What's worse than a wrestler turning for a stupid reason?
A wrestler turning for NO reason!
Fill in the blank- Lex Luger decided to go from a being a narcissist, to a patriotic face, because according to him _______________
Yokozuna's Japanese terrorism made him realize that he was an American first and a egomaniac second. Pretty sure he said that early on.
That one isn't even on the radar of all the stupid turns that people did under Russo, and generally we didn't a reasoning other than "I don't owe you idiot fans an explanation!" I find that "explanation" to be the most infuriatingly lazy copout writing, and believe me, I know lazy copout writing. Even something like Batista's "I got sick of kissing babies and ugly fat chicks" speech is all we need to find motivation for someone. It didn't used to be a problem in the 80s because everything got weeks to gestate with promos and Special Updates with Sean Mooney and such, but once we got into the Attitude era things got silly.
That being said, there are generally some tried-and-true reasons for turning that can be thrown out easily without the need for explicit exposition when an explanation is needed:
1) Blood is thicker than water! Hey, sometimes loyalty to your family or former allies trumps common sense, like with the Hart Foundation or the reunion of DX in 2000.
2) Money talks! This one goes without much explanation. Tatanka in 94, Garvin in 88, Windham joining the Horsemen in 88.
3) America, FUCK YEAH! (Or hell no). Sgt. Slaughter used both of these rationales for turns. More than once! And of course Lex Luger falls under this one.
4) I want the title! This one is less used now because no one gives a shit about titles anymore, but you've got Powers of Pain in 88 and a bunch of others who have turned on the champion to get a title shot.
5) My name is Inigo Montoya! Personal vengeance for perceived wrong, like Rick Martel on Tito Santana in 89, Batista on Rey Mysterio, or Shawn Michaels on Marty Jannetty.
6) I want respect! Most famous is Paul Orndorff in 86 (although it could also fall under #5), and of course CM Punk today. You could also throw Austin 2001 in here.
7) My Enemy's Enemy Is My Friend! Kind of related to #1, but this one has become more refined in the "Wacky Tag Team Partners Who Hate Each Other" era with the people involved then becoming allies against a common foe. I wanna say RVD and Sabu off the top of my head, but I'm sure there's tons of better examples.
Those are the big ones but of course there's many more. And I didn't really cover the original topic, but it's my blog.
Did they ever explain why the Giant rejoined the NWO in 1998?
ReplyDeleteI always thought of RVD and Sabu as a team first, enemies second. Like, they were team mates, but RVD's ego was too much and Sabu began to resent him.
ReplyDeleteI was a huge fan of when the Giant would walk out to the ring smoking a cigarette. I believe it was "the gentleman" chris adams who took grave offense to his air being polluted and kindly asked Giant to extinguish his cig.
ReplyDeleteMy two favorite:
ReplyDeleteHeel: Yokozuna's last run. After turning face several months earlier to feud with Vader, he lost a match to Steve Austin at the Summerslam '96 Free For All. The next night on RAW, for no reason whatsoever, Jim Cornette announces that Yokozuna is "back in the fold", and sends him out to face Shawn Michaels in a WWF title match.
Face: Sycho Sid. After turning on Shawn Michaels the night after Wrestlemania XI, he feuded with Michaels until well after Summerslam, and remained a heel until a year-end injury took him out of action. Six months later, after Ultimate Warrior's unexpected departure in the lead up to a six man tag match at International Incident, Shawn Michaels brought out his replacement partner...Sid. The explanation for the change of heart? "Not everything that happens in life happens on camera"
Got 3 more to add to the list:
ReplyDelete8) Difference of lifestyles/opinions (CM Punk/Hardy as the prime example)
The turn made sense because of Punk's beliefs, and was effective because of Hardy's popularity.
9) The fans (Hulk Hogan/NWO)
Any wrestler who says "I tried for years, and what did I get? Boos". Rock works well here for his first turn.
10) Being sold into slavery (Dibiase/Hercules)
I'd be pretty pissed off myself
This probably falls into other categories but I like when a heel turns face, then a face he previously feuded with turns heel because he still doesn't like him...it's logical, just because the fans now like someone doesn't mean the guy he used to feud likes him now, and having the fans rally behind the guy who used to beat you down is reason to turn on them...
ReplyDelete11) Traumatic event (Nikita Koloff)
ReplyDeleteUsually done when real life events force a radical change in booking. Nikita was a hated Russian until Magnum TA's horrific car accident forced him to rethink his entire outlook on life, and a heartfelt private talk with Dusty Rhodes sealed the deal. Also done with Chavo Guerrero after the untimely death of Eddie.
