Worst excuse for a heel turn

[Jingus 0]

Oh yeah, that was some surprisingly good shit. Hogan's outside signing autographs, and Sting sneaks up behind him, saying "Hey Hulkster, can I get your autograph too?" in this creepy kid's voice. He bludgeons Hogan, but of course because it's fucking Hogan he's no-selling it later on. So Sting does another interview, in this dark room, where he's gently tapping his bat against a table. "(tap... tap...) Looks like I didn't get the job done... (tap... tap...) maybe I should do something about that." Bizarrely effective, even though it was a fucking stupid idea in the first place.

 

When Austin turned heel in 2001. Either time. In theory they could've made sense, but the execution was fucking horrible. Trying to turn Stone Cold Steve Austin heel IN TEXAS had about the same guaranteed success rate as the XFL.

[Vern Gagne 0]

Expanding the topic somewhat. How many out of the blue heel turns work out? Usually someone shows signs of heeldom, or getting heat with the crowd. So people aren't shocked by the turn. I don't count Hogan whose turn was a shock, but we had signs pointing to it.

[haws bah gawd 0]

Oh yeah, that was some surprisingly good shit. Hogan's outside signing autographs, and Sting sneaks up behind him, saying "Hey Hulkster, can I get your autograph too?" in this creepy kid's voice. He bludgeons Hogan, but of course because it's fucking Hogan he's no-selling it later on. So Sting does another interview, in this dark room, where he's gently tapping his bat against a table. "(tap... tap...) Looks like I didn't get the job done... (tap... tap...) maybe I should do something about that." Bizarrely effective, even though it was a fucking stupid idea in the first place.

 

When Austin turned heel in 2001. Either time. In theory they could've made sense, but the execution was fucking horrible. Trying to turn Stone Cold Steve Austin heel IN TEXAS had about the same guaranteed success rate as the XFL.

 

I think I brought this up in the Worst Excuse for a Face Turn thread, but I hated how quickly the announcers were to condemn Sting for hitting Hogan with the Bat, but not 6 months earlier, wanted Hogan's head on a pike. I hated how we were just supposed to accept Hogan as a face again because he had an "unscheduled" match on Nitro, didn't have his gear, and Nick just happened to be there with him that night, with his old red and yellow gear in a duffel bag, which Hogan came out wearing.

 

"I don't know what I'm gonna do little dude. I have a match tonight, but I didn't bring my gear".

"Hey Dad, why don't you wear the clothes that I brought?" *pulls red and yellow gear out of bag*

*Hogan stares at the stuff wildly* "UH, UH......I GOTTA GO!"

[SamoaRowe 0]

Undertaker turning heel in 2001 was really horrible too. He made J.R. kiss Vince's ass just because he'd been supposedly doing that for years. Um... what?

 

 

[haws bah gawd 0]

Undertaker turning heel in 2001 was really horrible too. He made J.R. kiss Vince's ass just because he'd been supposedly doing that for years. Um... what?

 

JR, I've been kissing this man's ass for years. But I don't see you doing it. Are you saying you're better than me? He can't kiss your ass, unless you're wearing his hat!

[Black Lushus 0]

I don't recall, did they really explain Davey Boy's heel turn in 95? I just remember he tagged with Diesel on Raw before Summerslam and then attacked him afterwards. Did he give a big "Lex Luger and the fans were holding me back!" speech?

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

And then 'Taker as a heel was actually entertaining. Started busting his ass in matches with Jeff Hardy and RVD. The Hardcore title bout at Vengeance vs. RVD was actually really fucking sweet, IIRC.

[Black Lushus 0]

The pinnacle of heel UT was when he totally destroyed Maven after he got eliminated by him in the 02 Rumble. One of my all-time favorite Bikertaker moments. The look on his face after he got eliminated was fantastic! You just knew Maven was fucked right then and there.

[Diamonddust 0]

The pinnacle of heel UT was when he totally destroyed Maven after he got eliminated by him in the 02 Rumble. One of my all-time favorite Bikertaker moments. The look on his face after he got eliminated was fantastic! You just knew Maven was fucked right then and there.

 

Agreed... that was pretty entertaining to watch. I remember the group of people I was watching it with were like, "Damn... Maven's about to die."

[haws bah gawd 0]

The pinnacle of heel UT was when he totally destroyed Maven after he got eliminated by him in the 02 Rumble. One of my all-time favorite Bikertaker moments. The look on his face after he got eliminated was fantastic! You just knew Maven was fucked right then and there.

