Archetypes

[Guest Suicide King]

In an e-fed as in real wrestling, there are certain character types that are pervasive. Well, I was going over my considerable log of memories the other day, and I thought I might list some of my picks for the first or best of those archetypes that appeared in our fed.

 

Monster Heel - Everyone knows what a monster heel is. Yet it was something missing in our fed until the ascension of the Hville Thugg. With his considerable win record and involvement in several good storylines, not to mention his meteoric rise to the big belts it seems clear to me that Thugg was our first monster heel.

 

Monster Face - Once you get past the size-alteration problem, Rane would seem to be a good choice. But I hold that for size and skill, while not necessarily monstrous, the first face to fulfill this role was our one and only Axis. A co-founder of the second best face stable ever (heh), he was a consistent and excellent upper-midcarder, and beat Thugg in what I would consider the best match of his career.

 

The Pure Face - You know the guy. He always, always does what is right. Bobby Riley was the first in our fed. I think I did a pretty good job of it as well in my face days. However, while he was active it was clear that there was no one else who embodied the face characteristics of the face as much as Mark Stevens. He cemented that status himself with frequent promos and plotlines involving family, friends, and righteous indignation.

 

The Party Face - The guy who is there to pop the crowd. He uses any means, both blatant and subtle, to get the crowd to cheer, laugh, or shoot soda out their nose. In his initial run in the JL, Xstasy embodied this. However his next character transformation allowed another accomplished writer to scoot right on past him. That person of course was Edwin MacPhisto. Edwin has been neck and neck with X for a while, and after a brief and disastrous (to me ) heel run, he came home to the lands of facedom and proceeded to run the joint for the next year.

 

The Cowardly Heel - The guy who is never, ever afraid to look bad as long as he comes out on top. He'll do whatever he has to do, short of a face on face confrontation until it can no longer be avoided. He'll novocaine up his tongue to win an I Quit Match. He'll bribe the ref in retirement matches. He'll blatantly insert himself betweem two friends to turn them on each other, and descend like a vulture to pick up the pieces. And he will beg, beg, BEG to get out of the righteous ass-kicking he so richly deserves. I am of course talking about me. In my humble opinion there have been better writers and better characters, but I, the Suicide King, did this best.

 

The Mastermind Heel - a subtle but profound difference from the Cowardly Heel. While their plots are similar, the Cowardly Heel does what he needs to whereas the Mastermind delights in the delicate interweaving of plots. Some do not come to fruition for months. The Mastermind occasionally goes overboard as he continually worries that somewhere out there there may be someone as smart as himself. For my money, the best mastermind had to be Chris Wilson. He assembled two dominant heel stables and wrote several memorable promos detailing incredibly elaborate plots, all to win a single match far down the road. True, he blew up F.A.O. Schwartz, but better to go too far than not far enough, right?

 

The Badass Tweener - shades of Stone Cold. There has only ever been one person who regardless of his opponent would waltz into the ring like it was a foregone conclusion that he would win. Size, skill, and numbers did not matter. He was the baddest man to ever wear a pair of cargo shorts. I refer of course to the King of the Motherfucking Jungle, Neilsen. An honorable mention goes to Kibagami on this, though Neilsen would tap dance on his spinal column,

 

The Ring Technician - face or heel doesn't matter. For my money, though there have been several wonderful technical wrestlers in our fed, the clear winner if Tom Flesher. While other wrestlers have been as technical, no one has written a technical style better.

 

Are there any other nominations for people, or perhaps new archetypes? There are some I know I left out, such as the Submissionist, the Evil Bastard, the Guy Who Just Won't Quit, the No-Selling Bastard (kibs anyone?), the Puro Guy, the Dominant Cruiserweight, and the Lucha Monkey.

Edited March 5, 2004 by Suicide King

[Thoth 0]

Evil, Satanic Heel?

 

Spider Nekura / Me?

[Guest Suicide King]

I just put that one in Thoth. Good call.

[Guest Goodear]

Man you just couldn't pick anyone that wasn't old as dirt could yah You old people and your complete lack of appreciation that came after the 50s. Is your favorite music the BeeGees?

 

Monster Heel - Frost, Frost, and more Frost... Big bad ass who made you look fucking silly as he just beat you down and smoked cigars. Thugg was all 'you punch me and I no sell bitch' while Frosty always had a bit more style that I like.

 

Monster Face - I always thought Janus had that perfect little mix of vulnerabilty that I love in the monster faces. Sure he's a monster that could rip you a new face, but he might feel bad about it later.

 

The Pure Face - Poor poor Wildchild, always getting picked on for no reason. NO DAMN GOOD REASON! Leave him alone damnit! If you can't route for Wildchild, who can you?

 

The Party Face - Ced is party. Ced is dancing with Thoth. Ced is love.

 

The Cowardly Heel - Not a whole lot of pussies around anymore, but I guess Fasaki was a bit of a wussy weiner.

 

The Mastermind Heel - Tom the Flesh was freaking scary. Even though eh didn't go all crazy with mad plans and such, I was always like "Well Taamo's the brains' because he was.

 

The Ring Technician - Danny Williams. Wasn't that his entire reason for being? Wasn't it?

 

Goth Boy - Yeah... we got a load of them. Dace is my favorite. Gooo Dace.

