I think WWE need to go back to 'strength in numbers' meaning they need to create some huge heel stables again...like Evolution, who never looked weak based on their size and experience but would quite happily settle with a dirty win if it got the job done.

They did that it was called Nexus a 7 or 8 Group Stable of Young guys and at a time it made great TV. The problem was that the WWE is too scared to give any heel a prolonged period of dominance that it does not make them look menacing.

I guess it's also because the WWE since the beginning has been a pro-face organization. With the exception of some few odd years they always preferred the faces to be the Champs.

Even in one of Shawn Michaels' book he thought it was weird in 1995 that two babyfaces got to hold the World and IC Titles. I guess the WWE and Vince is just that way ... problem is this thinking has been stuck for 40 years and the WWE does not realize this was of thinking is old fashioned.

I guess in the 80's it worked ... look at the top action movies in the 80's normally it has the action hero being able to walk over the bad guys with ease (why do you think there's so many Chuck Norris Facts ).

 

[STILLNWO4LIFE]

Gotta agree on point with the few above. I don't have a problem with WWE except for this pg era. I am not going to bitch and moan about it because it's wrestling and hey, we are going to get what they give us. You just can't push the heels hard like you used to, if you did that now, the parent's would be concerned and would result in a lot of kids not watching anymore and the WWE kiddie product blows up in a bad way.

 

[gdkeen]

The Sheamus/Bryan thing is atypical of most face/heel feuds, and shouldn't be used as evidence of any trends.

WWE undoubtedly expected that Bryan would be perceived as weak going into Wrestlemania, and that Sheamus' quick victory would put him over forever as the next big (kid-friendly) face to rise to Cena's level.

Obviously that didn't happen at or after Wrestlemania, and WWE has been playing damage control since then.

They gave the smarks what they wanted to see at Extreme Rules, because smarks generally don't even care who wins. They gave the kids what they wanted to see on Friday, and now they're going to separate Bryan and Sheamus faster than you can blink, because that feud was going to be detrimental to Sheamus' build as a top corporate face.

Sheamus stealing Bryan's catchphrase is just an attempt to make it SOUND as if the crowd is on Sheamus' side in this feud when they're both in the ring together. He won't be doing yes chants in the future.

 

[Vincent Michaels]

It's easier to build up a heel than a face. In WWE, you always have a single top guy(Hogan, Austin, Cena), a face or two just below them(Savage/Warrior, Rock/Triple H, Orton/Punk), and interchangable heel challengers, who usually built themselves up by dominating in the midcard. The top guy beats those challengers in order to better establish themselves as a top guy, and eventually they lose in order to help build your next top heel. He'll keep the belt warm for a bit, but eventually he'll drop it to someone else, wether it be to that top face or to someone just below them(ex. Warrior loses to Slaughter to lose to Hogan, Lesnar loses to Big Show to lose to Angle, Cena loses to Del Rio to lose to Punk). It's just the way WWE does things, and it's almost always worked. To show you why it works, let's look at Triple H and JBL. From 2003 to 2005, he DOMINATED everyone on Raw with Evolution and rarely lost The World Title. The held the belt nonstop from September of 02 to Mania XX with the exception of a one month Title reign for HBK and a 2 1/2 month reign by Goldberg. He lost it to Benoit, but was still overtaking his spotlight by fueding with HBK with Evolution, where he still won. Benoit loses it to Orton, Orton becomes a big face, an loses The Title in a month. Then at Mania 21 he FINALLY puts over Batista. The same night, JBL, who just a year before was Bradshaw of The APA, lost The WWE Title to John Cena after EIGHT MONTHS of boring PPV matches. One thing that WWE got right, was that Cena and Batista kept them for a bit to establish themselves as the top faces beofre the cycle I described earlier restarted with Edge and Kurt Angle, but the way getting there was just dreadful.

