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"CM Punk says each and every single one of you DON'T. COUNT. You have no idea—no idea—how much each and every single one of you count. You count to me, for all that you do: All the love, all the support! It IGNITES me. It MOVES me. It INSPIRES me. That's why, in this moment, I'm reaching out my hand to all of you around the world; to all of you who believe! All of you who have faith! All of you who live your life gettin' knocked down, gettin' right back up, just to say, JUST BRING IT!"

You're the face, YAY!

A Face, short for Baby face, is a Professional Wrestling good guy. He's a Lovable Jock, the guy the fans get behind, the one they cheer for. A face used to always be an upright do-gooder, but nowadays, anybody the fans cheer for is generally classified as a face, regardless of personality or whether or not they play by the rules. The opposite of a face is a Heel.

Some fans draw a distinction between "face" and "babyface". It's argued that the latter should refer to the old-school, clean-cut, "eat your vegetables"-type good guys, and the shortened version is simply anybody fans cheer for, including a wide variety of Antiheroes, Nominal Heroes and Designated Heroes. Insiders in the pro wrestling business, however, use the two interchangeably. Some fans also call for the distinction of Tweeners for villains that receive a hero's welcome, though bookers and promoters themselves only slowly started embracing the concept in the late 1990s as, despite perceptions, most wrestlers wanted to be seen as pure face or heel for whatever show they happened to be working on.

The Lucha Libre equivalent is known as a técnico (or more rarely technico) which is more about the method they take to win (técnicos are content to rely on valid wrestling techniques, whereas heels cheat or use brute force) but is the same in practice more often than not. To further confuse, in British wrestling (such as World of Sport), the term used is "Blue Eyes."


The types of babyface, in order of cleanliness, are:

1. The Whitemeat. The hero who gets beat up constantly, before heroically and miraculously snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. The whitemeat places particular emphasis on morality and virtue. (Cheating heavily is part of being a heel.) We're told that they're fighting against all odds to win the titles they're striving for. They have a tendency to always trust wrestlers, no matter how many times they've betrayed him/her in the past: Sting had a history of joining tag teams or stables full of vicious backstabbers when he really should have known better (leading to the phrase "Sting-level dumb"). As Lovable Jocks, they exist mostly to carry out good deeds and make the kids happy.

Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat is one of the Trope Codifiers for these babyfaces, and was notable for never being a heel once in his entire career. Rey Mysterio Jr. is headed down the same path.

2. The Underdog. Many bookers still think a "World Champion" has to resemble the classical image of a pro wrestler. They're hung up on the look. The character of a face is different, though. The average guy's build (Cruiserweight/Light Heavyweight) makes him the natural underdog. He understands that he's outclassed by the likes of Cena, Styles, and Haitch, so he picks his movements very carefully. A cunning performer knows how to create and take advantage of underhanded opportunities in the ring. The underdog beat the system, got over, won the title and got the girl? Every normal guy's dream.

Bret Hart defined this trope in the '90s, and Chris Benoit did so in the 2000s until his downfall. A major reason Daniel Bryan got over is because he was clearly not "the chosen one", despite massive fan support.

3. The Blowjob. He's confident, perhaps a lot more than he should be, but he's as kind as a guy willing to twist an arm can be. He's well groomed, he takes care to put the best stuff in his body evidenced by his low body fat but he's probably still interested in the night life, always seeking new thrills and definitely interested in the ladies. Still the blowjob won't be seen with them very often, to give fans the impression he is available. The blowjob is also prone to being being paired with a Tag Team partner who is more rugged to some degree, in order to churn hearts as he gets caught in the wrong corner. His resilience in the face of adversity, his ability to retain his good looks in spite of his frequent poundings just make him all the more attractive and his demeanor remaining kind and approachable in spite of his frequent hardships make him sympathetic even to those who have no desire to get in his pants. Because beauty is in the eye of the beholder it is not uncommon for a wrestling enterprise to have three of these guys at once, to appeal to a wide variety of tastes.

Blowjobs can be baby face jobbers like The Mulkey Brothers, or special attractions who frequently hold championship belts like The Rock 'n' Roll Express, The New Japan Dragons or the Hardy Boys. Individual examples include Vampiro, El Elegido, Lion Heart, Adam Cole and Jungle Boy.

