Inprofessional wrestling, aheel (also known as arudo inlucha libre) is a wrestler who portrays avillain, "bad guy",[1] "baddie", "evil-doer", or "rulebreaker", and acts as anantagonist[2][3][4] to thefaces, who are theheroicprotagonist or "good guy" characters. Not everything a heel wrestler does must be villainous: heels need only to be booed or jeered by the audience to be effective characters, although most truly successful heels embrace other aspects of their devious personalities, such as cheating to win or usingforeign objects. "The role of a heel is to get 'heat,' which means spurring the crowd to obstreperous hatred, and generally involves cheating and any other manner of socially unacceptable behavior."[5]
To gainheat (with boos and jeers from the audience), heels are often portrayed as behaving in an immoral manner by breaking rules or otherwise taking advantage of their opponents outside the bounds of the standards of the match. Others do not (or rarely) break rules, but instead exhibit unlikeable, appalling, and deliberately offensive and demoralizing personality traits such as arrogance, cowardice, or contempt for the audience. Many heels do both, cheating as well as behaving nastily. No matter the type of heel, the most important role is that of the antagonist, as heels exist to provide a foil to the face wrestlers. If a given heel is cheered over the face, a promoter may opt toturn that heel to face or the other way around, or to make the wrestler do something even more despicable to encourage heel heat. Some performers display a mixture of both positive and negative character traits. In wrestling terminology, these characters are referred to astweeners (short hand for the "in-between" good and evil actions these wrestlers display).WWE has been cited as a company that is doing away with the traditional heel/face format due in part to audiences' willingness to cheer for heels and boo babyfaces.[6]
In "local" wrestling (e.g., American wrestling) it was common for the faces to be "local" (e.g.,Hulk Hogan,John Cena, andStone Cold Steve Austin) and the heels to be portrayed as "foreign" (e.g.,Gunther,Alberto Del Rio,Ivan Koloff,The Iron Sheik,Rusev/Miro,Jinder Mahal, andMuhammad Hassan).[7]
In the world oflucha libre wrestling, mostrudos are generally known for being brawlers and for using physical moves that emphasize brute strength or size, often having outfits akin todemons,devils, or othertricksters. This is contrasted with most heroictécnicos that are generally known for using moves requiring technical skill, particularlyaerial maneuvers.[8]
Common heel behavior includes cheating to win (e.g. using the ropes for leverage whilepinning or attacking witha weapon while thereferee is looking away), employingdirty tactics such asblatant chokes orraking the eyes, attacking other wrestlers backstage, interfering with other wrestlers' matches, insulting the fans or city they are in (referred to as "cheap heat") and acting in a haughty or superior manner.[9]
More theatrical heels would feature dramatic outfits giving off a nasty or otherwise dangerous look, such as wearingcorpse paint over their faces, putting on demonic masks, covering themselves in dark leather and the like.Gorgeous George is generally regarded as one of the first to implement a gimmick, let alone a "heel" gimmick, in professional wrestling. Starting in the 1940s, he invented an extravagant, flamboyant "pretty boy" gimmick who wore wavy blonde hair, colorful robes and ritzy outfits, and was accompanied by beautiful valets to the ring for his matches. The crowd widely jeered his persona, and came out to his matches in hopes of seeing him defeated.[10] George relished this attention, and exploded into one of the most famous (and hated) heels not only of his era, but of all time. Another example of a dramatic heel is the wrestlerThe Undertaker, who, on many occasions throughout his career, has switched between portraying a heel or a face.[11] During his period as the leader ofThe Ministry of Darkness, he appeared as a priest of theoccult in a hooded black robe and literally sat in a throne,[12] often in the shape of the symbol used to represent him.
Occasionally, faces who have recently turned from being heels still exhibit characteristics from their heel persona.[13] This occurs due to fans being entertained by a wrestler despite (or because of) their heel persona, often due to the performer's charisma or charm in playing the role. Certain wrestlers such asEddie Guerrero[14] andRic Flair gained popularity as faces by using tactics that would typically be associated with heels, while others likeStone Cold Steve Austin,Scott Hall and more recentlyBecky Lynch[15] displayed heelish behavior during their careers yet got big face reactions, leading them to be marketed asantiheroes.
On other occasions, wrestlers who are positioned as faces receive a negative audience reaction despite their portrayal as heroes. An example isRoman Reigns, who in 2018 was a top face in WWE, but got booed in his matches while his opponents got cheered regardless of their status as face or heel, due toperceived favoritism from WWE executives and a lack of character development. Such characters often (but not always) become nudged into becoming villains over time or retooled to present a different public image, such asThe Rock's turn from a clean-cut face to self-absorbed narcissist in theNation of Domination heel stable,[16] orTetsuya Naito's fan rejection of his babyface causing him to drastically formLos Ingobernables de Japon. The term "heel" does not, in itself, describe a typical set of attributes or audience reaction, but simply a wrestler's presentation and booking as an antagonist.
Depending on theangle, heels can act cowardly or overpowering to their opponents. For instance, a "closet champion" in particular is a term for a heel in possession of a title belt who consistently dodges top flight competition and attempts to back down from challenges. Examples includeSeth Rollins during his firstWWE World Heavyweight Championship reign,Charlotte during herDivas/Raw Women's Championship reign,the Honky Tonk Man during his longIntercontinental Championship reign,Tommaso Ciampa during hisNXT Championship reign andThe IIconics during theirWWE Women's Tag Team Championship reign.Brock Lesnar's character in WWE had heel aspects, and was well known for failing to regularly defend his title (especially during his firstUniversal Championship reign), often only performing on pay-per-view events and not onSmackDown or especiallyRaw as he was only on a part-time appearance contract with WWE.[17][18] This sort of behavior supports the intendedkayfabe opinion that the face (or faces) the heel is feuding with is actually more deserving of the title than the title-holding heel is. Heels may beg for mercy during a beat down at the hands of faces, even if they have delivered similar beat downs with no mercy.Ric Flair in particular has been well known for begging an opponent off, then hitting alow blow on his distracted opponent. Other heels may act overpowering to their opponents to play up the scrappyunderdog success story for the face.
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