No matter how much pro wrestling changes from era to era, no matter how it evolves over time; there are certain things we perceive as constants. One such constant is the dichotomy of heels and faces – the need for wrestling to present itself as a battle between overbearing or weasel-like villains and the fan favourites who fight the good fight.
Over the years though, perceptions of what heels and faces are have changed quite a bit. In particular, the role of a heel has seemingly been diluted. These days, while they still commit nefarious deeds in the traditional sense, it often feels like the role of the modern heel is merely to appease fans who don’t buy into white-bread superheroes.
Earlier this week, Jim Ross mused on the role of main event heels on his blog;
“[Bad News] Barrett has many of the necessary villain traits necessary to be a villain in today’s TV Wrestling world that most of his peers don’t exhibit.
The subtle nuances of being a main event level villain in pro wrestling are being either ignored or simply not focused on in today’s TV wrestling world. Too many antagonists would rather be ‘cool’ that to be truly disliked. It has never been harder in my lifetime to be a pro wrestling villain than it is today and that’s not a good thing.”
To me, the changing of the way heels are presented is more about accommodating modern audiences rather than intentional neutering of wrestling’s villains. With the ascension of Steve Austin in the late ’90s, the idea of what makes a good babyface was turned on its head. People cheered for the reckless, self-indulgent loner who did things to suit himself. While the McMahon faction that opposed him was supremely evil in an almost cliché manner, they also represented conformity and abidance by ‘standards and practices’ which the masses loved to see bucked.
Fast forward to the current era and the biggest star in all of pro wrestling is one who is vehemently disliked by many for his wide smile and super hero antics. It seems as though John Cena can do no right in the eyes of a lot of fans, regardless of his endless string of top quality matches, as to them he’ll always be a corny do-gooder.
With that in mind, it feels as though heels in modern wrestling don’t exist just to rile up the fans any more – gone are the days where the heel’s worth was measured in how much money was spent to see them get their comeuppance. Instead, modern heels serve as babyface alternatives for the fans who like characters with a sharper edge and a less pandering shtick. Cena’s battles with CM Punk and, more recently, the incredibly charismatic Bray Wyatt have been about more than just good vs. evil. The reactions to Wyatt at Wrestlemania and the following RAW tell you that he is an anti-hero to a significant portion of the fanbase. You could spend countless weeks having him brutalize every lovable face on your roster but ultimately there will always be a demographic who chooses him over the perceived ‘golden child.’
It’s just a part of what wrestling is today; something people view as just another TV show. They see beyond the fallacy of a legitimate sporting event where one guy cheats, making him a hateful scoundrel, and instead see it as a cast of characters – which will divide the audience based on their characteristics. One of the things I found most fascinating about Breaking Bad was that, anecdotally, my friends all had massively conflicting opinions on who they liked and didn’t like. It wasn’t a show of heroes and villains; just people. Lovable and hateable characters on both sides of the law, all with enough depth that they’d surprise you from time to time and make you question that first impression. Specifically; everyone had a different opinion on whether or not they wanted the infamous Heisenberg to ride off into the sunset, go to jail, die in a hail of bullets, reform or whatever.
Now, before you close this article, block me on twitter, and tell your friends about some maniac who compared Breaking Bad to Monday Night RAW – rest assured that’s not what I’m doing. I’m just saying that audiences relish such an opportunity to pick their own favourites, for their own reasons, rather than buying into these established narratives that we’ve seen recycled for decades.
Most kids like John Cena because he’s heroic. Many older fans hate him because he’s tacky. People like me enjoy him regardless because he’s talented. There are some folks who fall in the middle. Likewise, characters such as CM Punk can be a hated villain in the eyes of some demographics, whereas others worship the ground he walks on, even when he’s pouring a dead guy’s remains all over the Undertaker.
It becomes even harder to be a traditional villain when you look to the independent scene. With companies like Ring of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, the audiences are more discerning – they want to cheer who they view as the most talented individual, and if the babyface isn’t that individual, they’re not going to conform with the booker’s narrative. A good example of this came when Kevin Steen, portraying an anti-hero against Davey Richard’s ‘company boy’ image in 2012 (note: this angle is kind of funny in retrospect), cut a scathing promo on the New York city fans at Best in the World 2012, for their picky and fickle nature.
“The most hypocritical people in pro wrestling don’t acknowledge [Richards as the best in the world], and I am of course talking about all of you fans. You are the most hypocritical pieces of shit in pro wrestling. Another example of your hypocrisy; you buy your little ticket to come to an ROH event, and then you cheer for Bryan Danielson and CM Punk! Do you think those two even remember this company? NO. NO. NO. There’s a lot of irony in you chanting for those guys considering how much you love turning on world champions. Turn on me? Hell no. Because in order to turn on me, I’d have to care about you.”
At the time, I thought the angle was a surprising twist; a slightly-meta attempt to challenge fan perceptions of how they treat wrestlers. Ironically though, as he attempted to cut to their core and make them feel bad, the crowd universally cheered Steen – proving that some people just go to ROH shows to cheer their favourite guy and wont buy into any forced attempts to make him into a villain.
If traditional face and heel roles were ever to be ditched, it would almost surely start at the independent level. In fact, given most real attractions on the indies are driven by great talent A vs. great talent B and not ‘good vs. evil’ programs, it seems as though some fans are rolling their eyes at the latter more and more. I don’t know too many people who have been enamored with PWG’s Mount Rushmore angle, as more and more main events devolve into Attitude Era-like car wrecks with ref bumps and run ins galore. There’s now a slight feeling of resentment, as these hamfisted and perhaps out-dated attempts at getting people over at heels has taken an effect on the most important thing to indie fans; match quality.
As I said; the face vs. heel dynamic is often thought of as something of a constant. It’s as old as pro wrestling itself. Whether it is dramatically altered or done away with all together remains to be seen but there’s still a lot to be said for more traditional heroes.
If you want to weigh in on this issue, as always you can shoot me a tweet. Thanks for reading!