---------- Forwarded
Scott, was listening to "The Place To Be" podcast about WWE 98 and it got me thinking, is Vince McMahon the greatest heel ever? I went back and watched some of his older stuff and the heat he was getting was fucking NUCLEAR. He also cut some superb promos and was just always locked in it seems like. The freaking Patterson and Brisco stuff was fantastic and just topped it off. I know he didn't wrestle and got a lot of TV time but I can't think of a hotter heel then maybe Hollywood Rock or vintage Flair, but I'd still argue Vince was a hotter heel. Thoughts?
Also, don't know if you ever heard it but Kevin Kelly tells a GREAT story about Vince shitting himself on the way to the ring to cut a promo, having no choice but to stand there with shit dripping down his leg in front of a live crown until the TV segment ended, and then placing his shit soaked underwear on a camera pole in the back and chasing Patterson around with it.
MH - "OfficerFarva"
--------------------
I don't think there's any doubt that he's the best of all time. Austin didn't draw millions of dollars alone, and Vince is still milking that character today for huge returns.
Mr. McMahon is number 1. No doubt about it. I know I am going to get destroyed for this but Triple H is the second greatest heel ever. His feuds with Austin, Foley, The Rock during the attitude era where my favorites. After the attitude era was over, he struggled to find good opponents. The barrage of awful ex WCW main eventers like Goldberg, Nash and Big Poppa Dump Scott Steiner ruined his career in 2003. But after that, great rivalry with HBK and Ric Flair plus leading Evolution. I vote for Triple H as a close second.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it with people shitting their pants in wrestling?
ReplyDeleteTriple H was also one of the few baddies to stand victorious at the conclusion of Wrestlemania lest we forget. So I second your vote for 2nd place for Trips.
ReplyDeleteHard to beat Vincent Kennedy McMahon has the dastardiest bastard of all the times though. He's even 1-0 against the Good Lord himself!
Greatest heel of all time... got to be John Cena. I can't remember a wrestler in modern times so venomously hated by people.
ReplyDeleteYou know up until I realized Caliber could kick my ass, I had a picture in my head that he was quite a lot like Favra.
ReplyDelete"I got you good you fucker"
ReplyDeleteFor best heel ever, I would go with Hollywood Hogan. People so wanted to see Luger & Sting kick his ass. There's a reason why Starrcade 97 is the biggest ppv in wcw history.
ReplyDeleteFor 2nd best heel, I would go with Andre. He was involved in the biggest Wrestlemania match and the most watched wrestling match ever. True Hogan was popular but he never drew those #s with any other opponent.
ReplyDeleteRoddy Piper.
ReplyDeleteI almost think that #2 has to be Ric Flair by default, right?
ReplyDeleteThe thing about Vince was he ALWAYS got his comeuppance, showed ass, and got the face over as cleanly as possible when necessary. This is why I think he's better the the NwO guys as a heel. They're really zero examples of The Vince character not doing the right thing for storyline purposes...something I give him a lot if credit for especially with the power and ego he has.
ReplyDeleteHogan from July 1996 to July 1998. Think we forget how hot WCW and the nWo was during that timeframe. They made an insane amount of money in 97.
ReplyDeleteVince in 98, Andre in 87-88, 80s Flair and Savage in 89 round out my top 5.
Only reason I don't have Vince #1 is that Austin was driving the train. Vince just scooped some of the heat. Anyone vs. Austin would draw money. And Vince by 99 was a boring character and it still made $$$ bc of Austin.
I have to vote for the DX version of HBK. Vince, Flair, etc were all great but I hated them all in the context of the show, if that makes sense. I wanted Shawn to die!
ReplyDeleteI don't think you can call someone the best wrestling heel ever when he's not really a wrestler. Similarly, Austin-McMahon isn't the best storyline/feud ever, because it couldn't result in good matches between the two.
ReplyDeleteMy vote is for Tully Blanchard. He could do everything in the ring, was excellent on the mike, stayed heel for his entire career and was the reason the Four Horsemen stayed heel, no matter how cool, funny, or dominant they were. Dusty said it himself: "the fans would cheer Flair, Arn, Ole... but they'd never cheer Tully."
