The real world is filled with good guys and bad guys. However the line
between good and evil is often blurred, and it can be difficult to tell them apart, unlike the many stories we have read, watched, written, and played out in many fictional scenarios.
You have Batman vs Joker, Superman vs Lex Luthor, Cloud vs Sephiroth, Coon vs Mysterion, Doctor vs Daleks, the list could go on and on, but hopefully you got the point. Wrestling is exactly the same.
In the older days it was a lot easier to define the good guys and the bad guys, purely because people were more willing to suspend their disbelief (Or actually thought it was real) and allow these characters to shine. This is why wrestlers like Hulk Hogan were absolutely huge in their day, because the character of Hogan was so good, and patriotic, that he could get the whole world behind him. As wrestling has evolved, fans have better access to the wrestlers personal lives, and have been treated to excellent, athletic matches, which tend to give us a more negative outlook on these over the top characters who may not have been so athletic in their day.
In wrestling terms, they are called Faces and Heels.
Faces - The good guys in wrestling play to the crowd. If they make an entrance and get no reaction, then they (or the company) are not doing their job of getting them over. Faces get beaten up throughout the match by the heel in order to get the crowd behind them. Faces are more likely to taunt the crowd to get the fans behind them, and will use high-flying moves, and avoid cheating. There are exceptions though.
Heels - Fans often forget that a heel wrestler is doing their job if you hate them, tell them they suck, and that the company should fire them. The worst heel is a wrestler who the fans don't care enough to boo them. Heels will do anything and everything to make you boo them, as that makes the faces look good when they beat them. Heels are easier to portray nowadays, because all you need to do is employ cheap heat (even if that means referencing someone who has died lately), steer away from being entertaining in the ring, and cheat as much as possible.
In today's wrestling, it has become easier for a wrestler to do a heel promo then a face promo. Fans only really get behind a face if they are 1) Charismatic and 2) Technically sound in the ring. It seems that a face really needs both, or they will get booed. This is the case with the likes of The Rock (always cheered, but can be criticized for a lack of loyalty/ring skills) and John Cena, who we all know, finds it difficult to get the majority of fans behind him. However, these two wrestlers get a reaction, whether it is positive or negative, which is better then nothing.
Heels like CM Punk and Bully Ray (just examples) are exceptional. They are praised for their ability to play bad guys, and a lot of fans hate them, whereas other fans enjoy their heel antics. These heels have it difficult, because they don't want to be praised, they want everyone to hate them. They have to watch what they say, due to political correctness (tot calling people homos or fags etc.) ... although wrestling is a fantasy world, and anyone taking those comments seriously ... well, they should stop watching wrestling?
Positivity and negativity in wrestling doesn't just come down to individual wrestlers, but entire companies as well. At the moment, WWE is having issues with older fans caring about their product, to the point they just tune out and can't be bothered to keep in touch, (personally, I just can't sit through Smackdown anymore, going to hate me now?) whereas a company like TNA brings in Hogan/Bischoff, creates an evil stable like Aces and Eights, and people talk about it, often referring to how "TNA sucks".
Let me just state right now, if you are talking about TNA in any form, whether you say you love them, hate them, or that the company is going to die, you are advertising TNA Wrestling, and for a company that is only ten years old, they need all the exposure they can find, so keep hating and advertising their product to the world. Any reaction is better then no reaction.
The passion in wrestling fans is what I love to see, and some people don't realise how badly they have been sucked into the fantasy world. Guys like CM Punk could have you booing him one week, and cheering him the next, only to turn around the next week and call you all sheep for buying into it. Bully Ray...
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