Breaking Down Why the Heel Is Invaluable in Professional Wrestling

From the WWE to the smallest of the small-town wrestling federations, one factor has remained the same—you need good guys and you need bad guys.

While the good guy (face) always gets the credit from the fans, it is the bad guy (heel) that makes wrestling worth watching. A character with low morals and class can do things that no face could ever think of, thus making them a much deeper and complex character.

These heels make the sport of wrestling what it is today. Not only do they make the action more interesting, they have proven to be just as financially valuable to companies as the faces.

Take a journey into heel introspection. Are you a little heel?

The Turn

The process of being a heel and being successful as a bad guy in professional wrestling begins and ends with the actual heel turn. If a wrestler completes this move well, they can become a megastar in the business.

While many bad guys come into wrestling as the villain, it is the select few who can start off as a face and get the crowd behind them—only to turn heel and betray them—that will become the best in WWE and beyond.

Throughout the history of wrestling, some of the greatest moments in the sport have been based around heel turns. From Hulk Hogan and the nWo to The Rock and Stone Cold, every major face has turned at some point to the dark side to re-invent his character.

With a new mindset and mentality, a fresh-heel character opens up a whole new arsenal of face stars on a roster to feud with—a booker’s dream come true.

Dirty Tactics

However the star gets to be a heel, the key for any booker is making the crowd detest the wrestler or manager. The easiest way to do this has always been heat from the crowd via dirty tactics.

Whether it be holding a wrestler’s shorts during a roll-up or using an illegal weapon while the referee is distracted, the heel persona offers so many alternate ways to end a match.

A wrestling company doesn’t want their best guys losing cleanly all the time, so they taint the finishes to take away from their significance. The problem is that using these methods too often ruins the shock and anger they instill in the people watching.

Dirty tactics can be a promoter’s best friend. When both wrestlers don’t want to lose the match cleanly or the company is building to a bigger event, a loss to the face via dirty pin is the perfect booking to keep everyone happy and draw even more heat.

Honestly, what’s better than a heel wrestler running down a crowd and the city they are in?

So Bad That They’re Good

Wrestling companies want the fans to hate the heels, but there are times when the bad guys become fan favorites. Sometimes they’re so bad that it’s too good to ignore.

Just look at the nWo and the Four Horsemen. Two groups of men that cheated and did despicable acts week in and week out, yet gained mainstream fame because they were adored. It’s the power of fighting-the-authority that draws many fans to the bad guys.

A company like WWE sees the power in the anti-hero character—just look at Stone Cold Steve Austin and CM Punk as two recent examples of the kind of star that has very heel qualities against authority figures, yet they remain face. That is just another way to get the star of the company to feud with pretty much anyone under the company’s banner.

That was the feeling with Hulk Hogan and the nWo as well. While they were the bad guys and doing things that people would detest in real life, they were viewed as cool and the stars of the show by the fans.

Any wrestling promoter will tell you—whether the crowd is booing or cheering, as long as they have a reaction to a wrestler, there is potential for stardom.

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