|
I think the face role was redefined in such a powerful way by Stone Cold Steve Austin and to a lesser extent The Rock.
I honestly think the way they changed face/heel roles and crowd reaction is yet to be completely figured out by wrestling promoters.
They walked a fine line. The heels became the faces, but when you make a heel a face it just don't quite work nowadays. And when you turn a face heel they start getting more and more over with the crowd.
The crowds have been allowed to root along their own lines, and it causes a strange relationship between booing and cheering.
I'd have to give it more thought, but I think a great face in todays era is defined by being a guy the crowd chose to cheer for. They're not defined by their kayfabe actions, but their look and work. If it just so happens that they're a face, then they fit the role much better...like Jeff Hardy.
If they're over for being a heel, they shouldn't change them to a wheaties box hero. They should leave it be. If they want them to play a face they shouldn't change a thing about them. They must find ways to make the people around them heelish.
For instance, when it was decided that Austin was to be a face, he never changed. They just changed Bret's character to compliment Austin's, and booked it around the crowd.
They did the same with Vince. Austin never changed.
Same with The Rock. He stayed exactly the same. The crowd eventually started cheering him a year into his heel run, so they just booked the storyline around him to have him in the corporation. His gig didn't change.
And when he turned face again, nothing about him changed. The heels around him just started being against him rather than with him and he filled the face role.
Nowadays they change the character, and not the state of the show around them.
|