A Face/Heel Turn That Didn't Work Out

[The Brain]

Usually whenever a face turns heel or vice versa it is meant to be some sort of push to bigger and better things. Sometimes that person needs something fresh to either become or remain relevant. Other times the turn occurs because of lack of talent on the face or heel side and the person who turns benefits by giving the needing side someone new. My question is whose face/heel turn backfired. Give me someone who was doing pretty well on his side of the fence only to see his career start to flounder after making the turn.

My example is Tatanka in 1994. Tatanka debuted in early 1992 as the WWF was transitioning from the Hulkamania era to the New Generation. He was popular from the beginning and had a long undefeated streak that lasted nearly two years long before any of us knew who Goldberg was. While never reaching the main event level Tatanka was a solid fixture in the upper mid card during the New Generation years feuding with the likes of Rick Martel, Shawn Michaels, Bam Bam Bigelow, and IRS. He seemed like a natural Intercontinental Champion but Tatanka never did win any titles in the WWF. Despite the lack of gold Tatanka always remained popular with the fans. Until SummerSlam 94 that is.

In the summer of 1994 The Million Dollar Man had become a manager and was putting together his Million Dollar Corporation. Dibiase claimed he had bought of Lex Luger and Luger was the newest member of his corporation. Luger denied this but it was his friend Tatanka that fueled the flames and flat out accused Luger of being a liar and a sell out. Despite Luger’s popularity the majority of fans believed Tatanka and took his side in a match against Luger at SummerSlam. During the match Dibiase made his way to ringside to finally clear things up. Dibiase distracted Luger allowing Tatanka to get a quick pin and it was revealed that Tatanka was the one who had sold out all along.

It was a pretty decent swerve and well executed heel turn, but it didn’t have any lasting effects. Tatanka went on to feud with Luger throughout the rest of 1994 but found himself falling down the card in 1995. Aside from a main event tag match at King of the Ring 1995, which was more due to lack of main event heels than anything else, Tatanka didn’t participate in anything meaningful in WWF again. As a face Tatanka’s popularity always kept him relevant whether he received titles and main event matches or not. Once he turned heel his star fell fast and he was never able to recover.

What are some more examples of a face/heel turn damaging a wrestler’s career?

 

[Mustang Sally]

I can't remember the series of events leading up to it, but Vader's turning face in '97 lasted a short time and resulted in his leaving WWE after he was reduced to jobber status. If I recall, his face turn came from a conflict with heel Bret Hart in which Vader broke the Canadian flag in half. That might have worked out okay, but his subsequent feud with Goldust (of all people) wound up costing Vader a lot of fan support and sent his career spiraling downward. Then came a disastrous feud with Kane which reduced his status so much that he had nowhere else to go in the company, so he quit.

If ever a wrestler should have avoided a face turn, this was it.

 

[Midnite Express 2009]

The first one that comes to mind for me is when "Stone Cold' Steve Austin turned heel at WrestleMania X-7 and joined up with Vince McMahon. That, in and of itself, was basically the end of the Attitude Era for me. Austin had spent years fighting against Vince just to join him in order to win the title from The Rock, a man whom he had beaten for the title just two years earlier. It made Austin look weak and it made creative look desperate. I didn't like the way Austin's character progressed from there because we were all so used to him not having to "cheat" to win and now not only was he cheating, but he was like every other typical heel, which was a coward. I mean, I love the heels but Austin as a heel was just wrong. Very wrong.

The next one to me is when Bill Goldberg turned heel during 2000. This was at the time when he came back from his injury. I didn't really get that one at all. I still don't do this day. Goldberg was the face of the company and turning him heel was another example of the stupid booking WCW was doing at that time.

Next is Sting when he turned heel on Hulk Hogan after Hogan was doing the "who can you trust" storyline invloving He, Sting, Diamond Dallas Page and Lex Luger. I actually liked the heel turn, but it really made no sense and before long Sting was back to being a face.

Lex Luger jumping from heel to face to heel to face and so on during the years of 1987-1991 was beyond me. Every year his character changed. Really...every single year Lex Luger was either or. I wish he had stayed heel because, like I said, I like heels, but even as a face he was pretty good. It should have been one or the other, and having him flip every year made no sense whatsoever.

Finally, The Road Warrior's heel turn in 1989. I understand now why they turned heel. Dusty Rhodes was being let go and as a way to stick it to Jim Crockett and Ted Turner, he decided to turn The Warriors heel and have then attack him on TV during the infamous spike to the eye segment where Dusty bladed himself on TV. Notwithstanding, their sudden heel turn in the middle of a match was stupid and completely out of left field. Sure, they made up for it by destroying The Midnight Express to win the NWA tag team titles (a reign, IMO that was (a) long overdue and (b) underappreciated), but again, their title run was somewhat defined by their sudden heel turn.

