Hello! So I am new to this whole thing but I love writing, love firing off insults, and love how this whole thing is run. The fact that we battle over written promos to see who wins and all that is super appealing especially since I'm so busy throughout the week it gives me time to respond and all that jazz.

Well, I've watched wrestling for a long time and read books like Foley's and what not where they talk about Promos and what is important and all that but I wanted to pick the brains of people here and see what they believe is important in a Heel Promo in EAW!

It varies from person to person. But the main thing you want to do is just be the guy who is so unlikable (in promo only) that everyone will get behind the baby face. You could do that by being a loud mouth over confidant jerk. Or a twisted and deranged madman. You could be a snivling Weasley that hides behind lawyers or athourithy figures. It's just a matter red of figuring what works for you personally

Yeah that's fair, and there are different ways that can be done. Do you or does anyone think there are things that are too distasteful for even a heel to say? can a line be drawn at how unlikeable you can be? 

and do you or does anyone believe a heel should also put over their opponent or should it be completely a put down contest? Or how about a heel being funny? 

I get that it's definitely a per person thing, I suppose I'm just wondering how people think when they're making Heel promos cause I find it interesting.

To be honest, when you are in character delivering your promo, things which cross the line really don't make much of a difference. We are heels, we do not care about things that cross the line. I have seen many instances even in WWE when heels have crossed the line. 

The major thing for a heel should be that he must get under his opponent's skin. He should choose his words in a way that your opponent feels it very strongly. That means you should find out his/her weakness and after that find every possible way to to take advantage of it to the point that they reach breakdown. That would sometimes require crossing the line.

going too far in what you say it's all subjective. If there is a line you're gonna have to develop a Feel for it. There are some things that should probably never be said (things like rape or using "shoot" comments are thing to come to my mind immediately). As a heel it's fine to use comedy in your promos as appropriate for your character and how comfortable you are with it. For example my first character here would use a bit of comedy here and there in his put downs (kinda like how the rock would). But I tried to keep a certain tone as to keep the gimmick looking at least semi-serious. But other than that I'd say try to be the best bad guy your character can be. If you feel he's an upper crust snot then be the biggest asshole in your promos. If he's a psycho then describe the horrible thing you're gonna do in the match. And if you really need to try to study the great promos both irl and right here on the fed. And once you've gotten an idea on how you want your promos to be Try and addapt it to your writing style and the characters voice


And on here we're a compition based fed so for the most part you're promoing to win.

Being a Heel meaning you have to irritate people as much as possible. As Showster said, make people pay to watch you got defeated in the hand of babyfaces (in character obviously).

Heel can be funny, just take a look at The Rock Hollywood persona in 2003. He executed it right how to be an arshole and funny at the same time.

If you want to put over your opponent, just take a look at Ric Flair's promos in his prime. He knows how to be an arsehole yet putting over his opponents at the same time.

If you want to put down your opponents...well, make sure you don't go into "you are a nobody" stuffs. It's too cliche and what's the point of beating "nobodies" anyway? No one will cares if you beat "nobodies"...IF you do beat them. What if the "nobodies" beat you? Then you surely are lower than "nobodies".

Personally, I would choose to put over my opponents. But then again, it's all up to you.

Anyway, I have seen your promos and you have a lot of potentials. Keep up the great work mate.

Jon McAdams wrote:

Yeah that's fair, and there are different ways that can be done. Do you or does anyone think there are things that are too distasteful for even a heel to say? can a line be drawn at how unlikeable you can be? 

and do you or does anyone believe a heel should also put over their opponent or should it be completely a put down contest? Or how about a heel being funny? 

I get that it's definitely a per person thing, I suppose I'm just wondering how people think when they're making Heel promos cause I find it interesting.

Look, as one of the old freakiest characters of EAW. I had no problems with EAW staff concerning my promos, I created the most unlikeable character with his aura, I killed people in my promos...and this kind of stuff. 

Everything you see in WWE TV can be applied in EAW even more.

I've done both babyface and heel promos...probably for half of my career for each.  The one thing I notice that doesn't change is that I tell the truth through the eyes of the character, and I think that's a big key to being a heel that some people don't understand.  Black and white hats aside, the best heels are the ones who are trying to convince you to their way of seeing things in the most hypocritical fashion possible.  To a heel, the world is doing THEM wrong and they're just evening the odds. To a heel, the people are incessant ingrates, despite what might spur their hatred originally.  It's essentially the bully principle of something made this person see the world the way they see it.  Something formed their distorted view of the world into a violent and hate filled existence.  Kind of like the 'Killing Joke' it could just be one bad day that they can't let go of that turns them into something wretched.  

This means telling half truths and fully believing the other half that you make up.  Let's say you're Ric Flair.  You cheat, you connive, you sick the horsemen on your opponents, but the one time you lose is when your foot was under the ropes.  That's what cost you the title, one blind ref, and that's what you harp on.  Nevermind your past discrepancies to hold onto the belt, nevermind the fact that you've shortened careers unnecessarily to keep your grubby digits around some gold.  The only injustices in the world are the ones doled out toward you.  Your character has to have the self-centered ego to believe that above all else.  After all, it's an empirical fact that the only reason you lost is because the ref turned a blind eye.

