The line between face and heel

[Jackin My Swag]

The following post contains spoilers from the debut episode of ECW Divas. If you have not played it and do not like spoilers, this is a pretty good time to leave.

I need to mention it as its part of something I have been wrestling with all evening, and I'd like to get a few opinions.

On the show, Shaul Guerrero personally challenges Kong to a match where she is going to defend her Money in the Bank briefcase. Her reasoning is Kong was cheated out of her chance at being world champion, and Kong has no interest in being the women's champion.

During the match, Jazzy Bi interfere, leading to a DQ ending. Lame, I know, but I had something planned. Jazzy and Kong are stomping a mudhole in Shaul, and out comes Kimiko Chen for the save! Kimiko has been backstage all night just watching. Kimiko cleans house, but Gail Kim comes from out of nowhere and spears Kimiko.

Kimiko is down, and Alissa Drayson rushes down to the ring and puts Shaul on top of Kimiko. The ref counts... 1,2,3.... we have a new world champion.

Because it happened on her show, Shaul is now the world champion on ECW. She is now part of that brand and cannot go back to Superstars. Shaul appears to have no knowledge of what is going on, but it doesn't change the fact that shes world champion. Kimiko is pissed.

After the show goes off the air, Kimiko and Drayson exchange words. Kimiko calls her dishonorable, but Alissa tries to tell her its just business.

My question to you is... does that come off as HEEL to anyone?

Am I the only one who saw it as clever? A well thought out and executed plan to secure a world champion for her show? Keep in mind that Asia told her to do "whatever she had to do to be successful", so Asia herself is not terribly mad that it happened.

Yes, Kimiko calls her "dishonorable", but Kimiko is front Japan and in keeping with that gimmick that was the only natural response.

This now leaves Superstars without a world champion, and Asia has to scramble to find a new champion. I am no longer bound by restrictions with the divas, so ANY title they want to go for is fine with me, and chances are Asia will implement the first ever WWE Champion for the women's division.

In my opinion, this doesn't make Drayson a heel, only a very determined GM. The same could be said when Drayson pretended to be a member of the board of directors to trick Stephanie McMahon into signing over Superstars to Asia. Was Asia viewed as a heel? No, only someone willing to do whatever it took. I hope that the same can be said for Alissa with this situation. Alissa Drayson's role as GM will NOT be a heel role; I have no intention of writing it as a heel role. Shes still a face, but it just means that Asia has to find a way to get one up on Alissa for what happened. Believe me, I'm working on it.

I have something in mind, as this will help me to separate the two diva shows completely. I want to run them as separate shows, separate PPVs, everything. And, I knew I couldn't do that as long as they were sharing Shaul Guerrero and the tag team champions. So, I came up with a plan to solve two problems at once.

I'm eager to get ANYONE's opinion on this one. Does Alissa Drayson come off as heel to you, or does this fall in that gray area that pro wrestling tends to live in these days?

[sdl]

It's like so much else with life...it will be whatever people tend to view it as, and nothing will manage to change their minds.

Wasn't that poetic in its simplicity?

Heh...kinda reminds of EXACTLY what we did for RAW and Smackdown lol

[Alissa Drayson]

I think this thread is in the wrong section

I don't wanna argue about everything but as SDL said, it depends on anyone owns reception who plays through the story.

From MY perspective, Alissa Drayson is now a Tweener at best. I mean, she could have gotten the WWE belt for her show, that surely would have been impactful as well.

I find myself thinking, that I`m way too much old school most of the times. Those grey areas, with heels behaving almost facelike or in a way people will cheer them(look at Mr. Andersons Sacrifice promo last year which began the inevitable faceturn anyway) are very risky business.

If a character doesn`t connect to the audience(as the role he or she is supposed to play, hence heel or face), he or she is "dead". Reception is the key here, and lets look at this from a "fans" perspective. Why would I, as a simple fan, actually like or respect "Alissa Drayson" for screwing over a very popular, likeable fighting champion like Kimiko? As a fan, do I actually care about "getting" the World Title to ECW? What`s it to me, as a fan? Will I applaud Alissa or feel with Kimiko who has been displayed as the topface of the company? The ECW Belt would also have been a logical choice IMO. But the business aspect doesn't have any meaning to the regular fan out there IMO. This whole thing with GMs doing whats right for the business or their show didn`t work when Eric Bischoff and Stephanie hat their feud a couple of years ago. None of them(at least to me) was really a sympathetic figure.

My reception is, that I would call THAT GM a calculating, manipulative businesswoman that I, from a fans perspective, have no reason at all to care about.

Again, this is a matter of reception. More importantly, no need to get a headache over this.

[sdl]

That...was VERY well said.
You know, the more you speak, the more I like you

[spyder78]

And of course when I am about to speak you brace for the worse XD

[Alissa Drayson]

There will be reasons for that

[spyder78]

On certain nights I put Howard Stern to shame .. Hee Hee

[Alissa Drayson]

*smiles mildly before turning away to leave*