History Main / Face

* Mask de Smith from ''Videogame/Killer7'' was apparently a face during his wrestling days. A former fan calls him "Babyface" (though you'd think they'd call him tecnico, given he's a MaskedLuchador).

* Mask de Smith from ''Videogame/Killer7'' was apparently a face during his wrestling days. A former fan calls him "Babyface" (though you'd think they'd call him tecnico, given he's a Masked Luchador).

* There was an American comic starring a superhero actually called "The Face", though at first glance, you'd think he was a heel since he was a {{terror hero}}.

* Likewise Abe Coleman, aka Hebrew Hercules, aka Jewish Tarzan. He will be credited with innovating the drop kick if Antonino Rocca is not though he is most famous for breaking a wrestling ring apart after slamming the 300 pound Man Mountain Dean.

* Wrestling/AntoninoRocca, this man brought elbow drops, cross bodies, huracanranas and the Argentine back breaker to professional wrestling back in the 1940s (the dropkick is disputed)! He was also responsible for bringing wrestling back to Madison Square Garden in the 50s, where it hasn't left since. He was one of Antonio Inoki's influences.

* Likewise ODB in TNA has never been able to stay heel for very long. Her character is a boisterous [=Ladette=] from a trailer park. She started out as a heel in TNA but grew very popular and was turned face. She returned to TNA in 2011 as a heel but fans didn't take to it and she reverted to face within a month.

* HulkHogan was perhaps the ultimate AllAmericanFace, keeping it up for ''eighteen years'' until he pulled his infamous FaceHeelTurn during Bash at the Beach in 1996. Even that only made him a heel in WCW. When he tried the same routine in WWE the fans cheered him for him despite it and his character reverted in kind. Part of his gimmick was having the power to use the fan's energy to increase his strength, which is how he [[HeroicSecondWind Hulked up]].

** This is so extreme that when JeffHardy was caught selling illegal substances, charged with 5 felonies and sent to prison, fans were still buying more of Jeff's paraphernalia than both Wrestling/{{DGenerationX}} and Wrestling/JohnCena.

* Similarly, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat spent his entire career as a clean-cut babyface. One veteran theorized that Ricky could cut off Wrestling/HulkHogan's limbs with a chainsaw and still get cheered for it because he was just such a naturally likable guy. This is why he used the "Steamboat" stage name despite being born with the natural ring name [[AwesomeMcCoolName Richard Blood]]; contemporary common sense said that you couldn't have a nice guy named "Blood."
* Even though he's in the heel stable Wrestling/TheNexus, Justin Gabriel almost always gets cheered by the fans due to his likeable personality, underdog status, and awesome wrestling skills. After leaving both the Nexus for the Corre he turned face a couple weeks later.

*** As DanielBryan, even after he spat in JohnCena's face and hellaciously destroyed everything in the WWE with Nexus, the fans loved him. He actually got kicked off the WWE for being too violent after he choked someone out with his own tie, and the fans cheered for him so much, he was rehired before his no-complete clause ran out, and became a face by joining team WWE, then eliminating as many Nexus members as ''John Cena''.

** Wrestling/{{Kane}} is another face by default. He tries really hard to be heel and generally does a good job and gets booed. The moment he stops performing over the top acts of evil though the fans are back to cheering for him. Similarly his brother TheUndertaker, became a face by default through a combination of his all around talent and grave digging zombie gimmick.

** Wrestling/RandyOrton became a face by default in 2010, and the only thing he changed about his character is who he attacked. In fact, it doesn't matter who Randy attacks, face or heel -- the fans are going to cheer him on anyway, which is why he became a face in the first place. Wrestling/CMPunk had a similar problem. No matter what he did (mocking Jerry Lawler's heart attack, interrupting Wrestling/TheUndertaker's tribute to Wrestling/PaulBearer, ''stealing the urn''), the heat never lasted. The fans cheered for him and eventually when Punk came back after a hiatus in 2013, in his own hometown of Chicago, he became a face by default even though his opponent (Wrestling/ChrisJericho) was also a face.

