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In professional wrestling, a heel is a character who is portrayed as behaving in an immoral manner; sometimes they are humourously referred to as 'evil'. In non-wrestling jargon, heels are often "bad guys" in professional wrestling storylines. They are often opposed by a face (crowd favourite) or babyfaces. Some tweeners exhibit heel mannerisms.
Common heel behavior includes cheating to win (e.g. using the ropes for leverage while pinning, or attacking with foreign objects such as folding chairs when the referee can't see), attacking other wrestlers backstage, interfering with other matches, and acting in a haughty or superior manner.
Whilst being heel is often part of a wrestler's gimmick, many successful heels fall into one or more categories:
- Crazy heel: a raging madman, dangerous and unpredictable (for example, Mankind).
- Monster heel: an unstoppable juggernaut who squashes his opponents (example: Kane)
- Egotistical heel: an obnoxious and self-important character; some wrestlers play on their own fame and achievements to achieve this (example: The Rock)
- Foreign heel: in United States wrestling, foreign heels are often portrayed as being anti-American, such as Canadian Bret Hart, various Japanese wrestlers, or more recently, French (Rene Dupree). In Mexican wrestling, Americans are often portrayed as heels; the most hated tag team in lucha libre history, Los Gringos Locos, consisted of the Anglo Art Barr and Eddie Guerrero, a Mexican American from El Paso.
- Traitor heel, a variation on the foreign heel who is actually an American, but has turned his back on his country in favor of an (ostensibly superior) one. For example, Rob Conway, who portrays a man who has defected from America to France, or Sgt. Slaughter, who was billed as an Iraqi sympathizer during the first Persian Gulf War.
The term heel is most likely is derived from a slang usage of the word that first appeared around 1914, meaning "contemptible person". [1] (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=heel&searchmode=none)
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