Why introduce this piece with a self-indulgent piece on foot pain? Because I, your humble correspondent Charles Laffere, has been suffering from this malady lately. So have Shaquille O'Neal, Dallas Mavericks point guard Steve Nash, and seemingly every other person I talk to. I mistook the stabbing pain in my heel for a bone spur or a possible tendon tear, since I would receive a searing sensation every time I stepped "wrong" on my left foot. One thing's for certain... until I began therapy for my foot, the pain was a constant irritant and literally under my skin.

Pro wrestling bad guys or "heels" used to be the same way in that they could get under our skin, frustrate with their irritating ways and inflict pain on opponents. My earliest memories of heels were fellows like Playboy Gary Hart, Brute Bernard and the Missouri Mauler. There was no mistaking that these guys were bad to the bone and had totally evil intentions.

Today, the traditional bad guy/good guy-heel/face dynamic has changed in the wrestling business in North America. Vince McMahon has stated several times that there are no good or bad guys in the WWF, just different "characters." Puhleeze! Will the guy ever give up the illusion that he's a casting director? In any event, wrestlers are no longer defined by traditional roles of good and evil. Stone Cold Steve Austin would probably be a despised villain if he were transported to the past in some type of wrestling wayback machine.  More...