You've got to hand it to Rick Rude as being one of the best heels of all time. He made people hate him and it was purely kayfabe, not because he was a douche in real life or because he was shoved down people's throats or anything, but because he was damn good at his job. Check this out:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAVY8iwHXkw
(Apologies for keep posting YouTube vids btw)
Overall Ric Flair is the greatest heel of all time. Hollywood Hogan until the Starrcade 97' debacle and Shawn Michaels 97-98 DX version get honorable mention.
ReplyDeleteWhat is with all these wrestlers shitting themselves? Do they not take craps before a match? Have they lost all bowel control by virtue of taking bumps?
ReplyDeleteMy thought is it might be a side effect of the steroids?
ReplyDeleteYeah I think he deserves to be in this discussion as well
ReplyDelete"They're really zero examples of The Vince character not doing the right thing for storyline purposes" winning the ECW title? winning the WWF title?
ReplyDeleteProbably a side effect of all the coke.
ReplyDeleteVince for 98. Of all time guys like Buddy Rose ( Portland stuff is amazing), Piper , Jake, Freebirds, Bockwinkel, Terry Funk and Savage were all great. Basically take your choice of those guys.
ReplyDeleteECW brand was drawing peanut ratings and it was an attention grab. It didn't last long and within the storyline sense wasn't out of left field like Arquette or Russos wins.
ReplyDeleteThe WWE title reign played within the story...he dropped the belt immediately and it never changed the long term direction of the story lines...kinda like Foleys many short title reigns, they progressed the story, got some additional heat, and never changed the long term plans. Like when Vince won the Rumble, everyone knew it was going towards Austin/Rock WM so instead of having Austin win 3 Rumbles in a row, they had Vince win it, get a big nitrate for Austin/Vince cage match, and still go to Austin/Rock.
I don't feel like Andre should even be in the discussion. He didn't really do all that much, and it was the spectacle that drew all that money, not his ability as a heel. Piper was tremendous, the Freebirds got over EVERYONE they worked against huge, and Flair was the most consistently great, but I agree it's probably Vince.
ReplyDeleteI've always felt The Honky Tonk Man was one of the better heels. Not on Vince's level, of course, but still up there. Any face that went up against him had ridiculous fan reactions just because they got to see him beat up Honky.
ReplyDeleteI heard a story once where Honky was doing house show runs with Terry Taylor. At the time, Taylor was still very green to the business and Honky had to walk him through everything. So one night, he says to Taylor that his back is bothering him and not to body slam him. He'd walk Taylor through an easy match and the crowd would still go home happy.
So they start the match, and like I said above, a lot of faces that went up against Honky had nuclear heat just by default. It was the biggest reactions Taylor ever had in his career so far. He got so excited that in the middle of his big comeback...he body slams Honky. Breaking character for a moment, Honky looks up at him and says, "Why did you do that?!" is his slow, southern drawl voice. Taylor, nearly in tears, cries, "I DON'T KNOW." And Honky had to carry the rest of the match to the end because Taylor was in such a mess.
Considering Flair's entire career: was he a heel for even half of it? Even the Evolution years are debatable, because the crowd always cheered him.
ReplyDeleteYes, he was a heel for most of it. The entirety of the '70s, the bulk of the '80s, at least half the '90s, and even if you don't count Evolution (for some reason) he was only a face in WWE for about four years total.
ReplyDeleteGood choice. A pure heel.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't see how Vince winning the WWE title served any purpose or got any more heat.
ReplyDeleteI was recently watching some WCW footage from 1999-2001, and I realized how great of a heel Jeff Jarrett was at the time. Putting aside all the backstage and business drama going on in the company -- which would've overshadowed anybody's in-ring and mic work -- I thought "The Chosen One" character was great. Jarrett made the crowd hate him, but in an entertaining way. I'm not saying he's the best heel ever, but I think that era of his career has been underrated and was something of a peak for him.
ReplyDeleteWell the "spectacle" led me to believe that no one but Hogan or Warrior could beat him, so I feared for the other faces. Does that count for something?