4. The All-American. He is a real American. He fights for the rights of every man. He fights for what's right, fights for your life. He feels strong about right and wrong. The whole concept of "America vs. The World" is 80's kayfabe distilled to its purest and most ludicrous form. Some of the biggest pops and most involved crowds have been the result of "We the People!" or "USA! USA!" chants against your Evil Foreigner of the week. Draped in a flag, defending the honor of his country (separate to a degree from his heritage); it's almost the only way to guarantee a strong crowd reaction.

Wrestlers with any sort of non-white (e.g. Wild Samoan) or otherwise "exotic" identity are an interesting topic. A non-evil foreigner is a wrestler whose gimmick revolves around a group identity (usually patriotism). Alternatively, they may appeal to certain subgroup of xenophiles. Their entrance music and attire will heavily-invoke cultural symbols, if not being draped in a flag itself. Two commonly-cited examples are Bruno Sammartino and Pedro Morales, who were pushed to appeal to Italian and Puerto Rican diaspora in the US, respectively. Bob Sapp was hired by New Japan for looking like the kind of loony black man one would find in an anime.

A decorated member of the United States Marine Corps needs your support. AND HIS NAME IS JOHN CENA! "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan played this gimmick to the point of parody: he would interrupt other countries' anthems.

5. The Fat Guy. Mass × Acceleration = Force. In some ways, the look and the wrestler are intertwined: It imbues them with a sort of "don't give a fuck" mentality. It also helps him stand out, since the majority of the roster is cut, and that might catch peoples' eyes more. Also, "cut" sometimes doesn't translate well into actual ring performance, since a lot of that is for show. Mind you, there is a line of separation between, say, Mark Henry and Yokozuna. When you're built that large, you have to work your weight into your gimmick and play to the Wrestling Monster trope.

Dusty Rhodes was never in good shape, but that didn't stop him from reaching the top while being beloved by all. Kevin Owens can do a 180° on the top rope into a moonsault or wrestle a 30-45 min match with "Superman" himself.

6. The Anti-Hero. Heels are allowed to be flawed people, and so are almost inherently more interesting than babyfaces. Solution? Be punk rock and go rebel. This guy is more of an anti-authoritarian, comedic dick, rather than a true Lovable Jock. He stands up for himself against the bosses, calling legends like Nash "Old and irrelevant", and does whatever he wants to whoever he dislikes and whenever he pleases. It's not "out of character" for him to do dickish things, since the entire point is that the heel made it O.K. to do. At the same time, he is a human with real human failings. That's why the Attitude Era babies worked.

Swig o' beer for The Rattlesnake! CM Punk spoke truth to power and became the poster-child of this type of face in the Summer of '11, Randy Orton goes into this phase whenever he's a face, and a massively miscalculated Face–Heel Turn in the Summer of '18 allowed Becky Lynch to become the first woman to ever be face of WWE as a straight-talking, no-nonsense scrapper sick of watching others steal her opportunities.

Sometimes, those responsible for airing the show having to make a public "appearance," be it in the form of the company owner, a proxy such as a General Manager or a representative from an athletic commission to level the playing field when the babyfaces are up against particularly unfair odds, assigning match stipulations to ensure cheap finishes will not recur. Unlike the heel authority figure, they usually don't appear frequently enough to develop a character; just enough to establish their existence so fans won't be confused if a ruling is made.note 


Most female wrestlers are booked as half-heel, half-face. This appears to be by design, with little concern about the heel/face dynamics. Mildred Burke, crowned NWA World Women's champion based on her matches with Clara Mortenson, popularized female wrestling in the U.S. during the thirties. But she was frozen out of the industry, leading her to take her own promotion overseas. (Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia and South America can trace their womens' wrestling to Burke.) The other reason why U.S. women's wrestling is often booked as a teen drama is due to the way The Fabulous Moolah trained her girls (enough to sell magazine photos), and that was by her own example: A hair whip, scratches, slaps, snapmare, headlock, and that's it. As a result, there remains a specific sort of female babyface in the States who struggles to earn respect while competing in a "male" division, but they can just as easily draw heat by harassing the male babyfaces. Chyna and Jacqueline are two noteworthy Tweeners who competed in areas they didn't 'belong' in.

Like many things in pro wrestling, a wrestler's status as a face is anything but permanent; "baby face" is a pun on "about face" after all, and a heel turn could come at a moment's notice.

