Affably Evil/Professional Wrestling

A relative rarity in pro wrestling, as the heels (villains) usually try to make the audience as angry as possible in order to garner Cheap Heat. Even so, there are some exceptions...

• One of the earliest well-known heels, Gorgeous George, defied the Jerkass Heel stereotype even as it was being formed. He seemed to genuinely want to be accepted by the fans, and would even toss commemorative bobby pins to them as souvenirs.
• Before progressing all the way to Faux Affably Evil, the character of John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL) passed through this phase as his heel character evolved between 2004 and 2009. Originally a Face, the comic-relief white sidekick to Angry Black Man Faarooq in the popular A.P.A. tag team, Bradshaw (as he was then known) was a Boisterous Bruiser; even after his villainous JBL character emerged, he retained many of the traits that had made him so beloved. He still enjoyed cold beer and good-naturedly leering at the Divas. Furthermore, JBL took on a Villain with Good Publicity persona that included riding in a custom-made white limousine, gathering around him a "Cabinet" of henchmen who seemed more like Good Ol' Boys than hardened criminals, and showering arenas with red-white-and-blue confetti while handing out miniature American flags to the fans. Through it all, he claimed to be "a man of the people" - and against Good Is Not Nice opponents such as The Undertaker or Batista, he could almost come off as the good guy. These traits made JBL all the more shocking when he returned to the ring in late 2007 a changed man: now much more serious, with a bullying and sociopathic persona that made his earlier villainy seem downright mild, and hardly ever smiling (and when he did smile, it was not pretty). By the time of his humiliating defeat at the hands of Rey Mysterio at WrestleMania XXV (and subsequent Villainous Breakdown), it was hard to believe he had ever been Affably Evil at all.