In TNA or WCW, you almost always have heels dominate the title scene and main storylines, such as Ric Flair & The Four Horsemen, to The nWo, to The Main Event Mafia, to today as Bobby Roode's held The World Title for 6 months. It'll be a great moment when he loses it, but you know in a heel dominated company like TNA, whoever won it wouldn't hold it for long(ex. Goldberg losing to Nash, Sting losing to Angle 4 days after BFG 07), but if they do, they turn heel sooner or later(ex. AJ Styles in 2010, Bobby Roode in 2011).

Having weak heels has been a tradition in wrestling for awhile, atleast in WWE. It's when they stay on top for too long that the purpose of them being on top loses it value.

 

[anthonymclaughlin]

Anyone else think Bryan looked strong as hell at Xtreme rules, i mean he basically dismantled the Celtic warrior as well as making him pass out, this is a guy who has been steamrolling through smack down since last september and D-bry made him pass out. Sheamus barely won, the match was exciting, Daniel finally got to show the wwe what he could do and now they've rewarded him with a fued against Punk. Am i missing something here?

 

[Cabana]

WWE would do well to establish a new monster heel champion. Frankly, I think Daniel Bryan, Alberto Del Rio or Dolph Ziggler would be the way to go. It's a very, very simple formula. It's similar to the "monster heel" push that Mark Henry got. The heel champion is:

a) the best wrestler on the roster.
b) an arrogant jerk
c) the unstoppable world champion who wins clean

If the best wrestler on the roster is an arrogant jerk because he's the unstoppable world champion, and the three parts feed into each other (I.e. he's an arrogant jerk because he's the world champ, and because he's the world champ, he knows he's the best) then it'd be a compelling character. Who will top the champ?

The champ needs a long reign (at least 4-6 months) to get over how DOMINANT he is. This works even better if he has a submission finisher, because making the fan favorite tap creates MORE heat than a pinfall. It's more visceral. "Your weenie babyface gave up to the mighty Yeslock!"

This was something like HHH in 2000. He was booked as the undisputed (lower case) best wrestler on the roster. That type of character will generate heat, and when you turn the belt over to conquering babyface (preferably a new face), you get a:

a) established main event heel threat to the title (but you have to have the former champ get his heat back with a series of wins)
b) a hot babyface champion who is credible because he beat the heel.

This is easy booking. Build a champ who people a) want to see get beat and b) doubt will get beat. When it finally happens (and you have to foreshadow it so people buy the PPV), you'll get a big time new face.

Fantasy book:
Heel (Lesnar/Bryan/ADR/Ziggler) beats Punk for title CLEAN + in rematch. Then challenges babyface champion of Smackdown, who naturally accepts. Beats champ in buildup + wins title. Wins rematch CLEAN. You now have a CLEAN undisputed heel champion. Makes Undisputed title central to character, calls self (and delivers on being) a "fighting champion", meaning very regular successful, quick title defenses (feed 'em midcarders and Superstars types to protect PPV main events.)

The Heel champ wins clean in PPV feuds, announcers point out how invincible champ is. Create a similar invincible IC/US title contender, and move up card over course of title reign and build animosity between two (I know, this requires long term booking.) Finally, US/IC champ drops the title, announces he wants a shot at one of the big PPV's. Challenges heel fighting champion. Foresadow victory + WIN.

Presto, 2 new real main eventers.

 

[DirtyD79]

I can appreciate wanting to send the crowd home happy and all that bullshit but Christ's sake we don't need the whole show dumbed down to Barney and Friends' level. And don't give me the whole it's for kids PG shit. As a kid I would have said "What the hell did they do to Sheamus? He's a god damn geek." It's just like when Diesel turned face. He went from the badass former bodyguard into a dopey overgrown boy scout.

 

[gdkeen]

To the previous poster who asked if Bryan actually appeared quite strong at Extreme Rules:

You're absolutely right. I would argue that in his initial title defense he looked strong as well, getting DQ or gimmick wins over two monsters, sometimes at the same time.

His role in this Sheamus feud is only being perceived as "weak" because people don't understand how delicately WWE has to balance the rising popularity of both superstars.

