10 Basic Qualities All WWE Heels Should Possess

By Matt Davis /

8. Running Away

Heels these days are far too similar to each other. Too often, the same heel character is portrayed by many different wrestlers and it usually involves them constantly running, showing fear, and backing away from a fight. The "chickens*** heel" is the term given to this type of bad guy, an archetype that was perhaps best personified by the Honky Tonk Man. The chickens*** heel was never one to be interested in a fair fight. The longest-reigning Intercontinental Champion of-all time was great at running his mouth and acting like a tough guy only to run away whenever confronted by a babyface. This has been a favorite character of Vince McMahon and has been used time and time again, with some of the most dominant heels ever often caught a case of the limber tail after arriving in WWE. In Japan and WCW, Vader was a fearless monster that tore through the competition, but shortly after arriving in the WWF in 1996, Vader began to run away. On the RAW after the Royal Rumble, Vader attacked Gorilla Monsoon, an authority figure that no one had gotten to previously, and Razor Ramon and Shawn Michaels hit the ring to chase away the Mastodon. Instead of standing his ground to take on the two Kliq members, Vader tucked his tail and ran. For a man like Honky Tonk, this characterization made sense, but for a man that stood 6'5" and weighed 450 lbs, it wasn't exactly the best use of Vader. The scaredy-cat heel is effective, but it's also often overdone in the WWE.