Heel (2024)

Table of Contents
Contents Examples Crazy heel Comic heel Monster heel Egotistical heel Sinister heel Popular heel Delinquent heel Foreign heel Anti Foreign heel Common heel tactics See also FAQs

In wrestling, a heel is a villain character. Heels are portrayed as behaving in an immoral manner, breaking rules or otherwise taking advantage of their opponents outside of the bounds of the rules of the match. In non-wrestling jargon, heels are often the "bad guys" in pro wrestling storylines. They are typically opposed by a face (crowd favorite). Some tweeners exhibit heel mannerisms.

The term "heel" is most likely is derived from a slang usage of the word that first appeared around 1914, meaning "contemptible person". The Spanish term, used in lucha libre, is "rudo".

Common heel behaviour includes cheating to win (e.g., using the ropes for leverage while pinning or attacking with foreign objects such as folding chairs while the referee is looking away), attacking other wrestlers backstage, interfering with other wrestlers' matches, and acting in a haughty or superior manner.

Once in awhile, faces who have recently turned from being heels will still exhibit some heel characteristics. For example, in TNA, The Naturals, though they turned face after the death of manager Chris Candido, sometimes still used the ropes for pins and used the megaphone of former manager Jimmy Hart to gain victories. Kurt Angle is also a good example; even after turning face for his feud with Mark Henry, at the Royal Rumble 2006, Angle used a steel chair, an exposed steel ring peg, and leverage from the ropes during his pin to get the victory over Henry.

It is possible to use aspects of different types of heels in one character to add dimensions to the character.

See Also
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Contents

  • 1 Examples
    • 1.1 Crazy heel
    • 1.2 Comic heel
    • 1.3 Monster heel
      • 1.3.1 Facts
    • 1.4 Egotistical heel
    • 1.5 Sinister heel
    • 1.6 Popular heel
      • 1.6.1 Facts
    • 1.7 Delinquent heel
    • 1.8 Foreign heel
    • 1.9 Anti Foreign heel
  • 2 Common heel tactics
  • 3 See also

Examples

While behaving as a heel is often part of a wrestler's gimmick, many successful heels fall into one or more of the following categories. Often these traits will overlap with one another.

Crazy heel

Definition: A raging madman, dangerous and unpredictable - may attack others for no apparent reason, or blame others for being "held back" from championship opportunities and other privileges. Sometimes psychotic behaviour is displayed.

Comic heel

Definition: A person with a dark comic gimmick.

Monster heel

Definition: An unstoppable juggernaut who squashes his or her opponents.

Facts

Sometimes, monster heels violently "injure" other wrestlers (sometimes through rulebreaking tactics), terrorize valets (injuring them on occasion), and commit other extremely heinous acts in order to set up a feud with a promotion's lead face. One example is the feud between The Giant and Hulk Hogan in 1995 when The Giant broke Hogan's neck. Another example is when The Undertaker was behind a reign of terror that led to his feud with Steve Austin in 1999. Also, during Kane's heel runs, he often targeted innocent people such as Jim Ross, Linda McMahon, and Lilian Garcia.

See Also
Interview: HeelvsBabyface’s Az Chats About His YouTube Career – Syxx Sense Media – Podcast

Egotistical heel

Definition: An obnoxious and self-important character who is arrogant or co*cky; some wrestlers play on their own fame, achievements, or good looks. This is probably the most common type of heel.

Sinister heel

Definition: A cold, calculating heel, one step short of being a crazy heel. Often a cunning mastermind, and calmer than a crazy heel, sometimes depicted as having sociopathic traits (though it is possible for a Sinister heel to be a crazy heel at the same time too.) Often sinister heels make use of psychological warfare (AKA, playing "mind games") against their opponents. Also can be wrestlers with a gothic or macabre-like gimmick.

Popular heel

Definition: a term in which the fans cheer for a wrestler who competes as a heel.

Facts

The Road Warriors, originally booed by the fans, gained new fans worldwide and eventually became faces around 1985 after they lost the AWA World Tag Team title to the team of Jimmy Garvin and Steve Regal due to interference by the Fabulous Freebirds.

