Your ideas for heels that would get over today

[JerryvonKramer]

Here's mine:

 

- An old-school jock character who HATES nerds, internet nerds, the internet, social media, twitter, video games and so on and so forth. He could come out and cut promos lambasting the state of the audience. He could make fun of their comments on twitter. He could make a mockery of the idea of a "selfie".

 

I believe this would get over. He'd be attacking the audience where it hurts.

 

This is my idea, what are some of yours?

[KrisZ]

This guy

 

[The Chief]

Here's mine:

 

- An old-school jock character who HATES nerds, internet nerds, the internet, social media, twitter, video games and so on and so forth. He could come out and cut promos lambasting the state of the audience. He could make fun of their comments on twitter. He could make a mockery of the idea of a "selfie".

 

I believe this would get over. He'd be attacking the audience where it hurts.

 

This is my idea, what are some of yours?

They did this with Michael Cole and at the same time he was shilling the social media stuff.

[peachchaos]

Bryan vs. Lesnar at Mania is Title vs. Beard, Bryan loses (which everyone will just hate) and comes back the next night and blames the beard, blames the YES chant, blames the fans. He says for too long, he's played by all their rules. From there on, he wrestles as a rule-breaker, emphasizing that he is a heel because he breaks the rules of wrestling, much like his ROH title run.

 

"I HAVE TIL FIVE!" etc.

[The Chief]

I like the heel that is hated because he beats up guys the fans like. That Hall of Pain run got over big because Henry plowed through everybody.

 

I feel when they try to tap into other ways of heat, they just become annoying instead of hated.

[khawk20]

Here's mine:

 

- An old-school jock character who HATES nerds, internet nerds, the internet, social media, twitter, video games and so on and so forth. He could come out and cut promos lambasting the state of the audience. He could make fun of their comments on twitter. He could make a mockery of the idea of a "selfie".

 

 

 

Wrestler: "You're all nerds!"

Audience: "He's right! We ARE all nerds!!"

**audience begins cheering him wildly**

 

I'd have them introduce a guy who's schtick was just completely horrible, something extremely out of touch with the fan base, from costume to wrestling style, and then have the guy fluke out wins over literally everyone. Sorta Honky-Tonk-Man-ish.

[Coffey]

The heels that work right now tend to be the ones that people think "suck" or are "boring." If you do anything that gets a pop, stop doing it. If you make the crowd cheer, or laugh they won't hate you. If you're dominant, they'll get behind you.

 

You gotta go out there and be like The Miz nowadays, seemingly, to get any heat.

 

Annoying IS hated. X-Pac heat is heat.

[The Chief]

The heels that work right now tend to be the ones that people think "suck" or are "boring." If you do anything that gets a pop, stop doing it. If you make the crowd cheer, or laugh they won't hate you. If you're dominant, they'll get behind you.

 

You gotta go out there and be like The Miz nowadays, seemingly, to get any heat.

 

Annoying IS hated. X-Pac heat is heat.

I agree with most of this however Brock Lesnar isn't annoying and he doesn't get cheers. There's ways to do it.

[Coffey]

I disagree that Brock doesn't get cheers.

[Shining Wiz]

"Heels" don't really work anymore. If they're good at what they do, people will cheer them. And "X-Pac heat" IS heat, but it's still not good.

 

The answer is to do away with the need for the good guy/bad guy dynamic. Either in this or another thread, someone talked about the NJPW "post-modern" dynamic where, for the most part, there are no traditional good guys and bad guys, just normal personalities who fall somewhere on a spectrum. There's no reason short of a lack of imagination that the same couldn't be applied in North America. ECW touched on that a bit, but not as much as they could have/should have.

[JerryvonKramer]

 

 

Here's mine:

 

- An old-school jock character who HATES nerds, internet nerds, the internet, social media, twitter, video games and so on and so forth. He could come out and cut promos lambasting the state of the audience. He could make fun of their comments on twitter. He could make a mockery of the idea of a "selfie".

 

 

Wrestler: "You're all nerds!"

Audience: "He's right! We ARE all nerds!!"

**audience begins cheering him wildly**

 

Okay ramp it up; show him kicking the shit out of a fat kid. Get him to smash up copies of the latest WWE video game.

 

If the guy is a proper unpleasant bully surely they will boo him?

[Shining Wiz]

Isn't that just what they did with Ryback for a little bit last year?

Didn't get over that much.

[Coffey]

In an era where "@HEELZiggler" is one of the most over guys on the roster, even when he wasn't a babyface, I definitely think it's time for a change. A lot of the fans of today are so smart, or think they are, that they'll do things just to be contrarian anyway. "CM Punk" chants, "This is awesome" chants, etc. I think it all goes hand-in-hand with killing kayfabe.

