Have the terms "face" or "heel" ever been used in kayfabe?

[wildojinx]

Has a wrestler being called a face or heel ever been done in a kayfabe context? I get the feeling ECW might have done it back in the day.

[ChitownKnight]

I know cena referenced it a few times it and I remember the miz doing it once

[Dr. Bolty, Disaster Enby]

Cody Rhodes did it.

NJPW had a stable called Great Bash Heel. I know a few other Japanese wrestlers just outright called themselves heels.

[Hernan]

I could be wrong but it's the polar opposite: lucha libre commentary normally refers them as rudos (heels) and técnicos (faces). This is not seen outside the lucha libre tradition.

[James Fabiano]

Answer of course is probably somewhere in the Russoverse.

Other than that, I'm sure ECW has done it too.

The WCW Marvel comic of all things has one story called "Heel!"

[Venti]

I wouldn't be surprised if WCW in 2000 did it. I know they broke the fourth wall alot, but since it was always presented as part of the show, I consider it part of their "kayfabe."


Seriously, people always point to "Goldberg isn't following the script!" But they actually did that alot! Coming right out and talking openly about writers and scripts.

So it wouldn't surprise me if they dropped "face" and "heel" at some point.

Not about to comb thru 2000 WCW to confirm, tho

[Hulkshi Tanahashi]

I always thought it was weird that there wasn’t a kayfabe term for this, like “fan-favorites” for faces and “outlaws” for heels.

[MolotovMocktail]

Dolph Ziggler’s Twitter handle was HeelZiggler, which they would reference on TV from time to time.

[Hypnosis]

Sept 25, 2023 11:49:10 GMT -5 Hulkshi Tanahashi said:

I always thought it was weird that there wasn’t a kayfabe term for this, like “fan-favorites” for faces and “outlaws” for heels.

I know in the Warzone video game for CAWs, it was "Fan Favorite" and "Rule Breaker".

[XIII]

Im sure that “heel” has been used unironically/not breaking kayfabe. They used to use the term in comic books back in the day for the baddies.

[OGBoardPoster2005]

Sept 25, 2023 10:21:07 GMT -5 Venti said:

I wouldn't be surprised if WCW in 2000 did it. I know they broke the fourth wall alot, but since it was always presented as part of the show, I consider it part of their "kayfabe."


Seriously, people always point to "Goldberg isn't following the script!" But they actually did that alot! Coming right out and talking openly about writers and scripts.

So it wouldn't surprise me if they dropped "face" and "heel" at some point.

Not about to comb thru 2000 WCW to confirm, tho

Stevie Ray literally wrestled as “The Masked Heel” against Vince Russo

[Magic knows Black Lives Matter]

Austin Aries and Bobby Roode's team in TNA was the "Dirty Heels" iirc.

[wildojinx]

Sept 25, 2023 12:43:51 GMT -5 Hypnosis said:

Sept 25, 2023 11:49:10 GMT -5 Hulkshi Tanahashi said:

I always thought it was weird that there wasn’t a kayfabe term for this, like “fan-favorites” for faces and “outlaws” for heels.

I know in the Warzone video game for CAWs, it was "Fan Favorite" and "Rule Breaker".

The Apter mags used that too, though originally Fan Favorite was Scientific Wrestler (because when I think Scientific wrestler, I think Ivan Putski).

[dirtyoldman]

I'm sure the term heel for a bad guy exists outside of wrrestling. A former housemate of mine who was a bit older and wasnt a wreslting fan said something about our landlord would be a real heel if he demanded the payments just before christmas.

[peaches1]

[Futureraven: Beelzebruv]

Sept 25, 2023 13:04:31 GMT -5 XIII said:

Im sure that “heel” has been used unironically/not breaking kayfabe. They used to use the term in comic books back in the day for the baddies.

Yeah it was just another word for an asshole, I remember first hearing the term not in wrestling but watching The Flintstones.

[lavelleuk22]

Sept 25, 2023 16:21:42 GMT -5 dirtyoldman said:

I'm sure the term heel for a bad guy exists outside of wrrestling. A former housemate of mine who was a bit older and wasnt a wreslting fan said something about our landlord would be a real heel if he demanded the payments just before christmas.

Danny Devito uses it a few times in Taxi, but then his character also goes to wrestling shows so maybe he's just a mark

Because of Taxi I always assumed it was just an old American slang term for a bad guy

[TOK Hehe'd Around & Found Out]

Sept 26, 2023 10:11:38 GMT -5 lavelleuk22 said:

Sept 25, 2023 16:21:42 GMT -5 dirtyoldman said:

I'm sure the term heel for a bad guy exists outside of wrrestling. A former housemate of mine who was a bit older and wasnt a wreslting fan said something about our landlord would be a real heel if he demanded the payments just before christmas.

Danny Devito uses it a few times in Taxi, but then his character also goes to wrestling shows so maybe he's just a mark

Because of Taxi I always assumed it was just an old American slang term for a bad guy

"Heel" being used as a way to describe a contemptible person predates wrestling being the worked sports entertainment that we know it as.

[Mike Bockwinkel]

Sept 26, 2023 10:22:11 GMT -5 TOK Hehe'd Around & Found Out said:

Sept 26, 2023 10:11:38 GMT -5 lavelleuk22 said:

Danny Devito uses it a few times in Taxi, but then his character also goes to wrestling shows so maybe he's just a mark

Because of Taxi I always assumed it was just an old American slang term for a bad guy

"Heel" being used as a way to describe a contemptible person predates wrestling being the worked sports entertainment that we know it as.

The singer of the Grinch song calls him a heel.

[Citizen Snips]

Mick Foley called Mikey Whipwreck “a great white-meat babyface” in a promo with Raven in late 1995 ECW.