 

[Dalinkwent]

Sorry but this isn't the 80's and early 90's anymore Chickenshit heels need to be done away with as the MAIN formula for booking heels. One thing I can't stand is a powerful hero fighting a weak and pathetic badguy, who cares if Sheamus FINALLY gets his hands on Bryan if he's already destroyed him with ease countless times? How does this build heat for either guy? I understand heels can't win everytime, but they need to win enough matches and look effective enough to carry the angle and keep people guessing. For example what's the point of Lesner now? His entire drawing point was DOMINANCE, now he's already been beaten by the top guy. Lesner beating Cena and putting him on the shelf opens up doors for other faces to stand up to him and for the future Cena rematch, now it doesn't matter because he's already lost. Are we all forgetting the HHH formula? He was boooked pretty strong for a heel, thus every feud he was involved with you cared because you knew he was able to deal with the top babyfaces.

 

[FlairFan2003]

heels are supposed to look weak, they have to cheat and backstab to survive, ITS WHAT MAKES THEM HEELS!! Granted, you can have heels like Savage, Flair, HHH, Blanchard, guys who can tear it up in the ring and allow them to showcase their abilities but they still have to look overwatched and resort to underhanded tactics to prevail. Even when HHH & Evolution were at their height Trips rarely won clean and often needed Flair et all to assist him.

As far as Sheamus not getting the good guy reaction WWE wants or Bryan getting a more positive reaction than he should based on how he has been booked, that has nothing to do with any "weak heel" or "WWE protects faces too much" mentality, Sheamus simply has no charisma, at least as a good guy. We've seen this a million times in wrestling. Bryan is getting a small faction of the audience to cheer him based on the perception that he hasnt been used properly, and he is entertaining.

Ultimately fans reaction based on charisma and talent decide popularity, the NWA had to book the Road Warriors as favs because they connected with fans who cheered them no matter what, even against really popular good guys. The same phenomenon played out in the 90s with Ric Flair getting cheered vs Hogan and Austin getting cheered vs Hart. Eventually WWE changes the way said wrestler is booked to maximize money. There is no conspiracy

 

[whoopin' ass]

heels are supposed to look weak, they have to cheat and backstab to survive, ITS WHAT MAKES THEM HEELS!!

yes and no. if that is all you ever had, the business would go under because people would expect it and quit watching the matches. look at Austin when he first started - clearly in heel mode but didn't take shortcuts to win all the time. HBK, Bret Hart, Vader, etc - they all had the superior ability and didn't always have to cheat to win. you need to have a bit of both and right now, they don't because a heel Lesnar beating a face Cena could hurt business even though given their backgrounds, Cena should have been beat. and winning cleanly doesn't make you a good face. I don't know about anyone else but seeing Santino get these fluke wins doesn't make me want to cheer for him. i want matches where i don't know who is going to win. I want to see the heel beat the face clean in the middle of the ring so that the face has to regroup and come back stronger to win. that's how matches and angles are sold. if heels are supposed to look weak, why did the nWo do so well? they did all the dirty tricks but were made to look strong(a little too strong in the long run but the initial 6-12 months were booked pretty good). it is simple - your face is only as good as the people he goes up against. that is why people think better of guys like The Rock and Austin than they do of Cena - has nothing to do with how they work but who they work against. when your opponent is a joke, you don't really look that great beating them.

 

[scomvp316]

I think VKM has dementia and he thinks its 1985. I really don't think VKM knows what to do with heels of the post attitude era. unless of course if you are banging a top executives daughter then you might actually get some where of being a top heel. Savage was made to look like a joke until he went face after WM 7. Punk for two years got nothing but a jobbers role until he was face. Much like the last time Punk was face they have made him much weaker as time has gone on as a face. WWE has this notion that heel's are just to put over all the face's. The only time a heel in the WWE got anything was during the attitude era. VKM has never understood the wrestling fan. Keep in mind VKM isn't a wrestling promoter but he refers to himself as a business man thats just involved with wrestling. Oh my bad I mean Sports Entertainment. All VKM does is lokks at the Top 10 in merchandise sales and determines main event's by that token. Top merchandise sales doesn't always equate to top ratings. We all can do that and see who the #1 talent is based off of sales but that doesn't mean that talent is the driving force of the company. In the 80's and early 90's that was the case but like everything else things evolve over time. VKM only created attitude because Bisch was kicking his ass. If WCW wasn't pushing Vince almost out the door Bret Hart would of never been anti-American and SCSA would still be a jobber in VKM's eyes!

