Welcome to… Roy… Is… Wrestling!! I’m the baddest man on the planet, the human wrecking ball, and the most “Stone Cold” journalist in wrestling history. There have been some issues that have kept me off the site for a while, and so I’d like to apologise to not only the readers, but my fellow staff members as well.
Introductions and apologies aside, let’s get into the wrestling. In this article, I’d like to delve into the topic of babyfaces (good guys) and heels (bad guys) in the world of professional wrestling.
What is the most obvious component of conflict? A clearly defined protagonist and antagonist are the most crucial elements of a feud or a rivalry in wrestling. In lay terms, there must be a good guy, and a bad guy.
The best feuds are spawned from a true desire from every fan to see the heel get his comeuppance at the hands of a babyface. In order to get fans invested in a feud, the heels need to draw heat. Simply put, they must take actions to create a divide between the two wrestlers, which makes the choice of who to support (the babyface) obvious to the fans.
Throughout wrestling history, heels have used many tactics to draw heat. For example, heels will mock the crowd, abuse women, attack someone from behind, display obvious narcissism and rely on other heels to help them maintain a numbers advantage. These are time tested ways to draw heat from the crowd.
However, unless the fans are intrigued by the character, the feud will be lifeless, regardless of anything else the heel does. It’s an idea that seems to be lost on today’s major wrestling promotions. In recent years, both the WWE and TNA have struggled to make truly captivating feuds, aside from a few rare exceptions, like the Cena/Punk feud in 2011,
The characters of on-screen wrestlers/performers must be clearly defined. If you can’t tell whether or not every single wrestler/performer in the company is a babyface or a heel, then the company is at fault. And that’s the problem with wrestling today. TNA aren’t establishing people properly, and neither are the WWE.
Wrestling seems so stale at the moment because of the confusing nature of the characters. I’ve got a few examples, based solely on the last few months of WWE programming, to prove that this is absolutely the case.
The Authority storyline has already fallen flat in my eyes. It’s been beyond convoluted, including one of the original, main characters being cycled out of the storyline, and major points of the story have been abandoned or forgotten about.
First of all, the aforementioned main character who has been cycled out of the storyline, at least for the time being, is Daniel Bryan. While he’s still one of the most over (popular) performers in the company – and in the industry as a whole – he’s now involved in an upper mid-card feud with newcomers, the Wyatt Family. This alone shows the ineptness of the company in taking the most popular star they have out of the main event scene.
The staleness of the current storyline shows it even more so. Main-event scene mainstays John Cena and Randy Orton are feuding…to the delight of no-one. Their drawn-out feud back in 2009 soured the taste of that rivalry in the eyes of most fans.
But the most obvious, glaring problem in this storyline are The Authority themselves – Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. They are portrayed as power-hungry, overexposed, self-indulging narcissists – which sounds like the basis for very good heels, right?
WRONG!!
These characters are authority figures, not wrestlers! In the business of professional wrestling, the “heat” should be on the people who tell the story in the ring during a match – the babyface and heel wrestlers. Not the authority figures, who (in storyline terms), book all the matches, determine the stipulations and enforce the rules.
These positions of “power” on-screen pollute the image that wrestlers work to create, and makes the show seem like over-booked, hokey nonsense. Wrestling needs to be presented as a sport with a big-fight feel in order to make the fans emotionally invested. A major part of establishing that is having a maximum of ONE authority figure who ensures fairness while maintaining order and control.
However, in the WWE right now, we have Kane (Director of Operations), Brad Maddox (Raw GM), Vickie Guerrero (SmackDown GM), Vince McMahon (Chairman of the Board), Stephanie McMahon (One of the Principal Owners of the WWE), and Triple H (Chief Operating Officer. That’s FAR too many people in power. It’s overdone to the highest degree and it makes a mockery of the product as a result.
I’d appreciate it if you gave me your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below, letting me know whether you agree or disagree with my wrestling philosophy. You can also check me out on Twitter @pwfaninsight
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