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[Moonbase_Alpha]

I understand that as fans, we're supposed to cheer the face and boo the heel. But I usually cheer the heel or whomever is most charismatic.

Who do you cheer/boo and why?

[ZZTop]

I personally don't cheer for any particular person. I cheer for a great move, a great chain wrestling sequence. I guess I rock it the Japanese style .

[Moonbase_Alpha]

I guess we're sorta like that too but my wife has favourites (faces). If we rocked it Japanese wrestling style, we'd proably have to toss those stringy things into the ring at the beginning of every match too.

Its going to be funny next Saturday since Rush was a face at CSE and he will NOT BE CHEERED in his C4 angle. We'll probably yap back and forth with Steen though.

If fans actually dictated who was face and who was heel, it would kinda ruin the storylines.

[ZZTop]

Fans have a lot more say in that than people think. Rush will never be a true face in C*4 for some reason. I dunno, As for the "STRINGY THINGS" I forgot to put that in my IWS review but Twiggy gets the "STRINGY THING TREATMENT in the IWS. LOL. It was awesome. Wrestling needs the loud asnd boisterous people and the quiet people , they play off each other, I am sure the Japanese will apppreciate the respect and I am sure the North Americans will want the pop. It all goes hand in hand.

[Moonbase_Alpha]

Twiggy?!?!??! Don't tell us he still uses the Bon Jovi and 80's gimmick there too? I'll say this....everyone wants to cheer the small underdog types and that's Twiggy to a tee. he even bows at the end of his matches to the fans. Kinda cool.

[DieHard]

It'll all depend on my mood.  Sometimes, I'll just want to cheer for the heel just to mess around.

I cheer for the Hollywood Hunks regardless of whether they're heel or face.

[Moonbase_Alpha]

Whenever we're at a card, they always talk with us. I cheer them face or heel too.

Do you feel though that you should cheer how you are lead to by the promoter, to advance their storyline of heels vs faces or do you think you as fans, we can alter the promoters storyline by the way we cheer. Who leads who: the promoter leads the fans or the fans lead the promoter?

[pete]

I would say the answer to this is pretty simple - if the promoter wants to push a wrestler into any type of role, face or heel, it is the job of the promoter and the wrestler to make you believe, if they fail to do that job, it is up to them, not the fans, to adapt.

What did Vince do when the fans began to cheer for Stone Cold? He adapted - made Stone Cold the face and The Hitman the heel.

[Whiteburbia]

I don't know if the promoter leads the fans or the fans lead the promoter. All I know is I think we (Drunk Tank) turned Rush heel. We were bashing the shit outta him as a face, constantly. When you generate that kind of heat as a face, even though you don't mean/want to, it's just a natural progression. I prefer Rush as a heel. Still hate him though (the wrestler that is. Prolly a nice guy outside of wrasslin).

[BloodySavage]

i like it wen a wrestler goes either face or heel due 2 fans, a few years back Synn was tryin 2 b the heel in UWA, but we all cheered him so much, he'd tell us 2 shut the fuck up and we'd cheer louder, then 1 show he came out the good guy

[ZZTop]

A good booker will jump on it and take notice and either adapt, as was said earlier in this post, or they booked it right in the first place. Any promoter who has to tell you who is face and heel, may as well habg it up because they aren't doing their job very well. My opinion only.

[BloodySavage]

i prefer the guys who kinda coast in the middle, that is if they can pull it off ( ala stone cold ) sum wrestlers who can do no wrong, Steen could do it in C4, he says rotten shit, and snot rockets fans, and many of us just keep cheerin

[ZZTop]

Personal feelings for the performers, the better talents in the business be it local or THE BIG GUYS, a great worker can flow back and forth between face and heel based on who he is wrestling. Look at MVP for instance, he fought Twiggy and he was unquestionably the heel, he fought Tyson Dux and he was the face. Now reversely, Take someone like Rush. He isn't going to be a face in C*4 and hasn't really been in a while due to our fans, now in CSE he can pull it off with ease but in C*4 No hope in hell

[gordo]

While the booker may be the one who determines who he's going to use as a face or heel it falls on the talent to get the desired reaction.

A lot of guys don't really have a clue how to play face or heel... let alone having a grasp on how to play both roles. They're usually better at one than the other (and it's always been that way.) Someone who can effectively work heel and face is the exception rather than the rule.

With the advent of the "anti-hero" Steve Austin & later to a lesser degree, The Rock - which are the guys a lot of today's young wrestler's grew up idolizing and wanting to emulate - there was a marked decrease in the number of people who know how to play either role and in today's landscape the "tweeners" outnumber the other two groups.

A good heel worker can make the fans hate them just as a good face worker can make the fans at least support them, if not overtly love them... and they can do that no matter what preconceived notions the fans may have about what and who they do or don't like... often in the span of one match but assuredly over the course of an angle. GOOD workers, that is.

Of course, one needs the leeway to actually work and with so many bookers AND talent laying out the entire matches ahead of time it doesn't leave much room for improvisation which is key to leading the fans where you want them to go.

There used to be a time where a booker could say "Ok, you're the face, you're the heel... this is the finish I want and (maybe) the direction I want the match to go to further this angle... you got 20 minutes". The workers would look at each other and say "see you out there" and that was it for pre-match preparation. How many guys on the scene today do you think could go out there and work a decent match on the fly?

A fucking dismal amount, that's how many... and that's why the fans think they're the ones calling the shots... and in many cases they are.

[Moonbase_Alpha]

Could "the fans calling shots" mean a better or poorer gate and how would you teach wrestlers to work on the fly?