[The Amazing Rando 0]

I consider Ejiro to be more of that guy that is like "HA, I'm glad you hate me!" ...like Ted Dibiase. He knew the world hated him and he loved it.

 

Todd Royal recieves the Kurt Angle "I'm Doing This For Your Own Good" Heel Award. The guys that got booed like crazy, but always felt they were acting in the best interests of everyone else, even if it's hyprocritical. Chavito was recently like this, and i'm sure there are other examples. I've either seen it a few more times before, or Kurt has just went between that and "goofy face" so much I consider him two seperate people.

 

I was a pretty goofy face for a while, though I'm sure there are others from WF history that fall into that category as well.

[Guest Fire and Knives]

I would like to point out that even if my spinal column was tap-danced upon, I would still no-sell it.

 

K.

[HVilleThugg 0]

Coyjiro, you probably weren't really around when Thugg was just plain evil...turning on everyone...never caring...just being big and kicking everyone's ass and manipulating bullying people (even his friends) with his size. That's how I see the monster heel.

 

Also, I tend to agree with King's picks more than yours because it seems we're talking about the "first" of the fed. The "best"...that's arguable because different generations are going to think people in their generation is the best...but "first"...King's got it going all the way.

 

Be that as it may...

 

The Puro Guy has to go to Danny....duh. He could also slide in there nicely under ring technician.

 

The Lucha Monkey has to be ELM. Although, he could go with Dominant Cruiserweight...but I'd give that to Wildchild. He wasn't nearly as kooky as ELM, so he wouldn't get the monkey label, but he's just as dominant. Perhaps, though, it might be a tie between Wildchild and Fallout for the Dominant Cruiserweight label. I didn't like Fallout's style much, but he did totally dominate the Cruiserweight division...and when ELM wasn't after the world title, they had some great battles as the kooky luchadore vs. the serious dominant cruiserweight.

 

Kibs, obviously, gets the no-selling bastard title. He no sold more than me and JD put together.

 

Straight up sick, evil guy who you just don't understand is Spider Nekura...it just makes sense.

 

A new category...we'll just call it "The Rock Guy"...you know...the guy that whenever he stepped into an arena, demanded the fans largest pop...but was hardly ever there. He shows up for short periods and then goes away, only to return to another huge pop. And this person is Xstasy...easy.

 

The JTTS...who is this guy? You know...the guy that keeps ending up on the short end of the "big matches". The Benoits and Jerichos of the SWF? Hmmmm...Thoth, perhaps? Maybe Fallout? Xstasy again? I dunno...who is the original guy that just can't win the big one?

 

Da "truly misses his battles with Axis" H

[Ace309 0]

I appreciate Ejiro's consideration for the Mastermind Heel spot, but I definitely cribbed a lot of my act from Wilson.

 

I think the quiet, brooding tweener is an archetype that developed quite a bit in the late 1990s and the 2000s to date. Early Edge was probably the most notable, but he drew on Jake Roberts' style, and in any case Edge was more gothic than necessary. This sort of character needs extraordinary skill to get his wrestling over (particularly when working a technical style) and to develop a rapport with the fans, and I think one person did that more than anyone else. Sacred, anyone?

[Guest Suicide King]

Sacred as a character is actually more of a Mankind, scary but not pure evil insane type, at least to me. That's part of the reason I like him. I'd include him in as the Guy Who Just Won't Quit.

 

And I picked all old people for the specific reason of getting you all to list who among the new generation qualifies. And it worked. So maybe I am a Mastermind after all.

[Thoth 0]

The JTTS...who is this guy? You know...the guy that keeps ending up on the short end of the "big matches". The Benoits and Jerichos of the SWF? Hmmmm...Thoth, perhaps? Maybe Fallout? Xstasy again? I dunno...who is the original guy that just can't win the big one?

I did win the World Title... eventually...

 

Yeah. I hate to think of things that way, but I did have trouble pulling out the big World Title wins.

 

Does Insane Luchador fit here?

[TheBostonStrangler 0]

I declare myself to be the guy who just kinda floats around the upper midcard with no particular direction. The Undertaker 2003 award for me!

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Da "truly misses his battles with Axis" H

I do too. It was two huge dudes, one good, one evil, beating the shit out of each other. You guys always made me feel like the ring was shaking with every move.

 

Big dudes = big fun. That sounds kinda suspicious.

[Ced 0]

The Party Face - Ced is party.  Ced is dancing with Thoth.  Ced is love.

I <heart> you.

 

Now that I think of it, Ced in the BCW gimmick fit pretty nicely in that wrestler genre.

 

During my term in the JL, I'd say I was trying to be the "Dean Malenko/Anti-Lucha Cruiserweight". Even though I was smaller, I didn't have any flashy aerial stuff and stuck to the leg work and psychology to break my opponent down.

[janusd 0]

Monster Face - I always thought Janus had that perfect little mix of vulnerabilty that I love in the monster faces. Sure he's a monster that could rip you a new face, but he might feel bad about it later.

[JST 0]

I like to think I was a good sneaky whiney heel.

[WrestlingDeacon 0]

Monster Heel - Frost, Frost, and more Frost... Big bad ass who made you look fucking silly as he just beat you down and smoked cigars.

 

This makes me love Ejiro even more than I did before.