 

I'm not sure what would work but just trying to have a guy act like he's a bad guy & beat-up good guys isn't going to work anymore. It's antiquated. Regardless of if he burns Pokémon cards or whatever else. Wrestling is like a nerd hobby now. A lot of which is due to the internet. How evil can a heel be in this day & age when they have to have a Twitter account, do autograph signing sessions, sell T-shirts & use buzzwords?

[Grimmas]

Parv has it wrong, you need somebody to pretend to be a nerd but is really cool and you know he's just pretending to appeal to the nerd crowd. Nerds hate that.

 

Someone like Roman Reigns in a pocket protector reading comics would get over as a heel. Glasses taped together is key too.

[peachchaos]

You just cast Roman Reigns as Jamison. Awesome.

[Fantastic]

A wrestling purist, no gimmicks, just trunks, chest hair and handshakes. A guy who wrestles a slow paced, classic territorial style and wins matches.. ALL...THE...TIME... Despite his opponents clearly out-exciting him and wrestling a more varied style.

[Cobra Commander]

Here's mine:

 

- An old-school jock character who HATES nerds, internet nerds, the internet, social media, twitter, video games and so on and so forth. He could come out and cut promos lambasting the state of the audience. He could make fun of their comments on twitter. He could make a mockery of the idea of a "selfie".

 

I believe this would get over. He'd be attacking the audience where it hurts.

 

This is my idea, what are some of yours?

wasn't Batista moving towards this point before he departed again?

[fakeplastictrees]

I still believe there is a lot of money in the sensational feminist gimmick. Hassan at one point wasn't saying anything extreme and was talking about how he just wants to live in America and how things changed after 9/11 and how it wasn't fare. He was one of WWE's biggest heels at the time. I think the same type of heat would be generated by this feminist character I have in mind. Again this character wouldn't say ' I HATE MEN!' or be anywhere in the vein of the Spice Girls 'Girl Power'. Instead she will be the type who will tell Daniel Bryan not to say 'hello' to her as its sexual harrasment and try to work to get him fired over it. She will be the type who while having a plesant coversation with Darren Young will get on her soap box if he calls her 'man' or 'dude'. She will have op-eds on WWE.com about how men aren't allowed to approach her unless she gives the go ahead, etc.

 

The gimmick would be extrememly annoying. Who is the face in all of this? Someone like Brie Bella. While the extreme feminist is trying to impose her view and ways in the WWE- Brie Bella comes out to talk rationally. Brie would champion things such as "saying hello isn't a bad thing", etc. etc. This character can REALLY tap into misogyny, misandry, gynocentricism, benevolent sexism, etc. and would begin a lot of social discussion with the audience as people would be split on her. The few that will cheer her will be drowned out by the millions who boo her. I can't believe its 2014 and WWE hasn't done a crazy feminist gimmick.

[broccoman]

I think funkdoc's idea of a Social Justice Warrior type would get nuclear heat.

 

Wrestling crowds would really hate SJW's.

 

Above post nailed it perfectly.

[jushin muta liger]

I feel like a heel that was portrayed as a person like Adrian Broner would get mega heat. Have vignettes of a guy like that spending money ridiculously on strip clubs, cars and jewelry. Even rip up and flush $20 bills down the toilet cause he only carries hundreds. If you know the jackass personality of Adrian Broner, you know exactly what I'm talking.

[southofheavy]

A hipster. Maybe it's a gimmick being done on the indies somewhere, but I haven't seen it. Ironic mustache, V-Neck t-shirt, a vintage wardrobe drenched in irony, rides to the ring on a fixed gear...you get the idea. Whenever his spots get over, he stops doing them. Whenever his entrance music stops being obscure, he changes it. Chokes his opponents with his scarf, gets the win by hitting people with his bike lock or a can of craft beer, etc.

[pol]

I think Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly are supposed to be hipsters, they don't really go very far with it though and it seems really confused by them doing all this faux-MMA stuff and I guess the requirements of the indie style in general.

[kjh]

Parv's idea probably wouldn't work in WWE, as most of the WWE audience aren't nerds, aren't using social media much, don't have a twitter account and don't play video games. It could work on the indy scene I suppose.

[Matt D]

I'd have them introduce a guy who's schtick was just completely horrible, something extremely out of touch with the fan base, from costume to wrestling style, and then have the guy fluke out wins over literally everyone. Sorta Honky-Tonk-Man-ish.

That's Bo Dallas pretty much.

[Loss]

Parv's idea probably wouldn't work in WWE, as most of the WWE audience aren't nerds, aren't using social media much, don't have a twitter account and don't play video games. It could work on the indy scene I suppose.

 

Yeah, how do you anger 40-50 year old men that refuse to spend money? That's most of WWE's audience.

 

Of course, the live audience makeup is much different. The RAW crowds are not representative of the WWE fanbase as a whole, so I think a different type of heel will get over with them compared to your average TV viewer.