The Heel/Face Index has more examples. There's also the Tweener, a guy who falls in-between Face and Heel status, whichever the situation calls for. (George "the animal" Steele was always portrayed as more misunderstood than heel. He never pulled anything on his own that a heel didn't put him up to.) In Lucha Libre, the typical Rudo relies on brawling and underhanded tactics, and doesn't display much finesse or technique when he fights—and he's probably rude, too.

Unrelated to The Face.


Examples:

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  • 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 Kaientai during their "face" run, although they were buried and sent back to Puerto Rico for getting too popular. A Kaientai Dojo did eventually surface in Japan despite.
    • Akira Maeda, an unrepentant jerkass both on and off the ring who was lucky enough to wrestle when anti authoritarian rebellion was the cool trend in Japanese media. So getting himself fired from New Japan for refusing to go on tour only added to his aura and he became just second to Tiger Mask in the Universal Wrestling Federation, even after the unsporting act of kicking Tiger Mask below the belt. Maeda eventually became the authority he was perceived to be rebelling against with ventures such as Fighting Network RINGS, to the point he's been caught assaulting students and employees on camera. But by then he was basically a revered figure of myth and thus given a pass.
    • "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's first big break in his career was as a heel "Blowjob" in WCW, having later an existential crisis in ECW to wind-up as a redneck rebelling against an undeserving authority. For the most part, he was a fun-loving good guy who had some trust issues. Since he stopped wrestling, he became more of an anarchist who delivers Stunners to everyone around him for no real reason, but fans still cheer for him no matter what.
    • Triple H seemed to be heading this way after turning face in 2006, having spent most of his career as one of the most despicable heels. However, in 2013, he cost Daniel Bryan, easily the most "over" superstar at the time (and probably in the last fifteen years) the WWE championship, and unsurprisingly everyone booed him like crazy. Two months later, the same thing happened with Bryan and Shawn Michaels... While Shawn quickly reverted back to being a full-fledged face, Hunter has remained heel since that day in August.
    • A similar thing happened with Randy Orton's second face run, where half of his feuds were started by his own need to be the most BAMF around. Sometimes the enemy would be shown to be just as evil or worse than him, but not always. Becoming face by default in 2010 being the only thing he changed is who he attacked.
    • Zack Ryder. Hated for bad jokes, arrogance, entrance music, hair style, goggles, see through jacket, pants with different leg lengths, and his signature taunt "Woo Woo Woo!" Oddly enough though, many Smart Marks are fans of Zack Ryder. Though this may have something to do with his theme song... Ultimately it got him to full time Facedom by late 2011.
    • Act Yasukawa in Wonder Ring STARDOM. Her heel turn failed to take, even with her membership in the "Monster Army". She spat rum on a fan chanting her name once, only to get more fans chanting her name and begging to get spat on, too.
  • A Big Guy who turns out to be a Gentle Giant is always welcomed and embraced by the ever-fleeting wrestling fandom no matter what. Here some examples:
    • A comedic wrestler is a face almost by default, but non other example highlits better this than that of Happy Humphrey, a performer back in The '50s who clocked the weighing machine in 800/900 lbs. and went over with the fans despite of being an almost proverbial unamovable object (...seriously, No Pun Intended).
    • Haystacks Calhoun was probably the first traveling face enforcer, moving from territory to territory back in the days before WWE bought them out. So influential was he that Rock n' Wrestling performers like Hillbilly Jim took a lot of cues from him, starting for his "lucky charm" horseshoe.
    • People tend to forget that André the Giant was a face for most of his career. He would typically travel from territory to territory, making special appearances to defeat a particularly persistent nuisance.
    • In the same vein as that above, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan is perhaps remembered better as the WWF's goofball who never was really stated he was a face to begin with, went over by taking his antics to legendary proportions and for his ever firey patriotism. But in his Mid-South days he was a completely unhinged looney. He went away with things that today could be considered way over the top as to wanting to spray Chavo Guerrero Sr. with an insecticide sprayer and a can of "hot taco sauce".
  • It appears that any wrestler who has been around long enough becomes a face by default.
    • A decade before Naitch' there was Ernie "The Big Cat" Ladd (IWA), who never, ever stopped cheating. Over time, he gained recognition for his sheer determination to cheat, and was subsequently booked against less-popular heels of the 70s. Since his career ended when wrestling was still in the more divided territorial era, Ladd is mostly remembered as a heel, though.
    • Ric Flair was probably the funniest example, as all of his heel mannerismsnote  had long since slipped into nostalgia by the end of his career. He was even cheered for running in fear from Big E. Langston after his chops failed to hurt him!
