Marc the Smark
01-03-2006, 01:53 AM
Heels and Babyfaces, Sheiks and Hogans. Heel Faces and Face Heels, Austins and Rocky Miavias. It's an interesting riddle but you smart readers will understand the pattern. In the old days when wrestling was real and they were all amazing workers (stereotypical view) there was a little guide that the stars used to base their characters around and that was Heels and Babyfaces. The Heel would dress rugged, cheat in the match and not follow the rules, whilst the face would be clean cut, have sparkly teeth and pure white trunks. Well some might argue society deteriorated and as the great Vince Russo once said, "we had to take the rules and throw them out the window." Face Heels were being automatically created as society changed and people were sick of the same old garbage week in and week out on WWF television. Some only watched because of sheer habit but something needed to revolutionize the business, the wrestling rules were changing and the WWF writers were too wrapped up in the wrestling bubble to care. WCW had got their game on, just look at how the NWO was shaping up but the WWF had silly comic book characters that on paper may have seemed reasonable but in a real life situation were insulting and atrocious, simple face and heels weren't going to work. Take Rocky Miavia as an example, he was a young kid with white sparkling teeth and a clean cut personality, he would even smile during a match. Someone you could take home to your mum. (If you're a woman of course,) but we crapped all over it, booed the poor guy out of the arenas. (Good thing we did as well.) Anways this was because in essence he was a face heel. The fans wanted a rouge, someone different, and someone with a real personality that would react the way a real person would react but with the heat turned way up.
This person was the Ringmaster Steve Austin. A man who was technically sound and should of got a push in WCW but due to politics he had his pride hurt, "Stunning Steve is just not marketable," a famous quote from Eric Bishof. With the skills and look he had, there was no reason for him to be contemplating going to Japan or finding work elsewhere but he had to. Out with an injury he got a phone call and the quote pretty much explains it all. In the summer of 1995, Stunning Steve was let go. With a confidence blow and some pent up anger Steve went to ECW and ripped the hell out of WCW being the first guy to ever impersonate Hogan and Bishof on TV. His confidence was back and he was raring to go but upon arriving at the WWF still trying to recover from its old fashioned values he was lumbered with The Ringmaster gimmick and managed by Ted Dibiase. Ted soon left after his wife made a funny comment "don’t let you tea get stone cold," implying he'd gone stale. Weird how Austin then ended up with Stone Cold as a name? Back to the point though, how did Austin make the transition to the first and greatest heel face? Well to begin with he bashed the bible after winning the King Of The Ring when Jake Roberts was leaving to the back. "Talk about your John 3:16, well Austin 3:16 said I just whooped your ass." So he disses the bible, brags about whooping someone's ass and does it all in heel mannerisms. The first WWF heel face was born and boy did he erupt. The rest is history.
The Rocks, the DX's and so on went by and for a long time its been the thing to be a bad ass, not follow the rules but still stay a face. It seems just recently there has been a new boost of stars that the WWE are pushing to the main event level. Batista and John Cena to be the ones I want to bring up. There's a new approach to face and heels. The clean cut face with an aggressive nature. Is John Cena wearing White Trunks or not? I say yes. He never goes out looking for trouble, he doesn't waffle about not caring or hating anyone and he doesn't usually start fights. He isn't going to start anything but if anyone does start something he'll bring it. It's an interesting idea but it's less dimensional than that. He's the modern day comic book hero accept he doesn't have Hulkamaniacs, he has his chain gang. Maybe John Cena is the new Hulk Hogan?
So faces and heels are doing a full circle, the only problem is that Cena is aimed at children and teens. Do twenty plus year olds really buy in to the chain gang and his lame rhymes. The kids see him as a bad boy rapper but anyone older realizes a bad boy rapper is 50cent and Snoop Dogg, they don’t have chain gangs. In my opinion this is a risk and eventually we'll see another face heel and the cycle will continue. Cena needs to take off his white trunks and turn heel before the fans do it for him.
http://www.twnpnews.com/columns/messages/3578.shtml
This person was the Ringmaster Steve Austin. A man who was technically sound and should of got a push in WCW but due to politics he had his pride hurt, "Stunning Steve is just not marketable," a famous quote from Eric Bishof. With the skills and look he had, there was no reason for him to be contemplating going to Japan or finding work elsewhere but he had to. Out with an injury he got a phone call and the quote pretty much explains it all. In the summer of 1995, Stunning Steve was let go. With a confidence blow and some pent up anger Steve went to ECW and ripped the hell out of WCW being the first guy to ever impersonate Hogan and Bishof on TV. His confidence was back and he was raring to go but upon arriving at the WWF still trying to recover from its old fashioned values he was lumbered with The Ringmaster gimmick and managed by Ted Dibiase. Ted soon left after his wife made a funny comment "don’t let you tea get stone cold," implying he'd gone stale. Weird how Austin then ended up with Stone Cold as a name? Back to the point though, how did Austin make the transition to the first and greatest heel face? Well to begin with he bashed the bible after winning the King Of The Ring when Jake Roberts was leaving to the back. "Talk about your John 3:16, well Austin 3:16 said I just whooped your ass." So he disses the bible, brags about whooping someone's ass and does it all in heel mannerisms. The first WWF heel face was born and boy did he erupt. The rest is history.
The Rocks, the DX's and so on went by and for a long time its been the thing to be a bad ass, not follow the rules but still stay a face. It seems just recently there has been a new boost of stars that the WWE are pushing to the main event level. Batista and John Cena to be the ones I want to bring up. There's a new approach to face and heels. The clean cut face with an aggressive nature. Is John Cena wearing White Trunks or not? I say yes. He never goes out looking for trouble, he doesn't waffle about not caring or hating anyone and he doesn't usually start fights. He isn't going to start anything but if anyone does start something he'll bring it. It's an interesting idea but it's less dimensional than that. He's the modern day comic book hero accept he doesn't have Hulkamaniacs, he has his chain gang. Maybe John Cena is the new Hulk Hogan?
So faces and heels are doing a full circle, the only problem is that Cena is aimed at children and teens. Do twenty plus year olds really buy in to the chain gang and his lame rhymes. The kids see him as a bad boy rapper but anyone older realizes a bad boy rapper is 50cent and Snoop Dogg, they don’t have chain gangs. In my opinion this is a risk and eventually we'll see another face heel and the cycle will continue. Cena needs to take off his white trunks and turn heel before the fans do it for him.
http://www.twnpnews.com/columns/messages/3578.shtml