Heat (professional wrestling)

Heat is also the title of a World Wrestling Entertainment program; see WWE HEAT.

In professional wrestling, heat means getting a reaction from the crowd. This could either be cheers for a babyface or boos for a heel. When a wrestler draws a lot of heat, it usually means that he/she is over with the fans. The booker will almost always push the wrestler who garners the most heat, as it means that he is popular (or unpopular, in the case of heels) with the crowd.

Cheap heat

Cheap heat is drawn by heels who blatantly insult the fans and insult the city/town where they are, so that the crowd will boo them. This is an easy way for heels to receive heat. Faces will sometimes do the equivalent (referred to as a Cheap Pop), showing knowledge of the town and promising to "win one for them", etc.

Mick Foley would notably incorporate both of the above into his stint as WWF Commissioner. After Triple H called attention to the fact that Foley would go after cheap pops, the Commissioner began exaggeratedly and comically reminding hometown fans that he was about to book a match "right here in (the home city)!" He would then pause to give the fans a thumbs-up and soak in the applause. This became such a trademark line that the DVD of Foley's career highlights from that era was titled Hard Knocks and Cheap Pops.

The Rock was also known for implementing cheap heat during his attitude persona. One of his more famous lines "Finally, The Rock, has come back..." would end with the name of the city he was currently in. This would often get the crowd pumped.

Heel wrestlers can also draw cheap heat by referring to a mainstream news event as part of their promo, especially if the event has strongly emotional or political ramifications (e.g., a natural disaster), although they sometimes do not mention it by name. For instance, World Heavyweight Champion Triple H drew upon heavy media coverage of Terri Schiavo in a promo for his WrestleMania 21 World Heavyweight Championship match against Batista when he contended that "no judge or jury" would be able to save Batista from an embarrassing pinfall loss in their title match. Even though Triple H never mentioned Schiavo's name, many fans knew that he was referring to the brain-damaged woman who was at the center of a bitter legal battle over whether her feeding tube (which had been removed days earlier via court order) should be replaced or if she should be allowed to die, and as a result he was roundly booed. A more recent example of this was when on the June 9, 2006 edition of SmackDown!, Michelle McCool as part of her "hot teacher" gimmick used various examples of scandals in the media that involved female teachers alledgedly having sex with students as a reason for fans not to see her compete in a bikini contest with Ashley Massaro, Kristal Marshall, and Jillian Hall and added "that the fans were not worthy to see her A-Plus body."

Shawn Michaels was notorious during his heel run in 1997 for gaining cheap heat whenever performing in Canada, by defaming the Canadian Flag. (by using it to pick his nose, "humping" the flag on live television, etc.)

During the build up to WrestleMania 22, Randy Orton was widely accused of attempting to draw cheap heat by making derogatory claims about Eddie Guerrero, who had died three months earlier, during his promos.

During the Gulf War (and Operation: Desert Shield immediately before it), Sgt. Slaughter often drew cheap heat as part of his Iraqi sympathizer traitor heel gimmick. At Survivor Series 1990, Slaughter thoroughly insulted servicemen stationed in Iraq for Thanksgiving, at one point suggesting that the soldiers were served "hot turkey sandwich" as their Thanksgiving meal.

Cheap heat can also be gained by insulting the local city or local sports team. A good example of this was in 2000 with Edge, Christian, and Kurt Angle's "five-second poses" that usually insulted the local sports team or area itself. These included the three lampooning former Indiana University head coach Bobby Knight choking a player, insulting the state of Kentucky with a "jug band," and poking fun at Buffalo by re-enacting former Buffalo Bills kicker Scott Norwood's missed field goal in their Super Bowl XXV loss to the New York Giants.

Other methods of drawing cheap heat include blatantly breaking the rules, e.g. using the ropes to gain leverage on a pin, bringing in foreign objects (sledgehammers, two-by-fours), or running away from an opponent in a show of cowardice.

Canned heat

Canned heat is the sound of fans cheering or booing, played through the arena's sound system or added into a taped show. This is done to cover up "dead heat" for viewers watching the shows on TV, by making it seem like the fans in attendance were cheering/booing when in fact they were not.

