A Question about wrestlers' characters

[Steeldogfan]

Before I ask this question, I would like to explain why I ask. Somewhere around 2000, 2001, the NWA group held a card at the Alabama State Fair. Thuis was before the NWA was hooked up with TNA I believe. One of the matches involved Jim Cornette and his team called the Tennessee Volunteers, I forget the members names. They took on the Rock and Roll Express that night. I will admit that I mark out for Jim Cornette and whatever team he manages, so as Ricky Morton locked up with one of the guys and backed him into the ropes, I stood up from my ringside seat and yelled that Ricky was pulling hair. Jim and his team told the ref to listen to me, and he did ask and I said yes. Ricky glared at me and hooked up again, and again pushed his oponent into the ropes and broke. I again yelled that Ricky was pulling hair, and the ref and Jim and his boys said yes again. To that end, Ricky grabbed the ringside mic, pointed at me, and asked Jim, "Hey Jimmy, is that your long lost brother?" The crowd roared and Jimmy went into his antics. A couple of minutes later when no one was looking, Jimmy gave me a thumbs up and nodded. I said all of this to ask this. Wrestlers create characters looking for the right reactions, the crowd boos the bad guy, the crowd cheers the good guy. How does a wrestler take it, when he is the bad guy, the arena is raining down boos and a few fans at ringside is cheering the heck out of him? And vise versa?

[Akki]

I think some guys would get frustrated that their character isn't getting over, but it depends. If it's a more tweener-like heel character, he probably won't care that much. An ultra heel might just try to get more out of it by insulting the one who are cheering him. I mean, it could be down to so many things. Maybe the fans respect him because he's a great wrestler, or because of what he's done in the business. Maybe he plays a character that relates to those fans. I think it's a lot weirder when a face gets booed a lot, but then there are still different reactions. Cena has taken it in stride, when Batista got booed at the Hammerstein Ballroom, he got PISSED. Interesting thing with Cornette though, cool story. Also interesting because Cornette slapped a face wrestler in OVW (currently Santino Marella) a few years back for laughing at the Boogeyman. I guess things change.

[Irish Wolf]

If you're the Heel and the guys are booing at you then you know you're doing the right thing. Once at Lehman College in the Bronx I went to tape some of my friends wrestle and the main event was my friend Alex (Big Dig Dudley) and at the time he was the Heel. I don't remember who he wrestled but they ended up going out of the the ring and even out of the gymnasium when they came back in fans were throwing popcorn at him. Later I asked him how it felt to get stuff thrown at him and he said it was exactly what he wanted because it meant he really made them hate him.

[Steeldogfan]

Back in the 70s, there was a regional masked man named the Wrestling Pro. He wrestled mainly in south Alabama (Dothan, Mobile) and the Florida panhandle. My father worked in law enforcement and knew the Pro's son, as he worked for the Houston County Sheriff's Dept. The story fits why some guys were masked in certain areas, and unmasked in others. Thought I would pass that along. Oh, the Tennessee Volunteers were Steve Doll and Reno Riggins

[BurningHamster]

I know I pissed off Karl Anderson and Joey Ryan before when they were playing heels and calling themselves the "Real American Heroes" while wrestling in Australia. In the lead up to the tour they'd been insulting Australia, demanding a bunch of Australian women meet them at the airport for sex and so forth, but they did it so well that I couldn't help but like them. They avoided the boring cliched stuff like convict jokes/dingo got my baby/shrimp on the barbie and just played the arrogant, ignorant Americans made bunch of weird claims about how Australia had never won an olympic medal or fought in a war which turned out to be pretty funny. So yeah, since I am not really a fan of local wrestlers, when those guys came out I cheered and saluted the American flag they were carrying and told them to go kill those stinking Aussie bastards. Karl Anderson looked at me like he wanted to beat my head in. So yeah, heels like boos and look pissed off when someone likes them.

[alden]

I think it really depends on one the person two the promotion and three the venue. I have been in places where you can't hear the crowd at all. It is either because i am to into the match trying to focus or the arena is set up with very bad acustics and i can't hear anything. Alot of promotions will tell the heel to play up to the crowd alot. I have been told to jump out of the ring and rip up signes and look for people booing me. I have been told that if i even interact with anyone i would be fined. It is all based on what the booker wants. I have always been booked as a heel and to be honest it does you feel better when you get booed. It does mean i am doing my job. I don't think it would bug me though if i got cheered as alot of fans will simply cheer the heel and boo the face just to be "cool".