Traditional faces are classic "good guy" characters who rarely break the rules, follow instructions of those in
authority such as the referee, are polite and well-mannered towards the fans and often overcome the rule-breaking actions of their heel opponents to
cleanly win matches. While many modern faces still fit this model, other versions of the face character are now also common. A good example would be
Stone Cold Steve Austin, who despite playing a heel early on in his career would start to be seen more of an
antihero because of his popularity with the fans. While clearly not championing rule following, nor submission to authority, Austin was still regarded as the face in many of his duels such as his rivalry with
World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later WWE) owner
Mr. McMahon. (pictured), used tactics more commonly associated with heels. The portrayal of face wrestlers changed in the 1990s with the birth of
Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), the start of
World Championship Wrestling's (WCW)
New World Order (nWo) storyline, and
the Attitude Era of the WWF. During this time, wrestlers like Stone Cold Steve Austin and
Sting used tactics traditionally associated with heels, but remained popular with the fans. Professional wrestling had just come off a huge steroid scandal and was facing poor ratings compared to the 1980s, and as a result, professional wrestling transformed into an edgier, more mature product. In this new era of professional wrestling, the standard face was more profane, violent, and uncontrollable. In contrast to the emerging new breed of faces,
Kurt Angle was introduced to the then-WWF with an American
hero gimmick based on his
gold medal win at the
1996 Summer Olympics. Angle presented himself as a
role model and stressed the need to work hard to realize one's dreams. Although such a personality appears appropriate for a face wrestler, Angle's character was arrogant and constantly reminded people of his Olympic glory, behaving as if he thought he was better than the fans. Angle's character served as a meta-reference to how wrestling had changed. Although his character was intended to be a heel and behaved accordingly, some commentators speculated that if Angle attempted to get
over as a face using a more heroic version of the same character, he would have failed. Unusually, Angle did not use any of these heroic mannerisms when playing a face character, instead acting as somewhat of an antihero with a few elements of the "
lovable loser" character archetype. The majority of the time, faces who are low-carders, or lesser known, are used as
jobbers. These wrestlers usually lose matches against established wrestlers, often heels that then lose to the top faces. == Fan reactions ==