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In professional wrestling, a heel is a villain character who is portrayed as behaving in an immoral manner; sometimes they are humorously referred to as "evil". In non-wrestling jargon, heels are often "bad guys" in pro wrestling storylines. They are often opposed by a face (crowd favourite). Some tweeners exhibit heel mannerisms.
The term "heel" is most likely is derived from a slang usage of the word that first appeared around 1914, meaning "contemptible person". * The Spanish term, used in lucha libre, is "rudo".
Common heel behavior includes cheating to win (e.g. using the ropes for leverage while pinning, or attacking with foreign objects such as folding chairs when the referee can't see), attacking other wrestlers backstage, interfering with other matches, and acting in a haughty or superior manner.
Once in a while faces who have recently turned from being heels will still exhibit some heel characteristics for a while. For example, The Naturals in TNA, turning face after the death of manager Chris Candido, still use the ropes for pins sometimes and at times use the megaphone of new manager Jimmy Hart to get victories. Also, Kurt Angle is a good example. Even after turning face for his feud with Mark Henry, at the Royal Rumble in 2006, Angle used a steel chair, an exposed steel ring peg, and leverage from the ropes during his pin to get the victory over Henry.
Hulk Hogan is often regarded as one of the best heels in professional wrestling. Hogan turned heel largely due to the large amounts of heat he was gaining from the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) fans (Hogan was still regarded as a WWF superstar and therefore unwelcome in WCW). Along with turning heel, Hogan's entire image changed. He dumped "Hulk" in favor of "Hollywood", swapped his trunks for tights and dropped the famous red and yellow in favor of black and white. Hogan's character traits included insulting fans, using his nWo allies to attack WCW loyalists, spray "nWo" on his opponents, beg for mercy, refused to either wrestle or continue matches when the tables had turned and lay claim to making professional wrestling so popular. At the height of Hogan's heel run, he was able to stir the fans up so much that fans started to throw cups at hogan.
Examples
Whilst being heel is often part of a wrestler's gimmick, many successful heels fall into one or more categories:
- Crazy heel: a raging madman, dangerous and unpredictable- they most commonly attack others for either no apparent reason, or they blame others for being "held back" from Championship opportunities and other priviliges (example: The Sheik; George "The Animal" Steele; Victoria; Mickie James; Sid Vicious; Mankind; Abdullah the Butcher; Heidenreich (2004); Kane (2003); Bruiser Brody, TARU, Edge (late 2004), Eddie Guerrero (mid-2005)).
- Monster heel: an unstoppable juggernaut who squashes his opponents (example: Gorilla Monsoon; Yokozuna; Umaga; Big Van Vader; Sid Vicious; King Kong Bundy; The Great Khali; Kane; Big Show, Brock Lesnar(early 2002 to late 2002), Batista, Bull Nakano; Naoya Ogawa ; Mark Henry; Samoa Joe, and Abyss in TNA). Sometimes, monster heels violently "injure" other wrestlers (through rulebreaking tactics), terrorize valets (sometimes injuring them) and commit other extremely heinous acts to set up a feud with a promotion's lead face. One example is the feud between The Giant and Hulk Hogan in 1994 when The Giant broke Hogan's neck. Another is in 1999, when The Undertaker was behind a reign of terror that led to his feud with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Also during Kane's heel runs, he often targets innocent people such as Jim Ross, Linda McMahon, and Lillian Garcia.
- Egotistical heel: an obnoxious and self-important character who is arrogant or cocky; some wrestlers play on their own fame and achievements to achieve this (example: Ted DiBiase; Randy Orton, Ric Flair, Hollywood Hogan, Vince McMahon, The Rock; Gino Hernandez; Triple H; Brock Lesnar (late 2003-2004); Jeff Jarrett; Edge; Christian; Alex Shelley; Kurt Angle; Trish Stratus; Shawn Michaels; JBL; Chris Jericho; Booker T, Ken Kennedy; MNM).
- Popular heel: a term in which the fans still cheer for a wrestler who competes as a heel. Some examples include: The Road Warriors, Chris Adams, Kurt Angle, Ric Flair , Kane, The Rock, Rob Van Dam, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Samoa Joe, Mickie James, Mick Foley, Mr. Kennedy ,Triple H, and Randy Orton. The Warriors, originally booed by the fans, gained new fans worldwide and eventually became faces around 1986. Adams was booed heavily when facing any of the Von Erichs, but was wildly cheered when wrestling other heels during his September 1984-January 1986 heel run; Adams would still greet fans afterwards and sign autographs. Adams eventually became Texas' most popular wrestler after turning face in 1986, and the 5th most popular wrestler in the world overall by 1987. Triple H is extremely popular despite displaying classic heel tactics, and is cheered upon appearing. Kurt Angle is widely considered as having been a heel for most of his career, but he wrestled a number of the best technical matches in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and was often cheered out of respect. Chants of "wooooooo" always echoed during Ric Flair's Entrance even though he was a heel member of Evolution. Kane received cheers upon appearing as well or when delivering his chokeslam finisher despite his morbid & violent character. The Rock is also cheered massively (most notably at Wrestlemania XIX) whether he's a face or heel because of his natural charisma. Despite Mick Foley's hatred for ECW and his newfound heel alliance with Edge and Lita, he remained a fan favorite.