 

[Headman]

It has nothing to do with morals or the show being aimed at kids. The reason the WWE produces so many weak heels is for one reason and one reason alone. To get you people to stop cheering the freaking heels! The second a heel shows a backbone they instantly get cheered and that goes against the entire reason for being a heel in the first place. A heels job is first and formost to get booed and because of the way fans are today you've got to make them look like chicken sh@t cowards to do that.

 

[scomvp316]

The bottom line is VKM doesn't believe heels can be big draws and rival top faces in sales. If Flair never went to JCP/WCW WWE would of used him similar to Edge. Multiple title reigns but very very short reigns. You can still have certain heels cheered by the audience and have a portion of the audience buying tickets to see that same heel possibly getting beat every night. Flair was cheered by the audience but people bought tickets to see him and the Horsemen get beat up every night. VKM has never understood the thought process of the fans. Miz or Ziggler could be used similar to Flair but WWE management has no concept of how to use heels properly

 

[Headman]

The bottom line is VKM doesn't believe heels can be big draws and rival top faces in sales. If Flair never went to JCP/WCW WWE would of used him similar to Edge. Multiple title reigns but very very short reigns. You can still have certain heels cheered by the audience and have a portion of the audience buying tickets to see that same heel possibly getting beat every night. Flair was cheered by the audience but people bought tickets to see him and the Horsemen get beat up every night. VKM has never understood the thought process of the fans. Miz or Ziggler could be used similar to Flair but WWE management has no concept of how to use heels properly

Flair was a prime example of a cowardly heel. He'd beg his way out of getting beaten to a pulp in the corner then he'd hit the low blow while the ref wasn't looking. Knocking VKM is a bit unfair considering in the past he's used dominant non monster heels more than anybody. Triple H was a heel who rarely had to cheat to win. He wasn't a coward and if not for the "Boss' daughter" nonesense people would have cheered him. And to be honest it's a lot of the fans who have no idea how to use heels properly.

 

[scomvp316]

I think the term cowardly referring to heels is the wrong terminology. Beatable heels is what Flair was and easily was a equal to Hogan. Triple H is more compared to Harley Race with the violent streak some weeks and then other weeks seems beatable to make fans buy tickets and PPV's. Lots of fans bring up the same point if he wasn't with Steph would he been the top guy when the Rock was focusing on Hollywood and SCSA was nursing injuries. WWE has always thought heels only use is to build faces with limited title time for heels. Just look at how many great heels WWE has had no-attitude era and how much title time have they had?

 

[The Eighties]

It has nothing to do with morals or the show being aimed at kids. The reason the WWE produces so many weak heels is for one reason and one reason alone. To get you people to stop cheering the freaking heels! The second a heel shows a backbone they instantly get cheered and that goes against the entire reason for being a heel in the first place. A heels job is first and formost to get booed and because of the way fans are today you've got to make them look like chicken sh@t cowards to do that.

This is it in a nutshell, ever since the crowd turned Stone Cold the cool heel has been a problem for wrestling booking. Triple H was able to be booked strongly because the faces up against him (Foley, Austin, Rock) were so mega over. These days with a return to good guy faces like Cena, the cool heel is damaging, therefore WWE books them all in the same way, unable to win a match against a main event face without cheating.

Foley makes a good point in his first book that a strong heel is best because it makes the faces ultimate victory mean more, as anyone can beat a chickenshit heel, but sadly wrestling hasn't been able to find the faces in this current era to allow stronger heels.