    • In fact, there has been a myriad of heels receiving this same treatment barely changing their gimmicks, Jake Roberts, Honky Tonk Man, Roddy Piper and Randy Savage to name a few.
    • The Undertaker became a face by default. This was through a combination of his all-around talent and grave-digging zombie gimmick.
    • Undie's brother 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.
    • Rob Van Dam 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.
    • Before Kelly Kelly came along, Torrie Wilson filled the same role. Torrie was a heel as part of the WCW and ECW Invasion storyline, but turned Face and defected when she fell for Yoshihiro Tajiri. She would spend the next four years as WWE's favourite Girl Next Door. She made a heel turn in 2005 but that didn't stick because fans just loved her too much. It was a similar case with her fellow WCW alumnus Stacy Keibler. Stacy was able to remain heel longer than Torrie - a whole year in fact - but fans loved her too much. She also became a face and remained that way for the rest of her career.
    • By the end of his career, Edge was a face.
    • ODB in TNA has never been able to stay heel for very long. She was a boisterous, big-tittied lush who lived in a trailer park. She started out as a heel in TNA, but became very popular with the fans (if not the critics!). She was able to get heel heat in other companies and returned to TNA in 2011 as a heel, but TNA's fans didn't take to it and she reverted to face within a month.
  • It should be noted the babyface "promoter" used to be the default mode of every authority figure ever. Even before kayfabe was broken, most owners, staff, athletic commissions, governing bodies, TV executives, sponsors and the like used to find the idea of the fans turning on them—and by extension, the product—nightmarish. Even when there was an evil boss, said boss would always be below the 'real' boss in authority. A good example is Victor Quiñones leading W*iNG and IWA Japan against FMW. Everyone from Ray Gonzales, to Savio Vega, to Carlito Caribbean Cool to Jeff Jarrett tried to takeover whatever was the biggest promotion on Puerto Rico at the time, but would always end up dismissed.
    • Even when Eric Bischoff and the nWo were running roughshod over WCW, they still had to answer to Ted Turner, who frequently came down hard on them.
    • All attempts to turn the fans against Jim Ross fail miserably. Yes, face/heel extends to commentators. Not even WWF's biggest competitor, WCW, were permitted to take shots at Ross, even though the fans seemed to hate everything else WWF.
    • Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins became one in a public relations move to try and save TNA (and later NWA). It was not a ratings stunt, this was real. His involvement and visibility was a positive for TNA because the actual chairman, Dixie Carter, looks like a Real Housewife from central casting. (After 8 years of running TNA she had no idea what kayfabe was.) On-screen, he's a pretty neutral character, something the business sorely needs.
    • An exception that proves the rule was Savio Vega's stint in the World Wrestling League, which he successfully took control of after turning face around the same time company founder Richard Negrin turned heel (Negrin had health issues that prevented him from running the company in a reliable enough fashion for many wrestlers). The baby face wrestlers such as Glamour Boy Shane were quick to forgive Vega of all past misdoings, in a region were grudges persisting in spite of face turns is usually the norm and in fact had been in WWL until Vega was officially in charge.
  • There are certain instances when the designated face is not the face in the bill, but the one who "plays local", especially if his in-ring performance is outstanding. The same may be true for other hometown heroes that wind up wrestling for foreign promotions.
    • This applies to Bret Hart, 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 drive the border and he was a face again.
      • And talking about The Harts, The British Bulldog had the same reaction back in Britain since his sole reason to turn heel-ish in late '95 was nobody gave him a well deserved title shot.
    • The Great Khali has always been a hero in the Indian market. It was only in the US, Japan and Mexico that he was booed. Khali is a standout example as he is practically a legend in India! By the time he made it to nationally televised shows in the USA, though, he was no longer very mobile (his knees turned to powder from all those bumps he took), so the fans didn't see what the big deal was.
    • A lot of North Americans don't get the appeal, but Hiroyoshi Tenzan is a face by default in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, due to his undying loyalty to the company.
    • Kelly Kelly get booed when she was in Beth Phoenix's hometown of Buffalo New York as a result, even though "The Glamazon" was the obvious heel in all their other matches.
  • "The Golden Greek" Jim Londos is the single biggest box office drawing professional wrestler on record, something he achieved through a combination of being a national hero and a symbol of hope during the great depression. He drew 100,000 people to the Olympic Stadium in Athens, and across the ocean regularly set records in the United States. Londos also had an underdog image going for him, as he was a 200 lbs light heavyweight, which at 5'8 actually made him more muscular than powerful than most men in his division, but frequently competed in heavyweight divisions where he was outsized and had to win with his superior technical skill...or his air plane spin.
