The Heel Is Dead, Long Live the Heel?

The era of a professional wrestling heel garnering so much heat that fans are waiting for them in the parking lot after a show is most definitely over – in WWE, at least. Chances are that a heel who disrespects a hometown crowd, pokes fun at the babyfaces and cheats to win will probably end up getting cheered in the “reality era” that we currently live in. The “E” in “WWE” stands for “entertainment” and, whether old time wrestlers and bookers like it or not, a performer like Kevin Owens is one of the most entertaining acts on the roster for those very reasons. So, in 2017, how does a wrestler go about getting the type of heat required to be a truly effective heel? The answer, strangely, is easy – actually be terrible at your job.

We live in a time where the “internet fan” isn’t a pariah in the wrestling community anymore. On a recent episode of Edge and Christian’s podcast, Samoa Joe said he was once contacted by TNA and offered a job because they thought it would please the internet crowd – and it was said in a such a way that made that demographic seem like “lepers”. Those days are well and truly behind us. A large portion of fans are “smart” to the business and, amongst other things, that means that we appreciate a good heel. It’s gotten to the point where an act like the aforementioned Owens, or guys like Chris Jericho and Charlotte Flair, are so good at being bad guys that we respect them and wind up finding ourselves rooting for them. This has the potential to create confusing face/heel dynamics in storylines and matches themselves. Sure, the reactions that the likes of John Cena and Roman Reigns get are fantastic and can certainly add to the drama of a match or feud but it’s because these are few and far between amongst the roster that they are special. Who is the most recent star that pops to mind when you think of someone getting really, truly, booed? If your answer wasn’t “Eva Marie”, you’re lying.

No one has been as universally despised in recent memory as Eva Marie. The reason for this wasn’t because she was the worst wrestler to ever enter a ring (although she was fairly terrible), and it certainly wasn’t because she had figured out a hidden nuance to create the perfect heel character, it was because she was terrible at a time when a large portion of the fans knew what terrible was. We know a bad promo, we know a badly executed move, we know a blown spot and we know a bad match as a whole. Combine this with someone that we feel has unduly been given an opportunity that could have gone to other, more deserving, more hardworking athletes on the roster and the heel heat was through the roof. The genuine fear in the Niven household was palpable when Eva wrestled Bayley for the NXT Women’s Championship. WWE had, deliberately or otherwise, stumbled onto a perfect recipe for a heel. For the first time in a long time the heel wasn’t cool, the heel was hated.

The argument against this type of heat is that it is “turn the channel” heat – the type of reaction that causes fans to switch over to something else because they hate the wrestler that much. The argument against this is that most people who claimed it to be so were watching each and every week. Sure, the Eva Marie experiment overall can be considered a failure because the main roster transition never fully materialised prior to her leaving the company, but in this experiment WWE saw a new blueprint for a heel. A blueprint that they put in place to crown a new WWE Champion in Jinder Mahal.

Mahal at least had a larger professional wrestling background than Marie, and probably substantially less bikini photo shoots, but he was still considered to be an absolute joke. He meant nothing when he debuted, less than nothing in 3MB and then left the company. When he returned, he was a job guy on Monday Night Raw and when he was switched to Smackdown Live as part of the Superstar Shake-Up, it looked like he and Curt Hawkins were two job guys passing in the night. Then he became Number 1 Contender. Then he won the WWE World Championship. And he still has it. 5 months later.

Much like Eva Marie, he cannot cut a promo, has always been considered a joke but was suddenly thrust into a very serious position, has literally never wrestled a good match and jumped the queue ahead of much more talented and deserving talent. On a roster boasting talent such as AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, it is Jinder Mahal who is holding the most important championship in WWE. At first, WWE mixed this in with the more traditional heel design – ensuring Mahal was cheating to win and adding the Singh Brothers as infuriating understudies. Now, however, they’ve moved over to trying to actively antagonise the fan base. At Hell in a Cell, Mahal beat Nakamura. Clean. Literally the only reason to do this, because it certainly has zero benefit for the King of Strong Style, is to cause outrage in the “smart” crowd, because we all know it’s a joke that a talent as undeserving as Mahal could beat one as talented as Nakamura. If reports of WWE Network numbers actually dwindling in India since Mahal became champion are to be believed then WWE isn’t giving up on this experiment any time soon. There’s been literally no upside to this experiment thus far, but on we trundle, which could mean one thing – this is the future for the heel in WWE.

Now there’s obviously a line with the heel being legitimately bad at their job. They can’t be so bad that they can’t be trusted in the ring as this could lead to them causing their opponent actual harm. WWE can’t let just anyone waltz in and claim a major spot on the roster. The heel would have to be safe but ultimately boring and bland because, in the days of hyper-athleticism in NJPW and sensationalistic storytelling in Lucha Underground, a boring wrestler is a bad wrestler. Someone with limited in-ring abilities, no discernible x-factor on promos placed in a land of more talented roster members could be the way forward. Younger and more casual fans would hate them because they’re told to, nothing would change in the traditional heel dynamic there, but now the hate would be pure across the board due to “smart” fans being frustrated rather than entertained. To give fans hope lengthy heel title reigns could be broken up with shorter runs for the faces. Nakamura could have taken the belt from Mahal at Hell in a Cell only to quickly lose it back and keep everyone hooked.

But what would this mean for the current heels as they are on the roster? Simply put, they would turn face. Kevin Owens, sensational a heel as he is, has anti-hero written all over him ala Stone Cold in 1997. Eventually this turn will happen and, when he runs into a guy as universally despised as Mahal, it will feel like vindication for the fans hoping Owens would finally get his shot. Of course, you also don’t want every heel being in the Marie/Mahal vein because then this would become the new normal and would lose its impact, so keeping the cocky entertaining heel alive and well is still an option. While it may have been a complete accident in the case of Eva Marie, WWE has essentially developed a brand new character type and are certainly following a clear path in the case of Mahal. Whether we like it or not, he’s probably the most despised act across the fan base in sometime and we will all pop when he finally loses the belt.

Just like the nWo redefined a character with the “cool” heel and just like Austin redefined a babyface by being a kick ass anti-hero, WWE has found a way to truly garner heel heat in another way in 2017. Everyone hates the Jinder Mahal experiment. Everyone thinks it has been a creative and commercial failure. Everyone wants him to lose the belt to someone more talented and entertaining like Styles or Nakamura. Everyone thinks he sucks. In that sense – is this actually working? Are Jinder Mahal and Eva Marie the greatest heels of the modern era?

Suddenly, noting makes sense anymore.