ReplyDeleteThis is only my opinion, but I can't co-sign any of these votes for Flair or Hollywood Hogan. Flair was cheered for half his prime because he was so respected. I mean, watching his Starrcade matches, I hear way too many cheers no matter what the situation. By 1997ish, he was already a legend and any heel turn after that was never going to get him nuclear heat because we all loved the guy/character.
ReplyDeleteHollywood Hogan...oy. After the first two months of the nWo, the man said nothing interesting. From my point of view, he was getting a mixture of Jarrett/XPac heat and the smark-flavored Cena heat. His long, pointless promos with his sloppy delivery (along the lines of "you're only half of a Hollywood wannabe, you stupid little man") had me changing channels pretty quickly. To me, it seemed we would pay money to see someone win because we resented him so damn much for remaining on top (cough Cena cough). Hogan is one of the most overrated heels of all time because of these things.
The commenter known as Victory73 has a great list and I basically second his.
I think it killed the ECW brand. ECW die-hard fans were not already thrilled with reigns of Big Show & Lashley because they were not true ECW-type wrestlers. However, you had Vince winning the title that screamed like a big "Fuck you" to ECW.
ReplyDeleteI agree and think Jarrett gets a lot of ''I hate his character so I hate him'' heat online, which confuses me as surely this means he's a GREAT character.
ReplyDeleteprobably not the best ever but an honorable mention to Mr Perfect 1988-1991
ReplyDeleteFlair gets my nod. 'Can make literally anybody face just by wrestling them'
ReplyDeleteBobby Heenan
ReplyDeleteIs it a requirement to have out-of-control bowels if entering the wrestling business?
ReplyDeleteNo, but it helps.
ReplyDeleteI personally never felt anything but apathetic toward him. But he did get good heel heat in those days. I still think an Austin/Jarrett program could've worked.
ReplyDeleteI liked his gimmick towards the end of his WWE run. I don't enjoy watching violence against women, but there was something comical about Jarrett getting angry and randomly putting women in the figure four.
ReplyDeleteHeenan, Flair, Rude, Savage, Hogan (Hollywood), Dudleys in ECW
ReplyDeleteBig Show was a great heel ECW Champion. The Lashley stuff I think is what killed it.
ReplyDeleteVince was only one of the greatest villains early into his "Mr. McMahon" run when he was playing it straight for the most part and would drift into cartoon supervillainy every now and then. Ever since he started way over the top far too often ("I enjoy destroying lives... it turns me on." "A LETHAL DOSE... of POISON!!!", etc,) he's been one of the worst.
ReplyDeleteHave to give it to Flair. The role of the heel is to make a babyface more popular. He did that for more superstars than anyone, ever. Vince, meanwhile, couldn't get people to cheer for a kid with one leg.
Andre was a good heel only in the spectacle he created, but he was dependent upon Heenan, and later DiBiase, to draw that heat. The best heels aren't dependent upon others for the reactions they get.
ReplyDeleteBiggest heel for the Blog of Doom?
ReplyDeleteVince Russo? Elvy?
Not always true, re: Andre. Watch his Japanese stuff.
ReplyDeleteHHH. The heat he gets around is unparalleled.
ReplyDeleteBuddy Rogers should be near the top of this list. And unlike Flair, McMahon, Andre, etc., he was always a heel (while an active wrestler).
ReplyDeleteA few overlooked ones:
ReplyDeleteHeel Savage. Dangerous, jealous, abusive to women, cocky, and traitorous. He had a lot to hate.
Nick Bockwinkel. Perfected the art of being so condescending and intolerable that even if you repected his talent you had to just loathe the kind of pompous ass he was.
Owen Hart. He hit all the qualities of a great heel: he was sneaky, cocky, whiny, traitorous, mean to kids, anti-American, hard to take seriously (Best Bowtie!), but then occasionally capable of doing something that seemed legit dangerous (the Enziguri on Shawn, the piledriver on Austin). Its funny, when I think back on all the effective heels when I was a kid, most of them just seemed to be doing their thing and I was supposed to hate it or seemed cartoonish, but Owen was one that right up until I got smart I thought "Man, I fucking hate that guy!"
