What Makes A Good Heel In 2011?

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Henry's probably got a good balance of followers. He's over with the current audience. And all the smart marks like Henry these days. Meltzer likes him. There's a lot of people on here that like him. Alvarez and his plank of a friend Vinny think he should win the belt tomorrow night because he's the best heel on the roster. And he is. Alberto's a good performer and I really like watching him, but he's a big ball of confusion. I dont know whether he's a cocky rich man or a man low on confidence from the amount of times he gets hammered on the mic by his opponents. Henry's a more defined character than Punk, Del Rio, Christian and Triple H. At least we know Henry's a bastard and the reasons why he's a bastard are clear to everyone.

 

And it means little what the fans on the internet say anyway. If it did, all those Super Shredder and click click references would rise this viewership above 2.7.

[King Pitcos]

Course Henry should be in the main event. There's no heel on Smackdown at the minute who would be more appropriate to go against Orton at Night of Champions. Christian's had his very-extended run with the Viper, and Barrett's not changed enough since his last fifty title matches with Orton. Cody Rhodes, with the right storyline, might be nearly as good a choice as Henry, but he's got his own championship to defend.

[mdh85]

Sometimes people think far too in depth with a characters back story and justifications when wrestling is supposed to run in a cycle by which we forget about most of their past.

 

Only because of lazy booking and the sheer volume of TV they have to produce. If WWE's creative department put a bit more emphasis on continuity and logical character progression, they'd have a lot more success in creating stars,

[King Pitcos]

Sometimes people think far too in depth with a characters back story and justifications when wrestling is supposed to run in a cycle by which we forget about most of their past.

Except when they remind us of it and it helps add weight to a storyline, like the current "you've been here fifteen years and done fuck all" storyline with Henry.

 

Only because of lazy booking and the sheer volume of TV they have to produce. If WWE's creative department put a bit more emphasis on continuity and logical character progression, they'd have a lot more success in creating stars,

Only if said continuity and logical character progression were exciting and interesting, though. I think as a wrestling booker, you should always take exciting over logical if you have to pick between the two. Otherwise the Horsemen would be causing DQs at the start of Flair's title defences.

 

Of course, in a lot of cases, you shouldn't have to pick between the two. And there's no excuse for choosing neither.

[Fox Piss]

Course Henry should be in the main event. There's no heel on Smackdown at the minute who would be more appropriate to go against Orton at Night of Champions. Christian's had his very-extended run with the Viper, and Barrett's not changed enough since his last fifty title matches with Orton. Cody Rhodes, with the right storyline, might be nearly as good a choice as Henry, but he's got his own championship to defend.

 

 

I am not disagreeing that he shouldn't be in the Smackdown main event at NOC my point was that he should of never been put in that position in the first place.

 

I believe his present run has been a failure. From his huge spots that look badly set up to the Sexual Chocolate chants.

 

The question is Will he be in a other Smackdown PPV main event after NOC? Which i believe he will not.

 

Time will tell.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

This interview was brilliant as well. On a roster where Ted DiBiase, John Morrison and PubesHair and Perfects son are knocking about, its harsh to say he has not charisma. His presence is tremendous. He's a bad man. He's giving bad men bad looks. He's a prince amongst thieves, murderers and crooks.

[King Pitcos]

I always thought that draft interview was strange at the time. He must've known he was in for some good stuff on Smackdown. Henry's got loads of charisma. He's no Rock or Cena, but he's completely convincing as a big scary black bloke. Everything he says is brilliant, and he says it all like he means it. Even when he was just telling Teddy Long this week "you don't tell me what to do!" I was gripped.

[gmoney]

I think Bobby Heenan's off his tits with that comment. Cristiano Ronaldo's hated for cheating. And he isnt a bad bloke I imagine. And its not like there wasnt war's, riots, unemployment and terrible things happening in 1986. Your hated as it pertains to your field of entertainment. People arent thinking of world affairs watching wrestling. When people want to watch to see Floyd Mayweather get his head smacked in, they arent thinking "well, he wouldnt blow a train up, so he isnt a bad lad." Its a ridiculous comment I think. Wrestlers were never on par with terrorists when they were super over. In 1998, nobody was throwing acid at Dude Love or Kane. You are there to emotionally invest in the characters. Not to compare them to terrorists.

 

Absolutely stellar comment.

[Ravenhill Promotions]

CM Punk, because he sucks as a face!

[Devon Malcolm]

Henry's been fantastic for months now but I think what's helping him is that he seems to be in great shape. A few years ago he was knackered and sweating like a paedo in the Early Learning Centre after a couple of minutes. Now he seems to have really good stamina and can put together a longer match than he used to be able to do.

[Vamp]

Whatm akes a good heel is a good babyface. What makes a babyface is a good heel. Unfortunately, good babyfaces also need the right atmosphere, and in today's society I think its much harder to be a good babyface. Its not harder to be a heel at all. But to be genuinely liked by audiences? That's hard. PArt of that's probably because of the Attitude era. Although good guys in almost every medium now need more of an edge.

[PeterCarlosConners]

Kevin Nash.

[Magnum]

There's plenty of good heels about. Bully Ray and Austin Aries are wasted in TNA, because they are brilliant at what they do.

 

While I agree that someone like Bully Ray deserves a bigger stage - he's the best heel in the business right now - I'm going to be slightly controversial and say that TNA is, from a creative standpoint, the best place for a heel to get over and stay over as a heel. I'd go as far as to say that one of the reasons TNA is so shit at building babyface stars is because they place so much emphasis on keeping their heels strong. Bully Ray and Jeff Jarrett have for my money been the best two heels of the last year, but before that they've kept other leading heels like Kurt Angle in the MEM days and Christian before him very protected.

 

The WWE is the opposite. They seem to push heels strongly for 2-3 months at a time, then feed them to Cena, Triple H or Taker, and either phase them out or turn them face from there. Miz and Wade Barrett are pretty worthless these days as regards any potential to draw money, but they're examples of how quickly a heel can fall out of favour once he's done the obligatory job(s) to Cena. As others have alluded to, I have no idea what CM Punk is supposed to be these days, because as soon as he started showing signs of becoming a red-hot heel, they've apparently turned him face. The WWE is the only place in wrestling to become a legitimate star, but it's a terrible place these days to be a strong heel - if Mark Henry is still getting the same push at the end of the year, maybe we can talk about him as an exception.

[Loki]

Generally speaking, TNA keeps the heels strong because of the old wrestling idea that fans are more invested in faces chasing heels than vica versa. A heel champ who cheats and keeps the belt can keep the faces in wrestling fans favour for far longer, or so the story goes.

 

Bully Ray is the perfect example of a modern heel. He's a two-faced bastard, a bully of the worst kind, one who talks tough but ducks out of the ropes the whole time. He bullies junior members of Immortal too, then hides behind them when the faces turn up. He's not constantly trying in his matches to get himself over as a superb wrestler, he's trying to get the face over and make himself look despicable. I think from Austin/nWo onwards we went through a period where heels were cool and that actually made it harder to be a face.

 

So I'd say a good heel now has to commit himself to being a thoroughly unlikeable guy. That's why Anderson doesn't work as a heel - he's too smart-mouthed. He doesn't work as a face either because he's a selfish egomaniac. He needs to be one thing or the other.

[PeterCarlosConners]

It doesn't just happen in wrestling though, for example the Joker in the over long, over-rated Dark Knight and Al Swearengen in the fantastic Deadwood.