Kevin Nash's career has proven to be one of the most influential in the history of modern wrestling. He broke through in the WWF as Diesel, partner in crime to the Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels. When he jumped to WCW alongside Scott Hall, Nash upended the business as part of the NWO.
Whether fans love him or love to hate him, Nash has always proven to be someone that has gotten their attention and held it. But while he's walked both sides of the line, there are definitely arguments to be made for which side he's better at. It's not an easy conversation since the character he played was largely the same either way. So with that in mind, here are five reasons why Kevin Nash was perfect as a babyface and why he did better as a heel.
10 FACE: He Can Even The Odds
Wrestling fans love a good big man, and Kevin Nash was one the best and biggest in the business. Even moreso, they love it when a big man comes to the rescue. Nash is a tall, strong guy who could plausibly take on anyone and win.
It was also believable for him to come down to the ring, take on three opponents single handedly and win. Some of Nash's best moments were him charging the ring to save someone who was outmanned and outgunned. He was the perfect guy to even the odds in a one-sided fight.
9 HEEL: He Could Take Out Everyone
This one's a double edged sword, though, because big men like Nash also make incredibly dominant heels. Watching someone the size of Kevin Nash take on a beloved cruiserweight and utterly dismantle them is a great way to get the crowd riled up. The alternate angle works, too.
Watching that same cruiserweight take Nash down is another outstanding match that gets the fans out of their seats. David versus Goliath is one of wrestling's favorite, and most satisfying, stories to tell. Nash was a master of it.
8 FACE: He Cut Excellent Promos
Being big and being good on the mic rarely go hand in hand but Kevin Nash had the best of both worlds. He sure knows how to turn a phrase. All you have to do to see the evidence of that is follow the man on Twitter.
Back in the day, Nash knew how to cut a promo that would take a heel down a peg or two, and fans ate it up. It was almost scarier seeing him pick a mic up that it was to watch him walk down to the ring to kick someone's teeth in. His face promos were often surprisingly epic.
7 HEEL: He Could Twist The Knife
Nash also knew how to make people squirm on the mic. He could get fans booing him in seconds in a few short words. Those same words could also infuriate and distract his opponents.
Kevin Nash's heel promos were always great but still better with Scott Hall by his side. There was nothing quite like Nash dropping some choice words on someone in the ring while Hall stood beside him and made ridiculous faces. It was this exclamation point that made these promos odd and effective.
6 FACE: The Good Guy Zone
When Nash in is in the head space to be a face, it always seemed like a difficult sell. It's not like he couldn't do it but it didn't come as easy to him. Nash is a good enough wrestler to make anything work and he sure did when he was a good guy... he just needed to get into the zone to make it believable.
Nash had to work a little harder to get fans on his side as a face, though. He had the promos and the ring work to back it up, as long as he hit the right guys with the Powerbomb.
5 HEEL: He's Super Cocky
The reality of Nash is that he's a much more natural heel than he is a face. Again, he's capable of playing both roles but he's definitely naturally suited for one over the other. The guy just comes across as cocky when he's in the ring and on the mic.
Cockiness can be a quality faces have, too, but it's a much better tool for heels. It's something that Nash has alway wielded well, reputedly behind the camera as well as in front of it. But you don't pull off an huge, industry changing angle like the NWO by being humble.
4 FACE: He's Nice Guy In Black
When he's a face, Nash is the quintessential anti-hero. He plays the bad good guy to perfection, probably because he's such a good bad guy. His ring gear has been primarily black for the vast majority of his career for a reason.
But the era of only the villains wearing black has been over for a long, long time, particularly in professional wrestling. Steve Austin made sure of that. Nash's quintessential look just doesn't lend itself to being a classic white hat face in the ring.
3 HEEL: He Could Give Off The Heel Vibe
A great heel just has a vibe to them. It's a look on the face that not everyone has. A way of conducting themselves or an energy around them they can exude on command. Charlotte Flair has it. When she wants to, she just gives off that vibe that makes fans respond to her like a heel.
Kevin Nash has that ability, too. He's one of the best in the business at it. That's probably one of the reasons he and Shawn Michaels gravitated to each other behind the scenes as they could both flip that switch on and straight up make fans angry at them.
2 FACE: He Leaned Into It
While Nash may not have been the most natural face in the business, he sure leaned into it when the opportunity came up. Total commitment to an angle is what makes it work, no matter what that angle is.
While he is by no means the only wrestler to have this problem, Nash hasn't always fully committed to all angles he's been a part of. But when he did, he owned his in ring characters. That's doubly important when you're playing a character that's against type for you.
1 HEEL: He Wasn't Afraid To Play The Part
Being a heel seems easy. The old WWF formula was to have the wrestler in question attack Good Ol' Jim Ross and fans would immediately hate the person. But there's a lot more nuance to being a good heel than that.
While some of it definitely comes naturally to Kevin Nash, he also understood how to work it on the mic. Being a heel in the ring is as simple hitting a few low blows and pulling the tights. But pulling it off believably in a promo takes talent and practice.