Couldn't disagree more. ECW started to die the day Kurt Angle was made to be the face of the brand, and Big Show threw out 18 or whatever ECW guys in a battle royal. From that point on, ECW diehards (the people Vince should have been catering to) revolted and lost interest in the product. The Vince title win came when the ECW rating were lowest and they had no choice but to do something out of pure shock value. If you think about it, in theory this might have worked...put the title on the guy ECW fans came to hate and despise (yea, it might have been a "fuck you" to ECW fans) and have an ECW star beat him for the title. The brand was just to far gone at that point.
ReplyDeleteSure, Vince McMahon and creative killed ECW but not the Mr McMahon character.
You are insane.
ReplyDeleteYea, I'll give you guys this one. I don't remember all the specifics of that HHH/Steph/Vince feud but remember the Vince title reign lasting a week with HHH just winning it back anyway. I don't remember it being a huge debacle but thought they could have done something else.
ReplyDeleteHeel Savage is a good call, don't think he's in the "best ever" conversation but he's right on that next tier and definetly overlooked.
ReplyDeleteHow many matches has Vince ever actually worked? I have a hard time declaring a part time attraction to be the greatest heel of all time.
ReplyDeleteWatching the early Hollywood Hogan stuff with hindsight is amazing. Just egomaniacal ranting and delusional bragging. Drawing heat absolutely off the charts. Hogan is probably the greatest heel and babyface of all time.
I'll give you guys Vinces WWE title reign...coulda done without that. That didn't really do much for anyone involved.
ReplyDeleteI'll give you Vince's WWE title reign. That was pretty useless looking back on it.
ReplyDeleteAS FAR AS MODERN DAY HEELS AGO, I WOULD HAVE TO GIVE THE NOD TO EDGE. THE GUY. THE GUY WAS THE ULTIMATE SCUMBAG AS A HEEL.
ReplyDeletePLUS, YOU GOTTA GIVE SOME CREDIT TO HEYMAN RIGHT NOW. HE'S ABSOLUTELY KILLING IT LIKE NEVER BEFORE.
Here's a couple of other names:
ReplyDeleteGorgeous George - really helped to develop a wrestler archetype of lots of other still follow today. Even Ali learned about the value of being a mouth from him.
Freddie Blassie - Sold out tons or arenas in California, probably less well known since Buddy Rogers was a contemporary who was probably a better heel - that said, Blassie could definitely piss off a crowd.
Yea, Heyman is putting out some of the best performances I've ever seen right now.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't help but realize that Vince won the WWE title the same week that Bischoff was fired from WCW. In my mind I always felt that Vince booked himself to win the belt in an indirect reference to how he was now the 'champion' of the Monday Night Wars.
ReplyDeleteTrue enough. I was thinking specifically about the U.S., and even more specifically about his 87-90 heel run in the WWF. By then he was a shell of his former shelf, both in terms of physical ability and charisma, and needed Heenan as that uber-hated manager. I don't think Andre would've gotten pelted with all that stuff in the Silverdome at WM3 without the "Brain."
ReplyDeleteCactus Jack, YOU SICK SONS OF BITCHES!!
ReplyDeleteI cannot BELIEVE nobody has said Paul Orndorff, circa 1986. His turn on Hogan is the measuring stick against which all heel turns are measured, and numerous workers have credited those two as being the reason they were able to rake in the money during that time.
ReplyDeleteI mean, using Hogan's entrance music..what a complete DICK move...as an 11 year old mark at the time, I wanted Hogan to piledrive him through the floor.
I think Jarrett gets a lot of "This guy has no business being the champ so I hate him" heat more than anything. He was shoved down our throats by Russo in WCW and then himself in TNA.
ReplyDeleteI say Vince just for the fact that he helped draw so much heat & money WITHOUT working in the ring.
ReplyDeleteI still contend that Austin vs Vince should have headlined a ppv, but not the pre-WM one. Personally, I think a Team 3:16 vs Team McMahon blowoff at Survivor Series 99, with Austin winning but getting put out of action by HHH to make him the new top heel afterward.
