Best Heel Turns In WWE History?

[NegativeFeedback]

I was watching videos of CM Punk's heel turn in 2009 thinking how brilliant it was and now I've began to wonder what the best heel turns in WWE were. I think I've put a nice list:

10. Bob Backlund (1992)

Bob Backlund came back to the WWE and floated around the midcard until he lost to Bret Hart, placed him in the chickenwing and screamed like a maniac. He became this pedantic old geezer who hated what the WWF had become. Although it didn't have much build, it was still a great turn.

09. Sgt. Slaughter (1990)

Sgt. Slaughter disappeared for a while and had a stint in the AWA, but when he came back, he was a former shadow of himself. He became an Iraqi sympathizer and won the WWF Championship. He worked his gimmick so well that he even received death threats. Now THAT's a good freaking heel turn!

08. Bret Hart (1997)

The biggest double turn of all time was a product of masterful in-ring psychology between Bret and Austin. Bret didn't break the sharpshooter and Austin ended up passing out. After that, Bret reformed the Hart Foundation, but this time, it became an anti-American faction hated all over the USA.

07. Shaw Michaels (1992)

It was a fantastic heel turn. Throwing Marty through the barber shop window is still an image we all remember today. This was to start Shawn's singles run and eventual main event stardom and it was brilliantly done. Shawn is one of those lucky few who plays just as good as a face as he does a heel.

06. Randy Savage (1989)

This is the first real heel turn that shocked me as a wrestling fan. And it was just such a relatable story. Randy was jealous of Hogan and feared he would steal Elisabeth from him. It just made sense for Randy to be paranoid, especially because Hogan was gunning down for that title. Randy was just great as a psycho heel and the turn was nearly perfect.

05. Larry Zybysko (1980)

This was also a classic story. Student vs. Teacher. He wanted to leave Sammartino's shadow so Larry challenged him to a title match where he eventually beat up Bruno with a chair. He became one of the first truly hated heels. You could catch up on this turn on YouTube for those who haven't seen it, but it was truly the FIRST EPIC heel turn.

04. Andre the Giant (1987)

This was a simple story. Andre was jealous of Hogan. Hogan was presented with a large trophy for being champion for three years and Andre was presented with a smaller one. In a jealous rage, Andre added Bobby Heenan as his manager and attacked Hogan challenging him at WrestleMania III. Everyone knows that's the biggest WrestleMania of all time, but it all started with a great heel turn.

03. Owen Hart (1994)

Owen turning on Bret was truly one of the most shocking and epic moments ever. This eventually led to the best opening match in WrestleMania history where Owen beat Bret just a few hours before Bret became WWF Champion. Such great writing that I wish WWE could do more stuff like this today.

02. CM Punk (2009)

Everything about this heel turn felt so natural. He cashed in on Jeff, called him out on his lifestyle, and when the fans disagreed with him, he turned his back on them too. It also lead to the Straight Edge Savior gimmick, one of the best gimmicks of all time. CM Punk is truly one of the best heels in wrestling history.

01. Chris Jericho (2008)

Chris Jericho suffered a metamorphosis. He inserted himself in the feud between HBK and Batista just to insult HBK for feigning an injury. When HBK finally convinced him that the injury was real, a match was scheduled between them and HBK revealed that he wasn't really injured and superkicked him. You might think that would turn HBK heel instead, but Jericho insulted the fans for cheering HBK's dastardly ways. Jericho went berserk and went from throwing Shawn into the Jeri-Tron to punching Shawn's wife in the face. It was just a fantastic heel turn and, in my opinion, the best in wrestling history.

So what do you guys think? What do you guys think are the best heel turns of all time?

 

[JWGunslinger]

I'm a very biased Jerichoholic but my favorite Heel Turn of all time would be Jericho's turn in 08. Not just how it happened which was epic but his reasons for doing it. Jericho has one of the best minds in wrestling and he realized after his return that he was doing the same thing every night with his old Y2J gimmick and he knew than to survive and stay fresh for the fans he needed his character to go a new direction. Well he made the right move because that period of time may have been his most successful run in the WWE, and made even some of his biggest fans hate him for his heel role, that is a truely amazing heel turn.

