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35-650: The TNA Front Line (also spelled Frontline and commonly referred to as the Front Line ) was a heroic alliance in the professional wrestling promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). They were also known as The TNA Originals . They feuded with The Main Event Mafia . On the October 23, 2008 episode of Impact! Kurt Angle , Sting , Booker T and Kevin Nash formed a villainous alliance called

70-587: A face ( babyface ) is a heroic, "good guy", "good-doer", or "fan favorite" wrestler, booked (scripted) by the promotion with the aim of being cheered by fans. They are portrayed as heroes relative to the heel wrestlers, who are analogous to villains . Traditionally, face characters wrestle within the rules and avoid cheating while behaving positively towards the referee and the audience. Such characters are also referred to as blue-eyes in British wrestling and técnicos in lucha libre . Not everything

105-661: A "family man" and supported their persona by appearing with their family members before and after matches. Steamboat famously carried his 8-month-old son Richard Jr. into the ring with him at WrestleMania IV before his match with Greg "The Hammer" Valentine , then handing him to his wife Bonnie before the match started, and was accompanied to the ring by his family during his rivalry with Ric Flair in Jim Crockett Promotions to contrast with Flair's party animal "Nature Boy" persona. These actions often relate to wrestlers promoting charity work or other actions outside

140-499: A change in character for the wrestler in question. For example, Batista's run as a face upon his return to the WWE in 2014 was met with overwhelmingly negative reactions from the fans. Because of this unexpected reaction, Batista turned heel within just a few months of his return. The reaction of the fans can also influence a wrestler's booking and position on the card. Faces that get more support than expected sometimes move closer towards

175-505: A face wrestler does must be heroic: faces need only to be clapped or cheered by the audience to be effective characters. When the magazine Pro Wrestling Illustrated went into circulation in the late 1970s, the magazine referred to face wrestlers as "fan favorites" or "scientific wrestlers", while heels were referred to as simply "rulebreakers". The vast majority of wrestling storylines involve pitting faces against heels, although more elaborate set-ups (such as two faces being manipulated by

210-413: 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

245-597: A house show in Cardiff, Wales. On the following day's Impact! , Williams used Terry's "Feast or Fired" briefcase to get a shot at Amazing Red 's X Division Championship and quickly defeated him for the title. Soon after, the members of The World Elite began to focus on separate goals. On the January 4, 2010, edition of Impact! Homicide turned on Kiyoshi, after which both of them left World Elite. After months of abuse, Terry finally turned on Magnus and left World Elite on

280-644: A nefarious outside party into fighting, or simply having a clean sportsmanly contest) often happen as well. In the world of lucha libre wrestling, most técnicos are generally known for using moves requiring technical skill, particularly aerial maneuvers and wearing outfits using bright colors with positive associations (such as solid white ). This is contrasted with most villainous rudos who are generally known for being brawlers, using physical moves that emphasize brute strength or size while often having outfits akin to demons or other nasty characters. Traditional faces are classic "good guy" characters who rarely break

315-569: A new faction named World Elite, consisting of himself (representing Canada), Bashir (representing Iran), Kiyoshi (representing Japan), and The British Invasion (representing the United Kingdom). The following week, Young debuted a new look that included a shaved head and wearing new attire, as went on to defeat Daniels before helping Doug Williams and Brutus Magnus win the IWGP Tag Team Championship from Team 3D. On

350-586: A shot at fellow World Elite members Brutus Magnus & Doug Williams TNA World Tag Team Championship and Terry a shot at the X Division Championship , while Bashir had gotten a pink slip and was as a result fired from TNA. On January 17, 2010, at Genesis , Williams and Magnus lost the World Tag Team Title to Matt Morgan and Hernandez. On January 27, 2010, Eric Young lost the Global Championship to World Elite team mate Rob Terry at

385-628: A team since the emergence of the World Elite. Through most of 2010 and 2011, Styles, Roode, and Storm, as well as Kazarian, joined at differing points by others including Christopher Daniels, became the stable Fortune , whose character purpose was similar to the Originals, fighting as the young guys facing the more established stars. Face (professional wrestling) Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s In professional wrestling ,

