Yes, lately I have been reflecting on the state of heels in professional wrestling,(I know too much free time on my hands) and how difficult it is to become one. In order for professional wrestling to work effectively, there needs to be someone you root for and someone you root against. Back when I watched wrestling at age 11, it was pretty easy to pick out the good guys from the bad guys...Hulk Hogan was the good guy, he had the patriotic theme song, and he believed in good old fashioned values like taking your vitamins, and being a real American or some crap like that. People ate this guy up, loved him and always cheered for him (well I didn't, I was always more of a Roddy Piper girl myself but that's besides the point). Then there were the bad guys, these guys were the bad asses, they were either anti-America or against the good old fashioned values that Hulk Hogan stood up for. Roddy Piper for example, never played fairly, he always used the foreign object, he always used the illegal maneuver, anything to win, pretty straightforward, right. Anyway, when I look back it seems that Stone Cold Steve Austin changed all of that...his character blurred the lines between good and bad, and the world of sports entertainment would never be the same again.

When Austin first started climbing the ladder to the top of the WWF, he was acting traditionally heelish. He attacked all of the faces, he had no regard for anyone. He drank beer, gave people the finger, got in everyone's face, and basically did whatever he wanted. The thing is the more he tried to be a bad guy, the more the crowd ate it up. The days of loving a goody two shoes like Hogan were over. The crowds now wanted bad ass characters with hardcore attitude problems. Thus the new WWF Attitude was born. The big problem here is it has become increasingly harder to get someone over as a bad guy now, because the worse a person acts toward someone the more popular he becomes.

Now the thing is there is a big difference between getting booed, and being a good heel. Some people are booed because the crowd has no desire to see that particular performer in the ring...for example Steve Blackman, and for me the Big Bossman (but more on him later). The key to being a good heel is to have people boo you because you have gotten them to care enough about your character to make them hate you. I think the best example of this is HHH. Although he definitely still has his band of supporters, HHH is pretty much universally hated by most people. He is not hated because we don't want to see him though, in fact the opposite is true. When Shane McMahon announced the handicap match between HHH and the Acolytes on Raw I was ecstatic. Because HHH has gotten me involved enough with his character for me to want to see him get his ass destroyed by the crazy destructive machines that are the Acolytes. I don't think I am the only one either, I mean listen to the "Asshole" chants when he comes out, or better yet, did you see the crowd reaction when Vince threw him off the stage. The crowd went berserk. Considering that HHH was the head of the most over stable in WWF history this jump to top heel of the company is quite impressive, especially considering that fact that the rest of DX couldn't get heel heat if they murdered someone.

In fact seeing the Hardy's vs. the Outlaws match on Smackdown last week, is what really made me think about all of this. The WWF has tried really hard to set all of DX up as heels. They came out and attacked Stone Cold and the Rock, the two biggest faces in the company. Their leader is the top heel in the company. X-Puke turns on his best friend, the extremely over Kane, and even give Kane's girlfriend a spinning heel kick for her troubles. It just doesn't matter though. The crowd loves these guys, and they just won't boo them. When Road Dogg's music hits and he comes down that ring with Mr. Ass, the crowd just goes berserk. When he does his little "ladies and gentleman..." thing, the crowd eagerly sings along. Even when Road Dogg throws in his insults in the end, it doesn't matter, the crowd loves being insulted by these guys. They can't let go of who these guys once were to see them as heels now. During the title defense on Smackdown, it was obvious that the Hardy's were set up as the "good guys" and the Outlaws were the "bad guys". However the crowd certainly didn't see it that way. The Outlaws got all the crowd reaction and the Hardy's were left with a few weak cheers. I guess the respect the crowd found for the Hardy's after the NO Mercy ladder match has disappeared. When the Hardy's would hit one of their incredible high flying moves...there were sporadic cheers around the arena. When Road Dogg did his shake rattle and roll punch, the arena erupted. I was like WTF!!! No reaction to a double jump off the top ropes into two monsterous leg drops, but an insanely loud reaction to a couple of punches with a freaky white boy dance thrown in...So then after an extremely hard fought match in which the Hardy's clearly outwrestled the Outlaws, the Hardy's are about to get the well deserved win, and who come running up the aisle to make the save, but X-Puke. Now a heel teammate running in to save his fellow heels from defeat is par for the course in wrestling...and rightfully so, the crowd should be pissed off as hell, that X-Pac cost the Hardy's the belts, but no, instead, X-Pac is cheered wildly, and when he levels Jeff Hardy with a spinning heel kick, the cheers get louder. Meanwhile, the Hardy's get screwed out of the belts, and don't even have the fan's support to make them feel better. The fans were happy the "Bad guys" won. They were happy that DX cheated their way to another victory. It doesn't matter if DX throws the entire McMahon family down a flight of stairs, or starts a fire in their dressing room, the crowd loves them, and the more crap they pull, the more the crowd is behind them. The same happened on RAW when it was X-Puke vs. Jeff Hardy. Once again, a member of DX ran in for the save, and once again they were given the cheers over the more deserving Hardy's.

Another perfect example of a failed Heel is Chris Jericho. First he injures Road Dogg, then he injures Ken Shamrock, then he injures Stevie Richards, then he gives Chyna a serious ass kicking at Survivor Series, and then finally he locks her in a dark closet tied up to a chair and shatters her thumb with a hammer. All in all it pretty obvious that the Chris Jericho character is not a good guy, in fact he is a sick and demented individual. But it seems that the more sick and demented he becomes, the more popular he becomes. Every time he increased the intensity of his attack on Chyna during Survivor Series, the crowd got more behind him. And now, since the Hammer incident it seems that there are more Jerichoholics than ever before. It just seems to be harder and harder to write something horrible enough to make people hate anyone these days.