Currently he's a heel, but he's done ''nothing'' to explain his actions or build up heat; he just stands around brooding, like he doesn't know how to be evil. Now it's been revealed that his motivation is... vengeance against Wrestling/HulkHogan for all the crap he did during nWo, hey Sting, don't you know about the ThreeMonthRule? Quit BreakingTheFourthWall, Wrestling/{{TNA}} can't afford a new one.
* ReyMysterioJr full on.
** Has Mysterio ''ever'' been a heel? (And yes, I'm referring to his WCW days, too.) Except for one match against MarkHenry where he used one of EddieGuerrero's heel tricks (though even that was more of an homage to his recently departed friend), I don't think he's ever played any role other than the underdog face. He's probably unique among male Superstars in that respect. (RobVanDam is somewhat borderline. He was a heel when he first came over from ECW in 2001, but by that time he was so popular even among WWE fans that he got cheered anyway.)
*** Rey turned heel when the Flithy Animals were formed and they feuded with RicFlair for a bit back in 1999 after he lost his mask and the whole No-Limit Solders thing died. The Animals was partly responsible for luring Flair out to the middle of nowhere one Nitro where the NewWorldOrder ambushed him and he had to hitch a ride back to the arena. All during Rey's maskless period, however, CanonDiscontinuity in Wrestling/{{WWE}}.

* Maria Kanellis was with WWE from 2004-2010 and remained a face the whole time. There were hints at her turning heel mid-2009 when she was in an angle with heel character Wrestling/DolphZiggler but that storyline was scrapped and Maria never turned. She was even voted "Diva of the Year" by the fans, something she was obviously not expecting when you consider that the likes of Wrestling/MickieJames and Melina Perez got bigger reactions than her.

* Not a wrestling example but Hercule from the Dragon Ball series acts like the typical wrestling hero and the main characters despite being better fighters than him are all willing to do the job so that he will look good. He was even instrumental in the defeat of one of the series most powerful villains in a scene which had obvious parallels to the power of the Hulkamaniacs.
* In one episode of ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'' the main character decides the best way to save her friend Joxer, who had offended the Amazon tribe, was to stage a SquashMatch with Xena playing to the crowd before "killing" Joxer with an overly dramatic finishing move.

* There was an American comic starring a superhero actually called "The Face"
* All attempts to turn the fans against JimRoss failed miserably. Yes, face/heel extends to commentators. Not even WWF's biggest competitor, WCW, was allowed to take shots at JimRoss though the fans seemed to hate everything else WWF.

** Stone Cold Steve Austin was a rebel against an undeserving authority during his wrestling career and for the most part an all around good guy who had trust issues at worst. After his wrestling career was over he became more of a bully who attacked and stunned everyone around him without any real reason much of the time but fans would still cheer for him no matter what.
* Wrestling/MickieJames was a heel during a lot of 2006 but she was never booed for very long. The fans loved her crazy stalker lesbian character so much she got cheered going up against friggin Trish Stratus at ''[=WrestleMania=] 22''. She officially turned face around September 2006, and never turned heel again for the remainder of her WWE career (and is almost never a heel anywhere else now, for that matter).
* Likewise ODB in TNA has never been able to stay heel for very long. Her character is a boisterous LadEtte from a trailer park. She started out as a heel in TNA but grew very popular and was turned face. She returned to TNA in 2011 as a heel but fans didn't take to it and she reverted to face within a month.

* JohnCena. Full stop. Aside for Rey Mysterio, he has served the longest time as the Face, and if often considered the mascot for the WWE.

* "Country Boy" Haystacks Calhoun was probably the first and possibly the only "traveling face enforcer", moving from territory to territory back when North America was still divided that way working as an attraction.