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420-851: The Main Event Mafia , whose aim was to teach the younger stars of TNA about respect. The next week, Scott Steiner joined the Mafia. The following week Samoa Joe and A.J. Styles asked the younger talent in TNA to join them against the Main Event Mafia, they were soon joined by many of the younger stars. At this point, they were called the TNA Originals. Later in the event, after his match with Abyss , Kurt Angle attacked Abyss, but Matt Morgan came to his aid. Booker T and Kevin Nash then came to help Angle, and A.J. Styles, Samoa Joe and

455-495: The WWE World Heavyweight Championship , to a triple threat match with Daniel Bryan which he would go on to win. Some face wrestlers often give high fives or give out merchandise to fans while entering the ring before their match, such as T-shirts, sunglasses, hats and masks. Bret Hart was one of the first superstars to make this popular, as he would drape his signature sunglasses on a child in

490-541: 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,

525-581: The August 6 episode of Impact! it was revealed that Kurt Angle and Eric Young had made a deal to turn the Main Event Mafia and the World Elite factions into one super faction. On the September 10 edition of Impact! , World Elite recruited Homicide (representing Puerto Rico ) into their group, turning him heel in the process. On the October 1 edition of Impact! the alliance between World Elite and Main Event Mafia came to an end in an all out brawl between

560-587: The Front Line for when he began training Jesse Neal to become a pro wrestler. Angle and the Main Event Mafia then attempted to recruit Team 3D . Team 3D appeared to join the Main Event Mafia but turned face by double crossing the Mafia and jumping them along with TNA Front Line leaders Samoa Joe, A.J. Styles, and Rhino. They also attempted to put former ally Kurt Angle through a table. The Front Line then formed alliances with other wrestlers, primarily Mick Foley , Jeff Jarrett and Abyss. Petey Williams , however,

595-476: The Main Event Mafia or the Frontline) against Booker T. The stipulation was that if Cage lost than he would have to join the Main Event Mafia. Cage lost, but he was attacked by the Main Event Mafia who said it was because he was planning to leave TNA. Because of the attack, Cage’s real life friend Rhino joined the younger talent, becoming leader and changing the name to The TNA Front Line. Rhino had not been with

630-627: The Main Event Mafia. All the other members had since become involved in different storylines. The Frontline name was rarely if ever mentioned for a continuous period of months. Eventually, Samoa Joe turned on his friends by helping Kurt Angle reclaim the TNA World Heavyweight Championship at Slammiversary , joining the Main Event Mafia in the process. On the July 23, 2009, episode of Impact! , A.J. Styles, Daniels , Robert Roode , James Storm , and Eric Young regrouped as

665-529: The TNA Originals. During their 10-man tag team match against The British Invasion , Kiyoshi , and Sheik Abdul Bashir , Young turned against his teammates by attacking Styles and aligned himself with their opponents. After the match, Young announced that he joined an alliance with their opponents, dubbing themselves "the World Elite ". All the remaining members of the TNA Originals then moved on to separate feuds and story lines and have not appeared together as

700-433: The World Elite, ironically becoming the faction's American representative in the process despite the faction's anti-American leanings. At Final Resolution Young, Bashir, Homicide, Kiyoshi, Terry and Nash took part in the "Feast or Fired" match , with Nash, Terry and Bashir coming out of the match with briefcases despite Young ordering them not to get the briefcases. After the match it was revealed that Nash had earned himself

735-448: The audience. Rey Mysterio , who has been a face in WWE since his debut, would go to any fan (frequently a child) wearing a replica of his mask and touch their head with his head for good luck before wrestling. Other examples include John Cena throwing his shirts and caps in the crowd before entering a match and Big Show giving his hat to a fan when he was a face. Some faces, such as Bret Hart and Ricky Steamboat , promoted an image as

