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LOOKING AT THE CROWD REACTIONS IN TODAY'S PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING WORLD

Wrestling has always been centered on emotion. It is emotional to watch your favourite win the big one, and achieve immortal status in the business by winning the World Heavyweight Championship. It is also emotional to watch your favourite lose and be beaten by the nastiest of bad guys. However, in order for that emotional exchange between the loved and the hated to work, there are factors needed to create that magic. It is up to the booker to create intriguing storylines and concepts and it is up to the worker to bring those ideas to life. Both are hard work in their own right. An idea is only as good as the outcome, and the proper outcome can only be done with the right idea. In today’s wrestling, there seems to be a problem with Crowd Reaction. By Crowd Reaction, I speak of the connection between the wrestlers and fans that create the good guys (“Baby faces”) and the bad guys (“heels”).

 Although it is the booker and worker that agree on which idea to take and how to make it work, the bottom line is that it is up to the fans to decide whether it will work or not.  In my second installment of “Wrestling’s Wild Ways ” I gave a slight example of Crowd Reaction. I proclaimed that Hulk Hogan would hulk-up when the crowds were anxious for his comeback, after the Hulkster has been beaten down, and not when he is on the advantage. 

Part of the Hulkster’s allure was that he was like a real hero, sort of like Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky. Hulk Hogan was strong and courageous, but he wasn’t invincible. He would have periods in his matches where the heel would have the upper hand, and it would seem like Hulk would lose. Just then, he would dig deep down, feed off the support and energy of his fans, the Hulk-a-maniacs, begin to hulk-up, and he would make his ferocious comeback. Had Hulk Hogan done this while he was on the advantage, the fans wouldn’t feel as connected to Hulk as they do otherwise. It is the fact that Hull Hogan doesn’t give up, tries his best, and never surrenders that gains the respect and intrigue of the crowd. The crowd follows behind the Hulkster during his hulk-up because they understand the stakes. The fans know that if Hulk Hogan’s hulk-up doesn’t succeed then he will not have a comeback and the heel would remain in the advantage and thus have the upper hand to win. Therefore, they understand that hulking-up is a do or die situation and that Hogan needs it in order to win. Had Hulk done this when he was in advantage, it would seem pointless. This is because he didn’t need the second gust of energy and momentum, and there would be no reason for the fans to get behind him.

In today’s age of professional wrestling, or sports entertainment, the matches are shorter, fast-paced, and have less story arcs. Instead of building a match with a particular psychology and story in the ring, flashy moves are the concentration.  This was talked about more thoroughly in a previous instalment of the column. For instance, in a match where the opponent has been beaten down, tried multiple comebacks only to be beaten again, tries one last attempt for a comeback only to be put in a Sleeper Hold. Now, the wrestler put in the hold, is beaten down and tired, therefore the actual effectiveness of the Sleeper Hold has increased. Therefore, it should take much time for the wrestler to escape the Sleeper Hold, if at all. This is when the crowd gets behind the wrestler and claps, chants, and cheers to get the momentum going so that the wrestler can either reverse or escape using a new burst of energy that was motivated by the support of the fans. Yet, today, many fans aren’t as into Sleeper Holds because more often than not they are reversed and it doesn’t take much time to reverse them.  If I were a wrestler, I would take at least a couple minutes just to regain some energy and strength, never mind the power to break the hold. 

Most importantly, today, there seems to be a lack of true heels. A good guy is only as strong as the bad guy in which he faces. There would be no Hulk Hogan without Rowdy Roddy Piper and there would be no Ricky Steamboat without Ric Flair, as there would be no Stone Cold Steve Austin without Vince McMahon or the Rock. If there are no bad guys, then there is no wrestler to defend what is moral or correct; just or fair. After Stone Cold, the mould of the good guy was broken from its black and white ways to shades of grey. This has allowed for a lot of tweeners (people in between). This has allowed for a heel’s point of view to be put into perceptive, which has allowed fans to take sides, instead of always following the face.  But this has also allowed confusion among fans as to who they can truly root for, someone they can depend upon. 