 

[willross]

Andre The Giant....hands down!!! set up the biggest draw in the businesses history...HOgan vs Andre WM3....93,000 people went to see THAT match. Yea other matches may have stolen the show, but no secret who they came to see that night

 

[EastCoastFan]

No offense, but Paul Orndorff's heel turn in 1986 deserves to be on the list more than some of the others. They spent weeks laying the groundwork for it and they feuded for months after that turn, most notably drawing 65,000 people to The Big Event in Toronto.

 

[bk555]

REALLY???? Better than Hogan's???

You will clearly see that this says "WWE" Heel turns not WCW. Hogans is probably the best ever. But i agree with most of your choices except i think Shawn Michaels has to be much higher. It seriously turned him into one of the best ever and he never looked back from that moment. That heel turn was exectued so perfectly and the future events that came as a result of it were so memorable.

 

[Big Papa Santo]

My favorite was Steve Austin during the Invasion angle, because you had the WWF's biggest star join the Alliance which just goes to show that no matter how big of a babyface that you are, that the tables can turn at any minute *Cough*Cena*Cough*

 

[BSILENT84]

I'm sorry but none could compare with hulk hogan's turn to join the nwo.......it created the monday night wars AND was the reason why wcw was beating wwe in ratings at the time........Nobody saw it coming...when he walked into the ring, ripped his shirt off, and leg dropped macho man, it was one of the greatest moments in sports......That's right SPORTS...Hell nightly news was talking about his heel turn idk if they cared about jericho...."HULK HOGAN HAS BETRAYED WCW!" Bobby heenan said it best......

 

[The Wolf]

My favorite was Steve Austin during the Invasion angle, because you had the WWF's biggest star join the Alliance which just goes to show that no matter how big of a babyface that you are, that the tables can turn at any minute *Cough*Cena*Cough*

I agree with the *Cough*Cena*Cough* but SCSA turn made no sense to me for 1 big reason. Why would he join up with WCW when they FIRED him via Mail?

Both him & Bishoff admitted that created major hatred between the 2.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Heel turns...one of the most exciting aspects of professional wrestling, and one of the few concepts not-yet ruined by an over-zealous industry. The last great WWE heel turn was Chris Jericho in 2008, and many people have already made a great case for it being the best in history. In the turn he not only focussed on the story, rather than just the gimmick of becoming a "bad guy". He destroyed a character he built (Y2J) and established himself in one of my all-time favorite feuds with Shawn Michaels.

I don't know that I can pick the "best heel turn of all time, but I'd like to throw out a few that haven't been mentioned. None of the following are huge moments that will likely beat out the iconic turns of Hulk Hogan, Shawn Micahels, Randy Savage, Andre the Giant, etc. But they were, in my opinion, entertaining and led to some cool fueds.

John Cena (2002): After a moderately successful partnership John Cena attacked his former tag team partner and turned heel in the process. This almost immediately led to the Vanilla Ice-inspired rapper gimmick that would put Cena on the map.

Christian (2011): Christian turned heel in pursuit of the World Heavyweight Championship. It wasn't the greatest, most excitingly booked turn in the record books, but it did lead to quite possibly the best rivalry of 2011: Christian vs. Randy Orton

R-Truth (2011): In what is still one my personal favorite moments of this year, R-Truth turned heel on John Morrison in the UK. Not only was the aggression he showed during the post-match beatdown refreshing for Truth, but he told a story in under 10 minutes. You could see the pain on his face afterwards, and his crazy "You did this man! I didn't want to do it..." ramblings while he was destroying Morrison were fantastic. The cigarette was also shocking, and some great icing on the cake."