  • Rikidozan: One of his matches drew a TV rating of 88.0. Think about that. RAW at its peak got 9.3 ratings. Andre v. Hogan drew a 14.5 rating. Rikidozan is probably the biggest star to grace the wrestling business ever. He had an unfortunately short run on account of being assassinated, but his death was enough to bring officials from South Korea, Japan and North Korea together for peaceful festivities on at least three separate occasions.
    • It's also why Japanese wrestling has always revolved around a few homegrown stars ("aces") and the invaders (gaijin and/or wrestlers from other Japanese companies) who oppose them. Rikidozan built pro wrestling in Japan. He was the hero, the "ace" of all of Japan, fighting for his country against the foreigners who faced him on Japanese soil. It came about in the post-WW2 era when Japan was broken and occupied, and the locals were not too fond of foreigners loitering at every street corner. The country was seriously lacking a shared identity. People flocked to see Rikidozan beat up the Americans. (It's also why WWE repeatedly goes back to the foreign heel gimmick. It's just such a distinct part of pro wrestling culture, and it always gets one or both guys over.)
  • El Santo is another candidate for the biggest wrestling star ever, whose impact was not as dramatic or as quick as Rikidozan's in Japan but whose career was also much longer, spawning many comic books and movies. Santo was planned to have a heel or rudo gimmick in the vein of The Masked Marvel, a mysterious no good who would inevitably be unmasked. The fans were more intrigued than angered, so promoter Salvador Lutteroth decided to run with it and made Santo the greatest face, or técnico in all of Mexico for 43 years in a row. Helping his "face" status was that Santo generously donated to charities and lent his image to public works projects designed to help the poor. Santo was never seen without his mask until shortly before he died and the fans put it back on him when he was buried, which is why masked luchadors became famous for guarding theirs so carefully.
  • Antonino Rocca. The man who brought elbow drops, cross bodies, huracanranas and the Argentine back breaker to professional wrestling back in the late 1930s (the dropkick is disputed, and the rana is sometimes attributed to Huracán Ramirez). He was also responsible for bringing wrestling back to Madison Square Garden in the 50s, where it hasn't left since. How influential has he been, you ask? He is the reason Antonio Inoki is called like that!
  • The Caras/Sicodelico family in Mexico by and large. Dos Caras Junior is the only one to ever be a heel (at least until the family went to Puerto Rico) and is still more known for his tecnico run there. And when he returned from his WWE heel run he was greeted by scores of hero-worshippers, as if it never happened, or indeed he had remained good during his entire stay up North. Mil Máscaras in particular has a similar reputation to Tiger Mask and Maeda but is shielded from any damaging criticism by his legendary status, being considered the third biggest name in lucha libre after El Santo and The Blue Demon.
  • The Guerrero Family are always faces by default due to patriarch Gori forming The Atomic Pair alongside El Santo. Of Hector, Mando, Chavo and Gory there have been the most attempts to make Chavo a rudo/heel, but they never stick too long due to the love of the Guerrero name.
    • 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 Spiritual Successor in Cryme Tyme whose career went pretty much the exact same way, only with less success in winning titles and less longevity.
  • Despite of being the biggest heel in Memphis at the time, Sputnik Monroe is more remembered as a face because even if older male fans hated him, he was popular with the youth. He was also responsible tearing down the segregation of sporting events not only in Memphis, but possibly in the rest of the old Tennessee territory. He was the first man to be arrested for drinking in a "negro cafe" and in fact was arrested multiple times for "drinking with coloreds and mopery", defended by black lawyers at each case. This lead to his match against Billy Wicks, who was the hometown hero otherwise, becoming the match to draw the largest attendance in Memphis ever as young and black people flooded in to support Sputnik. Rustwood park had reached capacity at 13,000 but so many people came that they broke the outfield fences down trying to get in, making the crowd close to 18,000. Once wrestling was integrated, other sports followed suit. In spite of the damage to the ballpark, there were no actual riots at the integrated shows he worked.
  • Bobo Brazil is the Jackie Robinson of pro wrestling. He got over by wrestling non-white midcarders and heels, until finally the Caucasian fans demanded that he be allowed to face better competition (i.e. white people). This was in the early sixties.
  • Abe Coleman (A.K.A. "The Jewish Tarzan", "The Hebrew Hercules" and "The Polish Cougar"). He shall be credited with innovating the drop kick if Antonino Rocca isn't (see below), but he's most famous for breaking the wrestling ring apart after slamming the 300-lb. Man Mountain Dean.
    • Since dropkicks have been brought to the subject, the most famous user of this maneuver wasn't any of them both, that is credited to another face: "Jumping" Joe Savoldi.