Even wrestling’s biggest baby faces get booed these days. John Cena is your All-American good guy who fights hard, never backs down, stands by his beliefs, and does the right thing. Yet, depending on which city he works in, he can get mercilessly booed. This is because the fans themselves have turned a shade of grey and no longer finds the good guys always cool, but sometimes finds the bad guys cool. Triple H is one of the best heels in the business. Yet, he gets cheered. This is because, regardless of his dirty tactics, the fans believe him to be cool. Therefore, the fans cheer anyone they find cool or like.  This is why it has been hard for today’s generation of wrestlers to get the fans to truly hate them.

In the past, wrestlers would be under attack because the fans hated them so much. Sometimes, a heel would get stabbed or in Classy Freddie Blassie’s case, acid thrown at their faces. Fans would even riot when a heel cheated a face out of a win. Nowadays, wrestlers can barely get the fans to boo them.  I don’t think this is because of the fans or the nature of the business. I believe it is the mentality wrestlers have these days. One can take Mr. Kennedy as example. His loudmouth, in your face, irritable antics had the crowds loving his heel character but it was still well done enough that the fans would rather boo him then cheer him. However, these days he’s a face. 

Now, what makes one a face? Is it simply going against the bad guy? In some cases that works. It worked for Batista. Triple H was Batista’s teammate but after seeing how Triple H treated their other teammate Randy Orton, Batista realized that HHH was even more selfish then thought. The second Batista turned his back on the evil Hunter Hearst Helmsley, the fans sided with him. This is because the fans realized that somebody was stepping up to threaten Triple H’s tyranny and the fans badly wanted to witness the end of Triple H’s reign of dominance. Therefore, Batista was the hero to do it. However, as mentioned before, it takes a really strong heel for that scenario to work. In Mr. Kennedy’s scenario he did the same, but to a less hated heel. Just seeing Ken Kennedy face off against a hated man instead of a loved one was enough to turn the sceptical Kennedy fans into full fans. 

However, one interesting note is why the fans should love him just for that sole reason. He is the same brash, cocky, megalomaniac as before, except he’s facing another megalomaniac. Hence, it’s not evil vs. good, but evil vs. less evil. In fact, in an interview with Main Event Radio, Mr. Kennedy claimed that he wasn’t going to change his character at all. But how can that be? How can the fans love the same exact man that they hated when he hasn’t changed his ways at all? It’s simply because of who he is facing.  This is what is wrong with today’s heels.

Heels used to be heels because they antagonized the crowd, did heinous acts, cheated, screwed, manipulated, and then attacked the favorite. Surely, someone would hate a man or woman like this. Yet today, those people are loved because they face off against people who the fans hate even more. In essence, the fans have gotten used to the bad guys being the ones to save the day. Every time a heel is in control, another heel comes to save the day as a good guy. Well, if that bad guy is saving the day, then he’s not that all bad.

This creates the shade of grey, but because it’s a shade of grey, the fans can’t fully hate the wrestler or character. Then when that same bad guy turned good guy hits another good guy, it’s not that shocking because the fans knew he was originally a heel and did foul acts in the first place. Thus, there needs to be true reasoning, there has to be a valid point, that makes the bad guy  be a bad guy and a good guy be a good guy. There has to be more than simply changing opponents. There has to be good intentions for the good guys and alternative motives for the bad guy.

When one looks at Lance Cade and Trevor Murdock, Lance Cade is the heel because he blind spotted his partner after the match and attacked him for no good reason. Nobody wants to be betrayed and nobody like getting beaten up. So, Lance Cade did two things that people hate, which got him, hated. That is heel heat. The problem today though, is that people still cheer for the bad guy, even when he does wrong.  

In Shawn Michaels’ case, he was a sympathetic character because he trooped through an injury in a match where he was defending his integrity (Batista called him a liar) and then after the victory, Chris Jericho challenged his integrity once again, by stating that he believed HBK faked the injury to win. So Shawn Michaels had to defend his integrity twice, all through an injury. This sympathetic hero scenario is what made the fans love the Showstopper.  In a twist though, when Y2J apologized about his accusation of HBK faking the injury, Shawn Michaels’ admitted that he in fact did fake it. Therefore, in that confession HBK admitted to lying to Chris Jericho and Batista. This normally would make Shawn Michaels the heel, but because the fans have such respect and love for HBK, they cheer for him anyhow.

Thus, heels who irritate and frustrate the crowd are the ones to save the day, and the faces who the crowd admires are the ones who lie and cheat. It seems the heels and faces have switched roles. Maybe it’s just me, but I think that is what is wrong with today’s Crowd Reaction.