Wrestlers who turned during a title run! Did it affect their reign?

[Ruthless-RKO]

Pretty simple thread really...maybe hard, when you have to go back and think about past ones... but staright forward..

There are some wrestlers who have won a title e.g. World title and during their reign have turned face/heel, can you remember any...and if so...did the turn affect their title reign?

The one that has been stuck in my head for a few months now it AJ Styles...he won the title at No Surrender 2009 in a 5 way match including Kurt Angle, Sting, Matt Morgan and Hernandez...This what was all his fans were waiting for for a long time!! for him to become TNA World Champion and with the help of Sting, he did it...He had a good run until Genesis which is where I believe the turn took place!

He became a cowardly heel with the help of Ric Flair...

I think this turn helped him, I really enjoyed him as a heel and why wouldn't you when you've got Ric Flair by your side? He had some pretty good matches at ppv's after his heel turn as well..

His turn IMO, made his title run better and longer!! and a reason why is because they were running out of heels for him to take on, so why not turn him heel and have him take on faces??

Can you remember any?? and if so, was the turn a positive or negative affect on their title reign??

 

[PBA_Sensation]

It happened with CM Punk on his second title reign. Right after Jeff Hardy defeated Edge in a ladder match for the WHC, Punk cashed in his money in the bank. After he won the title, week in and week out he made the turn to what his current gimmick is now. Before that, he was the loveable Straight Edge superstar, now he is the leader of the heel SES. It made a huge difference in his character and it helped him tremendously, as he is now SD's #1 heel, if not #1 superstar in general

 

[minionofdarkness]

Randy Savage is a prime example of this. Rememeber The Main Event, which was on friday night? He and Hulk Hogan were in a match with the Twin Towers, and Savage was thrown out of the ring onto Elizabeth. Hogan took her to the back, leaving Savage. He came back and got slapped by Savage. After the match we see Hogan trying to get Elizabeth to calm Savage down. Then Savage decks Hogan with the belt, fully turning him heel. Then 2 months later at WM 5, Hogan beat Savage. So, yeah, turning Savage heel in the middle of a title run meant that he had to lose to Hogan, because god forbid Savage should have ever beat Hogan.

 

[darbare]

wow good thread....I dont think there have been many because most of the time someone is either face or heel....AJ Styles is a good example....CM Punk is another.....I think we are in the midst of one right now in Kane.....he won it and was obviously face, but we could see a heel turn from him with this whole Rey Mysterio took out the Undertaker because no one believes that....

 

[Sicc Nick]

I remember two instances with Steve Austin.

1. When Stone Cold won the belt at Wrestlemania 2001, he wasn't totally a heel. The next night on RAW he came out and still received cheers although Ross was anti-Austin. Then finally he started mouthing off to the crowd, and turned heel. I think that heel turn made the title run last longer, 'cause in order to make people hate him, he had to overcome odds that not even a face Steve Austin could overcome.

2. Austin was the WWF Champion in 2001 during the WCW/ECW invasion, and at SurvivorSeries, Austin was betrayed by Kurt Angle, and Austin came back and kicked Angle's ass, and became a face again, destroying McMahon, previous Alliance members, et cetera, but then only held the title for another two weeks, and never, ever, won it back.

 

[Ubiquitous]

What about good ol' Randy Orton in his first run with the World Title? What a horrible idea THAT was. Betrayed by Evolution the night after his title win, WWE tried to turn him face but he was just SO horrible that no one could get behind him. How long did he hold the title after he turned face? I can't recall, since I believe I blinked and missed the whole thing.

 

[vertigolowe]

When I first read clicked on this thread I just skimmed the title and thought it was asking about guys who turned down a title reign. This is much better though.

Personally I think AJ turning heel was a big mistake. If they had kept him face, then everyone could have kept cheering his big moves and they still could have teamed him with Flair (who was face when he left WWE with retirement). AJ is the guy who should be the face of TNA. Keep the belt on him and have Flair help him to 'be the man' so to speak. After a few months Flair could have turned heel on AJ, further getting people behing AJ and then giving the rub to whoever they want as the top heel. AJ should have been the face champion for months doing his sick moves and having great matches with all of the heels.

So while I don't think that his run as heel champion went poorly, I think keeping him face would have been better for him and TNA in general.

Savage's turn worked because back then they basically just needed to find a big heel for Hogan to beat at Wrestlemania every year. Everything that went on was in some way geared toward that. Savage won the belt at WM4 (with Hogan's help) and then they did the Mega Powers thing for the better part of a year before Savage's above-mentioned turn.

 

[King Nate]

The Rock!

He was a face going into the Survival Series PPV. They had a tournament that ended with The Rock putting Mankind in a sharpshooter in which McMahon called for the bell and The Rock won his first title creating the corporation and turning heel. This did not hurt The Rock at all, in fact it made him better.

 

[CyDeez]

Ric Flair in 99 he started off as a face, feuding with Hollywood Hogan. But by the end of this feud, Hogan was "Hulking Up" and Flair was all crazy!

I can't totally remember, but I think after Brock won at WM19, he shortly after that turned Heel again but I don't remember if it was while he was champ or not...