I don't wholeheartedly buy into the idea that you have to lend every opponent amnesty when it comes to what their capable of.  This is something I've read in a lot of pro's books that I just don't buy.  The argument is that if you beat them after calling someone a piece of trash that it proves you right, therefore your victory is empty.  If you lose to a guy you say is garbage then you're no better than garbage.  I don't buy that.  Flair only gave Steamboat any comeuppance in promos after being proven wrong time and time again.  So he called Steamboat trash and lost.  So what? Flair's a loudmouth who lines soup cans up around the block to display his dominance, and even when he doesn't, he can display his credibility in ring with the clean victories over his opponents.  Flair's not diminished, Steamboat's not diminished. The only thing that rings true is that Flair talks crap to get into his opponents head and maybe because he's running scared.  The only thing that's diminished is Flair's word, which should be taken as a lie at face value to begin with.  Besides, if you're a skilled enough heel you can claim referee fast count or some sort of other conspiracy to get the belt off of you.  Calling your opponents the shits is only a dead end if you're not capable of getting out of the corner you've painted yourself into.  But that's just my two cents on an age old topic of discussion.

The best heels believe everything that comes out of their mouth.

The Machine wrote:

kennydrake wrote:

The best heels believe everything that comes out of their mouth.

That applies to the best faces also.

My favorite heel promos in my career came from inconvenient truths, from the perception of my character, down people's throats endlessly until they are forced to see things the way I see it even if they don't like it. Every word you say should be bad news, and you shojld gladly be the bearer of it. The best ones are where you put a twist of absurdity into this tangent of inconvenient truth.

All great stuff! 

There's a lot of varying opinions on approach which goes with what was said earlier with what works for you but as per a heels job, its to be unlike-able

Do you think a Heel fails when they do develop a likeable fanbase? for instance, does Kevin Owens make a great heel? Or would you say the Miz is better? or is this even a valid question based on two different styles?

In today's day and age where there are more smarks than ever, it's really hard to get over as a heel, unfortunately.  The best heel in the business today is probably Miz if I am honest because he has everything the average man wants-- a beautiful Playboy wife, fame, fortune, good looks, etc.  He uses that to make sure he tells everyone and anyone that he is better than them.

Kevin Owens, on paper, is a heel, but still gets treated like a face sometimes by the fans because they respect his ring ability and talent.  There are a lot of fans who have followed Owens' career and will cheer him no matter what.  The Miz is the complete opposite of Kevin Owens-- he got his start with the WWE and Tough Enough, as well as the Real World.  He's everything the average fan today hates because he didn't earn his stripes in the independent scene.

To answer your question about the art of being a heel, it's kinda' hard to answer because they are a lot of different heels.  There's the brash, arrogant heel, the monster heel, the cowardly heel, etc.  I think the best characteristic is probably, as people have mentioned, believing everything that comes out of their mouth.  You have to believe the lie no matter what.  

For example, one of Chris Jericho's most famous promos was the Master of 1,004 holds and he truly believed he knew that many holds (albeit a lot of them were armdrag).

It all depends on what style you want to go with.  For me, personally, I find being a heel a lot easier than being a face because in this day and age, as I said, it is a lot harder to be "the nice guy" that everyone likes.  Cena was loved when he first won the title at Wrestlemania 21, then people got bored of his nice guy shtick and his "limited moveset", even though he had the same number of moves as Bret Hart, but I digress.

There is also the nice guy heel that is really rare in e-feds.  Guys like Bo Dallas and Kurt Angle when he debuted, they debuted as faces, but quickly became heels because of how overly nice they were.  Kurt would cheat to win, but still claim to be the American Hero even though he cheated.

Heels should not have a fanbase in my opinion because the whole point of a heel is to be as unlikable as possible, which is why Cena probably won't ever go full heel because it would severely diminish his merchandise sales.  It's a different world today than it was thirty years ago, but the best heel I have seen in the last twenty years?  Probably Edge.  Edge's height of heeldom was legendary imho.  

Sorry for this incoherent mess, I was just typing as I thought.  If you want to get better at being a heel, I suggest looking at some promos on youtube and catch some of the stuff most heels do.  Like, if the show is in Cleveland, insult the Browns (not hard, I know) but people are very passionate about their sports teams, religion and political views.

Religion is a very slippery slope, but like, CM Punk circa 2008 with the Straight Edge Society was some great heel work.  He got death threats from it because he was a "false Jesus".  I tend to stay away from religious stuff because even though you said it in character, it can piss a looooot of people off.

Again, rambling.  Sorry.

tl;dr - Heels are fun

Am I allowed to what I think is a good heel promo in Wrestling or?

developing a fan base don't exactly mean failure.  lots of heels develop fan bases and turn face because of it (Steve Austin, and the Road Warriors/Legion Of Doom are prime examples) It's silence that is the real failure in wrestling.   As for what's better that's a matter of opinion.  Each of their styles push different buttons, and it works for them.