The run-up to WrestleMania, and the spotlight taken by a half in/ half out, Dwayne Johnson has been highly entertaining. His interaction with WWE's biggest star of the last decade, John Cena, and their great hope for turnaround, The Miz, has shown the potential of the roster, as much as it has their limitations. John Cena has been motivated in a way not seen since 2006's classic One Night Stand 2, and it has been good television to watch him verbally lock horns with the Brahma Bull. The Miz has clearly modelled himself on the kind of egotism that defined The Rock's success as both a heel and a babyface and anywhere in between, as well as somewhat unfortunately adopting the suited up, soft spoken act of Chris Jericho. Is this the only option for a modern day heel? To play off of the hope that the crowd is turned off by your egotism?
The decline of Kayfabe in the 80s and 90s, left the bad guy with a shrinking list of successful methods for inciting hatred. No longer would bashing the good guy in the noggin with a hammer be enough to guarantee heat.Yet, even with the ever decreasing list of methods to become a successful heel, professional wrestling failed to expand the ways in which it would engage the audience, past a superficial and ultimately cowardly dabbling in meta-fiction. The hardcore, "pure" wrestling fan, as much as the "casual" fan has failed to expand the criteria by which they would rate a heel a success or failure. The traditional wisdom that good booking need only stick to establishing an onscreen rivalry in a way that makes sense, has long been fallacious. One wonders if Chris Jericho, the man with the best heel performance since Triple H in the late 90s, did not possess the name value from the dying days of the last commercial golden age of the business, would the crowd have been as receptive.
This is an instance when the closer a company sticks to the traditional wisdom of booking, the worse this problem becomes. I don't give two shits that Guy A beat the piss out of Guy B with a belt. If neither of them engage the audience, and somehow acknowledge their role in all of this, what is the point? The times when real, honest to goodness, hatred has been provoked, WWE and wrestling in general have time and again turned away, their tail tucked between their legs. The crucifixion angle with Raven and The Sandman in ECW is probably the best example of this. Here you have a company, for those hardcore, who seem to be able to do no wrong. "We don't pander to that mainstream bullshit!" No, they pandered to a small hall of the same fucking fans, with the same horrendous prejudices and low mental acumen week in, week out. So did they challenge the audience, as to the nature of the heel in this instance? No, they didn't. They ran away scared, when their top heel actually managed to provoke something that has long alluded the modern bad guy: genuine hatred.Vince McMahon equally avoided the ire of the dumb religious outrage when he turned in the sumptuous transgressive concept of putting God in a wrestling match. This incidentally led to the greatest sign of all time: "GOD TAPPED OUT."
Why is this? The stock answer seems to be, "We're entertainment". Leaving aside the dubious hypocrisy evident in not wishing to tackle religious offence (they did the same with Katie Vick) but feeling free to run two decades of homophobic ranting. Jerry Lawler's infamous interview with the great Goldust - a true innovator - and the exchange, "But I thought you were?" "What?" "You know, a fag?" ringing in the ears. Entertainment, in its broadest sense, is nowhere near the level of knee jerk reaction to audience discomfort. Deadwood wasn't afraid to paint characters as completely loathsome. Glengerry Glen Ross wasn't. Taxi Driver wasn't And on and on. Vince and his people keep reminding us that they are entertainment, and not just Pro Wrestling. So why are their performers so afraid to fully embody their characters?
There is no Indy Solution either. Ring Of Honor have equally shied away from challenging their audience. Or any audience. Much like ECW, they know what appeals to their fanbase and they stick with it. Wrestling has the strange disadvantage of being equally populist and outside of the mainstream. By its very nature, it seems that it is constructed to appeal to the lowest intelligence of the dumbest spectator. There is no moment where wrestling has truly embraced its non-acceptance as a legitimate artform / entertainment and used it to find where the line is. The Miz is not a great heel. And I doubt he ever will be. Why? Because he's truly afraid of being hated. I mean, actually hated, not play hated. Ironically the best heel that WWE could have had in the last two decades, is the man who took it to the Hammerstein Ballroom and stood up to that reality like no-one since the fall of Kayfabe. This watered down mewing of, "We're entertainment now," while refusing to engage with the most basic creative standards set in that world, will see professional wrestling stagger along for the next few years, until the last of the old stars have gone beyond repair and no-one gives a care for the limp dicked replacements, as athletically sound as they may be.
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