“If you are a heel and you’re doing your job right, you are most hated” – “Rowdy” Roddy Piper
Professional wrestling is an industry that many have made their profession over its long history and generations of fans have come to love this business. At its core it has survived this long on a very simple formula characters and storytelling. You give the audience characters to care about and stories to be invested in involving these characters.
This is a quote that I always go back to especially on the Wrestling Republic Daily Broadcast, so for those that I have heard me say this before, I apologize for repeating myself but it is the best explanation I’ve heard in what makes a successful story in wrestling? The WWE HOFamer and ECW mastermind, Paul Heyman stated, “You need to answer three questions in every story in order to have a successful story and to generate money:
1) Who are these people fighting?
2) Why are they fighting?
3) Why should I as an audience member care enough to watch the show or buy a ticket or buy the PPV?
This seems like such a simple concept, but so many stories fail to hit all three especially number three, but when they do hit all three, they become legendary.
Who truly drives the story? It is the heel. The heel’s job is to not only make the audience hate them but to also care about their babyface opponent enough to be invested in them.
I started with a quote from Roddy Piper because in my opinion there has never been a better heel in the history of the business. Piper understood the art of being a heel was to get the audience to rally behind his opponent in hopes that he the dastardly heel gets what is coming to him. He often said when the conversation turned to the success of WrestleMania 1 and was asked who was most responsible for its success, he would say it was ME. He believed and I think he was right; more people bought the show to see Piper get his butt kicked than paid to see Hogan being the one to do it, as the person beating up Piper was less important.
Piper generated heat like no other before or since, this is a man that caused as riot in LA when he was feuding with Chavo Guerrero Sr, when he got on the mic and said he wanted to apologize to the Latino crowd for his actions against the Guerreros by playing the Mexican national anthem on his bagpipes and proceeded to play La Cucaracha instead causing the crowd to literally rip up bolted down seats and launching them towards the ring. The man was stabbed on three separate occasions by fans. He literally started wearing the leather jacket lined with Kevlar because of the heat he generated.
To be a true heel like Piper very few have truly mastered it to reach their true potential in this business and there really isn’t many in this business right now that is a true heel. MJF in AEW has obviously modeled himself off of Piper and CM Punk and truly gets the importance of the heel persona both in and out of the ring. Gunther in WWE has mastered the art of the monster heel that manhandles and belittles his opponents in the ring and on the mic.
Most heels are just playing the cool heel these days. The cool heel is yeah; you’re the bad guy but you are doing things to pop the crowd not just generating boos. However, Gunther, MJF and Roman Reigns have reached a level where they are respected so much that they are going to get cheers regardless from a portion of the audience, like great actors admired for their work as the bad guys.
This maybe a controversial statement, but in my opinion, there is only one man in this business today is the true embodiment of a true heel and that is Charles Mason.
Wrestling’s One True Heel:
For many of you, you may not even be familiar with Charles Mason, but he is probably the hottest heel on the indies that for some reason that I am unaware of remains unsigned by the major promotions. The man knows how to generate heat that is downright nuclear like MJF used to because he became the heel that is respected to the point that he generates pops out of respect. Charles Mason calls himself the root of all evil and exemplifies that from everything from his look, presentation, his entrance and his overall vicious style inside the ring.
Doing research for this piece, I couldn’t even determine what his real name is, so it is possible that he chose the name Charles Mason to have a similar sounding name to someone was a real life root of all evil in Charles Manson. Considering how Mason is meticulous with his presentation and style I would like to believe that he chose the name for that exact reason. Mason will never be a babyface in his career and is going full in on the heel persona.
The man knows how to generate heat is the simplest explanation because he exemplifies the worst qualities that every human being has inside of them if they were let out of their cages. His moniker the root of all evil which is usually attributed to money is directly tied to his entrance theme which is a version of Shania Twain’s Ka-Ching. Taking a look at the lyrics of the song which is all about greed and pointing out the worst in all of humanity. You typically don’t hear them over the special chant he receives upon his entrances, but here they are:
We live in a greedy little world,
That teaches every little boy and girl
To earn as much as they can possibly,
Then turn around and spend it foolishly
We’ve created us a credit card mess
We spend the money that we don’t possess
Our religion is to go and blow it all
So it’s shopping every Sunday at the mall
All we ever want is more
A lot more than we had before
So take me to the nearest store
Can you hear it ring
It makes you want to sing
It’s such a beautiful thing, ka-ching
Lots of diamond rings
The happiness it brings
You’ll live like a king
With lots of money and things
When you’re broke, go and get a loan
Take out another mortgage on your home
Consolidate so you can afford
To go and spend some more when you get bored
All we ever want is more
A lot more than we had before
So take me to the nearest store
Can you hear it ring
It makes you want to sing
It’s such a beautiful thing, ka-ching
Lots of diamond rings
The happiness it brings
You’ll live like a king
With lots of money and things
Let’s swing
Dig deeper in your pocket
Oh, yeah, ha
Come on, I know you’ve got it
Dig deeper in your wallet
Whoa
All we ever want is more
A lot more than we had before
So take me to the nearest store
Can you hear it ring
It makes you want to sing
It’s such a beautiful thing, ka-ching
Lots of diamond rings
The happiness it brings
You’ll live like a king
With lots of money and things
Can you hear it ring
It makes you want to sing
You’ll live like a king
With lots of money and things
Ka-ching
Every mannerism and move he does in the ring is with purpose to reinforce his role as a heel and in the storytelling of the match. He was until recently the HOG Heavyweight Champion with a reign of terror as champion for 453 days, where he would barely escape as champion which further incensed the crowd that was desperate for him to lose the top prize in the promotion.
During one of those title defenses he went against AEW’s Andrade, at one point Andrade was doing his spot where he takes a selfie with an attractive woman at ringside, well it didn’t go as planned as Mason booted the woman in the face as seen below.
Every match that Charles is in on HOG or GCW or JCW, instantly feels like a bigger deal because he is the heel that you love to hate and want to see get beaten up. Much like Piper would frequently say it isn’t so much who beats him up as long as he gets beaten up, that is what the fans are paying to hopefully see. He plays with the emotions of the crowds, by giving them hope that the babyface will beat him and frequently squashes those dreams like a bug on the sidewalk. His in-ring style is to beat and wear his opponents down mentally and physically.
Charles Mason fully understands and gets that he is the driving force to generate interest into a match to get audiences to buy a ticket to the show or watch the show online. People find the bad guys more interesting because they are embodying the worst qualities that 99% of us will never allow ourselves to become. The reason Stone Cold Steve Austin exploded in the Attitude Era was because he was the anti-hero and he had a relatable story of a boss he hated and he would beat him up every week…well the people watching at home had a boss or co-worker or bully in their life that they wish they could do the same to and they lived vicariously through Austin.
Star Wars is a perfect example, as a kid watching it you are more drawn to Darth Vader than you are to any other character. It is the complexity of the character as the trilogy goes on that you are more invested in him than you are even Luke through most of the trilogy. The bad guys are typically more compelling and interesting in all forms of entertainment especially in wrestling.
Charles Mason fully gets and embraces this and every opponent that he faces and every show that he is on is better for having him being a part of it.
Final Thoughts:
There is no question in my mind that TNA or MLW or NWA would be in better position by having Charles Mason as their top heel in their promotion as their world champion. He would likely get lost in the shuffle of WWE or AEW, who already have more talent than they know what to do with as it is. Charles Mason could be a massive heel draw for any of these three promotions and could be a massive improvement in TNA as he could obviously work multiple divisions in that promotion and offers the biggest stage for him of the three.
ITTMP
