Would heel Hurricane have worked?

[Trill Co$by]

When the Hurricane character first began, the entire origin of his creation was out of sheer admiration that Gregory Helms had for the Green Lantern. He was the bright light of hope that people needed to fight for them, and he was just a hero as a hero could be. And it worked for him, so much so that he was able to gain a victory over WWE's biggest Hollywood asset ever, albeit with help from a certain Rattlesnake.

And then, he went heel. Now, I admit that Helms' time as the top heel on Smackdown [don't be blind, Helms ran the show] was very entertaining. I loved his reign as the Cruiserweight champion, because it felt natural and smooth. It was like that title was meant for him... and in my mind, it's why the title isn't around today.

But let's rewind things back a second. Let's go to when Hurricane first started turning heel. What if the WWE decided to keep him with the comic book storyline and turned him into sort of a Red Lantern type character? Do you think that his career could've lasted a bit longer in WWE or do you think his Helms emergence was for the best?

 

[AJ1981]

I think we have different memories of the character or you are trolling. When Shane Helms first became The Hurricane in 2001 he was a heel as part of the Alliance during the invasion storyline. He feuded with Matt Hardy over the European Championship and then formed a tag team with Lance Storm that feuded over the WCW Tag Team Championship when The Hardy Boyz held it. After the WWF won, The Hurricane got sent to developmental until the following spring when he returned as a babyface to be part of the cruiserweight scene on Smackdown. I'm not sure what your talking about Gregory Helms being the top heel on Smackdown in 2006. Randy Orton, JBL, Mark Henry & King Booker filled that spot at different times for most of that year. But to answer your question, sure a heel Hurricane of worked. Helms was/is good another performer to pull it off

 

[Spidey Revivey]

Certainly. When superheroes in comic books go stale, some writer will come along and revamp him/her with more grit, attitude, and possibly even have them go "to the dark side". That's wrestling and comics 101. Now as far as going the whole 9 yards and suggest Helms go for a Red Lanternesque villain...I don't feel strongly about that.

Hurricane was a spoof of Lantern but without completely copying that character. Do you catch me? Other wrestlers couldn't tread that line as well. I imagine his villain role almost exactly how WWE did- just abandon the Hurricane persona that he stood for all of those years. It's perfect. Captain America did it. Spiderman did it frequently. It's good character depth.

Now, with him being the top heel of 2006...no way. He was a watchable heel, but he was nowhere near on par with JBL or even Booker T at the time.

 

[enviousdominous]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you're missing the period of time when The Hurricane was a heel member of The Alliance.

Who knows, I honestly never found the gimmick all that interesting. It seemed like the second coming of Dude Love, an over the top goofy gimmick that unapologetically makes a joke of the sport. I remember he wrestled at first as Gregory Helms, then he went by Hurricane Helms, then out of nowhere like a shotgun loaded with stupidity we got a fake superhero gimmick blasted onto our screen.

He was an amazing performer, but you couldn't understand a damn thing he was saying over that good ole' boy accent. For some reason they went balls out with the gimmick and had him running around in clark kent get-up interviewing random people in ways that didn't progress any actual on-screen plot developments. Again, the man needed closed captions worse than Honey Boo-Boo, you couldn't understand a damn thing he was saying. It was like listening to Shakespeare as told by Tony Norris.

I honestly think that the only thing that can save his career after all the camp of his gimmick had faded from our minds is to maybe make him a referee or an NXT manager.

 

[Trill Co$by]

I think we have different memories of the character or you are trolling. When Shane Helms first became The Hurricane in 2001 he was a heel as part of the Alliance during the invasion storyline. He feuded with Matt Hardy over the European Championship and then formed a tag team with Lance Storm that feuded over the WCW Tag Team Championship when The Hardy Boyz held it. After the WWF won, The Hurricane got sent to developmental until the following spring when he returned as a babyface to be part of the cruiserweight scene on Smackdown. I'm not sure what your talking about Gregory Helms being the top heel on Smackdown in 2006. Randy Orton, JBL, Mark Henry & King Booker filled that spot at different times for most of that year. But to answer your question, sure a heel Hurricane of worked. Helms was/is good another performer to pull it off

August 27, 2001

INTERVIEW: Cole & Hurricane.
Cole talks to Helms about his obsession with the Green Lantern, someone Helms calls the greatest superhero of all time.
Helms says the greatest, second only to Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Helms says superheros not only exists in cinema, but when he takes on Matt Hardy for the European Championship tonight he's going to have the evil Lita at his side.
He says that reminds him of when Green Lantern took on Lady Chaos and the Mirror Man at the same time.
What's up with that? Anyways, he continues that the Green Lantern did prevail and tonight, so will the Hurricane.

Source

And to be honest, in 2006 the Cruiserweight division was by far the most entertaining aspect of Smackdown, ergo he was the top heel... at least in my opinion.

 

[Jerichoholic8894]

Shane Helms could have possibly been a consistent component in a mid-card title feud as a heel. But He certainly wouldn't have ever been more than that.

The Hurricane character was entertaining, yet held Helms back. He was very entertaining as a heel on Smackdown back in 06, but comic book type characters don't really work in wrestling. (I guess you could say most wrestling gimmicks are like a comic book, but i'm talking about a character trying to be a comic book hero if you understand what I mean)

I guess it would have been cool if he went from "The Hurricane" to "Katrina" in 06 because it would have given people enough time to be able to not take it personally. Would have made for a cool heel gimmick for a while.

 

[Charismatic Enigma]

I think the only way to make a heel Hurricane work would be to play the role kind of like a heel Doink. Come out pandering to kids, act like your gonna put a mask on them and then rip it in half, take off the cape throw over the opponents head as the bell rings and then take some cheap shots at him, etc. Stuff like that.

As far as just playing it straight and looking like he did though I don't think would've gotten over without some of the antics I described above.

 

[The Scarred One]

To me, the Hurricane gimmick was both a blessing and a burden for Gregory Helms.

It's true that he was over as the Hurricane, but he was never going to rise past a certain point as such. It's similar to many other midcard comedy gimmicks as he could only go so far. Take the Boogeyman for example. He was a novelty act and was never going to be pushed toward any championship. The difference is that Helms could hold his own in a match, but it's the same idea as both gimmicks were too over the top to take seriously. It's also similar to Paul Burchill's pirate gimmick and Vito's crossdressing gimmick. Although over, they were never going to rise to the next level as such.

When Helms turned heel, denounced the Hurricane name and became the WWE Cruiserweight Champion, I enjoyed it. I always thought he should've been the one to retire the Cruiserweight Championship. He would've gotten more heat for that and allow him to move up the ladder to the United States Championship. Helms was a great midcard heel at the time, although I think the IC/US Championship level would've been the limit to how far he would go.

As far as a heel Hurricane would go, I would've been curious to see how it would work. It isn't unusual for superheros in comics to either go rogue or even develop an edge to them. For example, Superman has recently become more badass in comparison to how he was 50 years ago. Like Charismatic Enigma said, it would most likely be similar to a heel Doink. But as I said before, it's a comedy gimmick and would only have held Helms back.