As far as faces, the only one I can think of is when Ric Flair, Ole Anderson and Arn Anderson reformed the Four Horsemen with Sting for about 2 months. Sure, it was a ways to a means to launch Sting as the biggest star of the early 90s, but beyond that, it made absolutely no sense. Other than that, I don't remember any face turns that didn't add up.

 

[nWo2]

Jeff Hardy as a heel wasn't a good long term choice, but the night of it was great.

Any time a monster ala Kane, The Great Khali, Mark Henry goes face it ruins their credibility because faces lose and are prone to run-ins and dbl teams. It kills all of their heel 'indestructibility" the only ones that are really successful require tweaks in the gimmick like Mankind to Cactus Jack besides that the ony big men to be successful faces & heels are Big Show & Taker!

Worst turn of all time in my opinion is when Rikishi said he hit SCSA for The Rock... it was like whaaaaaaaa? huh? Rikishi?

 

[Midnite Express 2009]

Jeff Hardy as a heel wasn't a good long term choice, but the night of it was great.

Any time a monster ala Kane, The Great Khali, Mark Henry goes face it ruins their credibility because faces lose and are prone to run-ins and dbl teams. It kills all of their heel 'indestructibility" the only ones that are really successful require tweaks in the gimmick like Mankind to Cactus Jack besides that the ony big men to be successful faces & heels are Big Show & Taker!

Worst turn of all time in my opinion is when Rikishi said he hit SCSA for The Rock... it was like whaaaaaaaa? huh? Rikishi?

Oh yeah, Rikishi's heel turn was disasterous on so many levels. Little remember this one but it was actually on Raw when both The Rock & Roll Express turned heel and had Jim Cornett of all people as their manager and also when Paul Ellering turned on The Road Warriors to D.O.A. I was like, this is crap. Nobody believes this. I think they were just doing stuff just to do it around that time.

 

[Somewhat Large Gonzalez]

Believe it or not, Tatanka was the first one that jumped to mind. A couple others from the same era...

Crush - Much like Tatanka, Crush received huge pops and didn't need a title to get over with the fans. With his Demolition days behind him, I figured that he was headed for the main event. His heel turn, while well-executed, absolutely destroyed his momentum. You can't go from "Hawaiian gimmick" to "Japanese gimmick." Seriously, what the fuck? His run as "biker Crush" didn't go anywhere, and by the time he arrived at WCW, you could tell that he didn't have a fire in his belly anymore.

Doink - The worst face turn of the 90's, hands down. It's self-explanatory. Heel Doink rules the universe.

 

[Evenflow DDT]

Samoa Joe when he joined the MEM back in 2009. He went from destroying almost every member of the MEM to handing the title over to Kurt Angle at Slammaversary. And that lasted all of 2 monthes then it was back to good ol face/tweener Joe.

 

[HorsemenNo4]

Bam Bam Bigelow turning face by quitting the Million Dollar Corporation. He just had a huge match with Lawrence Taylor at Wrestlemania. He turned face quickly afterwards and completely killed all his momentum.
Apparently some backstage politics/fights with The Kliq lead to his departure. Thank goodness for that because his character was dying real quick.

 

[WCWMondayNitroOnYT]

My pick would have to be Rikishi. Rikishi being the one that hit Austin with the car and the whole "I did it for you, Rock" just made his career sink and was just an undeniable flop heel. He seemed about as much of a convincing heel as Goldberg.

 

[Greg4WWE]

My vote is the Undertakers Heel turn in the late 90s after his fued with Kane.... They basically turned Taker heel and Kane face... Granted this started the series of matches with Austin... but the completely rechanged the story of how Kane was burned... When UT was face.. it was an accident.. Then Heel UT comes out and says he did it on purpose..

The heel turn itself wasnt the worst part, it was just rechanging the story. They should of let the story be as was!

 

[CMSawall]

recently I would have to say McIntyre's Failed face turn. when he made the new years revolution of not being mean anymore, then he gets drafted to RAW and just becomes a petty jobber, that dont get TV apperance anymore. This kids got talent and makes a good heel. bring him back...

 

[Kanenite]

How much longer did Prince Albert last after going face and becoming the Hip Hop Hippo and teaming with Scotty?

Or how about Heidenreich with his poem gimmick?

I would really like to go with GI Bro, but somehow Booker recovered from that.

Yokozuna's face turn wasn't so good for him. He was fed to Vader and then disappeared, if I remember correctly.

And Adam Bomb briefly had a run as a face before he left WWF. I think he threw rubber nuclear missiles into the crowd and feuded with Kwang. Yeah...