JBL (2004): After the APA lost a tag team title match, Paul Heyman fired Farooq and Bradshaw decided to stay. The next week he came out in a completely new gimmick...John Bradshaw Layfield. I know a lot of guys HATE him, but he was one of my favorite heels. He drew SO much heat, and without his long title reign, John Cena's eventually Mania win wouldn't have been such a big deal. It was also an emotional way of saying goodbye to Ron Simmons. It was also, in my opinion, of the most successful gimmick changes in WWE history.

 

[Skinsley]

Does it have to be WWE? Because In my P.O. The Hollywood Hogan NWO HeelTurn has to be the greatest and most heartbreaking to fans I have ever witnessed.

I was just a kid and I was shocked, I couldnt believe that the biggest Face that wrestling had ever seen could really go Heel! It was unbelievable also, Hogan's NWO entrance playing guitar with the Title has to be one of my favourite smug Heel moves in history.

If were talking just WWE then Michaels throwing Jannetty through the BarberShop window must be the single greatest Heel Turn moments in history......

Personally though because of how I watched it as a kid with a bunch of my friends.... the Stone Cold betrayal at Invasion had us all heartbroken! Now I am older and more synical....(Because of you bastarts in the IWC )I should have seen it coming... and infact it was probably a pretty poo HeelTurn.
But what can I say? Ignorance is bliss.

 

[Da Truth]

My favorite heel turn was Stone Cold at Wrestlemania, aligning himself with Vince McMahon. This was totally out of left field; I didn't see it coming. The thing that made the heel turn great was that it was so vicious and then the turn was solidified even more the next night with the forming of the 2 man power trip.

 

[NegativeFeedback]

I believe the best heel turn is when it is built up and foreshadowed for months where we can see the evolution of the character going from face to heel. That's why I enjoyed CM Punk and Chris Jericho's heel turns so much. You saw exactly how they were transforming from face to heel.

Hulk Hogan's heel turn was epic, shocking and memorable, I know, but it was cartoonish in the aspect that he just walked to the ring, turned heel, and it was as simple as that. It was a big heel turn not because of how it was executed, but because he was a big name. But let's forget about that, I want to focus on WWE heel turns.

I judged the heel turns for the turns themselves and not the heel pushes that resulted afterwards. The slow methodical turns are the best. A lot of guys go from face-to-heel in a blink of an eye without an evolution like Steve Austin (Invasion) or Edge (last year). Those are the heel turns that less interest me no matter how popular the wrestlers are.

 

[JaylisJayP]

I was always a fan of when the Undertaker was the Biker persona and essentially turned hell by beating the crap out of JR in the ring that one time on RAW. It's always so damn funny when JR gets beat up, lol.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

Not the best heel turn of all time but one of my favorites was when Stone Cold turned on The Rock at Wrestlemania 17 and to a degree finished the Attitude Era. When Vince McMahon handed Austin the chair and motioned for him to hit The Rock it was a true, "WTF?" moment. Acknowledge everything which had happened between Austin and McMahon, how Austin tormented him and Vince would week-after-week attempt to destroy Steve, and then it all went away and Austin hit The Rock with the Steel Chair.

It isn't one of the greatest visual turns, but what it mean't was something unique. It was truly the end of an era and it was truly one of the most shocking moments in WWE at the time. Some saw it coming, others like myself being young at the time had no clue was literally in awe of Austin driving the chair repeatedly into The Rock's chest while Vince stood at ringside smiling. It isn't the best heel turn but it was my own personal favourite off my reaction alone.

 

[Aquaman6686]

Stone Cold at WrestleMania 17 (aka X-Seven). I DESPISED Austin as a face from day one, and his heel turn at Mania was masterfully done and made him, for me, interesting for the first time in years. To me there are wrestlers that work better heel and wrestlers that work better face, and to me Austin as a heel is the way to go.

 

[Nico]

For me, it's obviously Chris Jericho (2008) but it was shocking too the Batista heel turn in 2009, when he brutally attacked Mysterio and the next week Smackdown's segment.. That was pretty shocking for me.

 

[Pytch Blakk]

Jerocho's heel turn of 2008 is your number 1...Dude you are smoking the good stuff...