I remember that Yokozuna turn. It was ignored and he was face again right afterwards. I think they were just TELLING STORIES for that one night, no plan where he was going afterwards.
ReplyDeleteWasn't he just copying DDP's old sctick of walking out to the ring smoking a cigar?
ReplyDeleteIt was a cigarette. I remember reading at the time that he actually was a smoker and it was kind of a rib because of that...It was really strange though, didn't really fit into anything or lead to anything. I assume he just wanted to smoke when he wanted to.
ReplyDeleteI can nip this one in the bud a little quickly!
ReplyDeleteFavorite heel turn: Batista @ Bragging Rights 2009. Yes, this is my #1 pick. When Batista tells Rey Mysterio "I'm gonna rip your head off", that was a hell of a moment. Batista goes from slighty calm to enraged within seconds, and rips Mysterio to shreds. Wow.
Favorite face turn: Steve Austin @ Wrestlemania XIII. Need I say more?!
idk but he did it a few times and he would smoke the thing while squashng the jobber (chris adams) at the same time, than he would flick the ashes on him.
ReplyDeleteYou could probably do an entire post on never explained turns dedicated to Chyna, Kane or Jericho. I guess it sort of makes sense for Kane's character given that he's KANE and does stuff when it occurs to him. But I remember rants about how Chyna turned walking down the aisle then 3 times in one match and who could even keep track of Jericho's turns and the reasons behind them. Was there even a reason for his latest heel-face turn? Because if there was I don't remember it.
ReplyDeleteI'll give Jericho a shot.
ReplyDeleteIn WCW he was the goody goody face and kept losing, so he snapped, turned into an asshole and found success, which made him increasingly arrogant.
Debuted in WWF as the same arrogant heel character. Turned face just because the fans were cheering him, but he remained mostly the same smart ass dickhead, only directed it towards heels.
Accidentally hit The Rock with a chair during a tag match, Rock gave him shit for it, they agreed to settle it in the ring, which lead to him being called out for not being able to win the big one, which lead to him cheating to beat The Rock and snapping when he lost the title back. So I'd say frustration, hatred for The Rock, and then extreme arrogance once he finally did win the Undisputed Championship...
Remains a heel until the Trish situation. Falls for Trish, has a falling out with Christian over her, turns into a good guy for defending her against him, becomes more of a good guy when she turns on him to join bad guy Christian. Doing the right thing then getting fucked over for it made him a face that time...
I'm not sure what the turn on Cena was about. I think jealously? I dunno, quick heel turn just to set up the Summerslam match.
It gets a big foggy after that. Returned as a face because apparently Randy Orton holding the title was too much for him and caused him to return after two years. What annoyed me about this was he sat out for two years then returned for one specific reason, failed and forgot about it in three years.
Started acting like a dick to Shawn Michaels for no particular reason. I think the official heel turn was because he started getting booed for questioning Michaels for faking an injury, even though he was right.
I think he was a heel until his recent face turn, which had really no reason behind it other than him being a dick to Ziggler and suddenly being referred to as Y2J again. They turns have less meaning and less thought behind them the more often he does it.
Because of Giant's hatred of Kevin Nash.
ReplyDeleteOk, Kane.
ReplyDeleteDebuted as a heel, apparently miffed that his brother burned his parents to death and he was locked in various mental institutions for years.
Turned face briefly by helping Undertaker, but that turned out to be a Russo for the fuck of it SWERVE to trick Undertaker for some reason. So he put him in a casket and set him on fire.
The Undertaker started to act evil and abused Kane, so Kane started to rebel against him, making him a good guy. But then he was threatened by the Corporation with going back to the mental institution so he had to work for them. Making this easier was him falling for Chyna who seemed to care about him.
Until she turned on him and reunited with Triple H, making him a sympathetic good guy. Somehow he ends up paling around with X-Pac, who tries to be-friend him. He's hesitant at first but eventually a genuine friendship develops.
X-Pac turns on him and bangs his girlfriend, but he remains a sympathetic face.
Then he turns on the now good guy biker Undertaker for no particular reason. Maybe he realized neither of them had anything to do at Summerslam that year and wanted to spare the creative team the work.
And that's about as far as I got. I think he was a heel at Rumble 2001, but face at WM, but I have no idea how that happened. I can't remember what he did until he lost the mask, but that sent him over the edge and turned him heel....that's probably the last time he turned for reasons other than "for the hell of it".
