>>11534603Almost everybody in wrestling. I can't think of the last people who are truly over, perhaps Kenny/Elite/Punk to some degree.
Most wrestlers have Pavlovian heat. Audiences know when they're supposed to cheer and boo and chant and they comply like good little audience members. This is how forced memes like Feed Me More chants happened, if you just say the same thing over and over then modern wrestling audiences will chant it because they know they're supposed to. Dom Mysterio is another one, the audiences boo because they know they're supposed to rather than out of hatred.
Heat or being over, is about emotion. It's about people suspending their disbelief or even outright denying it and thinking "yeah this stuff is all fake but this guy REALLY is an asshole or angel". Without emotional engagement from an audience who believe what they're seeing then heat doesn't doesn't exist. This is why one of Vince McMahons best ever quotes is watching a guy getting a huge crowd chant and then saying "man he's getting great reactions, I hope he can get over". They aren't the same thing.
Now I dont watch AEW so maybe Im getting this wrong but with the Elite and Punk, reading on social media or seeing a clip, it seemed to me like people were really personally invested in these characters. They took sides. They defended their heroes and took shots at their enemies.
That's what being over is, generating that emotion. Not Cena or Reigns "you don't deserve it" type of emotion, because there wasn't two vocal camps, there were just Pavlovian chants and actual wrestling fans thought they were probably good people but indicative of being used wrong.
The most over people in wrestling in the last 20 years have been Vince/Steph McMahon and HHH. People genuinely dislike them, mainly based on constructed characters and narratives they put out.
