First Heel... Then Face... Then Heel... Then Face

[Guest The Mountie]

A lot of people consider The Big Show to be the most turned character in the WWF (from face to heel and vice versa) but I believe I’ve found one better in the shape of the man we know as ‘The Big Valbowski’, Val Venis.

 

Spring 1998:

Val Venis introduced to WWF audiences in a series of vignettes, the first promoting his ‘new movie’ Live Hard. Then he debuts and drops opening match babyface Scorpio. Which seems to make him a HEEL.

 

Summer 1998:

Val’s routine begins to get over with the crowd and he drifts into a BABYFACE role, peaking with an entertaining European Title showdown with D Lo Brown at SummerSlam.

 

Autumn/Fall 1998:

Val enters a feud with the ‘reborn’ Dustin Runnels over wife Terri. Venis pushes the envelope to the extent that fans become uncomfortable to cheer him and then finally embrace the returning Goldust character making Val a HEEL again.

 

Early 1999:

Val becomes tangled in an interesting feud with Ken Shamrock over ‘sister’ Ryan. Following on from Kenny’s match with Billy Gunn at the Royal Rumble, ol’ ‘Bad Ass’ assists a BABYFACE Val in winning Intercontinental gold, yet Val drifts back into a HEEL role by ditching Ryan. Meanwhile, the popular Road Dogg is drafted into the IC picture and drops Val to lift the title.

 

Spring 1999:

Venis’ starts feuding with Jeff Jarrett, thus surely making him a BABYFACE, yet he is lumbered with the HEELish Nicole Bass as a ‘love interest’.

 

Summer 1999:

Fairly uneventful teaming stint with The Godfather sees Val firmly established as a mid-card BABYFACE. Then…

 

Autumn/Fall 1999:

Out of seemingly nowhere, Val, a HEEL once more, is pitted against Mick ‘Mankind’ Foley for a series that certainly had its moments and allowed Val to rub shoulders with other main event stars The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin in various televised encounters.

 

Late 1999:

A low key Survivor Series appearance cuts off much of Val’s heel momentum and at the inaugural WWF Armageddon PPV, Val takes the British Bulldog’s European Title in a three way, leaving him to march into the new millennium as a BABYFACE once more.

 

Summer 2000:

Val, after losing the European gold to a young rookie named Kurt Angle, hooks up with Trish Stratus and finds himself as the crown jewel in her HEEL stable, snaring the IC belt once more along the way.

 

Autumn/Fall 2000:

Val is kidnapped by the Right To Censor. Another BABYFACE turn? Not this time, as we see the newly reformed Venis aspire to new levels of HEELdom.

 

Early 2002:

After a long sabbatical, Val returns as a guest entrant in the Royal Rumble match and finds himself a BABYFACE once more, despite elimination by fan favourite Steve Austin.

 

Which brings us to today. It’s a shame that Val has never quite penetrated (pardon the pun!) the glass ceiling, as he has been a favourite of mine for a long time and I believe is the smoothest wrestler to watch in the WWF. The funny thing is despite all of these changes in character, I can’t remember him actually ever turning heel/face in the traditional sense (i.e. attacking a friend/tag partner) Any response?

[Guest dreamer420]

val is one of the best wrestlers in the wwe right now. unforunatly he has been saddled with a stupid name and stale gimmick. i would like see see him drop the big valbowski name and either go back to val venis or use his real name of sean morely. i see him possibly joining the alliance of pissed off canadians and thus: turning heel again.

[Guest El Gigante]

Val is great, i didn't even him notice him turning all those times. But it is a great point.

[Guest JaKyL25]

Early 1999:

Val becomes tangled in an interesting feud with Ken Shamrock over ‘sister’ Ryan. Following on from Kenny’s match with Billy Gunn at the Royal Rumble, ol’ ‘Bad Ass’ assists a BABYFACE Val in winning Intercontinental gold, yet Val drifts back into a HEEL role by ditching Ryan. Meanwhile, the popular Road Dogg is drafted into the IC picture and drops Val to lift the title.

 

I would say he was a TWEENER the whole time here. Gunn as the good guy, Shamrock as the bad guy, Val as the wild card.

[Guest Tony149]

I would say Val's role from his feud with Dustin until he dumped Ryan was shades of grey. Val started dissing the fans when he turned heel in late 1999. I don't remember him doing that when his feud with Dustin started.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

God. I don't even remember Val ever being heel except for the RTC period. It's kind of hard to hate a guy with a gimmick like that, except in the Smark-ish "Get off my TV!" sort of way.

[Guest dreamer420]

i thought val was a face up till he hooked up with trish stratus and t and a. he might have even been a tweener at this point. he was a full fledged heel after joining the rtc and dropping the porn gimmick

[Guest nWoScorpion]

Kane i thought wa smost turned.

