Wrestlers who were unconvicning faces or heels

steelcityblues

Any thoughts on those - past and present - who couldn't pull off either role. Here's my list:

Unconvincing faces:

Triple H - the 'son in law', after all
Vince - most ruthless promoter in history
Randy Orton - you can tell he is not comfortable with being 'Mr. Nice'
Mr. Perfect- who can like an all round 'perfect' individual?
Batista - too intense and mean
Stephanie - similar personality to her Dad
Ivory - better as a prudish character, or simple badass.
Jerry Lawler - Better as the mid life crisis sleazeball

Unconvincing heels:

Sting - pretty much considered 'Mr. loyal' to WCW fans
Rey Mysterio - always the underdog with the soft spoken voice
Lita - some may disagree, but she didn't revel in this role IMO.
Stacy - kind of was during the association with the Dudleys, but who does not love those legs?

I'm nearly sure Piper was one of the most hated heels in wrestling back in the 80's.

steelcityblues

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm nearly sure Piper was one of the most hated heels in wrestling back in the 80's.

Yep, put it in the wrong one (my bad)

Jake Roberts is another who was simply born to be a heel.

MitchKoobski

steelcityblues wrote: »

Any thoughts on those - past and present - who couldn't pull off either role. Here's my list:

Unconvincing faces:

Triple H - the 'son in law', after all
Vince - most ruthless promoter in history
Randy Orton - you can tell he is not comfortable with being 'Mr. Nice'
Mr. Perfect- who can like an all round 'perfect' individual?
Batista - too intense and mean
Stephanie - similar personality to her Dad
Ivory - better as a prudish character, or simple badass.
Jerry Lawler - Better as the mid life crisis sleazeball

HHH is a great face and has been for the last two years. Fans love him and he can work a crowd like the best.
Batista was a great face, he was the big badass who was going rule the roost in smackdown before he ran into Taker.
Vince works better as a heel, but he can work a crowd to a face or heel whenever he wants. No matter what the occasion he would nearly always get cheers when he came out.

Unconvincing heels:
Sting - pretty much considered 'Mr. loyal' to WCW fans
Rey Mysterio - always the underdog with the soft spoken voice
Lita - some may disagree, but she didn't revel in this role IMO.
Stacy - kind of was during the association with the Dudleys, but who does not love those legs?

I think the only time Rey could be considered was during Filthy Animals.
Lita was a great heel manager with Edge imo.

steelcityblues

I remember before the Survivor Series 01 decider match, Vince was talking to the wrestlers about 'my' company and 'my' family.

He was 'meant' to be a babyface, but it came off as selfish heel stuff. Plus, Heyman hit on quite a lot of truths with that Smackdown promo.

Don't like him at all when he goes face.

JP Liz V1

I dont think AJ Styles can play a heel

As said above HHH can play both very well but he excels as a heel

flahavaj

steelcityblues wrote: »

Any thoughts on those - past and present - who couldn't pull off either role. Here's my list:

Unconvincing faces:

Triple H - the 'son in law', after all
Vince - most ruthless promoter in history
Randy Orton - you can tell he is not comfortable with being 'Mr. Nice'
Mr. Perfect- who can like an all round 'perfect' individual?
Batista - too intense and mean
Stephanie - similar personality to her Dad
Ivory - better as a prudish character, or simple badass.
Jerry Lawler - Better as the mid life crisis sleazeball

Unconvincing heels:

Sting - pretty much considered 'Mr. loyal' to WCW fans
Rey Mysterio - always the underdog with the soft spoken voice
Lita - some may disagree, but she didn't revel in this role IMO.
Stacy - kind of was during the association with the Dudleys, but who does not love those legs?

Not in Memphis he wasn't.

steelcityblues

I have seen a lot of classic Memphis, thanks to the Internet.

Being born in the early 80s, I am way more familiar with the Lawler who was taking potshots at Bret's family and later shouting 'puppies', so forgive me.

Really have not enjoyed him as a face commentator in recent years, either.

rovert

Heath Slater to answer both questions

super182

Mark Henry as a face don't work, Big Zeke as a face don't work, John Morrison is a terrible face..... mmmmm that's all i can think of right now agree with whoever said AJ Styles also he's much better being a face than a heel.

rovert

super182 wrote: »

Mark Henry as a face don't work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTcWdrcJsIE

the groutch

Kurt Angle just doesnt work as a face imo

rovert

the groutch wrote: »

Kurt Angle just doesnt work as a face imo

He is too movezy and spotty to be a full blown heel as well IMO.

krudler

Ted Dibiase (Snr) as a face, just doesnt work having The Million Dollar Man as a good guy.

