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#Post#: 3317--------------------------------------------------
what makes a good heel
By: tnafanforum Date: September 10, 2012, 8:22 am
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Ok what makes a good heel in wrestling then?
What do you think makes a good heel and why ?
#Post#: 3326--------------------------------------------------
Re: what makes a good heel
By: Sel Date: September 10, 2012, 10:33 am
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"People come on here screaming and shouting. But not me. Let me
tell you something my father taught me. If a man has enough
power, he can speak softly and everyone will listen. So it’s
much easier that way, isn’t it?" – Jake ‘the Snake’ Roberts.
Yeah, been watching his DVD again recently. His other line was
"Evil often wins, but never conquers."
These are both true. The best heels I've seen, in my opinion,
are sinister individuals, the kind you can never trust. They
will delight in the misery of others, step beyond the man to
play mind games. But it requires a certain persona to achieve
it. Jake Roberts, Eddie Guerrero, Kane, Undertaker, HHH, all
cerebral in their heel personas, and all work perfectly.
Then we have 'The Beasts'. These are the unassailable violent
monstrosities that must be seen as unconquerable. Silent
machines bent on destruction which should be built up as such.
Strike fear and terror without a word, all so that they can be
set up to take a fall. Problem with these types though is that
once they are defeated, what then? I tend to find their
wrestling careers fairly short lived, although some have crossed
that line and continued by playing out the above aspect, or the
next...
The Narcissist. This comes in many flavours, but usually
translates as 'I am the greatest'. This is a great heel if it
can be pulled off, mostly because of all the paths of psychology
it can lead to once that element has been disproven. Roode's
character is a great example of this right now.
The Clown. This is the snarly growly angry type, combining
elements of the Narcissist in there also. Bully Ray is doing a
great job of this one. You hate him, but you also smile when he
does things. The more angry and frustrated he gets, the more you
smile. It is an archetype that parodies a villain, turning it
into a pantomine. Another classic example is The Genius. Again,
a clown like character who combined elements of the Narcissist.
End of the day, a good heel understands that they exist to be
taken down, and must prepare for that. The bigger the fall, the
greater the entertainment, but that's wrestling entertainment
for you.
#Post#: 3327--------------------------------------------------
Re: what makes a good heel
By: tnafanforum Date: September 10, 2012, 10:44 am
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also a good heel needs to have a story can not just be a dikc in
the ring he needs to have a back story to why he is a heel and
no how to play the fans
#Post#: 3333--------------------------------------------------
Re: what makes a good heel
By: Steve B Date: September 10, 2012, 1:24 pm
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The best heels right now in WWE and TNA are Damian Sandow, Bully
Ray, Bobby Roode, Daniel Bryan and Ziggler.
Notable by his absence in that list is CM Punk. Punk isn't
really a heel. He's a Heyman guy and Heyman is a heel, Heyman is
the greatest heel this business has ever seen. Heyman is such a
great heel he put WCW out of business and could have put WWE out
of business.
"But Vince put WCW out of business and Vince loaned Paul money
to keep ECW afloat and bought WCW out" I hear you cry.
Which is true. But think it through to its logical conclusion.
Paul was the mad scientist of ECW, he took a company of nothing
wrestlers in a nothing building in a nowhere part of a city and
made it the number 3 wrestling company in America against a
millionaire and a billionaire and forced them to play each off
and spend vast sums of money using established tv networks as
weapons until one was forced to say uncle and quit. Then when he
did that he sold his company to the winner who he could never
possibly beat and went to work for him for a lucrative contract.
The man is an evil genius. Now thats how to work heel!
But again my compadre pretty much has it sewn up. Jake Roberts
is our heel blueprint, even when he was face you always kind of
felt he was heel that he might just turn and do something
wretched even his face promos were deeply sinister. Take a look
at this from WM6 and remember he's the good guy, look at Gene
Okerlunds face at the end, he's visibly shocked
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A62sNWNco1E
Then of course when he did turn heel not only weren't we
surprised we just hoped he didn't do anything too drastic.