  • Perhaps the more appropriate term is técnico but Lucha Libre Internacional had a luchador who went by (not kidding) Babe Face in the late 1970s up until Triple A forced it out of business around 95. Later his son Babe Face Jr. entered the business, although not even IWRG was interested in him, much less the major Mexican enterprises; both AAA and CMLL opted to milk whatever they could out of Babe Face Sr. instead. Likewise, one of Dominican Wrestling Entertainment's featured luchadoras goes by La Baby Face and on the flipped side, there is the masked Australian wrestler of Pro Wrestling ZERO1, El Technico.
  • The Rock 'n' Roll Express were THE underdog pretty-boy babyface team of the 80s, and inspired MANY imitations.
  • Hulk Hogan is this very trope's image for a reason. Started his career as a Monster Heel and later became the ultimate face, keeping it up for 18 years until he pulled his infamous Face–Heel Turn at Bash at the Beach '96. Even this only makes him a heel in WCW's continuity. When he tried the same routine in WWE the fans still cheered him anyway. Part of his appeal was drawing on the fans' energy to be "Running wild, brother!" back again.
  • Wendi Richter was a solid performer who fell victim of a real-life episode named as "The Original Screwjob" predating the most famous one by 12 years. This only applies to the WWF, who tried to maker her a distaff counterpart to Hulk Hogan until McMahon realized she wanted her pay to match her level of promotion. In the NWA Wendi Richter was a heel or face depending on the territory. Prior to La Tigresa and Stacy Colon, Richter was one of the templates for a female face in Puerto Rico alongside her rival Monster Ripper, though Ripper had more long term influence there.
  • One veteran theorized that Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat could cut off Hulk Hogan'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 his birth certificate showing him as RICHARD BLOOD. (That's not a joke.) Common sense said that you couldn't have a babyface named "Blood."
  • Of course, Tito Santana, winner of the first WrestleMania match ever, the first Mexican-American to win the WWF/WWE Intercontinental Championship, remained a face his entire career.
  • Sgt. Slaughter may be remembered mostly as heel because of the Iraqi sympathizer angle from 1991, but to those who were kids in the mid/late eighties, he is a face through and through. This perhaps due to his tendency to prove no one is harder than him and his involvement and endorsing of certain toy franchise is what made him tremendously popular not just in the states, but in places like Latin America. He is the second most beloved face in the brand's history only beneath Hogan, for that matter.
  • The man called Sting is very interesting from a career standpoint. He became a star completely independent of WWE (despite being booked as a dumbass in kayfabe), survived numerous ill-conceived attempts to turn him heel, made a ton of money with WCW and later TNA, worked limited days for the majority of his career, and put up with some of the worst moments in wrestling history going on around him. (ex: Starrcade '97, Victory Road '11.) For a legend of such high caliber, Sting sure put up with a lot of crap in his career.
    • There have only been a couple of attempts to turn him heel over his near 30-year career and they have all been half-hearted and poorly-received. Most recently, when TNA put him in the Main Event Mafia, Sting was conspicuous in not participating in the beatdowns administered by his stable mates. They eventually threw him out for his disloyalty. He had another heel run in 2010 (an impersonation of Heath Ledger's Joker from The Dark Knight), but the audience still would not accept it, so he became Ace Ventura in Joker paint instead. Sting reportedly does not like to be a Heel and prefers to be a Face; this preference and his drawing power are likely why few have even tried to turn him over the years.
  • Before he became The Patriot, Del Wilkes got his first break in the AWA as "The Trooper" Del Wilkes. He was a face wrestling state trooper because, you know... people just love being pulled over on state roadways!
  • "PARENTAL WARNING: The Sandman has been known to promote drinking, smoking, swearing and ass-kicking. Keep away from children." Jim Fullington is a perfect example of Paul Heyman's ability to hide flaws and accentuate strengths. An untrained construction worker whose gimmick is chain-smoking and getting drunk shouldn't be trading armbars and doing 450's, anyway.
  • 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.
    • Goldberg did briefly turn heel in Spring of 2000, but that got quickly nixed as fans didn't react well to Heel Goldberg. Mind you, not the usual booing that a heel gets and that sort of stuff, but rather fan apathy at how poorly-booked the Goldberg turn was.
  • Aside for Cena, and except for one match against Mark Henry where he used one of Eddie Guerrero's heel tricks (though even that was more of an homage to his recently departed friend), Rey Mysterio Jr. had never play any role other than the pure whitemeat face. He's probably unique among male Superstars in that respect.
    • Rey turned heel when the Filthy Animals were formed and they feuded with Ric Flair 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, where the New World Order ambushed him. He had to hitch a hay truck back to the arena. (Really.) Rey's maskless period, however, is no longer considered canon in WWE.
  • Other than some disputes with his brother and Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy is among the most unique stars in pro wrestling who actually made it as a singles superstar when he never should have. Technically, Jeff and his brother were heels (as the "New" Brood) when they debuted in 1999, but Jeff turned face two months later, and it's been a decade since then. (Matt, however, had gone back to being heel once in a while). When Jeff was caught selling illegal substances, charged with 5 felonies and sent to prison, his merch still out-sold DGenerationX and Cena. Extremely gifted, but ultimately wasted talent.