#1 All time heel turn- WWE or any organization has to be Hogan...
#2 Shawn Michaels
#3 Bret Hart
#4 Barry Windham - WCW 1988
#5 Randy Savage

 

[NegativeFeedback]

It seems to me a lot of you prefer for a heel turn to have spontaneous shock value instead of slow methodical writing. I prefer the latter immensely, but I can see why you'd like a good ol' fashioned twist. I just prefer when the twists are slowly foreshadowed.

 

[Foshinzo]

I'm showing my age, but anyone who says Andre's wasn't clearly just isn't old enough to know what it was like.

Everyone talks about Hogan joining the nWo and talks about Hogan joining the nWo...
When Andre walked out with Bobby Heenan and ripped Hogan's shirt off, it set up the biggest Main Event in history, at least at that point. Nobody really saw it coming. Nobody. I remember my older brother saying something like, "But, why would Andre the Giant do that? Aren't he and Hulk Hogan friends?" People that loved Hulk Hogan were shocked, because they didn't want to see the two of them fight. People wanted to see Andre and Hulk be friends, and they certainly wanted to see Hulk put Andre in his place once the gauntlet had been thrown down.

Andre was a better natural heel than a face, and he was a great contrast to Hogan. Hulk was all about being a good guy and overcoming your obstacles with inner and outer strength. But, Andre couldn't be out muscled; he was just too big.

I'll just sum it up here, now, before I start repeating myself. This was a great and natural heel turn. Even though it was sudden, it immediately had every fan interested in the story, and that's what's most important about turns. It made Bobby Heenan a legend to work with Andre, it made Andre and Hulk both legends to work with each other, and their match at WrestleMania 3 might be the most legendary match of its day, because of the unbelievable build-up before it and the craze that it started.

I pick Andre's heel turn because in the history of the WWF/E, no single heel turn ever spawned more than this one single event did.

 

[MDR2k10]

My opinion, hogan at bash at the beach and austin at wrestlemania 17. probably the 2 biggest turns ever

 

[Millennia]

my favorite heel turn would be Randy Savage in 1989 attacking hulk backstage in elizabeth's medical room..

2nd moment maybe equal in excitement would be 1992 barbershop when Shawn Micheals Superkicked his tag partner Marty Jannetty then proceeded to toss his sorry ass into the glass window!... it looked soo freakin brutal, i was 8 years old and had LOVED The ROCKERS for yearsss... i was soo sad when this happened but it helped catapult HBK into spotlight.. that and his intense skill set inside the ring.. too bad marty never really got the chance to get even.. well he did have a chance.. let this be a lesson for all u kids out there.. drugs r bad hhhmkay!

hogan at wcw's bash @ the beach is easy #3.. nuff said..

i hated the austin turn @ WM17.. imo it just didnt even work that night.. i never liked it ..

i enjoyed Rick Martel's heel turn, leavin Tito Santana to fend for himself against Bobby Heenan's BrainBusters @ Wrestlemania 5

Slaughter's WWF heel run was a great idea, i am forgettin the moment where he made the turn & become the " iraq sympathizer".. but he was a well known american hero so it was a big deal and got tremendous heat.. ( cept 4 all u silly heads that buy the WM7 dome 2 arena lie!!)

r truth's heel turn was fun and needed..

if i could play creative for a moment i would love to see Kofi and bourne continue to battle in the tag scene & one day one of them turn heel.. both those guys r uber-talented & can fly higher than ne other wrestler on the rosters, sell perfectly, and have believable offense ( not adr girly kicks!)

but the most important Heel turn wil come within a year and HAS to happen.. it is CM Punk.. trust me, i kno hes uber loved right now, but one day i predict he will turn heel and will end up becoming the BEST HEEL ever ... ever.. and i happen to feel that vince, and every suit and locker room leader feels the same way.. just let him have his run right now... cause A. it sells shirts, B. the longer he has this face run / anti- authority.. then the better the actual moment of his turn will be..