ReplyDeleteI hafta agree with Vince and Hogan. Vince was able to get tons of heat without having the luxury of working matches against his nemesis. It's extremely difficult to keep that kinda heat on a feud when you can't really have any actual matches.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with Hogan is he never would allow a legit payoff to his endless heel shenanigans. He would get everyone to hate him week after week with his ridiculous claims and delusions of grandeur, but at the end he would reign victorious over and over. He was great at everything you want from a heel except for putting over the face clean.
I can definetly buy this.
ReplyDeleteI really don't understand why ANY owner would ever give a wrestler creative control. That inhibits pretty much everything you can do storyline-wise.
ReplyDelete'91 Jake Roberts has to be on the list somewhere.
ReplyDeleteThis brings up a good question: Who is/was the best at wrestling a heel style? Building up a bad-guy character outside the ring is one thing, but who can make you hate him without even saying a word, just by how he worked in the ring?
ReplyDeleteFor example, Alberto Del Rio turned himself heel at Payback solely with what he did in the ring; kicking Ziggler in the head 1,000 times and smirking while he was doing it.
I'm thinking Flair or Tully here. Honorable mention to Brian Pillman with the cheap shots and generally dickish moves.
ReplyDeleteBully Ray is a great heel in TNA.
ReplyDeleteThink it's gotta be Flair.
ReplyDeletecont. from Austin/Owen post.
ReplyDeleteEver since seeing him fall I've became obsessed with taking friends bungee jumping, just hoping to see... One time, I came THIS ** close to unhooking the line at the last second. Don't worry, it was into the water. I just love watching living things fall a long way now. It probably wasn't Austin who okayed it, but someone did... What ever happened to the techs in charge of the stunt? Might they be living in cabins on Stone Cold's ranch?!
F&*( you Netcop. You shouldn't have posted my question publicly. Now I've gotta go back to the wal mart parking lot and see if those folks are still giving away those puppies.
Orndorff would definitely say himself. He's one of the absolute biggest marks for himself ever. Up there with Bret and Foley practically.
ReplyDeleteGuys, guys, guys, it's the coke and the steroids.
ReplyDeleteWasn't that the point?
ReplyDeleteI loved when he reprised heel Cactus for the 2nd ECW One Night Stand ppv.
ReplyDeleteDepends on if it makes money. Jarrett as champ never has. The difference is other guys who "have no business being champ", such as Honky Tonk Man, constantly looked like jokes yet held on to the title.
ReplyDeleteJarrett called himself "The Chosen One". Had that been all, it could've worked. But WCW and TNA treated that nickname like gospel.
Roddy Piper from 84-85 made drawing massive heel heat look easy
ReplyDeleteThat's actually a good fucking point.
ReplyDeleteFlair's an artist. You give him a tuba, he'll get you something out of it.
The Mr McMahon character was so fantastic in 1998. Vince delivered in promos and he was so hated that it worked. After 1999, it still worked but it felt more forced and became a parody because it seemed they thought they had to make him overly villainous to escalate it.
ReplyDelete2000 has long been my favorite year for WWF but after watching some more Raw from 1998 I have to say there was no funner time to watch than when Austin was on top in his prime. Rock was great, Triple H was great and the wrestling improved later, but Austin in 1997-early 1999 was FUN every time he stepped through the curtain.
I shiver at thought of how livid the crowd would have been if Jake would have DDT'd Elizabeth at Tuesday in Texas instead of the punch/slap.
ReplyDeleteDafuq?
ReplyDeleteI would argue that almost no one draws in isolation. Hogan had phenomenal foils for a lot of his WWF run - Orndorff, Andre, Dibiase, Savage, Warrior, and of course who can forgot ZEUS. ;)
ReplyDeleteAustin had McMahon, Rock had HHH and the two of them had each other.
For me, the pinnacles of Bret's run came near the end of his stay in the WWE where Michaels and Austin had become his active rivals.
I would go so far as to say that Cena's reign would be much better received if he either
a) had much better opponents
b) had CM Punk as his opposite a lot more than he has thus far
Most of his opponents and rivalries have been terrible.
Coming from you, I'm taking that as a compliment.
ReplyDeleteWhether you really are they guy who posted the Austin/Owen question or not, there's very little place for this garbage. I hope one of the moderators takes action if posts like this continue.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Russo is even getting seen in positive light by some just because he wasn't boring compared to today's WWE
ReplyDeleteGod I fucking hated me some Rick Rude... which I why I love him so much now.
