Time to Heel

Such was the case with Triple H: you loved to hate him. Sure, he cheated – sometimes. But so did the faces. Now this is a rant I've gone off on before, but I just want to bring some people up to speed on what I'm talking about when I say something like a likeable heel.

There are two things that make a character (not a wrestler, a character) a good character. The first is that he riles up the crowd, or has good crowd reactions. The second is believability. Believability comes in two forms: that he believes when he's out there in front of the audience that he is who and what he says he is, and that we believe that he is capable of what he is doing in the ring. If I watch Kurt Angle lose a match, I want to know it's either because he is a worse wrestler than his opponent, or because the opponent cheated or got lucky. Nobody would appreciate The Rock if it didn't look like he was a capable athlete. The reality of it is that guys like Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn, Kurt Angle and Lance Storm can wrestle guys like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, and Booker T out of their pants any day. But Austin, Rocky, the Game and the Booker Man know how to perform more so than execute remedial technical moves. Austin has long been criticized for his lack of ingenuity in the ring, but never for his performance.

When it comes to believing in their character, let's look at Hurricane Helms. Or as he's known now, The Hurricane. On Sept. 4's episode of "Raw," he went to taunt the crowd with his I'm-a-noble-super-hero-and-my-opponent-isn't stand on the turnbuckle in his tag match with Ivory against Matt Hardy and Lita. It was supposed to either piss the crowd off or make them laugh. Instead, they cheered, "Hurr-i-cane! Hurr-i-cane!"

They like him. They like him because not only does he give it all in the ring (I don't know about technical ability, but his performance was off the wall and his chemistry with Matt Hardy is solid but he also gives it all in his promos. He doesn't care that he's making an ass out of himself. Hell, he has the European Championship around his waist, he shouldn't be complaining anyway.

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