Austin Aries likes being a heel because he gets his comeuppance.
Aries has wrestled for ROH, TNA, MLW, and NWA, among other promotions. He also had a brief WWE run, and he later worked for Control Your Narrative. In addition to a number of other accolades, he is a former TNA/IMPACT World Champion and a former ROH World Champion.
Speaking on The Undisputed Podcast with Bobby Fish, Aries described what being a heel really means to him.
“Ultimately, I want to make the fans happy,” Aries said. “I just realized I can make them more happy by being the foil and giving them that satisfaction in the end than I can by being the hero. But ultimately, this is what I tell guys that don’t understand what being a heel is. Being a heel isn’t insulting people or telling them they suck, or putting heat on somebody.
“Being a heel is setting the pin up for the babyface, the hero, for him to knock down, and the better you set it up, the easier it is for him to knock down, and the more joy there is for the fans when it happens. So for me, I love being a f—- dick because I know the more of a dick I can be and the more I can get under your skin and the more I can make you hate me and make you go, ‘No, no, that guy, he’s really an asshole, not his character, but in real life,’ that when I finally get my comeuppance, you’re super satisfied and happy. That to me is the joy.”
Aries continued by noting that, in real life, the “bad guys” don’t get what they deserve, but wrestling is one environment where there’s an opportunity for a performer to be a villain and get what’s coming to them.
“In my experience, a lot of times, the bad guys don’t get what they deserve in in real life,” Aries said. “They end up with the Phil and Melinda Gates foundation, buying all the farmland in the US. They don’t get what they have coming to them. They f—— make GMO mosquitos to give everybody the vaccine through f— mosquito bites. Sorry, going off there.
” In real life, the bad guys f—— win more often than not. In wrestling, here’s this one opportunity to, for me, embody all the s—– characteristics I see, in people around me or even the characteristics of myself I might not particularly love and accentuate those, knowing that in the end, I get to get what I deserve. You deserved it. That to me has always been my favorite part. I’ve never enjoyed really getting the accolades. I’d much rather take someone and give it to them and let people enjoy that moment.”
He then noted that he thinks this aspect of being a heel is part of the lost art of wrestling.
Aries was previously accused of sexual assault in 2020, and he refuted these claims. More information is available here.
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