ReplyDeleteI know you're supposed to finish the match at all costs, but if I had the shits I'm cutting it short and going home.
ReplyDeleteWhat was it?
ReplyDeleteEdge was a good heel, but I'd definitely rank JBL, Batista, HHH, Punk and maybe Jericho ahead of him when it comes to the best modern-day (WWE) heels. Hell, for sheer entertainment value I'd put R-Truth ahead of Edge as well.
ReplyDeleteI bet he'd like to get some money out of it.
ReplyDeleteVince won it on Smackdown, which caused him to be reinstated about six weeks after Austin banished him forever. He gave the title up on Raw, and it was decided in a six man match at the next pay per view. Triple H won it back. They could have just had Triple H defend the title in the match, but I guess it was a way to get Vince back on tv.
ReplyDeleteI hate that argument against Cena. He has had plenty of decent heels - JBL, Edge, Umaga, Angle, RVD, The Rock, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and CM Punk. I do agree they should have Cena and Punk go at it more that they do, they are in a perverse way sort of this generations Rock and Austin. The problem with Cena is not turning him heel over the years has gone against every bit of wrestling logic in existence. If I was in charge of creative BAM- Cena, Orton, Sheamus, Miz, Triple H (w/Nash and Waltman in tow) as an instant super heel stable. The face gets booed you turn him heel, that simple. Heels that get cheered can just do something more evil or be a tweener, faces don't have that luxury.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a Photoshop waiting to happen.
ReplyDeleteThere's one promo where he declares himself to be god. Hogan may have obstructed certain things, to the company's detriment, but once he committed to being a heel, he fucking committed.
ReplyDeleteI was going to disagree with you, but then I realized you might be right. HHH has a strong claim for best WWE heel this millennium. He's certainly the most successful.
ReplyDeleteJust some weirdo talking about how he dreams of letting people and animals die as he throws them off cliffs, having sex on carcasses, etc. Glad it was deleted.
ReplyDeleteMy only problem with that(and I didn't watch a lot of WCW so please correct me if I'm wrong) but Hogan's association with nWo caused him to be cheered a good deal during that time too because NWO was "cool". Again, this is just from a selected sample size of promos, matches, and Nitro's I've seen.
ReplyDeleteAnd Vince McMahon a part time attraction? Past 2000 I wish!
Sorry I was wrong and I'm going to edit that - his *opponents* are quality but the rivalries/storylines have been terrible.
ReplyDeleteHe's had decent heels - not rivalries that defined him like what I listed above. Out of the ones you've listed, Punk and Rock are the only memorable ones, and Rock was part-time once a year for two years. Michaels was never a rivalry as it was a couple of matches. HHH was once in a while. Orton was such a memorable rival that they stunned the crowd into silence. JBL happened prior to him winning the belt. RVD was a one-time thing.
I might add Batista to the rivalry list...wished he stayed around longer with John.
"If you like me so much, then cut me a check you ham 'n' egger!"
ReplyDelete"WILL YOU STOP?!"
To me it will always be yokozuna
ReplyDeleteHis feuds with edge are pretty fucking epic though
ReplyDeleteVIcki Guerrero should be in the conversation as well. NUCLEAR heat for like 4 or 5 years now. Most hated person in the building every night out. Just awesome.
ReplyDeleteHe feuded with JBL after winning the belt, that Last Man Standing match gets no love and I am not a JBL guy by any stretch.
ReplyDeleteHow is this not the easiest answer? His catalog of Heelish Things Done is pretty extraordinary.
ReplyDeleteThe correct answer is Triple H.
ReplyDeleteIs this the feud where he said "JBL is poopy"? 'Cause if it is I can't give you credit for that "heated rivalry" ;)
ReplyDeleteNo, that was in 2008. He and Cryme Tyme spraypainted "JBL is poopy" on his limo, IIRC.
ReplyDeleteI know a lot of people checked out of WWE around that time, but yeah, that wound up being a pretty memorable feud that spanned a few years.