* In one episode of ''Xena The Warrior Princess'' the main character decides the best way to save her friend Joxer, who had offended the Amazon tribe, was to stage a SquashMatch with Xena playing to the crowd before "killing" Joxer with an overly dramatic finishing move.
* Antonino Rocca, this man brought elbow drops, cross bodies, huracanranas and the Argentine back breaker to professional wrestling back in the 1940s (the dropkick is disputed)! He was also responsible for bringing wrestling back to Madison Square Garden in the 50s, where it hasn't left since. He was one of Antonio Inoki's influences.

* KellyKelly is a Diva who, considering how she was first portrayed, is more likely than Maria to turn heel some day. She debuted in the "new" ECW in the spring of 2006 as an "exhibitionist" who was always removing her clothes (at first just to entertain the male fans, and then to [[DistractedByTheSexy distract heels]] while they were fighting wrestlers she particularly liked) and was the love interest of the {{Jerkass}} wrestler Mike Knox, but apart from the distractions she herself never did anything truly unlikable. She eventually broke up with Knox, and starting around 2007 the "exhibitionist" gimmick was dropped as well. She's been a straight-up babyface ever since, but of course only time will tell....
** A major reason why she's been a face so long is because she is probably the single largest [[TheWoobie woobie]] in WWE, who seems to take an almost perverse glee in making her suffer. Her boyfriend Mike Knox was emotionally abusive and let her get hit in the head by the Sandman with a singapore cane, TheMiz actively sabotaged her attempts to hook up with anyone, got stalked by Kane and rejected by RandyOrton, the list goes on. At this point, the easiest way for a Diva to get heel heat is for them to do something bad to Kelly.

* A face doesn't have to be a decent person, so long as they get fans to cheer them. A common cited example of this is RandyOrton's second face run where half of his feuds were started by his own need to KickTheDog. [[KickTheSonOfABitch Sometimes]] the enemy would be shown to be just as evil or worse than face Randy but not always. Another example was Kaientai's face run where they constantly gave EvilerThanThou [[EvilGloating speeches]] to their heel opponents.
** Los Guerreros by all means should have been the heel team, with the way they proudly lived out ethnic stereotypes and regularly lied, cheated and stole. They were such good workers in the ring and on the microphone though that it did not take any effort to get them over as faces. Trying to get them over as heels always failed, at most they could make Chavo hated by attacking the more popular Eddie. WWE later gave them a SpiritualSuccessor in Cryme Tyme whose career went pretty much the exact same way, only with less success in winning titles and less longevity.

* HulkHogan was perhaps the ultimate AllAmericanFace, keeping it up for ''eighteen years'' until he pulled his infamous FaceHeelTurn during Bash at the Beach in 1996. Even that only made him a heel in WCW. When he tried the same routine in WWE the fans cheered him for him despite it and his character reverted in kind.

** Interestingly enough, despite her overwhelming popularity her usual wrestling style in is one much more expected for a heel wrestler. She uses an illegal submission hold, is very aggressive, screams a lot and will ram her opponent's face off the canvas sometimes just for the hell of it. She did get booed when she was in [[AHeroToHisHometown Beth Phoenix's hometown of Buffalo New York]] as a result, even though Beth was the obvious heel in all their other matches.
* Not a wrestling example but Hercule from the Dragon Ball series acts like the typical wrestling hero and the main characters despite being better fighters than him are all willing to do the job so that he will look good.

* Antonino Rocca, this man brought drop kicks, cross bodies and huracanranas to professional wrestling back in the 1940s! He was also responsible for bringing wrestling back to Madison Square Garden in the 50s, where it hasn't left since. He was one of Antonio Inoki's influences.

* The Great Khali has always been the good guy to the Indian audience. It was the US where he was booed. The same may be true for other hometown heroes that wind up wrestling for foreign promotions.