You can run an entire blog based on analyzing the face/heel turns of Big Show.
ReplyDeleteOff-topic: We really need another Stone Cold. Not in the "biggest star in wrestling" sorta way (though it'd be nice), but in a guy who doesn't like ANYBODY. Face, heel, announcer, interviewer, doesn't matter: he's gonna fuck you up. Why? Why the fuck not?
ReplyDeleteYep. Thought we were getting that when Orton first turned, but they neutered him.
ReplyDeleteSheamus should be booked this way. Instead, we get Irish John Cena.
12) Similar to #7 above, we have a huge threat that everybody needs to band together to fight them off. Examples: fighting the NWO (especially Luger), the Invasion, the Nexus, Aces & Eights
ReplyDeleteRVD and Sabu started feuding. RVD debuted and beat Sabu.. Sabu went to shake his hand and RVD blew him off. Later Furnas and Krofett beat the hell out of RVD and the only person worthy of being his partner was Sabu.
ReplyDeleteThe Jericho heel turn in 2008 is one of the BEST-explained turns in wrestling history, handled with incredible subtlety. In fact, you could well say it was a case (like Bret/Austin) of the fans themselves turning heel. Granted it took Jericho not much time to morph from "An Honest Man" into the weasel we saw in his last couple years.
ReplyDelete2008 Jericho is second only to 1998 Jericho in the awesome characters department.
I wanna say they had some explanation about him being so huge he didn't even need to train or take care of himself.
ReplyDeleteAustin's heel turn was the worst. It would've been fine if he turned on the Rock because he threatened his spot, but aligning with Vince was just stupid.
ReplyDeleteThen he does the whole "I don't owe anyone an explanation" and attacked JR because that was required for all heels.
Favorite heel turn: Austin at WrestleMania X7. Yeah, I said it. It was beautiful, the build-up, the execution, everything. The amazing, subtle shot backstage of Austin looking himself in the mirror set everything up. It's why I will never understand people who say "he never explained the turn!" because the story was told in the build-up. The loss to HHH took Austin's confidence, and he needed the title to survive.
ReplyDeleteFavorite face turn: Macho Man at WM7 and DDP on Nitro against the nWo.
That's not similar to #7; that's exactly the same thing.
ReplyDeleteIt was never explained that way on TV. It was all a big blah about Debra and her being Rock's manager and crap like that. Never that Austin didn't have confidence.
ReplyDeleteps. that loss to HHH was still one of the dumbest moves in WWE history.
He was a heel heading into Royal Rumble '01, but then midway into the Rumble he and Undertaker decided to stop hating each other and team up and kick ass to eliminate everybody in the rumble, and The Brothers of Destruction was reborn. Amazingly, he remained a face for 2 whole years until the unmasking angle.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, Austin's complete and utter insanity was AWESOME. Like when Mankind and Ken Shamrock saved him from a Hart Foundation beatdown and he gave them both stunners anyway, and giving Dude Love a stunner after winning the tag team championship with him? Why? CUZ DTA, MOTHERFUCKER.
ReplyDeleteAustin's turn was fantastic! He was self-conscious about returning and didn't feel like he was the best anymore. His lack of confidence caused him to break the one rule that he had always kept (Fuck McMahon). He needed the belt to prove to himself he was still the man. The only problem is that he didn't become the corporate champion he should've turned into.
ReplyDeleteWhy would I cheer this person?
ReplyDeleteIt can make for a good story if there is suspicion, but that it might be overcome. Like a face could be won over, but it's going to take some time and work. Sting being hesitant about Nikita Koloff when he turned in '92 comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteAnd I still think the gold standard of a thoughtful turn has to be Bret in '97. It built for months, and you could understand his reasoning, even if you didn't necessarily agree with it. It just worked so well (as Logan has been nicely detailing in his reviews lately).
I think they might've been too subtle but the interview right before WM 17 has a bit of foreshadowing. Austin mentions "I need to beat you Rock...I need it more than anything you can ever imagine". There's a desperation in his voice that you never hear from Austin.
ReplyDeleteThen in the match itself, Austin does everything he can possibly do to beat The Rock but he keeps kicking out. Which leads to Austin bringing out his "insurance policy" (as explained in the Raw after WM17) to distract Rock and ultimately leading to Austin's win.
By the way, I thought this interview is really underrated for both guys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1VTJKBybg0
He never said the guy would be a face (though right now is as ripe for a no nonsense bastard to look good by comparison as 97 was).
