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GUEST EDITORIAL
By Shane McKinley, PWTorch.com reader

Regarding the editorial on faces and heels, I think why we clamor to define wrestlers as faces or heels is because it defines what they can do, how they act, and what we should expect of it. It would make very little sense, for example, for Batistia to get a countout victory vs. MVP on the next Smackdown. The announcers would have to announce why he did so. Then you would have to give some time on the next show to have Batistia explaining his actions ("I just didn't want to fight anymore."). Then he goes out and wins a match cleanly, but the fans won't trust him as a face.

Steve Austin [artist Grant Gould (c) PWTorch]

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin was brought up, but Stone Cold in himself was an anaomly in wrestling (along with the NWO), in that they did heelish actions but yet were considered cool and got over. While the NWO faced off against the NWO and then itself, Stone Cold faced against refs, announcers, and then the big cheese Vince himself. I cheered when Stone Cold turned heel at WM 17 because it made perfect sense, and it was fun to see him turn heel. What is not fun is writers and bookers having wrestlers turn face/heel because they are either lazy, apathetic, or think that it's cool to do heelish actions.

So in being a face or a heel is not really a question. It's just how effective wrestlers can be in their roles. Kennedy goes as very well as a heel, but could he be a effective face?

Plus being labeled a face or a heel defines the relationship between the two people in a feud, since wrestling is built on feuds. It makes much better sense to have face Samoa Joe go against a heel Kurt Angle.

Another thing about wrestling is that everybody is free to choose who to boo or who to cheer. Wrestlers don't want fans to not care about them at all. So little kids can boo Chuck Palumbo when he rolls out to the ring and cheer Jamie Noble, or whatever. It's sometimes best to keep things simple. It doesn't matter in the big picture if Show-Mayweather is the worst match of all time. If it got outside people to buy the PPV, then it suceeded.

Would it have been great to see manical and delusional Ric Flair again? Absolutely! Would it have been great to see a complex storyline invovling Ric Flair? Yes! However, while the current Flair storyline is not astounding by any means, one cannot deny that it hasn't worked. Remember, wrestling companies are always interested in gaining new fans as well. The "Flair's career may be over tonight" bit did work as people might tune in. If it was just heel Flair and face Triple H, for example, while that might be a great storyline, it wouldn't have helped MVP, Kennedy, Orton, Vince, HBK, and the Hall of Fame. And for whatever reason WWE feels that the Flair storyline should not be a biggger deal than the Raw or Smackdown championship picture.

Us dumb wrestling fans do need wrestlers defined as "good/bad." If you have two tweeners face each other, the fan involvement won't be the same. True, many wrestling fans would like to see more complex psyche in wrestlers, but then you lose the kids market, and then you also have to devote time to explaining the sudden face/heel changes in a character if you want fans to trust their particular favorite wrestlers.

There has to be a reason wrestlers are faces and heels, which is so that fans can emotionally involve themselves with the wrestlers. Having a lot of tweeners hurts business because it's harder to gets fans feeling passionately one way or another about a particular wrestler.

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