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\u2019t 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:<\/p>\n
1) The actions you are doing<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n 2) Who the actions are being done against<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n 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\u2019d help out in two ways. The actual character and, what I think is the most obvious of places, the promo.<\/p>\n The Character With that said, what makes a good heel?<\/p>\n Easy\u2026give 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\u2019t have to be overly-elaborate. It just has\u00a0be\u00a0done well enough for it to be noticeable.<\/p>\n Tweeners! Faces! The Promo Well if that\u2019s the case, where are they?<\/p>\n 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\u00a0fireeating\u00a0promo. Here\u2019s the problem. In politics, insulting everyone else doesn\u2019t get the win. It just gets you noticed and probably gets you kicked out of the debates. But my point is that that\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n A promo is, and this is really shocking\u2026\u2026to PROMOTE.<\/p>\n Promote what, you may ask. Well let\u2019s turn this into a multiple choice question.<\/p>\n What do promos promote? Lock in your answers<\/p>\n <\/p>\n —<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n —<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n —<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Okay? You ready?<\/p>\n If you said d), seriously, get your head out of your ass, unless it\u2019s permanently implanted in there. If that\u2019s the case, you shouldn\u2019t be able to read this.<\/p>\n The correct answer is e) All of the above. And most people forget this.<\/p>\n The fact of the matter is that I\u2019ve read countless\u00a0roleplays\u00a0that belittle their opponent to such an extent that really, I can summarize the promo by saying,\u00a0My\u00a0opponent is nothing. I am great.<\/p>\n That\u2019s great and all, but think of\u00a0what that accomplishes. You win. You beat a nothing. Who cares? You lose. You were beaten by a nothing. Where does that leave your career?\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0then lose\/lose situation and best yet, I wouldn\u2019t want to watch the match.<\/p>\n The fact of the matter is that you want to at least give your opponent a decent level of credibility. This doesn\u2019t mean that you\u2019re going to call him God and say he\u2019s the greatest wrestler to ever live. It just means\u00a0that if you\u2019re going to trash-talk, don\u2019t\u00a0completely eat him up and spit him out. Chew him up a bit, but leave enough there to make things meaningful in the end. That\u2019s where the challenge lies. For example, it\u2019s possible to say your opponent isn\u2019t ready or that your opponent hasn\u2019t had a good run\u00a0lately,\u00a0or something like that. It\u2019s just pointing out an observation, but outright saying that they are nothing, does nothing. My personal\u00a0favourite\u00a0is when people attack a champion and says the belt means nothing, but that they want to win it to restore credibility. That\u2019s fine and all, but then why would you want a belt that\u2019s worth nothing? See my point. It\u2019s one thing to attack the credibility of the champion, but never the belt. Why? At the end of it all, it establishes nothing.<\/p>\n But wait a minute? Aren\u2019t you having Miller and Speed attack their types of wrestling? And yes, I am. And you may think that I\u2019m essentially making each look foolish. But the problem with that is then you\u2019re missing the point. Miller wants the Pure Title to be the actual sanctioned belt because he believes it\u2019s a\u00a0more truer\u00a0form of competition. Speed wants the Extreme Title to be sanctioned because he believes it\u2019s the\u00a0more truer\u00a0form 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,\u00a0the\u00a0winning side gains much more.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t 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\u2019m 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 \u201cYou\u2019re nothing.\u201d I always phrase it in a way such as \u201cYou\u2019re biting off more than you can chew. Work your way up the ladder instead of jumping to the top. And I\u2019m 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.\u201d I\u2019m saying that he\u2019s 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\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s 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\u2019ve given them, they\u2019d have to concede that you have a level of prestige to your career.<\/p>\n This is just an example and hopefully it lets people get an idea of what I mean. If you\u2019re 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\u2019ve read in a long time. Both men gave their opponents credit, while making themselves\u00a0look\u00a0quite strong.<\/p>\n Hopefully\u00a0this helps people out and at the same time, remember\u00a0that these are only guidelines. These won\u2019t mean an immediate\u00a0win\u00a0or that you\u2019ll be dominant. There are too many variables and no one can control them every match and at every point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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\u2019t 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.supremecw.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.supremecw.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.supremecw.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.supremecw.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.supremecw.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.supremecw.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.supremecw.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.supremecw.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.supremecw.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong><\/span>Heels!
\n<\/strong><\/em>I figure I\u2019ll start with what it takes to be a good heel since everyone seems to be one these days.\u00a0Over half the fed has an edge of some sort which clearly will equate to a likelihood of being a heel.\u00a0I 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/em>In my opinion, the most useless of characters.\u00a0I say this because you can\u2019t be neutral as a character. You can be neutral in a storyline or an angle, but that\u2019s about it. But if you want to be a\u00a0tweener, note that you\u2019re 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\u00a0roleplays\u00a0until 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.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/em>Some people say that this is the hardest, but in all honesty, on the promo front, it\u2019s the easiest in one respect. I will get into that later. But being a face isn\u2019t that hard. Being normal may very well be what is best. You don\u2019t go to extremes and you don\u2019t have to be kissing babies in every\u00a0roleplay\u00a0to be a face. You don\u2019t have to donate to charity. You just need to make sure that if you show anger, it\u2019s 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,\u00a0would 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.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/span>Everyone raise your hands if you think you can cut a good promo?<\/p>\n
\na) Yourself
\nb) Your opponent
\nc) The match
\nd) Nothing
\ne) All of the above<\/p>\n