Heels Winning Clean

[michael]

Long-time listener; first-time caller.

I'm on my first break from WWE after 15 years of watching religiously, and one of the things I'm reflecting on is how I tend to feel exasperated when heels always cheat to win.

It feels like a long, competitive match is negated (if not nullified) when cheating for the win. What did it prove? I know that's supposed to build heel heat, but I find myself feeling like my time was wasted, and rather than build heat it makes me switch off because I feel like too many matches end in this disappointing way which settles nothing.

Can a wrestler not be a heel just because of their persona and perspective, while being perfectly competent in-ring? In fact I find it builds more heat with me when a heel wins clean and it inflates their ego, and then I'm more eager to see them toppled fair and square to shut them up.

Is it that turning heel makes you suddenly incompetent? Or even if it's rather that a heel is just more open to cheating, well... surely even heel characters should have more variety in their 'values' or morality.

Am I being too naive, or rather even too jaded? Do others feel the same deflation and loss of goodwill toward these results?

[Dub H]

Nah, you are right. But wrestling as a whole has done things that way forever,so people just do like that and accept it.

Cheating can be a good tool for a heel wrestler. But WWE applies one thing for everything,so every heel must cheat.

[The Yes Man]

Daniel Bryan beat AJ clean at TLC, Becky beat Charlotte clean when she won the title. Dean beat Seth clean at TLC too right? It happens quite a bit doesn’t it?

[Deleted]

Dec 25, 2018 23:34:43 GMT -5 The Yes Man said:

Daniel Bryan beat AJ clean at TLC, Becky beat Charlotte clean when she won the title. Dean beat Seth clean at TLC too right? It happens quite a bit doesn’t it?

Yeah.

The way I understand it is that if they really really like you then yeah you'll be a lead heel beating faces clean. If you're a heel just there "to be a heel" then you might cheat a bit more compared to getting clean wins.

[Muskrat]

Dec 25, 2018 23:30:59 GMT -5 Dub H said:

Cheating can be a good tool for a heel wrestler. But WWE applies one thing for everything,so every heel must cheat.

WWE's problem with cheating heels is two fold. One, non-title match results don't matter. When results don't matter, cheating doesn't build heat. It just leaves the finish feeling cheap, and pointless. Two, if a face gets cheated in a title match it's pretty much guaranteed you'll get a rematch, with no path of resistance so who the f*** cares if the heel cheats? Once again, it doesn't put heat on the heel, it puts heat on the company.