 

[JJYanks121]

I'll throw in one that hasn't been mentioned yet and is a microcosm of things that were done wrong in WCW. The one I'll talk about is the heel turn of Curt Hennig.

Though his better days might have been behind him, Hennig came to WCW to try and revive his career. They literally found the best possible thing for him as he was picked to join the 4 Horsemen. He looked like one, was a great wrestler, and it just fit. Naturally, he was in it for like 2 weeks and turned on them to join the nWo. Huge swerve? Maybe, but the result was that Hennig just because "another nWo guy" and got lost in the shuffle.

The problem in that time was that EVERYTHING had to be about the nWo to the point that it became ridiculous. That turn screwed the Horseman and screwed Hennig's WCW run. He could have been a solid upper midcarder and even main eventer as a babyface and certainly could have helped that side by putting on good matches, but instead he fell into the WCW trap. He was nWo member #27 or 32 or 48, who cares really. That was just awful and was basically status quo at the time.

Another one that was atrocious was Buff Bagwell's return. He was out with a terrible injury for a year and ridiculed by Hogan in his absence. Naturally the fans were cheering for him when he retuned and he had the perfect story to become a new babyface star at a time when the company needed to create new stars. Of course, rather than be smart and push him as a babyface to play off the sympathy, he quickly turned heel and rejoined the nWo to go back to being meaningless. I never understood that one.

 

[darbare]

Worst face turn that comes to mind is Randy Orton back in 2004....As Randys biggest fan since the days he had hair bangs, even I wasnt impressed...he had the right music, but that was it...he wasnt ready AT all...having just won the world title from Benoit it didnt make sense....Worst heel is possibly Austin just because it made no sense on any kind of level....yea it made for an entertaining storyline to me but why have him turn heel and join WCW when he they supposedly saw nothing in him, then he "turns" on the company that made a mega star...just common sense was totally thrown away on that idea...another worst face turn recently was Edge when he came back...before he was injured he was heel with Jericho, and now just because he came back from injury they figured he should be face? It was horrible, with the whole spear chanting...ironically later that year after turning heel, he turned back face which worked out better..alot better...another recent worst heel is Melina...here was no explanation for it and she obviously seems to be a natural face...then of course the horrible idea to turn Mark Henry face a couple years ago

 

[bfred27]

Recently i have to go with Edge's last heel turn on Randy Orton, it seemed so rushed and in all honesty was pointless. Edge had just returned from career threatening surgery and was at the point where fans were going to cheer him no matter what, out of respect. That turn lasted all of a month or two and was back to being a face. Thats my choice

 

[relentless1]

when kevin nash urned heel via fingerpoke of doom, i mean who just gives up the world title like that?? also bret harts heel turn helping hogan beat savage for the belt in 1998, there was so much potential for slow burn to starrcade where he and hogan would FINALLY face off, hell they couldve even salvaged that by having bret say that he wanted hogan to have the belt so he could kill two birds with one stone or something like that

 

[Chopper]

Rikishi's was completely out of nowhere but was beyond terrible. It was a matter of time before he was shoving his butt in people's faces again. Everyone expected Show (cuz he won the WWE title on the night Austin was hit) HHH, cuz hes.... HHH. The Rock even

Al Snow's heel turn in 99 was an utter and complete fail! It resulted in a mediocre cage match with The Rock and soon after, he was sacking people with bowling balls for the hardcore title.

Goldberg's heel turn was just unnecessary. Ditto for Tatanka. This was mostly due to a lack of credible heels. There was HBK, and Diesel, Jeff Jarrett, Owen Hart (okay, thats good) then Kwang and then Brooklyn Brawler dressed like a baseball player... (hmmm yeah, they needed more heels)

Did Drew Mcintyre even turn face?? That was a massive fail. What did he even do?

As great as Austin is: he was too over to be heel, even as leader of the Alliance. The only time he ever got booed was when he faced Angle for the title in Pittsburgh. But the heel turn was way too forced. Austin would get a pop even if he stunned The Undertaker. Thats how over he was back then. He couldnt do anything to get you to boo him, even when he sang to Vince.

 

[Matt7584]

Here is a new one. Yokozuna face turn was horrible in 1996. He went from monster heel who beat Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, and the Undertaker from 1993-1995 and held the WWF title and tag titles a few times to absolutely nothing.

