What Makes A Good Heel In 2011?

[cobystag]

Swearengen did get a face turn when Tolliver and to a larger extent Hurst turned up.

[Fatty Facesitter]

For the heel to not only feel justified in what he's saying, but for the heel to actually be justified in what he's saying are two tickets to making an incredibly effective heel. One of the key elements that really wind up an audience is when a heel challenges their mindsets, i.e in a promo. I think it was Gladstone who posted or at least mentioned something about a Muhammed Hassan segment on Raw in '05 where he basically ripped into Americans for their treatment of Arab Americans, that's a great example, especially considering it was a touchy subject. There was some real truth to what he was saying and it would be pretty difficult for any of the fans to argue with it in hindsight.

 

I thought Christian had a compelling argument for his own heel turn in the feud with Orton. He was getting repeatedly screwed over and at first it seemed like Teddy Long had it in for him for some strange reason, even though each time besides the initial title loss to Orton he was actually in the right. Actually, he was even unlucky in the having to defend his title just days after a ladder match, not many babyfaces are put into that situation against another babyface at least. Yet he was seen as serial complainer.

 

Re: Henry, I hope he wins the title. Otherwise this will have just been another false dawn type of push not just for him, but the type that we've seen so many times it just doesn't surprise anyone anymore. Call it the fake brass rings that CM Pun was banging on about, if you will. He deserves it as well, he's actually been brilliant recently and to his eternal credit he's been a cracking servant for the company for a number of years.

[darkship]

The same things that always made a good heel, except it's twice as hard nowadays to get heat, because of changes in society. As Bobby Heenan put it a few years ago, you've got terrorist atrocities, foreign wars, serial killers, economic depression on the news every night - in such a world it's hard to get worked up over a guy pulling the tights!

 

Further to previous comments outlining the general stupidity of the quote, it's a bizarre thing for an 80s heel to say. The Lockerbie bombing was in 1988, the same year that Heenan was still making a ton of money with Andre the Giant- and the Cold War was still going on until 1991. Ricky Ramirez and the Unabomber were prevalent during the 1980s. There was an economic depression in 1990-1991 in the United States, at the same time Heenan was managing the Intercontinental Champion. None of this had any bearing on his overness.