We are having a lot of fun with the nostalgia of the old WWF posts we have had the last few days.  We have also received several emails thanking us for them, and suggestions for future posts.  Today, we thought we would look at some of the more memorable heel turns in the wrestling history.

What the hell is a heel?  In professional wrestling, a heel is a villain character (Wikipedia)

So what is the opposite of a heel?  In professional wrestling, a face or babyface is a character who is portrayed as heroic relative to the heel wrestlers. (Wikipedia)

So basically the “heel turn” is when a good guy becomes a bad guy.  Now, we are not looking at it to see if it was a smart or successful move to do so within the storyline, but most of these were shocking to say the least.

We saw this one yesterday, Shawn Michaels turns on Marty Jannetty and breaks up one of the most popular tag teams of all-time.  Strangely enough, these two had dissension in real-life, and Vince McMahon used it to fuel a story line.

Steve Austin sides with Vince McMahon. One of the main storyline’s of the WWF’s Attitude Era was the one with Stone Cold Steve Austin always fighting with Vince McMahon. However, that had become somewhat stale by Wrestlemania 17. In his championship match with the Rock, he hit him with a chair,which wasn’t really out of character for him) but then celebrated his victory by drinking a beer with Vince McMahon.
You will have to click here to see his first promo as a bad guy.

Bret “Hitman” Hart turns his back on American fans. This is an interesting one. Wrestling has always been just as big in Canada as it is in the US. Canadian fans love their wrestlers, and always cheer for them if they are face or heel. They would boo an American face if he was up against any Canadian wrestler. Vince McMahon decided to play off this with Bret Hart, and have him turn on that fans in the states. Here is part 1:

and here is part 2:

Shawn Michaels superkicks Hulk Hogan. Hulk Hogan was as over with the fans as he had ever beenn, Michaels wanted to put on a match with him, but someone had to lose. Shawn thought it would be best if he played the bad guy just for this feud, and what better way to get the fans to turn on you than kick the biggest fan favorite ever.

Andre the Giant turns on Hogan.Andre was a fan favorite for years, mostly because of his size. The storyline was that Andre was jealous that Hogan was getting all the recognition, and that he was the champ, even though nobody had ever pinned Andre in 15 years. One night Andre showed up and told his buddy Hogan that they were no more and he wanted a shot at the belt. Hogan would win the match of Andre and it would immortalize him in wrestling lore.

The Mega-Powers break up. Another guy turns on Hogan. This time it is Randy “Macho Man” Savage. Basic storyline is that he didn’t trust Hogan with Miss Elizabeth.

Jim Ross joins fake Diesel and fake Razor Ramon. He was bitter towards Vince McMahon for firing him, and he decides to make a mockery of the WWF.

The Rock was insanely popular. He became so popular that Hollywood came calling, much like they did for Hulk Hogan back in the 80s. He started to take several hiatuses from the WWE, and the fans started to turn on him for his lack of performances. When his name would be mentioned, fans would boo. So when he finally returned, they had him turn against the fans, telling him they didn’t respect what he had given them for so many years. This also allowed him to feud with his buddy Goldberg. There is no video online of him turning heel, but this was during that run.

I am not even going to both getting into Chris Jericho, HHH, and Ric Flair. Those guys turn once year.

Finally, the greatest heel turn ever. The WCW had recently launched their own Monday Night wrestling program and needed a way to get fans to watch. At the Bash at the Beach PPV event, Hogan looks like he is making a triumphant return to help the good guys like he had done so many times before. Then he would shock everyone and wrestling would never be the same.

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