TRIVIA ABOUT HEEL AND FACE! In professional wrestling, a face or babyface (in British Wrestling traditionally referred to as a blue-eye, and in Lucha libre as a technico or técnico) is a character who is portrayed as a heroic relative to the heel wrestlers, who are analogous to villains. Not everything a face wrestler does must be heroic: faces need only to be cheered by the audience to be effective characters. The vast majority of wrestling storylines place a heel against a face. Traditional babyfaces are classic good guy characters who do not break the rules, follow instructions of those in authority such as the referee, are polite and well-mannered towards the fans, and often overcome the rule- breaking actions of their heel opponents to cleanly win matches. While many modern faces still fit this model, other versions of the face character are now also common. The portrayal of face wrestlers changed in the 1990s with the birth of Extreme Championship Wrestling, the start of World Championship Wrestlings nWo storyline, and The Attitude Era of the World Wrestling Federation.During this time, wrestlers like Stone Cold Steve Austin and Sting used tactics traditionally associated with heels but remained popular with the fans.Although wrestlers such as Dick the Bruiser, Crusher and Freddie Blassie had been babyfaces while using such tactics well before this, the Attitude Era is usually credited with this new kind of face. Conversely, Kurt Angle was introduced to the World Wrestling Federation with an American hero gimmick based on his gold medal win at the 1996 Summer Olympics.[citation needed] In his promos, Angle presented himself as a role model and stressed the need to work hard to realize ones dreams. [citation needed] Although such a personality appears appropriate for a face wrestler, Angles character was arrogant, talked down to the audience, and behaved as if he thought he was better than the fans.[citation needed] Angles character served as a meta- reference to how wrestling had changed. Although his character was intended to be a heel and behaved accordingly, some commentators speculated that if Angle attempted to get over as a babyface using a more heroic version of the same character, he would have failed. Notably, Angle did not use any of these heroic mannerisms when playing a face character, instead acting as somewhat of an antihero with a few elements of the lovable loser character archetype. Fans sometimes boo baby face wrestlers despite the way they are promoted. Some reasons this may occur include repetitive in-ring antics, a limited moveset, a lengthy title reign, lack of selling his/her opponents moves, or an uninteresting character. This often results in wrestlers who are supposed to be cheered receiving a negative or no reaction from the fans. The Rock, who initially wrestled as Rocky Maivia (November 1996 to August 1997), was depicted as a classic babyface, but the fans despised him. His constant attempts to get the crowd on his side struck them as obsequiousness and made him even less popular. Ironically, The Rock would achieve widespread popularity among fans when he took heel turns, during which his attempts to humorously mock the crowd would often be met with cheers. John Cena has a history of receiving mixed reactions and even full heat from crowds despite being presented as a babyface. Some face wrestlers would often give high fives or give out their own personal merchandise while entering the ring before their match, such as t shirts, sunglasses, hats, masks, ect. to the fans. Bret Hart was one of first guys to make this popular as he would drape his signature sunglasses to a young kid in the audience. Other faces who have gave out free merchandise in the past and present have been Finlay and Hornswoggle, DX, John Morrison, The Hurricane, Rey Mysterio, John Cena, Eugene, Randy Orton, etc. n professional wrestling, a heel (also known as a rudo in Lucha libre) is a villain character.[1] In non-wrestling jargon, heels are the bad guys in professional wrestling storylines. They are typically opposed by a babyface or more simply, face (crowd favorite). Some tweeners (not explicitly regarded as good or bad) exhibit heel mannerisms. Heels are often portrayed as behaving in an immoral manner, breaking rules or otherwise taking advantage of their opponents outside the bounds of the rules of the match. Others do not (or rarely) break rules, but exhibit unlikeable personality traits. No matter the type of heel, the most important job is that of the antagonist role. Heels exist to provide a foil to the face wrestlers. If a given heel is cheered over the face, a promoter may opt to turn that heel to face, or to make the wrestler do something even more despicable to encourage heel heat. The term heel is most likely is derived from a slang usage of the word that first appeared around 1914, meaning contemptible person. Common heel behavior includes cheating to win (e.g., using the ropes for leverage while pinning or attacking with foreign objects while the referee is looking away), attacking other wrestlers backstage, interfering with other wrestlers matches, insulting the fans (referred to as cheap heat), and acting in a haughty or superior manner.[2] Once in a while, faces who have recently turned from being heels will still exhibit some heel characteristics. For example, Kurt Angle, even after turning face for his feud with Mark Henry, used a steel chair, an exposed steel ring peg, and leverage from the ropes during his pin to secure his victory at the Royal Rumble 2006. John Cena, after his initial face turn, often used a steel chain to win some of his matches, such as the one against the Big Show at WrestleMania XX. Finlay is also another example after his face turn as he continues to use his signature shillelagh to win matches illegally. Also certain wrestlers, such as Ric Flair or Eddie Guerrero, gained popularity as faces by using heel tactics.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 09:05:04 +0000
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