However, canned heat is sometimes added when a promoter wants to push a wrestler as a face or heel, especially when fans are perceived to be cheering or booing inappropriately (also, if a promoter is in the process of turning a face into heel and vice versa). For instance, at the 1992 Royal Rumble, Sid Justice had eliminated fellow face wrestler Hulk Hogan, and on the original PPV broadcast, announcer Gorilla Monsoon had commented that Justice had played by the rules; a good share of the fans were cheering. However, on the WWF's syndicated programs that replayed the final moments of the main event a week later, canned heat was added to make it appear that Justice, who turned heel weeks later, was being heavily booed; also, new comments were added with Monsoon portraying Justice as betraying Hogan and color commentator Bobby Heenan voicing his enthusiastic approval.

A slight variation of canned heat was when Goldberg began his winning streak in WCW, and the sounds of fans chanting his name were played through the sound systems, yet the live fan reaction was the opposite. This was parodied by the WWE's Gillberg.

Dead heat

Dead heat is the absence of heat during a match. It can be one of the worst things that can happen to a wrestler, as it often times means that the fans are bored with watching his or her matches or they just don't care about the wrestler in general. Sometimes, during such matches, the fans will make a local sports chant just out of boredom with the match (e.g. in Detroit, fans will chant "Let's Go Red Wings" during such matches). A wrestler who draws dead heat may be reduced to being a jobber. Or if the booker sees potential in him, he is given a new gimmick with hopes that he will now be over with the crowd. Recently, this heat has been called the Haas Pop, which is named after World Wrestling Entertainment wrestler Charlie Haas, who despite his sound technical wrestling skills is met with no reaction whatsoever from the crowd.

Of course, dead heat may not always come from crowd disapproval. For example, when Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho wrestled a match during the WWE's trip to Japan, they received dead heat during much of the match. However, the roaring applause and cheering that occurred during breaks in the action indicated that the dead heat was due to the audience being intensely focused on the matchup itself; Benoit won the match and promptly received a loud standing ovation from the fans. This type of cheering is very common in puroresu matches.

X-Pac Heat

Boos are typically a desired reaction for heels in pro wrestling, indicating that the crowd is interested. A wrestler that the crowd cares enough to hate is a wrestler who will draw strong ratings and buyrates. However, the audience will also sometimes boo wrestlers because they're bored and would rather be watching someone else. If they weren't at the show live, they might change the channel, or in the case of a pay-per-view, not bother to order the show at all.

X-Pac Heat, a phrase created by Dave Scherer of PWinsider.com and sometimes referred to by others as Go-away Heat, is heat drawn by people with whom the fans are legitimately bored or annoyed. The term is the namesake of the erstwhile character in World Wrestling Entertainment that was played by Sean Waltman. Waltman's entrances were often some of the loudest of the night, even though the reaction was typically nothing but disdain and mild annoyance. Booing and loudly chanting "X-Pac sucks!" until he went away became something of a running gag for audiences who had no interest in seeing the star in action.

Waltman's disdain with the fans was at a fever pitch during the InVasion storyline, all wrestlers on the then-WWF side were portrayed as faces, yet X-Pac would still get booed and jeered by the fans while his heel Alliance opponents were cheered. This caused the writers to change his character to be the only heel on the WWF side, only wrestling against WWF talent, yet not being a part of The Alliance.

The difference can be subtle, and interpretations can vary. There's often no way to tell the difference between the reaction to a well-crafted heel and a character the fans simply wish would go away. Some fans argue that the phenomenon doesn't even exist at all. Vince McMahon and Jeff Jarrett are both pointed to as evidence - both are frequently accused of generating X-Pac heat, due to their massive amounts of screen time, repetitive performances and perceived arrogance. However, critics point out, this simply makes fans more eager to see them lose. However, there have been times this kind of heat has been received by faces, including the namesake. X-Pac was initially pushed as a face and constantly defeated opponents seen by nearly all fans as superior wrestlers. After prolonged treatment to this push, the fans began to genuinely dislike the character and the man playing it. Other examples include:

Hulk Hogan during much of his late career. While Hogan's role in professional wrestling is one of the most famed successes in wrestling, throughout the 80's and the 90's with the nWo, fans have grown bored of him. His limited moveset combined with rather terrible mic skills have become much more obvious in recent times, along with coming out of retirement repeatedly to defeat other wrestlers, such as Shawn Michaels, who are perceived as better wrestlers.

Billy Gunn during his attempted main event push after winning the King of the Ring. His lack of charisma and limited ability in the ring as compared to his contemporaries figured prominently in the fans' apathy.