 

Agreed... that was pretty entertaining to watch. I remember the group of people I was watching it with were like, "Damn... Maven's about to die."

 

Didn't they do this again in 2003, only for Taker to nosell the Drop Kick and destroy Maven?

[Black Lushus 0]

Maybe it was 03 I'm thinking of, I can't remember...

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Yes, in an awesome Rumble moment Maven dropkicked Undertaker in the 2003 Rumble and Taker stumbled towards the ropes but did not go over. Maven, assuming it worked, danced around declaring "two times! two times!" while holding up 2 fingers. He turned around to see Taker still in there and got his ass handed to him.

[cabbageboy 0]

With Bulldog I didn't actually see that Raw since it was open house at my HS, but I caught the weekend show and Tod Pettengill was outraged and talking about what a piece of crap Bulldog was. I was like "HUH???" So they show this tag match and he turns on Diesel and I was like "Oh, who cares...it's just Diesel." Bulldog also got a real haircut after that, the sure signs of a heel.

 

I mentioned that UT heel turn previously but personally I don't even consider that a heel turn. I don't know what the fuck that was really. To me his actual heel turn came the next week when he brutally attacked RVD and left him laying, which led to the really bad ass Vengeance 2001 hardcore match.

[Naked Snake 0]

There were some horrible turns in 2001.

 

Austin's first turn was in Texas...how dumb could they be?

 

Then he turns face one week...and then a lame heel turn/swerve again at InVasion.

 

Angle then turns heel after the Survivor Series and Austin turns face. All these stupid turns and him walking out in 2002 and getting buried on Confidential really killed Austins heat with me.

[Kinetic 0]

That Austin's heel turn occured in Texas is really secondary to the fact that the turn was totally bungled after the fact, with no real plausible explanation ever given. If you look back on the build to that match, the potential explanation was actually pretty cool: Austin is so totally obsessed with being champion that he'll ally himself with his most hated enemy to maintain a status that he knows he can no longer maintain on his own. Location aside, it was executed very well at WM X7 and then completely mismanaged subsequently.

[haws bah gawd 0]

That Austin's heel turn occured in Texas is really secondary to the fact that the turn was totally bungled after the fact, with no real plausible explanation ever given. If you look back on the build to that match, the potential explanation was actually pretty cool: Austin is so totally obsessed with being champion that he'll ally himself with his most hated enemy to maintain a status that he knows he can no longer maintain on his own. Location aside, it was executed very well at WM X7 and then completely mismanaged subsequently.

 

Not to mention the crowd was going batshit crazy cheering for Austin while he destroyed The Rock with the chair.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Probably already got mentioned, but Crush's heel turn on Savage was fairly stupid. Crush claimed he and Savage had been friends, when they had never really been presented as such before in WWF.

 

Bulldog's turn on Diesel really came out of nowhere. That was kind of another stupid one. I wasn't really watching around that time, because I hated Diesel as a face champion, and WWF in 1995 was abysmal for the most part.

[cabbageboy 0]

Well, the problem is that Bulldog and Diesel weren't ever really friends so Bulldog turning on him didn't come off as some heinous act. Further, I'd say more fans liked Davey Boy than Nash at that point and didn't know how to react to Bulldog being a heel. Bulldog was never a very good heel, never did much that was vicious or mean.

[SamoaRowe 0]

Yeah, I hated Kurt Angle turning heel by joining the Alliance after months of single handedly taking them all on himself. Then he turned on them again at Survivor Series and was back to being a heel the next night.

 

I also hated Austin's face turn the night after Survivor Series 2001, because everyone was acting like he hadn't just spent the last several months playing a heel, it was all just forgotten about. It was like an on-air confession of "We realize no one wants to boo him, so hell, just cheer him already."

 

Austin in 2001 must also never be forgiven for the creation of the "WHAT" chant.

[zappafrank 0]

The pinnacle of heel UT was when he totally destroyed Maven after he got eliminated by him in the 02 Rumble. One of my all-time favorite Bikertaker moments. The look on his face after he got eliminated was fantastic! You just knew Maven was fucked right then and there.

 

I was there live and actually missed it. For some reason my attention my attention was drawn elsewhere and then all of a sudden I heard this huge pop from the crowd and when I refocused my attention Taker was standing outside the ring while Maven was jumping around inside.

[zappafrank 0]

Expanding the topic somewhat. How many out of the blue heel turns work out? Usually someone shows signs of heeldom, or getting heat with the crowd. So people aren't shocked by the turn. I don't count Hogan whose turn was a shock, but we had signs pointing to it.