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770-405: The audience. Traditional faces similar to Hulk Hogan tend to draw on support from the crowd when it's time for them to make their big comeback. In addition to wrestlers, commentators also portray face and heel dynamics. It is the job of the face commentator to criticize the tactics and behavior of the heel wrestler and gather support for the face wrestler. The face commentator gathers support for

805-524: The face wrestler by mentioning how much of a disadvantage he is at, or by praising the hero's morality and valor. World Elite The first seeds for World Elite were planted in March 2009, when Japanese wrestlers Kiyoshi and No Limit ( Naito and Yujiro ) aligned themselves with Sheik Abdul Bashir , forming an (unnamed) Anti-American faction. No Limit later left the company. In May, The British Invasion attacked Team 3D during an interview, much to

840-439: 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 . 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

875-415: The main event scene, while those getting less of a reaction than hoped might move down on the card. While Batista was getting bad reactions in 2014, another face Daniel Bryan , was getting incredibly positive support. Loud "Yes!" chants that had become synonymous with Bryan were present at any show he was on, and eventually the main event of WrestleMania XXX would be changed from Batista vs Randy Orton for

910-408: The other members of the Front Line came out to help Morgan and Abyss. Initially gaining the upper hand, they were attacked by Scott Steiner who was revealed to be the fifth member of the Main Event Mafia. At Turning Point , Styles was defeated by Sting in the main event, and Samoa Joe was defeated by Kevin Nash. Another match at the event was Christian Cage (who had refused to join sides with either

945-511: The pleasure of Bashir and Kiyoshi, who were looking on. On the July 23, 2009, edition of Impact! , Eric Young joined the team of A.J. Styles , Daniels and Beer Money, Inc. to face the British Invasion, Kiyoshi and Bashir in a ten-man tag team match. However, in the conclusion of the match, Young turned on the TNA originals by hitting Styles with a spike piledriver and allowing him to be pinned. Eric Young then became leader of

980-466: The ring, blurring the lines between scripted wrestling and their personal lives. In the ring, traditional faces are expected to abide by the rules and win matches by their own skill rather than by cheating, outside interference etc. Because heel wrestlers take little issues with using such tactics, the face enters many matches already at a disadvantage to the heel. By putting the face in a difficult situation, it can help to draw out sympathy and support from

1015-498: 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

1050-434: 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

1085-503: The same night, after Angle announced the death of the Main Event Mafia and turned face , Kevin Nash also became a face as he began feuding with Eric Young and the World Elite. However, the following month at Turning Point Nash helped World Elite members Doug Williams and Brutus Magnus retain their TNA World Tag Team Championship, thus once again becoming a heel. On the following edition of Impact! , Nash congratulated Young on outsmarting him at Bound for Glory and aligned himself with

TNA Front Line - Misplaced Pages Continue

1120-409: 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

1155-410: The top faces. Fans sometimes dislike face wrestlers despite the way they are promoted. Some reasons for this include repetitive in-ring antics, a limited moveset, a lengthy title reign, lack of selling their opponents' moves, or an uninteresting character. This often results in wrestlers who are supposed to be cheered receiving a negative or no reaction from the fans. When this happens, it can prompt

1190-787: The two factions. At Bound for Glory Young pinned Kevin Nash in a three-way dance, which also included Hernandez , to win the TNA Legends Championship . In a four way Full Metal Mayhem Tag Team match , the British Invasion lost the IWGP tag titles but won the TNA World Tag Team Championship . On the October 29 edition of Impact! Young renamed the Legends Championship to the "TNA Global Championship" and claimed he wouldn't defend it on U.S. soil or against any American wrestler. On

1225-407: Was released from TNA, thus removing him from the alliance. ODB was with the Front Line when it first formed. She joined to feud with Sharmell of the Main Event Mafia. She has not been a Front Line member since she paired up with Cody Deaner. While the group's stand remained active in TNA, their status was in question. Only Mick Foley, Jeff Jarrett, and A.J. Styles were still involved in feuds with

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