ReplyDeleteThe second reason is actually pretty cool. Wrestling needs more "this is a real world" moments.
ReplyDeleteBingo.
ReplyDeleteAnd I mean, fans cheered for Austin. A LOT.
Are we talking about the performer of the character?
ReplyDeleteI feel like you both are right, honestly. It was a perfectly reasoned, eloquent character moment that was stupid from a business and timing standpoint. Turn your biggest star ever in his home state? SURE, WE CAN DO THAT.
ReplyDeleteIn some ways, it's the perfect storm of interesting as a wrestling fan, because it was both a great move and a stupid one. The part where the whole thing really jumped the shark for me was when they added the WWF's guy, the one who put them on top of their competition forever to the alliance.
But, honestly, I'll take "interesting failure" over what they're doing right now every day of the week.
Austin was a face though, so when I hear "a guy like Austin" I think a badass face who drinks beer and doesn't afraid of anything.
ReplyDeletePart of the great thing about the Austin turn is that (whether intentionally or not) we the fans were left to fill in the blanks as to the "why?" We had to look back on such interviews and promos and deduce why he needed to turn.
ReplyDeleteThe fact is, Austin's character was so strong that we could pick up on nuance. You don't get that kind of strong character creation and subsequent
storytelling in the age of "we're gonna spell it all out for you" post
2002-WWE.
The Invasion honestly fucked everything...
ReplyDeleteIt's like those giant cross-overs in comic books, they fuck whatever characterization the current characters have because everybody's got to be what people are familiar with. Yeah they make lots of money, but continuity gets shafted, and ultimately the comic suffers.
That's how it's done, WWE! More of THIS!
ReplyDeleteWhen he first turned into Stone Cold, he was a heel.
ReplyDeleteThere's an entire trope in wrestling built around re-using ideas so long as they're 7 years old so I'm not sure there's a problem. It's not like Austin was the first example of that character archtype, just the best as far as wrestling goes. And you don't need every aspect. You don't need the beer, the cursing, the flipping birds, or the antagonistic boss. I just love the idea of someone who doesn't fall into your standard face/heel alignment, especially in an age where that's all there is.
The best thing about Bret's turn is that he really didn't change all that much as a character. He was complaining for months about the injustice and was clearly growing more and more frustrated. He faced Austin in November and beat him, fair and square, and Austin was making his life miserable ever since. So he finally snaps, goes into the match with Austin and beats him to a bloody mess to avenge all the things Austin has done to him....and everyone hates him for it.
ReplyDeleteAfterwards he really didn't change much. He's still complaining about things, only now he's calling the fans out for turning on him when he was right, and he's a bad guy because he's in opposition to people the fans do like, whatever their reasons. It was great, they really let the whole thing play out well - they didn't turn Bret into a typical heel over-night and they didn't turn Austin into the typical face. They just let it play out as it had been, just modified enough so you know Austin is the good guy now. It really makes the whole Punk turn sad in comparison where rather than just let it play out and let the fans chose who they side with they're doing all they can to manipulate the fans into wanting what they want them to want.
With the Austin heel turn, it seems like they didn't figure out exactly why or where it was going until after the fact...Austin had a heated feud with Triple H prior to Wrestlemania, and lost. Austin never loses. In the end he always came out on top. Now he goes into Wrestlemania against The Rock, with doubts. So he made his deal with the devil because he started to doubt himself.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if they planned it all along or just looked back and realized that's how it looked, because they didn't really show Austin as the paranoid guy surrounding himself with ass-kissers to convince himself he's still the man until the Alliance angle. That's when the whole "Austin knows he can't do it anymore and he's losing his mind over it" thing became apparent. It's too bad because that would have been a logical heel turn if they'd done more to get the point across that that's what was happening, rather than him teaming with Vince and suddenly turning on JR for no explained reason. He's probably the most beloved WWE face in history, it was going to take some explaining to make people hate him.
But I blame his heel turn bombing more on him immediately becoming Triple H's buddy and Undertaker/Kane being their first opponents. I know nobody's ever thought they were as cool as Undertaker did 2000 to 2004, but he was so such, boring, stale that him being the top face, even for two months, was the first time in a couple of years where the wind in my wrestling fan sails was sucked out because something/someone just bored me so much...
The worst thing about the Alliance/Austin thing was that it gave Austin a whole new cast of characters to kick the shit out of. People like to see Steve Austin kick the shit out of people. It just works. That night he spent all night at the bar debating what he should do...then showed up to take out the whole Alliance. That's what people wanted to see. Austin joining them just took the wind of their sails.