Chris Adams was booed heavily when facing any of the Von Erichs, but was wildly cheered when wrestling other heels during his September 1984-January 1986 heel run; Adams would still greet fans afterwards and sign autographs. He eventually became Texas' most popular wrestler after turning face in 1986, and the 5th most popular wrestler in the world overall by 1987.

Shawn Michaels is cheered by the fans in show of respect, as well as his "HeartBreak Kid" persona (except in Canada). Triple H is extremely popular despite displaying classic heel tactics and is cheered upon appearing.

Kurt Angle is widely considered as having been a heel for most of his career, but he wrestled a number of the best technical matches in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and was often cheered out of respect.

Chants of "wooooooo" always echoed during Ric Flair's entrance even though he was a heel member of the Four Horsem*n and Evolution.

Kane has also received cheers upon appearing or when delivering his chokeslam finisher, despite being a morbid and violent character.

The Undertaker has a large following despite his tendency to rough up opponents after a match has ended, especially if he is the loser.

The Rock is also frequently cheered (most notably at WrestleMania XIX) whether he's a face or heel, in large part due to his natural charisma.

Delinquent heel

Definition: A troublesome and disrespectful character who verbally and visually displays uncivilized conduct such as profanity, vandalism, violence and associated "criminal" behaviour. Sometimes the wrestler will harass or bully opponents and rebel against authority.

Foreign heel

Definition: in United States wrestling, foreign heels are often portrayed as being anti-American.

Anti Foreign heel

Similar to a foreign heel, which is an American heel, who would talk down about another country.

    • The Rock - Back in early 2003 when he put down Canada for previously booing him and cheering for Hollywood Hulk Hogan a year earlier (despite The Rock being a face and Hogan being a heel at that time) at WrestleMania X8 (2002), despite being part Canadian himself in real life.
    • Brock Lesnar - When he made fun of Mexicans and made a stereotype about them during his feud with Eddie Guerrero.
    • JBL - When he feud with Eddie Guerrero and ranted about Mexicans.
    • Vince McMahon-During an episode of Raw in Italy where he put down Italians.
    • Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter - For a period of time in 2013 during Swagger's feud with Alberto Del Rio, Swagger and Colter both took on the gimmick of being Tea Party supporters and strongly denounced Mexicans and immigrants in general.

Common heel tactics

The tactics of a kayfabe heel were perhaps best summed up by Jesse Ventura's famous quote: "Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat." However, it can backfire and eventually lead to the heel's defeat. Such tactics include:

  • Using the ropes or grabbing the opponent's tights during pinfalls.
  • Sticking thumbs, throwing powder/salt, or spitting foreign substances into an opponent's eyes.
  • Removing the padding on turnbuckles to expose the steel underneath it, then smashing an opponent's head, face, or body onto it. During a steel cage match, smashing the opponent's face or body into the mesh also counts.
  • Use of concealed weapons (brass knuckles, rolls of coins, etc.). Some heels are less subtle when deciding to use a weapon, sometimes grabbing a chair from ringside in full view of the referee with no regard for the consequences.
  • Dragging an opponent's face across the top rope.
  • Low blows. Hard legal tactics, such as shoot kicks to the face, may also count if done repeatedly and with the intention to make the face wrestler look weak.
  • Utilizing an "arrogant pin," such as posing for or mocking the crowd while making a clearly ineffective pinfall attempt.
  • Holding a forearm down on an opponent's face during a pinfall attempt.
  • Lifting an opponent off the mat during a seemingly effective pinfall attempt (generally by pulling the opponent's hair) in order to continue the match (and to continue "beating up" on the opponent).
  • Bringing a valet, manager, or another wrestler to the ring who helps the heel with cheating.
  • Using the outside of the ring to rest, or ducking into the ropes to slow the match down.
  • When defending titles, intentionally getting himself/herself disqualified or counted out to lose the match without dropping the title that the wrestler is defending.
  • Insulting the fans or mocking the city in which he or she is performing during promos. Heels might also mock local sports teams or players on said teams who have suffered disappointing results.
  • Assaulting the opponent after a match, or interfere in a rival's match in an attempt to cost them the win.
  • Purposely getting themselves counted out in order to avoid a clear pinfall loss.

