What constitutes a face turn?

[Wrestlefan27]

On the heels of the "double turn" that occured with Dolph and Alberto, I was thinking about the situation and it has me wondering: What exactly constitutes a face turn?

Is getting repeatedly kicked in the head enough of a catalyst for a face turn? Is "becoming a victim" all that it takes in terms of story? Are all the bad things that a heel did suddenly forgotten and never mentioned? Is there no pennance or atonement? Is just booking a guy to wrestle other heels enough to make him a "face"?

How is it supposed to work with AJ, who recently did one of the meanest things ever (kayfabe) to Kaitlyn? Is she "face" by association now? Or will she drop Ziggler now because he lost the gold and she's the champ and he's not good enough for her?

What do you all think? I feel the WWE doesn't put enough work into face turns. Most of the time, there's no difference in character between a face and a heel after they've turned. They're just facing different opponents.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Sometimes, it's something as simple as how a wrestler behaves during the course of a match, a succession of promo segments, who he/she interacts with in certain segments & how they interact or who said wrestler is booked to face.

At Payback, for instance, we saw Alberto Del Rio & Dolph Ziggler undergo character turns before our eyes during their WHC match. Del Rio was using tactics that simply aren't traditionally babyface tactics. He knew that Dolph Ziggler had suffered a concussion and was out of action for more than a month, yet he specifically targeted many of his attacks at Ziggler's head for the purpose of, kayfabe, possibly giving Ziggler another concussion or jacking up the post concussion affects of Ziggler's condition. Ziggler, simultaneously, soldiered on through the match even though it was obvious, again kayfabe, that something was up. Heels generally don't show that kind of courage just as faces don't generally show that kind of ruthlessness. One wrestler being "victimized" by another is an indicator that a turn has happened. On Raw last night, Daniel Bryan was "injured" during his match against Randy Orton. Orton continued to go after Bryan because, Bryan waved off the officials and because of the now DQ stipulation. However, after the match was stopped, Orton behaved like a sportsman and helped Bryan up and embraced him after the match was over. While Orton is generally a tweener, and has been for a few years, a fully fledged heel Orton probably would have attacked and continued to beat Bryan even after the match was stopped. If WWE wanted to turn Orton fully heel last night, they could have easily done so. I believe they will soon, they're just waiting for what they feel is the right moment.

WWE also used the fact that they happened to be performing in Chicago, one of the hottest wrestling cities in all the world. Guys like Ziggler often get massive cheers, even as heels, in towns like Chicago and WWE was fully aware that the crowd would be behind Ziggler. So, WWE also used the environment to its advantage in turning both guys. Del Rio has never really gotten over as a babyface to the level WWE was hoping for, at least not among non Hispanic fans. Ziggler legitimately suffered a concussion, something that all of sports has been taking far more seriously the past several years, and it set Ziggler up as someone to have sympathy for.

Just like in real life, a "good guy" and a "bad guy" can be characterized by small perceptions in who that person is. A little tweak in one direction or another can alter those perceptions in the eyes of just about anyone.