 

Heel until jan 98, turned face by saving taker, turned heel at RR again, turned face at sslam, turned heel weeks later, turned face weeks later turned heel weeks later turned face for 1 night, turned heel again, turned face, turned heel, turned face.

[Guest bob_barron]

Kane didnt turn face at sslam. He beat the shit out of Foley and wanted to interfere in the main. Sounds heelsh to me.

[Guest nWoScorpion]

MANKIND WAS HEEL REMEMBER? AND UNDERTAKER WAS A TWEENER WHO WAS A FACE AT THE TIME. I THINK TURNING ON PAUL BEARER A WEEK OR 2 BEFORE THE PPV SIGNIFIED HE WAS A FACE.

[Guest dreamer420]

i thought kane was a heel right up till he got screwed at wrestlemania 15 and then started teaming with x-pac. i could be wrong but that sounds right to me.

[Guest nWoScorpion]

Kane was a face about 5-6 time sin 1998 alone, sometimes for only a week. When he was put in the asylum he turned heel, then before RR 99 he refused to lay down fot the Rock on a RAW and turned him face before he turned again by the next night or week.

[Guest bob_barron]

First of all- turn the cap locks off.

 

Normally when a guy turns face he beats up a man whom the crowd hates and despises and the commentators are all: yay!

 

Foley was a TWEENER/FACE at this point fighting faces- NAO. When Kane beat up Mick post-match everyone boos and JR is all: Bah gawd thun of a bitch BBQ sauce hoss,

 

That isn't a face turn scorp. Kane did not turn at Summerslam

[Guest nWoScorpion]

Well if Undertaker was a face (and he was) and Kane is teaming with him, basic logic says Kane is a default face. Unless for some odd reason they had heel/face friendships.

[Guest bob_barron]

So what he teamed with Kane. Go BOD!

 

The point I'm making is that Kane didn't turn face at Summerslam 98. He was pretty much a heel/tweener.

[Guest Fook_Hing_Ho]

Kane was firmly a heel at SS98. Taker was a tweener in the fact that his partnership with Kane was in the processed of being exposed. A couple weeks later he fully sided with Kane, turning him heel and leading to the Taker/Kane/Austin triple threat where Taker and Kane just double teamed Austin and pinned him at the same time.

[Guest nWoScorpion]

Ok 1 time i was wrong. The rest of the times are right i think.

[Guest GenerationNever]

The Attitude era didn't have any "real" heels or faces, it was all shades of grey. Of course, part of this can be attributed to all the constant SWERVES~! But, for the most part, I would say Russo was good at character development and letting the fans decide who to cheer and boo. Val didn't turn heel, he was just doing what his character would do.

[Guest dreamer420]

val was a case of using sex to get over and it worked perfectly. his act always put him with beautiful woman, and gave him the chance to say some terrific lines.

[Guest TheScholarlyLion]

Unless for some odd reason they had heel/face friendships.

Well, there IS a precedent with Luger and Sting in 95-96.

[Guest TheHulkster]

Favorite Val moment: Dustin Runnels for weeks had been preaching the good word and parading around the stands with a sign say "He is coming", seemingly to indictaed the return of Christ. A week later, during a Dustin Runnels match, out comes Val Venus into the stands with a sign that reads "I Have Come". I just found it really funny due to the looks on Val Venus' face when he was carrying the sign and for how wrong it was. Dustin had a big fit when he seen it.

[Guest dreamer420]

a favourite val moment of mine is from gtv:

 

"they call you the big show?"

[Guest DoubleM]

I think Val and X-Pac are the perfect examples of Russo's characterization (no, i probably cant spell it right) techniques, were no-one is truly a good guy or a bad guy. Vince McMahon started the thing off when he appeared on TV in late 97 saying he thought fans were tired of the "tired old simplistic theories of good guys v. bad guys" and ushered in the shades of grey era. Actually, after thinking about it, I guess you could say the heel/face structure became a little grey when Bret turned in the spring of 97, as he was a heel in the US and a face pretty much everywhere else. It was funny attending the One Night Only PPV, as Bret got a mixed reaction while Patriot was almost booed out of the building, as I thought Bret's heelish actions on RAW would have secured him for a heel reaction in his match against The Undertaker. It would have been alot different if he had faced Steve Austin as originally planned.

[Guest Your Olympic Hero]

What about his feud with Kaientai, with Yamaguchi doing the "choppy choppy his pee pee" thing. Val stole Yamaguchi's 16 yr old wife. He was face during that period I think.

[Guest dreamer420]

that might have been the feud that turned him face. i still remember the image of val tied up naked and yamaguchi slicing down with a big samerai sword right as raw cut to a commercial.