Yokozuna had little continued success in 1996. He competed in the 1996 Royal Rumble match, managing to eliminate Bob Backlund, King Mabel, and Swat Team member #2 before being tossed out by Shawn Michaels, the eventual winner. He began a short stint as a fan favorite. He spoke English to the fans, had Mr. Fuji wave an American flag during his matches, and challenged Vader to numerous matches. It was during this feud that Yokozuna teamed up with Ahmed Johnson and Jake Roberts in a six-man tag-team match at WrestleMania XII, facing off with Vader, Owen Hart and British Bulldog. The feud took a painful turn a couple weeks later, when Vader jumped on Yokozuna's leg, breaking it. A forklift had to come down to ringside to lift Yokozuna out, showing how his enormous size and his desire to gain even more weight had gotten out of control. Thus ending his career.

 

[TheHeartbreakHotel]

Lots of good answers here - the first one I thought of was the Austin/Alliance. I still dont think I fully understand the reasoning. His turn in the angle was unnecessary. I think as someone pointed out they should have switched Jericho/Big Show with Austin/Angle

What I dont understand is how they forced an Austin turn down everyones throat, but people are begging for a reason to Boo Cena and had opportunities to do so (he could of led Nexus) and yet nothing.

 

[Big Sexy]

Basically Ahmed Johnson's entire WWE career. He started out as a face and the fans loved him. He seemed primed for a main event push but then an injury happened. When he came back he first feuded with the Nation before randomly turning heel and joining the same group he had been feuding with. The turn made no sense but for some reason he still wound up with a title match scheduled.

Before the title match occurred he suffered another injury. When he came back the Nation decided to turn on him which once again made him a face. The only problem was all of his face momentum had been completely wiped out from his original heel turn and the fans really didn't care he was a face again. Injuries and random heel/face turns were the downfall of his WWE career.

That's at least better then the downfall of his WCW career which was too much chocolate cake.

 

[pessimism101]

I'm going to go old school and say Demolition's heel turn in 1990. Here's a team that was ridiculously over with the crowd by the start of 1990. I mean, they were getting Hulk Hogan-like pops. Track down a copy of WrestleMania VI (only versions with their original theme) and listen to the crowd when they win the tag team titles. Not only that, they became an unheard of (at the time) tag team champions at the same WM. And by the time they lost the titles to the Hart Foundation in the summer, they held the titles a combined total of 698 days (a record that still stands to this day).

Lots of changes would follow including the addition of Crush, largely due to Ax's health problems, and a heel-turn, largely due to the Road Warriors/Legion of Doom entering the WWF. By WrestleMania VII, one of the most popular and most successful tag teams of all time were reduced to jobbing to two Japanese wrestlers (Tenryu and Kitao) and the team as a whole vanished off the face of the earth not long after that.

So... I would say that Demolition's heel-turn in 1990 virtually destroyed their careers.

 

[Bdubbs]

The first turn that came to mind is when Sting turned heel during the nWo days. Sting was always a terrific good guy, had mainstream appeal, and was one of the most recognizable wrestlers in the organization. As a face, he was the top guy feuding with the likes of Hogan and company. Turning him heel was one of the worst things Bischoff did in my opinion. It's quite obvious that Bischoff took the nWo angle too far on many different levels.

I understand wrestlers need to reinvent their character to stay fresh. I think Sting did that and much more when he started the Crow gimmick. Throwing him into the nWo was just out of place and flat out stupid!

 

[EastCoastFan]

Where do I begin?

The Road Warriors in 1988. In their shoot interview, they said they had to turn three times because the fans kept cheering each time they gave Sting the Doomsday Device.

Steve Austin in 2001. I know it was Steve's idea because he wanted to freshen his character up, but he was so over with fans that unless he gave Vince a blowjob in the ring, no one was going to boo him.

Rikishi in 2000. That made absolutely no sense for him to be revealed as the driver who ran over Steve Austin (I would have had one of the Harts). It bombed so badly that they had to say HHH was the mastermind behind it in an effort to salvage it and in the end, Rikishi went back to being a face.

Goldberg's heel turn in 2000. Yet another instance of WCW's shoddy booking near the end. It also didn't help that Goldberg didn't want to be a heel.

 

[FozzyRocks2009]

I think Sheamus' current change of bad to good guy is not gonna affect anything. I mean 3 months into the company because he is "HHH's workout buddy" he gets a "fluke" WWE title because he pushed Cena as he fell off top rope through a table. He then wins a 2nd title win and lastley goes on a huge losing streak after winning King of the Ring. Hell King of the Ring use to elevate people i.e. Hart, Edge, HHH (excludes B-A Billy Gunn ....so I think Sheamus is not going to go to "bigger & better" grounds by turning face and destroying the bully Predator ahem I mean Mark Henry

 

[Y2J_Havok]

Shads heel turn on JTG this past year, did nothing for him and broke up yet another tag team for no reason what so ever

HBK heel turn in 2005 before Summerslam, gave us some good promos but only lasted a month and was just another waste of time