Late 80s/Early 90s Heels

[dxbang]

I think the WWE is in need of more late 80s/early 90s type heels. I think guys like Honky, The Mountie, and Rick Martel were perfect at what they did. I hated all of them...and that was the point. Even Double J was cut from the same cloth and did a great job getting heat.

Guys like Rick Rude were even better, but the WWE is missing midcard d-bag heels like the ones I mentioned. They weren't necessarily tough, they were pompous a-holes, and we hated them for it...but they still found some success. The closest thing to it today would be The Miz, and he's great.

Who were your favorite heels of the time? Why can't they work today?

[MolotovMocktail]

The problem with good heels today, is the fans love them. The New Day went the HTM route by playing up the good-guy aspects the fans hated to get heat, and the fans ate it up so much, it went full circle and they became faces again. Guys like DiBiase and Jake would have 75% of the fans behind them in most feuds. Back in the 80's when you were expected to back the good guy, fans were cheering Jake over Hogan-imagine how they would react to him today against Cena.

[segaz]

Aug 16, 2016 0:34:42 GMT -5 MolotovMocktail said:

The problem with good heels today, is the fans love them. The New Day went the HTM route by playing up the good-guy aspects the fans hated to get heat, and the fans ate it up so much, it went full circle and they became faces again. Guys like DiBiase and Jake would have 75% of the fans behind them in most feuds. Back in the 80's when you were expected to back the good guy, fans were cheering Jake over Hogan-imagine how they would react to him today against Cena.

Now why is that? Why couldn't there be a face Million Dollar Man? Why do you HAVE to be a bad guy/tweener to be interesting?

It would have worked before, has wrestlings core audience really changed that much?

I mean, I understand the Nasty Boys are heels, and I would boo them today due to their gimmick. But yeah I agree if Million Dollar Man wrestled today I'd root for him as a heel. But then I always did back in the day anyway. But I still wanted him to keep using his different gimmicks, stuff like buying the World Title is such a great thing to me.

[SmashTV]

Honky was actually the first heel I liked. His interviews made me laugh, and I thought he was pure evil when he belted Savage with the guitar on SNME.

It taught me that the heels were actually quite charismatic, and as a result I also took to Perfect, DiBiase and The Mountie.

[Deleted]

Rip Rogers is one of the most unappreciated heels of the time. He was everything you said, except was not very successful as far as wins or losses (in the NWA/WCW at least).
He was a prick, plain and simple. He's one of those guys who had a million dollar body but a ten cent face. A guy who you just loved to see get his ass kicked, because he was so full of himself.
Even if there was a hint that people would cheer him, he'd shut that down PDQ with a pre-match spiel against the fans.

I can say that in hindsight. Back then, I just wanted somebody to beat his ass.

[MrElijah]

I wonder if Heel Jake would get cheers.

He seemed to be an evil SOB.

That promo after The Slap and trying to kill Randy is the stuff of legends.

[MolotovMocktail]

Aug 19, 2016 17:32:35 GMT -5 segaz said:

Aug 16, 2016 0:34:42 GMT -5 MolotovMocktail said:

The problem with good heels today, is the fans love them. The New Day went the HTM route by playing up the good-guy aspects the fans hated to get heat, and the fans ate it up so much, it went full circle and they became faces again. Guys like DiBiase and Jake would have 75% of the fans behind them in most feuds. Back in the 80's when you were expected to back the good guy, fans were cheering Jake over Hogan-imagine how they would react to him today against Cena.

Now why is that? Why couldn't there be a face Million Dollar Man? Why do you HAVE to be a bad guy/tweener to be interesting?

It would have worked before, has wrestlings core audience really changed that much?

I mean, I understand the Nasty Boys are heels, and I would boo them today due to their gimmick. But yeah I agree if Million Dollar Man wrestled today I'd root for him as a heel. But then I always did back in the day anyway. But I still wanted him to keep using his different gimmicks, stuff like buying the World Title is such a great thing to me.

I've toyed with the idea of a face Million Dollar Man before. Ted himself has said the character has to be a bad guy, but I'm not so sure. Maybe he could throw money into the crowd during his entrance.

But if a character like that is going to be a face, he should keep his basic personality intact, but direct his aggression at the heels instead of the faces. Doink was the perfect example of a radical Change killing the character; had he kept his persona the same, but directed it at the other side (a la Undertaker), Face Doink could have worked.