Sprechen Die Wrasslin'? Heels And Faces

And heel definitely originated from the 20’s slang…
Also what examples of tweeners can you provide that haven’t drawn?
To me, a tweener is someone who is portrayed in a traditional heel/face manner but is either so good at being heel they receive cheers or so bad at being a face they are booed, which usually leads to a heel turn. In no instance that I recall has a tweener character failed to draw money or be met with indifference. Quite the opposite actually. That’s not to say that there aren’t a lot of wrestlers who fit your definition, I just wouldnt call that a tweener.

Early 90’s Undertaker was a mega-heel who only feuded with the top babyfaces, yet always received a strong babyface reaction, just not as strong as his opponent which would mean he wasnt an anti-hero, but a tweener.

Ric Flair, Jake Roberts, The Rock, Randy Orton, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Jericho, Curt Hennig and Macho Man also come to mind as traditional tweener characters (at one time or another during their respective careers)

Stone Cold began receiving cheers by mid-96 but didnt fully turn face until WM13 in ’97, thus becoming the prototypical anti-hero. His character was fully developed the entire time, and eventually the crowd reaction reflected this.

I started out writing this comment with a negative view of your article, but I suppose it’s intended to educate the MMA-centric reader about rasslin’ terminology, which you did in great detail. So, good work.

Also, I dont know if the heel/face dynamic is appropriate to be applied to the Evans/Jones situation, but I would consider Rashad a tweener and Jones a mega-babyface. Kind of like the original Miz-Cena feud where you had a heel challenging the uber-face and garnering support on the strength of his promos. I see a lot of parallels between the Miz and Rashad in this case.

as I’ve never been able to get through an episode of impact.
As for smart-marks cheering for heels, it probably used to be more problematic pre-attitude era, when heels and faces were more clear-cut. Nowadays it seems the gray area in between has widened and theres not as big of a distinction. Jericho is a perfect example of a tweener who hates to be cheered because he has that old school mentality, which I respect, while members of the clique were more likely to go into business for themselves, ushering in the era of the “cool-heel”, or definitive tweener.

I wouldn’t see either instance as being problematic as any reaction is a good thing in my view and if anything it would push other performers to become better at playing their role.

For instance, as popular as cool-heel NWO was, they were not receiving the face reactions of those with whom they feuded, namely Luger, DDP, Sting, Piper.
Specifically with Luger, it helped bring him to a new level of popularity as he was arguably the most over wrestler in the company circa 1997, therefore the tweener NWO stable was not problematic, but actually quite beneficial to those who could hang with them. Luger never ever achieved that level of notoriety before or after his NWO feud.

Eddy, I view in the same vein as Austin (albeit on a smaller scale) as he toed the line between tweener and antihero for about a year prior to his push and eventual match with Lesnar. His tweener reactions forced the booking into making him an antihero.

Jon Jones is John Cena 100%. He is the new face of the UFC, whom they are behind wholeheartedly. When he debuted though, he (seemingly) flew under the radar for a few years, although everyone noticed him as something special and he was quite popular with the hardcores prior to his “UFC push”. Cena followed that exact structure as he was quite popular with the hardcores during his initial heel-rapper push but was then turned on when he became stale, cookie-cutter, corporate babyface….something Jon Jones is about to become, if he hasnt already.

Anyways, I really enjoy reading the articles on this blog and look forward to participating in more discussion in the future.