  • Molly Holly has been outspoken about how much she preferred being a face: She liked being a positive role model for children, hence why she hated being a heel. In a shoot interview, her family talk about how it is against her nature to be one.
  • Bobby Calloway of F*** Kayfabe: Wrestling With Labels describes himself as the "eternal good guy" and talks about how he believes there is an art to playing a believable face and how the best faces look like they're having "the time of their lives in the ring". He is indeed working as a face in the two matches shown.
  • John Cena has served the longest time as the Face, and if often considered the mascot for WWE.
    • This is partly for publicity reasons. Cena does a ton of charity work for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. So far he is the only person to fulfill 300 "wishes"... and his count is now approaching 600. With so many young kids looking up to him, Cena announced that he and the company have no plans to turn him heel. If Cena ever did turn heel, it would probably be a bigger swerve than Hogan's run in '96.
  • Lita was eternally a face too, due to her One of Us nature. Little girls looked up to her, little boys wanted to hang with her - and her daredevil streak made her really exciting. She did turn heel towards the end of her time in WWE, but that was only because a real life affair scandal caused fans to chant obscenities at her anyway. As with Trish, she's always a face when she returns to WWE.
  • Lita's archenemy, Trish Stratus, was the WWE's top female face for most of her career. Although she has said she loved being a heel, both her runs in that role were quite short, lasting less than a year each. Her Plucky Girl nature, natural likability and stunning beauty meant that she was always put back into the face role. Whenever she makes a return to WWE, she's always a face.
  • Razor Ramon HG was a face in Fighting Opera 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 wrestling world was not as well-received when he moved onto other TV programming.)
  • The Boogeyman, whose entire gimmick was smelling bad, would randomly appear and force-feed worms to people (that he first ate and then regurgitated into their mouths). For whatever reason, fans took a liking to him. He did something similar to Haystacks Calhoun on the North American independent circuit: he just seemed to be traveling about tormenting heels and scaring everyone else along the way (presumably wrestling just to support this endeavor).
  • Kelly Kelly is a Diva who debuted in the "new" ECW in the spring of '06. She began as an "exhibitionist" who was always removing her clothes (at first just to entertain the male fans, and then to distract the heels) and was a love interest of Mike Knox, but apart from the distractions, she herself never did anything truly heelish. 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.(The easiest way for a WWE Diva to get heat nowadays is for them to do something bad to Kelly Kelly.)
    • Interestingly enough, despite her overwhelming popularity her in-ring wrestling style is one more expected for a heel. 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.
    • A major reason why she's been a face so long is because she is probably the single largest woobie in WWE, who seems to take an almost perverse glee in making her suffer. Her boyfriend was emotionally abusive and let her get hit in the head by Sandman with a singapore cane, The Miz actively sabotaged her attempts to hook up with anyone, got stalked by Kane and rejected by Randy Orton, and the list goes on.
  • Kofi Kingston and R-Truth (at least under that name) both had short heel stints but were otherwise lifelong babyfaces through their decade-long runs in WWE.
  • Bayley is one of the biggest Faces in NXT, and possibly one of the biggest female Faces in history. (She'd probably be the female John Cena if WWE had played their cards better.) It's especially notable that while the rest of her fellow horsewomen (Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, and Charlotte) have had periods where they worked as both heels and faces at various points in their WWE careers, it took until late 2019 for Bayley to finally turn heel.
  • Sami Zayn is a classic example in a new millennium since his character is an extension of himself: Good-natured, somewhat dorky, and willing to fight ´till the bitter end. Then he turned heel in 2017, and surprisingly, it worked out pretty well.
  • All Elite Wrestling's biggest and most curious break out baby face during the COVID-19 Pandemic was Darby Allin. He's a skinny, 160 lbs skateboarder who paints half of his face with a skull, speaks in monotone, refuses to defend himself when insulted-even when the insults are blatantly untrue, and deliberately subjects himself to harm and discomfort to get motivated. But in a company full of acrobatic cruiser weights and spot monkeys Darby Allen is not only one of the best high fliers thanks to the body control that comes from skateboarding, from the stiff collisions that come from a man who doesn't care about his own pain much less his target's, but he also has occasional bouts of brilliant Wrestling Psychology when working with anyone else who cares about such details... In a promotion full of comedy it seems fans take Allin's morbidly serious attitude a welcome change of pace, and he is of course an underdog.