 

I don't know if it counts on the same level, but Cena turning heel in 2002 came from out of nowhere in the sense that he had been on TV for a few months as a face and recently had been teaming with Kidman on Velocity only to get pissed at him. Kidman lost their match or something and Cena didn't like it, and he cut some promo where he said, "Do you want me to say that again?" and he made "backwards talking" sounds, which I thought was awesome. He simply started acting heelish, maybe even actually turning on Kidman. Eventually he showed up at the Halloween party dressed an Vanilla Ice and the rest is history.

 

Some people say HBK turning on Hogan in 2005 came from out of the blue, but I was actually expecting it the 1st week they teamed together. So when HBK actually did turn on Hogan the next week, I was all primed for it. I thought it was a good heel turn, but it was like The Rock in late 98 and 2003 where he was a such an entertaining jerk that you wanted to cheer him (thanks largely to the awesome Larry King spoof). The heat he got in Montreal was unreal.

 

JBL's turn (by ditching Faarooq in order to keep his job) in 2004 seemed spur of the moment but he went on to become one of my favorite characters.

[Steve J. Rogers 0]

Kurt Angle turning heel because he turned on the Alliance.

 

Yeah that was pretty funny. It almost seemed more like the WWF turned on Angle rather than the other way around.

 

Was was that line out of JR when Angle came out for the main event promo? King had said that Angle saved everyone's job and Ross said "So what? Does that mean we have to give him a damn parade?"

 

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

Was was that line out of JR when Angle came out for the main event promo? King had said that Angle saved everyone's job and Ross said "So what? Does that mean we have to give him a damn parade?"

 

Yeah, that was incredibly retarded. They could have just eased him back into a heel position by having him tell the fans off or... something that truly justified his being painted as a heel. Being close-knit with the freshly turned Vince allowed it to make sense shortly thereafter, but that was still a stupid turn.

[Epic Reine 0]

What about Kurt Angle turning on Eddie Guerrero in 2004 because he didn't like the fact that the world champion was someone who lies, cheats and steals?

[The Amazing Rando 0]

What about Kurt Angle turning on Eddie Guerrero in 2004 because he didn't like the fact that the world champion was someone who lies, cheats and steals?

 

 

Didn't that involve Kurt handcuffing Eddy and beating the shit out of him? Between NWO and WMXX, I think?

[J.B. Buzzkill 0]

What about Kurt Angle turning on Eddie Guerrero in 2004 because he didn't like the fact that the world champion was someone who lies, cheats and steals?

 

 

Didn't that involve Kurt handcuffing Eddy and beating the shit out of him? Between NWO and WMXX, I think?

 

Eddy actually fought Paul Heyman with both hands behind his back. While heading back up the aisleway, Angle confronted him. The "Oh, shit" look on Eddy's face was priceless.

[cabbageboy 0]

Angle's heel turn circa Nov. 2001 was something that made little sense in storyline terms but had to be done. He was totally out of steam as a face by that point. At the time I didn't really mind it since they blatantly did a restart after the Invasion was over and just wanted to put guys back in their normal roles.

[King Cucaracha 0]

What about Kurt Angle turning on Eddie Guerrero in 2004 because he didn't like the fact that the world champion was someone who lies, cheats and steals?

 

 

Didn't that involve Kurt handcuffing Eddy and beating the shit out of him? Between NWO and WMXX, I think?

 

Eddy actually fought Paul Heyman with both hands behind his back. While heading back up the aisleway, Angle confronted him. The "Oh, shit" look on Eddy's face was priceless.

 

He actually turned a couple of weeks before that when he was guest referring one of Eddie's matches. But yeah, that was an awesome segment.

[Steve J. Rogers 0]

Angle's heel turn circa Nov. 2001 was something that made little sense in storyline terms but had to be done. He was totally out of steam as a face by that point. At the time I didn't really mind it since they blatantly did a restart after the Invasion was over and just wanted to put guys back in their normal roles.

 

Yeah, instead of promos cut on him by Edge and Rock they should have had him come out and pulled a classic promo turning on the fans, saying that he always sensed they never were 100% behind him or something. Like they were waiting to start chanting "You Suck" again.

[TheSSNintendo 0]

How about Kane's heel turn during the summer of 2000? He's teaming with the Undertaker for awhile, then on one Raw, he chokeslams him out of nowhere. His excuse? "I'm a monster!"