Hello again to all who have decided to take time to sit down and read another edition of The Trebor Mint and the second in my new series of columns that I like the call The Perfect Series. This time around I will be discussing what I think constitutes The Perfect Face.
Being a good face let alone a Perfect face is in my opinion harder than being a heel. When playing a face character, the wrestler needs to always have the crowd on their side. The Perfect Face needs to, not just get a cheer from a crowd, they need to get an eruption equivalent to Mount Vesuvius erupting. They needs not even be there, only music needs to go off for the crowd to be so hyped that no other wrestler in the arena matters at that point in time. The effort to get over with a crowd as a face is much more than a heel, ask any comedian and they will tell you it’s easier to be booed off the stage and heckled, than it is to have a crowd on the floor in stitches.
While looking at what constitutes the perfect face, I’m going to start with what is in my opinion the most important factor of the perfect face Charisma. If a face doesn’t have charisma then they aren’t really a face, they maybe wrestling like a good guy, but their character wont have the correct substance. charisma isn’t just Rock or Hogan style charisma of being the life and sole of the party, always smiling and coming out with the best lines. I like to think of Charisma as the belief a wrestler has in his character. Austin had this charisma and in a way even the Dudley’s had this in WWE. Their characters weren’t your typical face characters when they first got introduced, but when the performed they had something that no one else had that made fans like them. They wrestled and acted with the charisma that made you believe that they actually enjoyed what they did. Austin was able to make you think that every day up to Monday and Thursday nights; he sat around planning how he could get one over on Vince, or whoever he was feuding against.
As I said earlier, the Perfect face needs to always have an amazing reaction when he appears for this to continuously happen he needs to stay fresh. Around the IWC there is always talk of someone’s gimmick getting stale, it’s why Austin in the Sheriff gimmick didn’t get the reaction it could have done. He was just doing the same as he as always done, but on a lazy level. He came back but didn’t change anything other than being on an ATV. The Rock managed to stay fresh while he was around by making small changes bringing out a new character, making changes to his entrance theme, small changes to his moves. This gave the fans something new to react to and kept the character fresh.
Being the perfect face means that for the time you are out in the ring you are a super hero, no not the Hurricane or Rosey, but to the fans you are their saviour. This link that you have with the fans is the next stage of the perfect face. The perfect face needs to be able to speak to everyone in a way that makes every fan think they are the only one who is being spoken too. This to me is one of the major differences between face and heel when it comes to a promo. As a heel a wrestler can give general insults whereas the face needs to be able to sweet talk everyone in the crowd and not just rely on a few cheap pops. The face promo needs to be up beat constantly moving with big reaction segment throughout to keep the crowd hyped about the wrestler. One way this is done that seems to work best is by comedy. The face wrestler needs to be able to laugh, not just at other people but at themselves. They need to make it seem like all they are say is off the top of their head. This is hard to pull off, but if done correctly is superb. Jericho is an example of natural comedy talent; he has the natural charisma and comedy timing to pull off his promos.
The perfect face can get the crowd behind them just by a few well placed lines. They maybe things people have already thought of but when said at the right time to the right person they can cause a wrestler to go from the edge of being over to being super over.
The final section of the perfect face I’m going to touch on is being the underdog. The perfect face needs to be the eternal underdog. Now your reaction is probably that’s not true, look at Hogan, look at the Rock. When they were winning they weren’t the underdogs, they were favourites. Well they may have been favourites to win the match but during the match they were the underdog at some point. In every match the heel gets the advantage, at this point the crowd rallies up the face as he is the underdog. This is why Hulking up is always so effective, he’s been beaten down, you think he’s doing to fall down for the 10 count, but no he walk around the ring like he’s got a zimmer frame in front of him then comes back and beats your ass. If you are an underdog, you get the crowd behind you as it’s simple human nature to hope for the underdog (unless you’re a glory hunting Man U supporter), so to be the perfect face, you need to be able to play that side up to the crowd.
These are the main factors in my opinion that you need to be the perfect face.
It’s now time to find out who the readers of The Trebor Mint think is the Perfect Heel. This was a lot tighter than I thought it would have been, but once the votes were counted we had out top three. But before I announce I’d like to give a shout out to
Curtis, Jason Cloud, Jason Purdue and The Franchise, for the feedback they sent in, it was much appreciated.
At number 3 was everyone’s favourite promoter Vincent Kennedy McMahon, at number two a surprise choice in Christian getting quite a good vote count. But both of these men were well and truly beaten by the winner of The Perfect Heel, he is the man he is Ric Flair, he won outright and is a worthy winner of the title The Perfect Heel.
It’s now time for this week’s question. “Now that I have given my view of what constitutes the Perfect Heel and Face, which two do you think would need to be involved make the Perfect Feud?”
Answers to thetrebormint@hotmail.com and the best view will be put into my next column and the next in The Perfect Series, The Perfect Feud.
This has been The Trebor Mint, whether you loved it, hated it, or just want to give you’re opinion or just need to answer my question email me at the above address.
Have a Nice Day!!