    Other works 

  • While Tiger Mask manga is the story of a heel's journey to baby face, every wrestler who has since used the gimmick has been a face by default. The first official wrestler to be recognized as Tiger Mask by New Japan caused ratings to increase by 25% whenever he was featured on a show, further ensuring this would be his role. The Caras/Sicodelico family are also featured prominently. The manga shows them trying to learn the fouls committed by heels, but they never turn, remaining The Cape.
  • Even the 'western' characters in Street Fighter II revere Zangief, a pro wrestler who trained himself by fighting bears in Siberia. In a time when any "Champion of the proletariat" starts as a mere ideological enemy, they have a change of heart or teaming up with the westerners for the greater good. In-universe, "The Red/Iron Cyclone" is not just a national and ideological hero, but a beloved face by children, fellow wrestlers and wrestling fans world-wide.
  • In one episode of Xena: Warrior Princess, Xena decides the best way to save her friend Joxer (who has offended the Amazon tribe) is to stage a Squash Match, with Xena playing to the crowd before "killing" Joxer with an overly dramatic finishing move.
  • Not a wrestling example, but Hercule Satan 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.
  • The professional wrestler of Air Gear is Rika, however it is Ikki who gets slapped with the "babyface" label for his behavior on the inline skating circuit
  • Subverted in Bleach with Mask De Masculine, who is a text book técnico luchador but he works for the bad guys. If Bleach was a professional wrestling story there is a good chance this would almost certainly be played straight, Mask De Masculine even follows the rules enforced by most promotions. He insists there be an equal number of opponents on each side of a conflict to face off one on one, one at a time, with no foreign objects. Thing is, Bleach is a story about death gods with swords hunting down displaced souls. About the furthest thing from professional wrestling.
  • In Hitman: Absolution, there is an achievement for stealing the All-American's disguise (The Patriot), then beating the Monster (Sanchez) with your bare fists, in the arena. From then on, getting a Silent Assassin rating is practically a shoo-in, since the crowd wants to see violent, gladiatorial combat.
  • Mask de Smith from 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).
  • From the same creator as MASK de Smith comes Notorious from No More Heroes III and Fire Pro Wrestling World, a superhero, WWWWW heavyweight champion, and most pleasant guy in the entire No More Heroes series. He closest fits the Underdog archetype considering he's just as Badass Normal as resident antihero Travis.
  • An in-universe example is found in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies, Case 2: the Amazing Nine-Tails, who managed to revitalise the once near dead village of Nine Tails Vale and is a heroic icon for them. Learning about the man behind the mask is crucial to uncovering the truth of the case.

"Whatcha gonna do, brother, when Tropemania run WILD on YOU?!"

 
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Alternative Title(s): Technico, Tecnico

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Jormungandr

Jormungandr the World Serpent is a godly entity who leads Team Valhalla in the VWE. Should Team Valhalla ever win, Jormungandr will retire from his post and the Earth will split in two, kickstarting Ragnarok.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (12 votes)

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Main / BeastOfTheApocalypse

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