Luckily he didn't. Apart from this...
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVfUp1SOY-g
Can you imagine anything like that these days? Wouldn't happen.
Randy really did get bitten as well.
But the point is its half the match and half the build up, its
the writing and the theatre that makes the heel. Thats why the
Brock/HHH thing has worked so well. The matches have been
average but the sideshow of the aging king (HHH) not being sure
if he can retake his crown is just great.
Sandow deserves special mention for working his gimmick so
wonderfully as well. The fact he has skills but cowardly ones
fits that gimmick perfectly. Sure he's rehashing a gimmick from
25 years ago but he's doing it amazingly well and apparently he
works with the writers to make it happen. Compare that with
Brodus Clay and its obvious the Funkasaurus Gimmick fits him
like golf clubs fit a haddock.
I can keep giving examples but like always it comes back to
suspension of disbelief and how well its written and how well
its played.
#Post#: 3337--------------------------------------------------
Re: what makes a good heel
By: Sel Date: September 10, 2012, 1:49 pm
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Damien Sandow! Thank you. I actually wanted to list him rather
than The Genius but couldn't recall his name at the time of
writing. Utterly brilliant. Sends himself up perfectly and does
a really good job of, not only staying determined to his
character, but also of making people love to see him fall. One
day that man is going to do something truly startling, so much
so all the people laughing at the moment will be reduced to
slack jawed, wide eyed, dribbling messes, who will look at one
another and say 'Holy crap. We...we underestimated him...and now
we're doomed'. And you know what? I fully believe he will do it
brilliantly.
#Post#: 3343--------------------------------------------------
Re: what makes a good heel
By: tnafanforum Date: September 10, 2012, 2:17 pm
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haymen is the ebst heel he is so good and he can make anyone a
big heel in wwe , like he did with brock
#Post#: 3344--------------------------------------------------
Re: what makes a good heel
By: Sel Date: September 10, 2012, 2:18 pm
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Actually, I'll add a bad example, in my opinion anyhow, of
someone that didn't suit the villainous story pushed onto them.
Dashing Cody Rhodes. It just didn't win me over at all. His
story pretty much involved nothing more than turning up with a
mirror and making the same gesture over and over again. Then he
got his face 'ruined', wore the mask and tried to do a Phantom
of the Opera thing. Again, all this entailed was the same 'don't
look at me' gesture over and again. It just didn't work. It
could have worked with someone else, but Cody just couldn't pull
it off. The repetitive nature of his gestures just made it all
seem camp and fake. It had no conviction to it. Thankfully he's
dropped that gimmick and is now beginning to be pushed as a
cerebral, venomous character, and so is beginning to become a
much better heel as a result.
#Post#: 3345--------------------------------------------------
Re: what makes a good heel
By: Sel Date: September 10, 2012, 2:21 pm
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[quote author=TNA Fan Forum link=topic=525.msg3343#msg3343
date=1347304650]
haymen is the ebst heel he is so good and he can make anyone a
big heel in wwe , like he did with brock
[/quote]
Brock did the best thing ever in realising that his mic skills
weren't his strong point. Handing over that to Heyman as an
advisor whilst playing out the Beast role was sheer fricken
genius. It's a partnership that any heel would have wet dreams
about.
#Post#: 3347--------------------------------------------------
Re: what makes a good heel
By: Steve B Date: September 10, 2012, 2:23 pm
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I can add a bad example.
Randy Orton. Not a good heel.
Not a good face either.
Not actually good at anything. No charisma that dude, just turns
up with his tattoos and his little entrance music about
schizophrenia and looks around like a thunderbird. Has the same
mannerisms, promos and moves when hes a face or a heel and can't
do anything. Its like someones wrestling a chest of drawers
whenever they have to go against him.
Why hes popular mystifies me
#Post#: 3353--------------------------------------------------
Re: what makes a good heel
By: tnafanforum Date: September 10, 2012, 2:45 pm
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he use to be a good heel when he was with hhh back in the days
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