In a similar vein to not accepting defeat, the heel must also be convincing in what they say and they must appear to believe in their attitude and approach. There might be but a kernel of truth in whatever the character's motivations are, but the heel should be fully committed to their stance that what they believe is right. Great examples of heels really believing in themselves include Randy Savage in 1989, Sgt. Slaughter in 1991, and Bret Hart in 1997. The audience never questioned whether these men were acting or being phony - the fans believed in their characters because the talents believed in their characters. There seems to be less and less of the real person put into the wrestler's character these days, and instead of being developed internally by the talent, more and more of the direction and input is being dictated to the performers by the creative team, Vince McMahon, the road agents/producers, and others. The talent needs to find that character and needs to be allowed the creative freedom to run with it. If not, the superstars will continue to come across as one-dimensional, phony, and insincere (and not in a heelish way) because someone else is developing their character and telling them why they should act or talk in a certain way. The best superstars are the ones that are extensions of the talent themselves and heels are no different.