I have one question to all you "heels" out there...why you so afraid to be a heel?One thing that has been bugging me a lot lately is that heels are afraid to be heels nowadays. Gone are the days when a bad guy is hated whole-heartedly by every person in the crowd. Why is this? Because the heels are afraid to be heels. What do I mean? I'll tell you.
Bad guys are supposed to be just that: bad guys. They are supposed to do bad things. They are supposed to cheat. They are supposed to be dastardly. And, more specifically, they are not supposed to be COOL. Therein lies the problem...heels have to be cool nowadays.
It seems as though the modern heel is afraid to look bad. Or dumb. Or inferior. Hey! Guess what? That's your job! Your job is to make the babyface look good! Not yourself! But, more often than not, this doesn't happen. The heel does just as many highspots as the babyface. He does the same amount of "cool moves." The result? He's a babyface. I don't care what he is supposed to be. Or what is written in the "script." He isn't a heel. He's a babyface. So guess what? He isn't doing his job.
I think a lot of it has to do with the internet community. Too many workers are marks for themselves. They want to go home, log onto the 'net, and see the fans praise them to no end. They want to have the "match of the night". They want to be "over".
Whatever happened to wanting to be HATED. Legitimately hated. And, instead of having the "match of the night", how about making your opponent look like the "star of the night." I don't know of too many guys that have that goal - to simply make their opponent look like a star. I say this a lot...but it really is a "lost art." That's pro wrestling folks. Heels making the babyfaces look like a million bucks. So much so that the fans buy the babyface merch and buy tickets to see those same babyfaces beat the crap out of the bad guys.You know what the babyfaces used to do? They used to give a percentage of their merch sales to the heels they were working that night!!! Why? Because the heel "made" those babyfaces. It only seems fair. Man I love that idea. But it's just UNHEARD of today. Today, the heels have just as many t-shirts as the babyfaces.
I think there's another reason for this problem. Promoters. There just aren't that many promoters that recognize and APPRECIATE a good heel. Most promoters look at how "over" a guy is. How many "Os" he gets in his match. It's a shame. Most "heels" nowadays get booked because they have a reputation of doing some cool stuff in the ring. They have a reputation for being very athletic and being able to "pull off" a bunch of high spots. It's ridiculous.
When are promoters going to stop being marks and recognize a good heel when they see one?(If I work for you, I don't mean you). Jeez...I almost lost all of my bookings there. :) A good heel is easy to spot. They don't sell any merch because the crowd hates them. The crowd does not applaud what they do. And the crowd comes unglued when they see this guy lose. That's a bad guy. That's a heel.
Whenever I do a show where the babyfaces sell out of merch, but I seem to not sell ONE picture (as a heel), I can't help but smile. Some might say it's because I suck. Because the people don't like me. EXACTLY. I just look at it as though I did my job.Is this going to change? I don't know. Probably not. Guys are going to continue to "get their stuff in" in there matches. They are going to continue to make sure they get that cool move they do into their match. They're going to make sure that the crowd pops for what they do. Why? Well... because it seems to get them booked. Because workers are becoming marks for themselves. As are the promoters. The business side of "the business" is slowly dying out.
In closing, I just want to dedicate this blog to the "true heels" out there. This blog goes out to that heel who refuses to do a moonsault simply because they know how to do one. To the heel that DOES NOT have to "get his stuff in" when he plans out a match. To the heel that does not secretly want the fans to like him. To the heel that wants his babyface opponent to get the loudest pop and sell the most merch at the end of the night. This blog goes out to you. The TRUE heel.
Are there any of you out there?
Keep giviner,
Cody
14 comments: on "Why You So Afraid To Be A HEEL?!"
This is a good point, but you also have to remember that in this day and age, wrestling fans are very different compared to back in the old days where people literally covered the ring in garbage when Hogan turned heel. If a superstar has a line that's supposed to be annoying, or come off as cocky, fans will generally start to enjoy the line and say it along with the wrestler. Case in point, Armando Alejandro Estrada and Ken Kennedy.
The other big problem is, it's hard to get a well-defined heel because of how diverse wrestling's fan base is now. One of the best examples of a heel in WWE that I can think of right now is William Regal. No high spots, no flashy pyro, he just walks down to the ring with a sneer on his face and wrestles. Marks and children hate Regal because "he's the bad guy". Smarks love him because he can wrestle like nobody's business. So no matter what you do, somebody's cheering for you. Since if you can't wrestle or be entertaining, they push you as a face and give you your own customized spinner championship.
