Face (professional wrestling)

From Iwe

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Rey Mysterio has been a face for the majority of his career.
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Bret Hart addressing to the crowd in 2010. Bret Hart has been a face for almost his entire career.

In professional wrestling, a babyface or face (in British wrestling traditionally referred to as a blue-eye, and in lucha libre as a technico or técnico) or in simple words, a fan favorite is a character who is portrayed as a heroic relative to the heel wrestlers, who are analogous to villains. A face wrestler is expected to be loyal towards the audience and to receive a positive response from the audience. However, a face wrestler is not supposed to do only heroic acts. The only factor that makes or maintains the face persona of a wrestler is the crowd response, no matter if his acts are against the rules. Face attitude is either adopted by a wrestler since his debut like that of Sin Cara in IWE or after a heel run, like The Undertaker. Different wrestlers have used different ways to become a face, by giving cheerful speech to the audience, or by using cheerful entrance songs or by reacting positively before, during or after the match. However, in rare cases, a wrestler, in spite of disrespecting and speaking against the crowd, becomes a face when he proves himself as a technically excellent wrestler. Also, a face does not need to react to the crowd when being cheered. To keep on his face run, he only needs to impress the crowd in any manner whatsoever, even if he loses a match. In fact, sometimes the good performance of a heel or an emotional or sad reaction after losing his match turns him into a face.

Contents

Traditional face

Transformation of faces

Current trends

See also

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