** Los Guerreros by all means should have been the heel team, with the way they proudly lived out ethnic stereotypes and regularly lied, cheated and stole. They were such good workers in the ring and on the microphone though that it didn't take any effort to get them over as faces. Trying to get them over as heels always failed, at most they could make Chavo hated by attacking the more popular Eddie. WWE later gave them a SpiritualSuccessor in Cryme Tyme whose career went pretty much the exact same way, only with less success in winning titles and less longevity.

* HulkHogan was perhaps the ultimate AllAmericanFace, keeping it up for ''eighteen years'' until he pulled his infamous FaceHeelTurn during Bash at the Beach in 1996.

** She is now currently '''the''' [[EnsembleDarkhorse most popular]] diva they have and one of the few who can get a crowd to react so chances are she's not turning heel anytime soon.
** Interestingly enough, in the ring itself, she's very heelish. She uses an illegal submission hold, is very aggressive, screams a lot and will ram her opponent's face off the canvas sometimes just for the hell of it.

* Of course, Tito Santana, winner of the first Wrestlemania match ever, the first Mexican to win the intercontinental championship, remained a face his entire career.
* Bill Goldberg, the top draw of WCW was always a face, though he had somewhat of a mixed reaction when he wrestled the Rock, Brock Lesnar took all the heat for his infamous parting match at WrestleMania 20.

* Wrestling/MickieJames was a heel during a lot of 2006 but she was never booed for very long. The fans loved her crazy stalker lesbian character so much she got cheered going up against friggin Trish Stratus at ''[=WrestleMania=] 22''. She officially turned face around September 2006, and has never turned heel again since.

** The Boogeyman, who's entire gimmick was smelling bad, random appearances and force feeding people worms he first ate and then regurgitated into their mouths. For whatever reason, fans took a liking to him.

* Mickie James was a heel during a lot of 2006 but she was never booed for very long. The fans loved her crazy stalker lesbian character so much she got cheered going up against friggin TrishStratus at ''[=WrestleMania=] 22''. She officially turned face around September 2006, and has never turned heel again since.

* Wrestler/{{Sting}} could very well be the ultimate example. There have only been a couple of attempts to turn him heel over his 20+ year career and they have all been lack luster and half-hearted, at best. For example, when TNA put him in the Main Event Mafia, Sting was conspicuous in not participating in beat downs perpetuated by his stable mates. They eventually threw him out, making him a full fledged Face again.
** Currently he's a heel, but he's done ''nothing'' to explain his actions or build up heat; he just stands around brooding, like he doesn't know how to be evil.
** Now it's been revealed that his motivation is...vengeance against HulkHogan for all the crap he did during nWo, hey Sting, don't you know about the ThreeMonthRule? Quit BreakingTheFourthWall, {{TNA}} can't afford a new one.

The opposite of a face is a {{Heel}}, the bad guy that the fans love to hate. See also {{Tweener}} (a guy who falls in be''tween'' Face and Heel status, fighting either side as the situation calls for) and XPacHeat (when the fans hate the ''actual person''). The FaceHeelIndex has some more variations.

** This also applies to BretHart, who will always be face in Canada no matter how he's booked. Even when he was the biggest heel in the company in 1997, all he had to do was [[AHeroToHisHometown cross the border and he was a face again]].

* Maria Kanellis was with WWE from 2004-2010 and remained a face the whole time. There were hints at her turning heel mid-2009 when she was in an angle with heel character DolphZiggler but that storyline was scrapped and Maria never turned. She was even voted "Diva of the Year" by the fans, something she was obviously not expecting when you consider that the likes of Mickie James and Melina Perez got bigger reactions than her.

* In one episode of Xena The Warrior Princess the main character decides the best way to save her friend Joxer, who had offended the Amazon tribe, was to stage a SquashMatch with Xena playing to the crowd before "killing" Joxer with an overly dramatic finishing move.

* Razor Ramon HG was a face in HUSTLE since his debut, and became the top face, leading their forces against Generalissimo Takada's monster army. Much of what got him over in the professional wrestling world has not been as well received when he moved on to other television programming though.