It would seem as though, these days, if a wrestler on television wants to be truly hated, he must do something backstage to make him hated, and consequently blur the lines of kayfabe and reality. Which, in essence, means that a true heel is someone who legitimately is bad for the business, either by making for bad P.R.(the steroid scandal with Orton), doing something so distasteful that it offends people on a really personal level(i.e. Orton blasting Guerrero months after his passing) or just causing chaos within the business(i.e. Jarrett playing politics).
Now that we have someone who is truly heel, the problem is that if those people are so legit hated, and had to go to such extreme lengths to be hated, then nobody wants to watch them. Orton isn't over at all, and everybody was so sick of Jarrett they actually started chanting "Please retire" at him.
Since the 80's and mid 90's, technology has come a long way, and it has seeped into the professional wrestling world. As far as the comment about heels checking online to see people's reactions-I can't say I blame them. Marks won't tell them they wrestled a good match, the people backstage are too worried about the almighty dollar, so who does that leave to critique the performance? The smarks. Jason can hopefully back me up on this. Hell, our very own beloved play-by-play man and barbecue sauce connoisseur, Big Daddy Donnie, talked about some of the really dope spots in your match against Hayden Avery at GCW.
Okay, so Indies are a horse of a different color, but I figured I'd put over how sick of a match it was just so that you didn't start to think this was a flame.
I agree with you, well-defined heels are few and far between these days, which is probably why a.) Triple H main events so much, and b.) both WrestleMania title matches were face vs. face. WWE almost seems confused at how to make a heel and keep him hot.
I'd be afraid to do something too if the people istructing me on how to do it didn't know what the fuck they were talking about.
Man, Brian is young. To him, the old days are when Hogan turned heel!!
Ahahahahahaha. I'm only 18, ya dick. Way to skip right over the Cena bash.
Deaner, I'd like to know who you see as the top heels on the indies and on television.
I have to agree heels are differnt now a days then in the past. Back in the 80s you had heels like the Iron Shiek, Big John Studd, Adian Adonis, and a bunch of Russians so of course fans didn't like them cause there wasn't much to like about them. Now a days you have wrestlers like Edge, Christian, Kennedy, Orton, King Booker and Finlay. Most of them are very good on the mic and most of them are good wrestlers better then most of the faces especially when the faces are Cena and Batista. That is probbaly why most of the wrestlers I like in the the E and TNA are heels or "tweeners". You also need a good heel for the face to feed off of. That is why Edge and Cena's feud was good and that is why back in the day the Hogan and Piper's feud was good. I'm sure if I was older when Piper was in his hay day I might have been a big fan of his like I am Edge and Kennedy now. The first heels I liked though were the cool and cocky ones, the Hart Foundation, the Horsemen and Mr.Perfect.
I think Austin and the nWo had alot to do with fans especially men who are past 20 started to like heels cause they were cool and living out our fantasies like beating the crap out of our bosses and drinking beer on the job.
I understand every point made, and totally agree that there will never be a heel to the level of heels in the 70's and 80's. I'm only 19, but after watching tape after tape of old local stuff, old national and international stuff, the crowds have changed too much. I don't want to become a philosophizer(name that movie), but it also speaks towards what society has come to. Gone are the days when Jim Ross or his protege Big Daddy could scream into their headset, "Damn him, damn that bastard to hell," and truly incite that response from the crowd. Truth is evil sells, and so does being a chickenshit. I remember(somewhat secondhand) when a chickenshit heel could get heat by coming out and then retreating before even being struck. Speaking to the chickenshit thing as a way to get over as a heel, look at Eric Young the Ontario Orizeral(does anybody else get that?) He's the biggest chickenshit in wrestling, and God bless him for it, but it got him SOOO over. He's one of the hottest dudes in TNA right now. I bet Donnie agrees on a whole other level though.
Another thing, most babyfaces have truly unlikeable qualities. Ie John Cena, Batista, Sting, Carlito, and so on and so forth. People don't buy them as good guys simply because most of them take the, "by any means necesary" approach, or because they suck, or they are natural heels that could draw heel heat in an instant if given the chance. Cody you are absolutely right, there are to many self-marks out there nowdays, and it may have not hurt business, but it's hurt the product in comparisson to the old days.