- Delinquent Heel: a troublesome character who visually displays their uncivilized & despicable conducts such as profanity, vulgarity, obscenity, vandalism, indecency, violence, immorality & harassing or bullies their opponents. Examples are "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Brian Pillman, Diesel, John Cena, Rodney Mack, Jazz, Undertaker in his "Big Evil" persona during the first half of 2002, The Rock during his run as the leader of NOD, Carlito, Edge and Lita's "Rated-R Superstar" gimmick, Akira Maeda, Cactus Jack, SUWA, Tazz, Booker T, Test. In several occasions, Delinquent heels work with each other to form Tag Teams such as The Road Warriors, The Nasty Boyz, APA, Three Minute Warning, Los Guerreros, or groups such as D-Generation X, nWo, Mean Street Posse, DOA, Los Boricuas, Voodoo Murderers.
- Foreign heel: in United States wrestling, foreign heels are often portrayed as being anti-American, such as Russian (Nikolai Volkoff), Iranian (Iron Sheik), Canadian (Bret "the Hitman" Hart), Japanese (most notably, Mr. Fuji), or more recently, French (René Duprée). In Mexican wrestling, Americans are often portrayed as heels; the most hated tag team in lucha libre history, Los Gringos Locos, consisted of the Caucasian Art Barr and Eddie Guerrero, a Mexican-American from El Paso, along with another Caucasian in Louie Spicolli. There has been a Team Canada in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), WWE and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).
- Traitor heel: in the United States, a variation on the foreign heel who is actually an American, but has turned his back on his country in favor of an (ostensibly superior) one. For example, WWE wrestler Rob Conway portrayed a man who defected from America to France (a nation that vocally opposed the U.S.'s "weapons of mass destruction" rationale for invading Iraq in 2003), or Sgt. Slaughter, who was billed as an Iraqi sympathizer during the first Persian Gulf War, and Brian Pillman and Jim Neidhart, who despite being American, sided with Canadians Bret Hart and Owen Hart and Englishman the British Bulldog in the pro-Canada Hart Foundation. Also, Muhammad Hassan and Khosrow Daivari as angry Arab-Americans who resent the U.S. for how they've been treated ever since 9/11. In Japanese wrestling, a "traitor heel" is someone who goes against the established (usually mainstream, babyface) group he was part of within a promotion, such as Riki Choshu, Masa Chono, Kensuke Sasaki, and Great Muta in New Japan Pro Wrestling, Yoji Anjoh in UWF International, and Genichiro Tenryu in All Japan Pro Wrestling. These can be considered, more properly, delinquent/rebel heels, but because of Japan's societal mores, delinquent wrestlers are more often seen by Japanese fans as "traitors" to the promotion.
No matter the type of Heel, their most important job is that of the antagonist role. They are there to provide a foil to make the babyface look good. If a heel is getting cheered over the face, wrestling promoters may opt to turn the heel face, or to make them do something even more despicable.
Sometimes, a heel can use cheating to his/her advantage to gain appreciation from the audience, thereby being a face with heel tendencies—(i.e., Eddie Guerrero both before and after his 2005 heel period).
Some current and then heel divas in recent times are cheered anyway, because of their looks. Stephanie McMahon, Lita and then heel, Trish Stratus have been booed and have been called sluts.
Many heels today subscribe to the beliefs espoused by Mick Foley in his autobiography, Have a Nice Day!: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks—that a heel must always believe that whatever they do is justified, and that they are in the right.
Common heel tactics
The tactics of a kayfabe heel were perhaps best summed up by Jesse Ventura's famous quote: "Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat." They include:
- Using the ropes or grabbing the opponent's tights during pinfalls.
- Sticking thumbs or throwing powder/salt into opponent's eyes.
- Removing the padding on turnbuckles to expose the steel underneath it, then smashing an opponent's head or face onto it.
- Use of concealed weapons (brass knuckes, rolls of coins, etc.); some heels are less subtle when they decide to use a weapon, often grabbing a chair from ringside in full view of the referee with no regard for the consequences.
- Dragging an opponent's face across the top rope.
- Low blows.
- Using the outside of the ring to rest, or ducking into the ropes to slow the match down.
- When defending titles, intentionally getting himself/herself disqualified or counted out to lose the match without dropping the title that they are defending (note, however, that this tactic is not used in TNA, because titles change hands on a loss for any reason).
- Insulting the fans or mocking the city he/she is performing in during promos. Heels might also mock local sports teams who have suffered disappointing results.
- Assaulting the opponent after suffering defeat.
Heel characters are also quicker to get to their feet after hit by their opponent(s). Despite all the information given above, a face can also use some of these heel tactics as well as a form of counterattacking.
Heel Couple
A heel couple is a when a female and male wrestler are together by kayfabe or real life marriage, dating or engagement. They would do alot of disturbing things, like french kissing in front of the crowd. Heel couples in the pass and present have been, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, Trish Stratus and Christian, Mr. McMahon and Sable (Mr. McMahon was having an affair against Linda McMahon,) Lita and Edge, Booker T and Sharmel, Nidia and Jamie Noble. Johnny Nitro and his valent, Melina are dating in real life, but they don't have a couple gimmic on screen. Linda McMahon has turned heel for the first time, but is rairly seen with Mr. McMahon as of right now.
See also
External links
"Heel (professional wrestling)"