Heel (professional Wrestling)

Heel (professional Wrestling)

In professional wrestling, a heel (also known as a rudo in Lucha libre) is a villain character. In non-wrestling jargon, heels are the "bad guys" in professional wrestling storylines. They are typically opposed by a face (crowd favorite). Some tweeners (not explicitly regarded as good or bad) exhibit heel mannerisms. Heels are often portrayed as behaving in an immoral manner, breaking rules or otherwise taking advantage of their opponents outside the bounds of the rules of the match. Others do not (or rarely) break rules, but exhibit unlikeable personality traits. No matter the type of heel, the most important job is that of the antagonist role. Heels exist to provide a foil to the face wrestlers. If a given heel is cheered over the face, a promoter may opt to turn that heel to face, or to make the wrestler do something even more despicable to encourage heel heat.