Batista was a much better heel than a face, he bored me to tears before his phenomenal heel turn before he left, best thing about Raw for ages.

kiad

Ricky Steamboat was WAY better as a heel

briany

I think that when Stone Cold was a heel, it didn't really work. People loved the Stone Cold character and his brash attitude anyway. In old wrestling terms, his character was essentially a heel already but he was completely over with his challenging of authority so the trying to make him someone the crowd would hate was never really going catch on even if he was cosying up to Vince.....

the groutch

same with The Rock, when he returned as a heel you just didnt buy it

Handsome Bob

briany wrote: »

I think that when Stone Cold was a heel, it didn't really work. People loved the Stone Cold character and his brash attitude anyway. In old wrestling terms, his character was essentially a heel already but he was completely over with his challenging of authority so the trying to make him someone the crowd would hate was never really going catch on even if he was cosying up to Vince.....

Austin's heel turn was awful for me. Acting like a coward and being needy of Vince McMahon's approval...that's not Stone Cold, face or heel.

Liam O

the groutch wrote: »

same with The Rock, when he returned as a heel you just didnt buy it

the Rock was an amazing heel, too good if anything that people found him to just be hilarious. Same way Punk was a heel earlier this year before MitB and his outburst.

GTR63

I really enjoyed Rock as a heel,personal highlight was the time he spat in Hogans face in the build up to their rematch. Austin was Awful as a heel he had a few moments but the time he "turned his back" on wwe & joined the alliance was right about the time that storyline started jumping the shark.

steelcityblues

GTR63 wrote: »

I really enjoyed Rock as a heel,personal highlight was the time he spat in Hogans face in the build up to their rematch. Austin was Awful as a heel he had a few moments but the time he "turned his back" on wwe & joined the alliance was right about the time that storyline started jumping the shark.

'Tweener' Austin from 1997, is when the man was at his absolute best!

GTR63

steelcityblues wrote: »

'Tweener' Austin from 1997, is when the man was at his absolute best!

Tbh wasn't Austin as a the companies main face always doing heel things. Wasn't watching in 97 but Austin turning heel at W'mania X7 & later joining the Alliance both were bad

steelcityblues

GTR63 wrote: »

Tbh wasn't Austin as a the companies main face always doing heel things. Wasn't watching in 97 but Austin turning heel at W'mania X7 & later joining the Alliance both were bad

Well, when you stick him up against the owner of the company, he's pretty much an all out babyface - just a less traditional one.

What I love about 1997, is that you could sympathise with Bret feeling he is not respected any longer, or side with Austin thinking Bret is a whiner. The lines were more blurred.

I disagree with Wrestlemania 17 - that was hard to comprehend seeing him shake hands with Vince, and later beating the heel out of people like Jim Ross. It only got bad once he was competing with Kurt Angle for Vince's appreciation.

I agree, that he should have been with team WWF by the time of Alliance.

JP Liz V1

Given his gimmick even though he has lost the mask I cant buy into Kane as a face

tallaghtmick

Michael Cole absolute crap at being a heel,I just found him really annoying.

Edit:Meant his acting was so bad its annoying.

steelcityblues

tallaghtmick wrote: »

Michael Cole absolute crap at being a heel,I just found him really annoying.

Is that not a sign it is working?

tallaghtmick

steelcityblues wrote: »

Is that not a sign it is working?

sorry I should have said his bad acting was annoying.

steelcityblues

tallaghtmick wrote: »

sorry I should have said his bad acting was annoying.

If you have seen the recent post with a video link to the WWE feeds before/during/after shows, then heel Cole is pretty much the same guy for real.

Hope he sticks with it.

jaykhunter

steelcityblues wrote: »

Is that not a sign it is working?

if it makes him change the channel then he's tipped over from Vickie Guerrero heat to X-Pac heat!

I personally couldn't buy Yokozuna as a heel. He looked like a nice bloke. Didn't buy into Mr Perfect being heel. Same with Lex Luger, I thought he was such a phoney. IMO you can only have a patriotic gimmick if you do it from the get-go (eg Hogan, Duggan) you can't just 'suddenly' love America

These days anderson doesn't work heel or face for me, he's this awful shade of shoot-douchebag-grey.

I'll have a think. I'm sure there's more

tallaghtmick

steelcityblues wrote: »

If you have seen the recent post with a video link to the WWE feeds before/during/after shows, then heel Cole is pretty much the same guy for real.

Hope he sticks with it.

Really? have to check that out after work thanks:D

starviewadams

Don't think Jeff Hardy works well as a heel at all.
Tazz was crap as a face.

Could never take Rock seriously as a heel cos he's too damn entertaining.