After seeing the one attempt at defining what makes a good guy and what makes a bad guy in wrestling, I realized that in all honesty, it wasn’t really helpful. The fact of the matter is that it is up to me, the writer of the shows, to actually determine crowd reaction. I essentially do that in two ways:
1) The actions you are doing
2) Who the actions are being done against
This would explain why sometimes heels are cheered or faces are booed. But the fact of the matter is that this is outside of your control. So when I was attempting to determine what next would be here for my cynical view, I figured I’d help out in two ways. The actual character and, what I think is the most obvious of places, the promo.
The Character
Heels!
I figure I’ll start with what it takes to be a good heel since everyone seems to be one these days. Over half the fed has an edge of some sort which clearly will equate to a likelihood of being a heel. I will make one thing perfectly clear right now. There is no such thing as a cool face. What I mean by that is a face who acts like a heel. It doesn’t happen. Argue with me all you want, I will have a counter-argument for you every step of the way. You are a heel and you will be reacted to as a heel.
With that said, what makes a good heel?
Easy…give the people a reason to hate you. Are you an overly arrogant asshole? Do kick children in your spare time? Do you constantly attack people from behind? Do you always use underhanded tactics? Do you attack the fans? Give me a reason to hate you. It doesn’t have to be overly-elaborate. It just has be done well enough for it to be noticeable.
Tweeners!
In my opinion, the most useless of characters. I say this because you can’t be neutral as a character. You can be neutral in a storyline or an angle, but that’s about it. But if you want to be a tweener, note that you’re going to always come off as being on one side or the other. The best advice here is to not come off too strong in your roleplays until you have to. Always be mild in your actions until you decide to come down on one side or the other. Either that or mix things up. Do a good deed, followed by a bad one, and so on.
Faces!
Some people say that this is the hardest, but in all honesty, on the promo front, it’s the easiest in one respect. I will get into that later. But being a face isn’t that hard. Being normal may very well be what is best. You don’t go to extremes and you don’t have to be kissing babies in every roleplay to be a face. You don’t have to donate to charity. You just need to make sure that if you show anger, it’s for the right reasons. Think about what are acceptable socially and use that as a guide. There are always going to be times where you can get away with more but always think, would my mother be proud of me for doing this. That may give you the answer you want to help you in deciding what you need to do to be an effective face. Faces love the rush of the crowd, so they want general approval.
The Promo
Everyone raise your hands if you think you can cut a good promo?
Well if that’s the case, where are they?
Sorry, that was a bit rough, but hopefully this will get people to read what I write here. I will say this. Most people in this federation are brilliant trash-talkers and can write a great fireeating promo. Here’s the problem. In politics, insulting everyone else doesn’t get the win. It just gets you noticed and probably gets you kicked out of the debates. But my point is that that’s not what a promo should entirely be. Trash-talking plays a role. I will not deny that and most good promos do have that element in them, but people forget what the purpose of a promo ultimately is.
A promo is, and this is really shocking……to PROMOTE.
Promote what, you may ask. Well let’s turn this into a multiple choice question.
What do promos promote?
a) Yourself
b) Your opponent
c) The match
d) Nothing
e) All of the above
Lock in your answers
—
—
—
Okay? You ready?
If you said d), seriously, get your head out of your ass, unless it’s permanently implanted in there. If that’s the case, you shouldn’t be able to read this.
The correct answer is e) All of the above. And most people forget this.
The fact of the matter is that I’ve read countless roleplays that belittle their opponent to such an extent that really, I can summarize the promo by saying, My opponent is nothing. I am great.
That’s great and all, but think of what that accomplishes. You win. You beat a nothing. Who cares? You lose. You were beaten by a nothing. Where does that leave your career? It’s then lose/lose situation and best yet, I wouldn’t want to watch the match.
The fact of the matter is that you want to at least give your opponent a decent level of credibility. This doesn’t mean that you’re going to call him God and say he’s the greatest wrestler to ever live. It just means that if you’re going to trash-talk, don’t completely eat him up and spit him out. Chew him up a bit, but leave enough there to make things meaningful in the end. That’s where the challenge lies. For example, it’s possible to say your opponent isn’t ready or that your opponent hasn’t had a good run lately, or something like that. It’s just pointing out an observation, but outright saying that they are nothing, does nothing. My personal favourite is when people attack a champion and says the belt means nothing, but that they want to win it to restore credibility. That’s fine and all, but then why would you want a belt that’s worth nothing? See my point. It’s one thing to attack the credibility of the champion, but never the belt. Why? At the end of it all, it establishes nothing.
But wait a minute? Aren’t you having Miller and Speed attack their types of wrestling? And yes, I am. And you may think that I’m essentially making each look foolish. But the problem with that is then you’re missing the point. Miller wants the Pure Title to be the actual sanctioned belt because he believes it’s a more truer form of competition. Speed wants the Extreme Title to be sanctioned because he believes it’s the more truer form of competition. Both are attacking the opposite, but at the same time, adding further credibility to their case. This is different from above, because it actually is adding to each other and in the end, whenever a resolution is attained, the winning side gains much more.
What people need to realize is that if they are going to completely belittle their opponent, they are getting nothing out of it. If they are going to belittle a champion, do it in a proper fashion. In the case of Miller or Speed, they are belittling the alternative and nothing more.
This is where the challenge lies in writing promos. You need to keep your character intact, but you need to make your opponent look good. For a face, this is easy. You can show respect. You don’t have to sell them the farm, but give yourself something that helps you should you win and at least gives you solace if you lose. For example, if I’m a cocky heel (for those wondering, this is generally my preferred character), I try to establish how great it would be for me to knock someone off their high horse or I attack their actions as of late or something like that. But while I may completely destroy that aspect of their character, I never outright say “You’re nothing.” I always phrase it in a way such as “You’re biting off more than you can chew. Work your way up the ladder instead of jumping to the top. And I’m going to prove that, when you try to jump to high, there are no safety cables and the fall to the bottom is not a fun one.” I’m saying that he’s not in my league, but in a way that pretty much allows me just to maintain the status quo at the very least, if not say that I’m protecting my spot, but at the same time if he wins, I lose nothing. I just make my opponent have the chance that the win means something in the end for him.
And that’s not just hyping the opponent, but the match and yourself. You make you look good. You give a reason to watch the match. You make your opponent look good also. Everyone wins no matter what happens. Also, note in the example above that if your opponent wins, to take advantage of the great position you’ve given them, they’d have to concede that you have a level of prestige to your career.
This is just an example and hopefully it lets people get an idea of what I mean. If you’re still a bit lost, the recent match from the January 31, 2008 Hostility between Nathan Kaye and Markus Maelstrom has three of the best promos I’ve read in a long time. Both men gave their opponents credit, while making themselves look quite strong.
Hopefully this helps people out and at the same time, remember that these are only guidelines. These won’t mean an immediate win or that you’ll be dominant. There are too many variables and no one can control them every match and at every point.