Despite all the information given above, a face can also use some of these heel tactics as well as a form of counterattacking.

See also

Heel (2024)

FAQs

What is heel slang for? ›

: a contemptible person : a person who is self-centered or untrustworthy. felt like a heel.

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When someone says they feel like a heel? ›

a person who treats other people badly and unfairly: I felt like a real heel when I saw how upset she was.

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What does being the heel mean? ›

In professional wrestling, a heel (also known as a rudo in lucha libre) is a wrestler who portrays a villain, "bad guy", or "rulebreaker", and acts as an antagonist to the faces, who are the heroic protagonist or "good guy" characters.

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What is called heel? ›

The heel is the portion of the human body that lies at the bottom-rear part of each foot. Its exterior shape is formed by the calcaneus, also known as the heel bone. The heel bone is the largest bone in the foot.

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What is a heel in old slang? ›

If you call a person a heel you are imploring that he (the word is usually given a masculine connotation as Females are rarely called heels) is a “contemptible person," 1914 in U.S. underworld slang, originally "incompetent or worthless criminal," perhaps from a sense of "person in the lowest position" In the world of ...

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Does heel mean jerk? ›

The base of the palm of your hand is also a heel, and when you walk your dog on a leash, keeping her at your side, you're teaching her to heel. The word also describes the very end of a loaf of bread, or an utter jerk — this informal meaning comes from U.S. mobster slang.

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What does it mean when someone tells you to heel? ›

Close behind someone, as in The dog started chasing the car but Miriam called him to heel . This expression is used almost solely in reference to dogs. The heel in this idiom, first recorded in 1810, is the person's.

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What is the original meaning of heel? ›

heel (n. 1) "back of the foot," Old English hela, from Proto-Germanic *hanhilaz- (source also of Old Norse hæll, Old Frisian hel, Dutch hiel), from a diminutive of PIE *kenk- (3) "heel, bend of the knee" (source also of Old English hoh "hock"). Meaning "back of a shoe or boot" is c. 1400.

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What does a hot heel mean? ›

A burning sensation in the heel can be a troubling symptom. Burning pain in the heel or bottom of the foot that has a tingling or prickling quality, causes numbness, feels hot, and is worse at night may be indicative of nerve damage or a disorder affecting the nerves that supply the foot.

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What is heel in the Bible? ›

The “heel” is associated with another biblical figure–Jacob. His name literally means “heel” (in Hebrew, Jacob sounds more like “yakov”, being the same as “aqev”), referring to the fact he was born grasping the heel of his twin brother Esau. Figuratively, the name means “supplanter”.

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What does heels in love mean? ›

People say they're head over heels in love when they feel disoriented and swept up by their romantic feelings.

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What does bring me to heel mean? ›

Force to obey, subjugate.

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What does it mean to feel like a heel? ›

HEEL (the person) is an originally American slang word meaning a despicable low-down fellow with no sense of decency or honor, a contemptibly dishonorable or irresponsible scoundrel of a man, especially one who treats women badly, a cad <“We all felt like heels for ducking out on you like that.”> <“That heel treated ...

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What does heel up mean in slang? ›

“heels up” is street slang for being ready for sexual intercourse. 2. Jo Ann Creore. Former Professor Emeritus of Romance Linguistics.

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What is a synonym for heel slang? ›

a person whose behavior is offensive to others felt like a heel when she found out that she'd blamed the wrong person. dogs. jerks. bastards. clowns.

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What does it mean to tell someone to heel? ›

Close behind someone, as in The dog started chasing the car but Miriam called him to heel . This expression is used almost solely in reference to dogs. The heel in this idiom, first recorded in 1810, is the person's.

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What does it mean to come to heel? ›

If a person or organization comes to heel, they agree to obey, usually because they have been forcefully persuaded to do so. SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases.

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What does the heel represent? ›

Heel: The heel represents our lower back and intestines.

As the base of support for the entire foot, the heel has noteworthy connections to the lower back and intestines. A targeted massage or pressure application on the heel can offer relief from backaches and even promote intestinal health.

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What is the abbreviation for as heel? ›

Since at least the early 2010s, asl has been used as an internet abbreviation of “as hell,” with asl meant to sound like the pronunciation of this expression.

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