Face (professional wrestling)

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In professional wrestling, a face is a character who is portrayed as being moral or approving (that is, faces are "good guys" or "crowd favorites").

The vast majority of wrestling storylines (though not all) place a heel (or bad guy) against a face.

The term face began as a shorthand way of writing babyface, and up until the mid 1990s, the two terms pretty much meant the same thing. This changed with the birth of ECW, the start of WCW's nWo storyline, and the Attitude Era of the WWF. In these storylines, wrestlers like Stone Cold Steve Austin and Sting often adopted heel tactics to overcome opponents. While technically tweeners, their immense popularity with crowds had their gimmicks categorized by many as faces (though they were not babyfaces). Although wrestlers such as Dick the Bruiser, Crusher and even Fred Blassie had been babyfaces while using non-admirable tactics, the Attitude Era is usually accredited with this new kind of babyface. Many wrestlers who would be considered face today would previously be considered a tweener.

Similarly, Kurt Angle was introduced with a gimmick that would traditionally have him seen as a babyface, and yet was immensely unpopular with fans. Thus, while adopting many actions and mannerisms of a babyface, Angle's gimmick was seen by most as being "heel." The Spanish term used in lucha libre is a técnico (literally a "technician", one who sticks to basic wrestling techniques without cheating, in theory). Some reasons that can cause fans to turn against a wrestler with a face gimmick include: wrestler's repetitive in-ring antics; a limited moveset; a lengthy title reign; and lack of selling his/her opponents's moves and carrying his/her opponent. This often results in wrestlers who are supposed to be cheered receiving a negative or no reaction from the fans. A good example of that is Bret Hart, who started out as a face in his feud with then heel Stone Cold Steve Austin, but then saw fans turn against him and cheer for Austin. However, the turn was most likely caused by Steve Austin's rebellious attitude. Former WWE Champion John Cena is a better example, who despite being a top face on RAW, has seen negative reactions from many fans during his latest matches, which ultimately resulted in WWE booking team stripping him of his title. He would later regain the WWE Championship and then lose it again.

Among those wrestlers who were face their entire career are Rick Steamboat, Rey Mysterio Jr., The Ultimate Warrior and Tito Santana.

Face (professional wrestling)

See also