John Cena's prolonged main event push has also garnered him this brand of heat. It's been perceived by many that the reason the fans turned against Cena was because of his formulaic matches and mostly abandoning the cocky freestyling young upstart gimmick that made him a top star. Many consider his limited move set and big pushes similar to Hogan. Many fans believe that Cena's title riegn as well as Hoagon are due to their tee shirt and other merchandise sales.

Even though Waltman is accredited with the term, it is a phenomenon which has occurred even before the fans rebelled against his X-Pac character. In WCW, some years before X-Pac, Shane Douglas and Johnny Ace formed a surfer/skateboarder face tag team known as The Dynamic Dudes, managed by Jim Cornette. Nearly every aspect of the gimmick, from their flourescent tights to their fake California surfer accents, were annoying to the fans and were met with apathy and scattered boos when they wrestled. The fans would even bring signs suggesting the duo were homosexual. When betrayed by Cornette during a match with the team he formerly managed, The Midnight Express, the crowd erupted in cheers.

In the WWF (before he became famous), The Rock wrestled as a "young and hungry lion" face gimmicked wrestler known as Rocky Maivia. The constant promoting of him by Jim Ross, who irritatingly referred to Maivia as "The Blue Chipper" repeatedly, along with an annoyingly effervescent character as well as, prior to being sent for more training, a very limited moveset with no charisma, earned him the ire of the fans. Adding to the problems was that despite the fans turning against him, his limited moveset and his lack of charisma he was given a run with the WWF Intercontinental Championship. It was a common occurrence at this time to see fan signs and chants of "Die, Rocky, Die!" and "Rocky sucks" as a sign of how much the majority of the fans had rebelled against his character.

An involvement of a superstar in a real life event can also garner him/her this type of heat. Shawn Michaels, Vince McMahon, & referee Earl Hebner were loudly booed, particularly in Canada, because of their involvement in the Montreal Screwjob. Edge & Lita received legitimate disdain from fans because of their adulterous affair.

Tribute Heat

Tribute Heat is heat generated for wrestlers who have a connection to a popular but absent superstar. For several months after the November 2005 death of Eddie Guerrero, his nephew Chavo Guerrero received tribute heat, as did close friend Rey Mysterio. Christian received tribute heat in 2003 when The Rock dubbed him "his new favorite superstar," and Christian co-opted and adapted some of the Rock's more popular catch phrases (The Rock's "the people" became Christian's "the peeps."). The Rock's movie career had already taken off at this point, and in his absence, heat for the Rock was directed towards Christian. Eugene received tribute heat during his matches due to his mimicking of legendary wrestlers' signature moves. Likewise, in the event of an injury, wrestlers involved in a mentor/protége angle can receive tribute heat; Team Angle, protegès of Kurt Angle, received tribute heat due to their association with him, though he was absent due to a neck injury during some of their popularity. A bizarre example of this was during an episode of SmackDown!. Supposed TV executive Palmer Cannon came down to the ring to absolutely no response. After he had entered, the Undertaker's music played throughout the arena, sending the crowd into a frenzy of cheers. However, when it became clear that the Undertaker was not involved with the segment, and his music stopped playing, the crowd started booing loudly. This gave the impression that they were booing Palmer Cannon.

Legit heat

Heat can also refer to two or more wrestlers or others in the wrestling business who have some animosity towards one another or when a wrestler gets on the bad side of management. This is sometimes referred to as legit heat but just as often simply as heat. For example:

"Linda Miles had heat with WWE management after repeatedly showing up late for OVW training sessions"

"Ric Flair and Bret Hart have had heat with one another for many years, most recently due to Flair writing negative statements about Hart in his autobiography."

Triple H and The Rock have had legit heat with each other for years ever since Rock was a rookie in the WWF and Triple H was a member of the influential Kliq backstage faction. The dislike between the two increased to such a level that when The Rock and Mick Foley were feuding with the Triple H led stable Evolution, neither of them were on screen at the same time to promote the feud.

Matt Hardy & Edge, who were actually best friends at one point, have legit heat due to Edge having an affair with Matt's real-life girlfriend (Lita) of 6 years. Matt was released from the WWE a few months after the news broke, and the heat being received by Edge & Lita was so intense they had to put them together onscreen, and eventually re-hire Hardy to feud with Edge & end the chants demanding they re-hire Hardy.