Which leads to the Cancer storyline for the Big Bossman. At first I was horrified by the Big Boss Man angle, but the more I have thought about this heel problem, the more I can understand their motivations. I mean the WWF has to go to crazier and crazier extremes to make someone a bankable heel. I mean Bossman was getting heel heat, basically because people don't really want to see him, but the WWF had to find a way to make us want to see him get his ass stomped by the Big Show. Now in terms of being a Main Event at a PPV, I don't think so, but I certainly want to see Big Show get a hold of the Bossman once and for all. And now the WWF is trying to throw the Rock into this mix as well, to keep the Bossman on everyone's shit list...and having him beat the Rock, sure pissed a lot of people off. Again, I don't necessarily agree with it, but I can understand why they did it. Personally, I think the WWF need to have some kind of mini-payback by the Big Show before the PPV, to sustain interest in this story. Because already my desire to see Big Show destroy Bossman is quickly fading...especially since I don't think that Big Show could put on the quality match that would be necessary to end this angle once and for all. I hope I am wrong, but the bodyslamming of Viscera aside, Paul Wight leaves a lot to be desired in the ring.

Ok, the last thing I am going to look at before I give a few RAW thoughts are some of the heel characters that do work. And honestly besides HHH, I can think of 2 ok 3. Val Venis, Kurt Angle and the Dudleys.

I am still not convinced that Val Venis's heel turn has been completely successful, but he definitely gets some kind of heel heat from the crowd which is at least a step in the right direction . The reason this was even slightly successful is because the WWF put him against fan favorite Mick Foley. Now with Mick it is different than the Rock or Stone Cold, because especially with the release of his self authored book (which by the way is an excellent read for any wrestling fan) the crowd is able to see the man behind the character. The Rock is not Dwayne Johnson, he is the Rock. Stone Cold Steve Austin is not Steve Williams, he is the Rattlesnake, but Mankind IS Mick Foley, he is a person who worked his ass off to be a part of something he loves. And as most of the people who watch wrestling do so because they have a similar passion for it, Foley is an easy person to relate to and love. Therefore when Val Venis attacked Foley, we all took it personally. When he burned his books, we all got pissed off because we understood the time and emotion that went into writing that book. When he stole Mr. Rocko we got upset because we know that Mr.Rocko was a heartfelt gift to the Rock. Now that this rivalry is over, it will be interesting to see if Val can sustain heel heat or not.

Kurt Angle is the most ironic heel of them all. In the 1980's this guy would be the darling of the wrestling world...now he is getting booed for being an Olympic athlete and for being patriotic. I mean on Raw this week, Mark Henry got more applause for going to a strip club the night before he was set to compete than Kurt Angle did when he mentioned that he won Gold Medals while representing the USA. Just goes to show you how priorities have changed over the years. A guy wearing old glory on his wrestling tights gets booed, while a guy named Sexual Chocolate who is a sex addict who had sex with his sister (I guess the WWF wanted us to forget that Mark ever mentioned that but I sure haven't forgotten) get applauded and cheered like crazy. Kurt Angle has the cocky attitude that can also turn the fans against him, now he has to work on being a little better in the ring, not technically but in terms of charisma. Check with me in another month to see if this guy is able to keep up the heat he is receiving now.

Ok, last but certainly not least, my favorite addition to the WWF roster, the Dudleys. These guys besides being great wrestlers, know how to work a mike and get the crowd riled up. Throw in Bubba Ray's hilarious speech impediment, and the crowd has a team, they can really hate... right...well kind of. Because these guys are so talented, and funny, its only a matter of time till they get a cult following. Hell, it seems that they are already getting one, as the Dudley boy signs are already showing up, and they are already starting to get more cheers. Much like Hardcore Holly, who went from being hated to now being somewhat of a cult icon the Dudley's definitely have the same potential. It doesn't hurt that they have the most killer tag team end move of all time either with the 3D.

Well basically this long convoluted rambling was to prove that being a heel is a hard thing to be nowdays. I don't know what HHH has done that the others haven't to be able to get over as a heel, but whatever his formula is they need to copy it quick. Especially since their most popular heel character of all time, Mr. McMahon is still a face character.

Random RAW thoughts...and then I'm out of here:

The return of the Rock and Sock connection...YAY!!!!

Test beating the Road Dogg after giving Dogg a taste of his own...err...medicine kicked ass.

Christian and Edge fight the Dudley's and win!!! Not only did Christian not get his ass kicked like usual, he actually got the pin!!!

Gotta love McMahon going berserk and destroying the limo with his car.

What was up with HHH's graphic description of what getting raped in prison would be like?

How cool was it to see HHH first get his ass kicked by the Acolytes (Hey, I want an Acolytes vs. X-Puke handicap match!!!) and then get thrown off the stage by McMahon.

Wow, Moolah and Mae Young must have some fun in their bedroom, if their presents to Stephanie were any indication (God did I just say that!!)

Mae Young taking a head first dive into the cake was classic stuff, as was the look on Linda McMahon when she took the whip away from Stephanie.

Kane vs. Big Show...good move, now just let Kane actually win the title.

I want to see Kane bodyslam Viscera or the Big Show.

I still don't like Tori with Kane, but I do give the woman credit for grabbing those beautiful arms anytime she has a chance too...can't let opportunities like that pass by.

I loved when Al Snow grumbled "I hate the Rock".

Ok, that's enough from me this week. Of course I would love to hear your feedback good, bad or ugly. See ya.