How would you define a heel?

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A heel is a bad guy. The protagonist of the story. There is a difference between a heel and a successful heel though. For example, in the story of Roman and Braun, Braun is the heel because the writers have pitted him against the WWE's antagonist. Do you buy it? Doesn't matter. You don't get to chose the good guy and the bad guy in the movie. You could root for Lord Sauron but you are supposed to identify with Frodo. WWE doesn't present a product that you get to control. If you'd like to pick your favorite and not be disappointed you might want to watch NJPW. They don't play a strong story on the heel/face divide so you can be less upset if they suggest your guy might not be a "good guy".

A heel is a person who tries to get a negative reaction from the crowd. A person who the company is telling us to despise

I have always thought there are two true kind of heels, until recently.

1. The chickenshit heel - the one who is not as good as the Babyface, doesn't win straight up, but steals victories by cheating. Think The Miz
2. The dastardly vicious heel - the one who is vile and instead of just winning a match, they want to cause injury and torment. Think Randy Orton

Then there is the brand new kind

3. The Vince McMahon ignores crowd reactions and wants a different Babyface than that person so you are now bad heel - the one who had a heel thing done to them by a babyface, then instead of going with the momentum, they have the person who was wronged say "I don't care what you fans think, you fans turned your back on me, etc." Think Becky Lynch, Braun Strowman.

Heels are the best!

the bad guy

An antagonist / villain / obstacle / dickhead that the "hero" must overcome.

There are no heels. Smarks have ruined everything

In the "eyes of the company" sense, a heel is someone who predominantly wrestles faces. Someone who cheats/takes shortcuts. Someone who insults the fans/town they are in. Someone who doesn't "like to have fun". He is someone you want to see get their ass-kicked, or to get "comeuppance".

However, in this day and age it becomes muddled with someone like Roman Reigns. Roman is clearly a face in the eyes of the company and from a booking standpoint..... but he is very clearly a heel looking at it from the eyes of a majority part of the audience. It is very weird. His promos and mannerisms are all very heel-like these days (in that they are arrogant/cocky/dickish), and the majority of fans boo and want to see him get his ass kicked.... but his booking remains that of a face so that the kids and whoever can still cheer for him and buy his merch. They are essentially getting "the best of both worlds" out of him.

A heel chasing the title can remain a heel if his motivations and methods are still nefarious and drawing negative reactions. The threat of taking away the hero's prize illegitimately provides a conflict for the protagonist.

A heel is another performer whos duty is draw enough heat that people will pay to see the babyface kick his ass. The heel will lead the match and be at the cause of the angle.

What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind.

A personality that engages with an audience on a level to the point that you are willing to pay money to see them lose. I heard so many people talking about how they wanted Manny Pacquiao to humble that cocky fucker Floyd Mayweather, and made special trips to the pub to see him get knocked the fuck out. That's a heel to me. Brock Lesnar is a great heel in UFC. He's the big fake, phony wrestler that shouldn't be able to hang with "real fighters."

I don't consider it a set of snarly qualities or pre-determined mannerisms. Just because someone is twirling a mustache, it doesn't make them a heel. Those things can be symptoms of being a heel, because there are generally a bunch of qualities in human beings that we have decided irritate us. But one of the things that seems the most bush league in wrestling to me is when people try and play a heel instead of simply being a heel. They're almost relishing in these preconceived notions of what heels do, and it becomes such a performance that they end up being graded on that. Part of the work, it would seem to me, is being able to calibrate yourself in front of whatever crowd is there, and do what you need to do in order to get that desired emotional response. Too much cart before the horse in being a heel these days.

Sometimes being a heel means kissing babies and being "so glad to be here."

There's also too much "heels aren't supposed to be good wrestlers" in the mentality of modern fans, in my opinion. I got into an argument with a guy who kept trying to tell me that it's a good thing Jinder Mahal has no credibility because he's a heel, and they're supposed to cheat. There's too much reduction and rounding off of heel qualities, to the point of pantomime and you can't believe the villainy in the slightest, and villainy only works if you believe it.

Heels are awesome to people because they know wrestling isn't real. You used to be able to do those preordained "heel things" and get heat because people thought it legitimately made you a jerk. Now people know better and the performances of "heels" are less believable than they've ever been, because they are about that replication of performance as opposed to actually creating a nuanced personality that people can really believe is a dick.

Heels can cheat. They may not be above it. But top heels are still damn tough sons of bitches, and cheating in a big match emphasizes the ability of the babyface and gives them an out. Now heels inhabit this cartoonish realm of always cheating, to the point where wrestling almost undercuts itself by "not having instant replays" and not having second officials out there. And even the top heels in modern wrestling suddenly get glass jaws and are scared of their own shadow.

This is a tangent and I'm not sure how it even addresses the question, but too many "heels" are what someone mocking pro-wrestling in a 90's sitcom would reduce them to. These shallow tropes of cowardice and villainy instead of being legitimate athletes you hate because of their nuances and the actual effect they have on the babyfaces you admire.

Fuck this spoiler /hide shit

a heel can be perhaps the best wrestler in the company. He can be hated for rubbing it in to peoples faces - like a jock at school.

Gertner was right and Lock Jaws was close. The flaw is Lock Jaw attributes control to the office. They can only try and manipulate your reaction. They decide nothing. If you gotta ask who's a heel the answer is there isnt one. If you'll stop and listen you'll know.