i kinda feel the same way about daniel bryan as well.. i watched alot of his ROH work up close.. very close.. and he is a natural heel.. i dont understand why they dont give him a more shamrock like babyface attitude right now... he calmly speaks like a librarian " ur gonna tap" he needs to start makin refs tap out and scream and go insane.. maybe add a lil protein to his diet too!!!... ( jk, danielson has a fridge full of veggie burgers!)

ps. andre 's heel turn on the jesse the body ventura show was truly epic.. but most credit goes to Bobby The Brain Heenan.. all of u fans my age or older remember those times and know what i mean...

in short:
HBK 92
Savage 89
Hogan 96
Martel 89
Owen oh yea how could i 4get his.. ( cause damn titan erases him too often)... great heel turn at survivor series then when he kicked his brother brets bad leg @ the rumble.. great turn!

i never see CENA makin a turn.. evolving, maybe.. but we need him as the super Love Me , Hate Me Babyface cause.. trust me... CM PUNK will be that evil, that hated, i cant wait 4 it...
remember i said this...cause i'll b the 1st 2 say i told u so..!!

 

[King of the Words]

I really liked the birth of HBK. Turning heel on jannetty at the barber shop was perfect and made Shawn, in my eyes, an instant "somebody" in the WWF. If he had never turned heel and stayed with jannetty I would have hated it because I couldn't care less about the Rockers at that point. It was the right time for Shawn to leave the group and go as a singles wrestler. With the looks, the arrogance, the mic skills, and Sherri by his side, he made a perfect heel. I am starting to get the same feel from Dolph Ziggler with Vicky. His arrogance has shot up lately and his showing off has too. I thought John Morrison was going to be the next HBK, to his best ability. Now I'm thinking it's Dolph. He got pretty much everything Morrison has plus the mic skills, which are getting better every week.IMO. But, yeah, HBK being born from that heel turn was my favorite, for sure.

 

[Jessie Lynn DivaGirl]

I can only think of two and that's baecause no one really saw them coming. Okay, maybe the one but the other I'm not so sure on.

R-Truth(2011)- This was all JoMo's fault. Don't deny it, as soon as he came out and started baiting R-Truth you knew he was getting his ass kicked. When Morrison won and got the #1/#2 contendership from Truth, just Truth's face told you something was coming. The whole beatdown was something to see. At first it was like an aftershock followed by regret and then it was just all out, "This was your fault dude." The mixed emotions was enough for me to kind of enjoy how this heel turn was going. The cigarette was a very nice touch I think, tho cheesy and sour. Plus the follow-up the next week basically told everyone that he was going to be a fun heel to watch.

NXT Season 1 Rookies (2010)- So everyone knew Wade Barrett would become a good midcarder when he won NXT Season 1. He had the promis of a title match, charming looks, and a hell of a lot of talent to boat. Plus a surprise for the WWE universe. What else could this guy need? Cena vs Punk. Out he comes. Hint, Cena vs Barrett- holy hell, is that the freaking entire Season 1??? Seriouslly, how many of you actually thought babyfaces Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, Daniel Bryan, Michael Tarver, and Darren Young were going to turn heel? I thought (hoped) that the team would suck but they ended up being one of the best things to watch for half a year. No one saw them ALL going heel and their turn was fantastic. Attack everyone and tear everything apart. Hint: WE WANT TO TAKE OVER THIS PLACE. Brilliant really. Near the end it kind of sucked but the whole "attack anyone and everyone" thing was great.

These two are my favs and I think the best.

 

[boozinjedi]

I have to go with Slaughter,Any time you get so much heel heat that BOTH you and your family got death threats and needed guards.....YOU HIT A NERVE!!!

 

[HamSwissman]

Plenty of good pics here. I would, however, like to add The Rock's Survivor Series heel turn. Joining The Corporation and becoming the perfect fodder to Austin (even though they had feuded before in the IC ranks) by humiliating Mankind was the right way to go with this. The promo the next night on Raw was amazing as well.