Another reason that this might have happened is because the only way to market people is apparently through merch sales. Especially in the E, I don't know too much about how it works on the indy shows, but guys want to put themselves out there and make money off their own stuff. HHH like Brian said wasn't a true heel. He had a heroes entrance, and when people saw that entrance they said oh man, that's cool as hell. If it wasnt the entrance there was still something else about him that people(who didnt know he was the king of politics)loved. He is maybe the king of "getting his stuff in." How many H matches have their been since his marriage, I mean climb to prominence, have you not seen the jumping knee to the sternum(or face), the face crusher on the knee, the catapult into the turnbuckle after a failed attempt at the pedigree, and hell for that matter how many matches have you not seen a pedigree? Guys worried about their legacy should realize that if one of them NOW wanted to be a true heel, he would almost be viewed as a revolutionary, or a groundbreaker. Orton is close, but while not over, he has a core group of fans. Orton has very audible cheers in arena's. Edge is a guy who played up the Heel gimmick to a T during his box office smashing feud with Cena, and I remember one RAW in particular when he and Lita exited through the halls of the arena, and he passed a merch table and grabbed all his shirts and said, "you jackasses dont deserve my merchandise," so he proceeded to walk out the arena with about 25-30 shirts in his arms. That was true heel moments, although his merch sales probably doubled or tripled after. Along with the merch sales though, there is the fact that people as a whole have changed, and in wrestling it's either more evident, or the people are just more willing to voice a love for heels. People want to be different or something like that, I don't really know, but people almost seem more willing to cheer a heel than ever before.
I don't know thats just my thoughts on it all, but on a side note, being a true heel is indeed a lost art, and I too would take pride in making a babyface look like the best bastard on the card, and never EVER getting in the ring with him on a level playing field unless I could help him. I miss sneak attacks, failed sneak attacks, and running like a little bitch when the babyface came for you. Cody Deaner...REDNECK REVOLUTIONARY? Haha, maybe maybe not, but it's good to know there is a true heel still lurking somewhere.
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Wow...why don't you go OD on some of those pills and die. This is Tha O Show, not a fucking medical conference.
Thats the second or third time that shits happened it aint cool either.
DJB to me Triple H is a heel beacuse of his tactics behind the scenes keeping wrestlers down who should be pushed and helping depush wrestlers who were about to break the glass ceiling like RVD. Also keeping hold of the WWE/World title for several years. I think he has gotten better about the whole title thing since he wasn't hled it now for 2 years but of course if it wasn't for his injury he may have won it at WM 23. The same can be said for Jeff Jarrett. It will be interesting to see how long Jarrett will go without getting the TNA heavyweight title back around his waits. Of course he may hold off becomeing TNA champ right now cause of his wife's illness. Of couse his wife in such bad shape he may become a different man and wrestler and like he said this Thurs. he will give back to the wrestling business now.
Talking about heels most of the wrestlers I like in Heartland Wrestling Associataion are heels to. My favroites are John Moxley , The Irish Airborne and the 5 Most Wanted. they are good wrestlers and most of them are good on the mic also.
For the love of God signguy, please don't question the omnipitentness of HHH on here, didnt my arguments in the past teach you that he was god? Ask at least 90% of the people on here. Seriously though, I agree with you 100% but we are now enemies to soooo many on here. Shit, I love the heat especially when it comes to the anteater, brace yourself it's coming.
I have a few points to make, and some questions to answer:
1) "It would seem as though, these days, if a wrestler on television wants to be truly hated, he must do something backstage to make him hated, and consequently blur the lines of kayfabe and reality."
I completely disagree. I true heel can be a heel on camera and be a totally respectful person in "reality." That's what defines you as a good "worker" or a bad "worker." And the base of my argument is just that - nowadays, there are less and less good workers; thus, the ART of being a true heel is fastly fading.
2) "Deaner, I'd like to know who you see as the top heels on the indies and on television."
Good question. On the indies? I still like Tyson Dux and Tornado as heels. The reason they are good, and have always been good, is because they know their role. If they are HEELS, they are heels. If they are babyfaces, they are babyfaces. They don't blur the lines.
On TV? I think Edge is the hottest heel on TV right now. He always manages to get the most heat. AND, he always makes his babyface opponent look like a million bucks.
3) "Talking about heels most of the wrestlers I like in Heartland Wrestling Associataion are heels to. My favroites are John Moxley , The Irish Airborne and the 5 Most Wanted."
I've never heard of Irish Airbourne or 5 Most Wanted, but I have wrestled Jon Moxley, and I agree - he is very good at what he does.
Everyone makes some very good points.
Keep giviner.
Cody
Edge is the top heel in the business, and he still gets huge pops from time to time. Smarks all love him, which proves my point. The epitome of a true heel is hated by everyone. The line between smarks and marks is so clearly drawn that there are a lot of heels that smarks still cheer for. You can't please all the people all the time, and now, you seemingly can't piss all the people off all the time.
I gotta warn you, though, Cody...even if you are working as a heel at BPB, I'm still gonna be cheering my head off for you.
Maybe there should be a new boo that only smarks use. So that way we still boo our beloved heels. Like instead of boo, it would be GIIII-VVVVVVV-EEEEEERRRRRRRRR
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