 

[TJ Matics]

This would defitnetly have to go to Jack,
The funny thing is,
He was already a heel before they awarded him the title,
But when they gave him the title,
They turned him into a super-serious heel,
They forgot that the reason why we like Swagger was because of his errogant attitude,
We liked the pyro w/ the push-up,
I for one couldn't wait to see him run arund the ring w/ the strap with that big goofy grin of his,
But I never saw it.
They took away his Swagger,
& left us w/ Jack

 

[LongLiveTheStreak]

Bret "Hitman" Hart in 1997. As a heel, he heat Undertaker for the title at Summerslam. Remember how it went down?
Bret gets a chair
Guest ref HBK takes it
Bret spits in Shawn's face
Shawn swings chair at Bret, misses and hits Taker
Shawn is forced to count 1-2-3

And going into Montreal, Bret Hart was the face in his feud with the cocky degenerate Shawn Michaels. Fans would actually chant "******" at Shawn Michaels and Hunter Hearst-Helmsley. But Bret's turn obviously had nothing to do with how his title run turned out..............SCREWJOB!!!!

 

[dman1373]

Bret "Hitman" Hart in 1997. As a heel, he heat Undertaker for the title at Summerslam. Remember how it went down?
Bret gets a chair
Guest ref HBK takes it
Bret spits in Shawn's face
Shawn swings chair at Bret, misses and hits Taker
Shawn is forced to count 1-2-3

And going into Montreal, Bret Hart was the face in his feud with the cocky degenerate Shawn Michaels. Fans would actually chant "******" at Shawn Michaels and Hunter Hearst-Helmsley. But Bret's turn obviously had nothing to do with how his title run turned out..............SCREWJOB!!!!

During that run, I would never call Hart a face. He was just not getting as many boos as shawn. Technically you could call him a face during a survivor series, but then again he was a face in every country but the US.

 

[LongLiveTheStreak]

During that run, I would never call Hart a face. He was just not getting as many boos as shawn. Technically you could call him a face during a survivor series, but then again he was a face in every country but the US.

Maybe your right. Maybe neither were a complete face or heel at the time. And I just recently watched the Montreal match in full, but I have never heard fans chant sexist slurs at performers like that. They did it on the Raw before too, in Hershey, PA.

 

[The Holy One]

Diamond Dallas Page, 1999. While his reign was only for a month, the man won the title and was arguably the #2 face in the company at the time. During the reign, he turned heel by cheating to defen the title. I thought this really hurt DDP b/c the fans were really behind him and then after losing the title he went into mediocracy by forming the Jersey Triad with Kanyon and Bam Bam Bigelow. While he did win the title again, I think the heel turn hurt DDP a lot and he never recovered from it.

 

[Find'er Woo'er Ryder]

ortons face runs are horrible he is so much better as a heel...punk was probly the best face/heel transition....everyone was pissed that he cashed in after hardy won the title....i have to admit i was pissed too for a while because hardy is one of my favs andi felt he deserved a wealthy title reign but after few weeks i started liking punks heel transition and now its my fav part of smackdown with the whole ses

 

[CanadianCrippler12]

Stone Cold Steve Austin has got to be one of the worst heel turns, because Stone Cold represented the blue collar man, and the fans didn't want to hate him and Stone cold himself said in his book if he would have done it over again he would have stunned Vince, and it always felt like they were trying to force it by making Steve beat up J.R. and even then the fans still kinda cheered for him.

 

[Dr. Stinger A. Zoidberg]

As someone said before, CM Punk's turn was beneficial to his character. He was feuding with one of the WWE's top faces at the time in Jeff Hardy, and turning him heel was the best thing the WWE could have done. Having seen the stuff he did as a heel in ROH, it is very obvious that he is better as a heel. This heel turn was also good for his title reign, as he was able to be the obvious heel in the match. Even after his reign was over, he was able to create one of the best supergroups that the WWE has seen in recent years.

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

In 2002, Kurt Angle had a pretty bizarre heel turn.

This was the year that Brock had obliterated everyone and was coming up to defend his WWE title against Big Show at SSeries.

Show won thanks to Lesnar's manager Paul Heyman, winning both the WWE Title and ending Brock's undefeated streak at the same time.

Then there was some rule put in for some reason where Brock wasn't allowed a rematch with Show, so Kurt Angle became the #1 contender, and he and Brock colluded together to ensure Heyman didn't screw Angle out of the belt, and Angle would definitely leave champion.

Match takes place at Armageddon, Angle looks like he's going to lose due to interference, Lesnar comes down, F5's Show, Angle gets the pin and becomes the champion.

The following week on SD, Angle comes out to thank the fans etc and says that he attributes his title win to one man.......

Now everyone's thinking, 'He means Lesnar, and now they're going to set up next months Title match.....'

Except he wasn't talking about Lesnar at all.

'.... to one man....... My new business manager, PAUL HEYMAN!!!!!'

and out came Heyman with that massive smile across his face, and gets in the ring and gloats about how he and Kurt have completely pulled the wool over everyone's eyes, and thereby cementing Kurt as a heel champion, despite winning the title as a face some 4 days prior.

And i just didn't get it. Considering that that fued carried on until WM, a full 4 months, they could have easily had the two become more and more jealous of each other's wrestling ability and develop a fued based on wrestling superiority instead of going with 'Let's replace Show with Kurt and simply carry on....'

It just seemed like they were saying, 'we don't think Kurt can pull off being a loveable champ.'

Remember during the Invasion angle when he beat Austin for the title as a face? And then lost the belt 2 weeks later on Raw, like the first time the title had changed hands on Raw in years!!!! This coupled with the booking a year later, just made me think that they had no confidence in a face Kurt Angle as champion compared to a heel Kurt Angle as champion.