ReplyDeleteDare I say that Cena's best heel opponent might've actually been the Nexus? Cena's feud with them in August-December 2010 was one of the few times in recent memory that Cena was drawing 95% cheers from all audiences.
ReplyDeleteI think the problem with Cena and his rivalries, is that nothing actually makes a difference.
ReplyDeleteTake a look at the Rock: His friendship with Mick Foley brought out a new facet to him in that he was actually willing to go to the mat for his friend (by staging the strike) and his hatred of Mick brought out a new vicious streak in the Rumble match. His hatred of HHH, Austin, McMahon, all of them brought out new sides of the Rock.
I'm not even that big of a fan of him anymore, but Rock is a great example of how a rivalry is supposed to work. I don't know how Cena feels about anybody. Who does he like? I guess Daniel Bryan at this point. Who does he hate? Who scares him? I dunno, maybe the kiddies can answer, but during the attitude era, you knew who got on with whom, and who hated whom.
If we're talking WWE heels this millennium, I agree. Other wise, no.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter how many times Vince actually wrestled, like all great movie/tv/videogame villains, most of the battles were against his underlings.
ReplyDeleteHe was the Dr Claw to Austin's Inspector Gadget
the Shredder to Austin's Ninja Turtles
the Blofeld to Austin's Bond
etc
etc
Of course it matters. This is wrestling. If you're not one of the two guys in the match, you're window dressing no matter how great you are at being window dressing.
ReplyDeleteHogan was the only reason they were heels. He got booed tremendously. While Nash/Hall got a mixed reaction especially after the first couple of months. I've got a tape of nwo 96 that I watch on occasion and the crowd REALLY hates him.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the best things they did for the McMahon character generating nuclear heat at the start was that he had no entrance music. All you could hear whilst he was walking towards the ring was the boos from the crowd. It also kinda emphasised that McMahon shouldn't be there, that he was abusing his power. When the entrance theme arrived around post-RR99 (I think it was originally that PPV's theme) then he sorta just became another "WWE Superstar" character diluted by numerous heel and face switches and feuds that could never be as explicitly relateable as the Austin = Blue Collar Working Man, McMahon = White Collar Boss. What exactly were the character dynamics between his feud with Triple H? Or Zack Gowen? Or The Undertaker? Just wrestling heel vs. wrestling face. That's fine, but it meant the specialness was gone like average-to-bad sequels to an awesome original movie.
ReplyDeleteIf VM had genuinely left the on-screen storylines after WM15, and I thought that may have happened with Austin feuding with Shane for the 99-00 "season" as he'd done with Vince 98-99 then the 'Mr. McMahon' character couldn't really even be argued against as the most successful heel run of all time.
...again, wasn't that the point?
ReplyDeleteIf their point was turn fans off from the product and not make money.
ReplyDeleteCol. DeBeers had the perfect way of establishing himself as the heel before he even started wrestling: He twirled his mustache. Universal villain symbol.
ReplyDeleteI didn't say anything about people, that's just sick! What kind of sick f*(ko would have sex on HUMAN inards?
ReplyDeleteEchoing a comment from a previous blogger, my girlfriend absolutely HATES Vickie...from the first time she hear that voice go "Excuuuuse meeee"....said its like nails on a chalkboard. That is called genius!
ReplyDeleteHard to say.....For pure nuclear heat, hard to top the heat Ric Flair used to get in the mid-80s in World Class (as well as after the Horsemen broke Dusty Rhodes' leg)....I'd also have to say Ted Dibiase would be a greater heel than Vince....I mean nothing like a scumbag who's filthy rich - and has no qualms about letting you know he's better than you. I'd also say anybody who's seen his heel work in the early 90s, and especially the late 70s in Memphis would have to put Lawler in that category.
ReplyDeleteCant forget Kurt Angle, with the Three I's (Intensity, Integrity, Intelligence)
ReplyDeleteFlair won his first three world titles as a face, played the heel in Texas for the swap in '84 because even Jesus Christ would have been a heel against a Von Erich, and did the majority of his heel run in the 80s with the Dillon-led Horsemen, which only ran from '86 through the end of '88. He even finished the 80s as one of the most popular faces in WCW.
ReplyDelete