ReplyDeleteWe know he's a good guy because he says "feller."
ReplyDeleteNot all that different from when he had to re-embrace the hate.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't watching teh rassling back then. What did he do that was so good?
ReplyDeleteNot to nitpick, but when Austin and Dude won the tag titles he actually let Dude celebrate with the Duddettes and let Mick have his moment.
ReplyDeleteFavorite heel turn: Batista @ Bragging Rights 2009. Yes, this is my #1
ReplyDeletepick. When Batista tells Rey Mysterio "I'm gonna rip your head off",
that was a hell of a moment. Batista goes from slighty calm to enraged
within seconds, and rips Mysterio to shreds. Wow.
I was there live for that one. It was awesome. I cheered b/c it was a cool moment.
The booking of Sheamus continues to astonish me, as they've got him out there grinning like a moron, pandering to the crowd, cheating to be an aristocratic heel (at Summerslam), and telling lousy jokes as a guest commentator (well, last week on SD anyway).
ReplyDeleteIt's as if they forget how he got over in the first place, and have replaced that knowledge with the notion that he was always booked this way, and he's over now; therefore, this asinine way of booking him must be working! But Sheamus was the man when he was just a "Take no prisoners" badass who smiled, but not because he was actually a baby-kissing panderer, but because his opponents didn't seem to have any idea just what level of ass-whipping was coming their way.
It's not even the
ReplyDelete"we're gonna spell it all out for you" era anymore, it's the "we're just not going to bother with continuity because we just assume you've forgotten or don't care" era.
cuz he was still mad at nash for dropping him on his neck earlier in the year, so
ReplyDelete"the enemy of my enemy is my friend"
#7, would be usually against an individual or small group (say Vince McMahon, Two-Man Power Trip or Four Horseman), only a few individuals fighting them off, and not everyone is involved in fighting the threat. Examples in my #12 would be like Bully Ray was helping out Austin Aries last week when Aries was being beat down or how Jericho and Edge were fighting the Nexus or the entire WWE became faces in fighting the Alliance.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chris+jericho%27s+wcw+push
ReplyDeleteI agree. The trick is finding a guy who can do this who's also wicked at promos. And is allowed to curse.
ReplyDeleteBasically, I love Austin in 1997, before Mr. McMahon was introduced as the boss. He was awesome.
ReplyDeleteYeah, which I have a feeling is going to backfire, especially at Night of Champions when Punk is getting cheered in Cena's hometown, because fuck John Cena.
ReplyDeleteI won't spoil Smackdown, but the Sheamus thing is really getting completely out of hand now.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I was a big fan of this -- Austins bleeding and swearing helped it come across. I felt if Austin would side with McMahon he'd do anything for the belt and he sold his soul to the devil.Only drawback was that it was in Texas and they didnt explain it the next night ... but watching it in the moment I felt that was wrestling history and awesome.
ReplyDeleteI read the reports. Thankfully, the part about the four Brogue Kicks on Ziggler followed by HHH coming out for another dark segment where he pedigrees him turned out to be false, something made up by whomever was turning in the reports.
ReplyDeleteBut the rest of it? Yeah, it's pretty silly what they're doing with Sheamus, and downright irresponsible what they're doing with Dolph.
"It's as if they forget how he got over in the first place [...]"
ReplyDeletethis. btw: if anyone doesn't remember, he just didn't kick people in the head... he also took them guys out with a lead pipe!
or the "our guys are bland and have no distinguishable character" era.
ReplyDeleteI can kinda picture Sid and Shawn at some barbeque joint. "Look, we said and did shit we didn't mean.........I got this 6-man tag coming up and the Warrior apparently went back to his home planet or something....."
ReplyDelete"Say no more. Tell me when and where, and I'll show. Long as it's after my softball game."
My favourite one for that was Mark Henry turning on D'Lo Brown in 1999 for Brown trying to help him get into shape when all he wanted was to chill and eat stuff. It's a humorous turn but is still human enough to work.
ReplyDeleteDid they ever explain why Steve Williams joined the Varsity Club? That one always bugged me.
ReplyDeleteNO!
ReplyDeleteHad I been there live, I would've cheered too.
ReplyDeleteThe Sheamus turn was similar to Lex Luger. Nobody could stop Mark Henry, the most over heel in the promotion. When Sheamus stepped up to fight him, the fans turned him face.
ReplyDeleteThey briefly started going this route with Ziggler, then of course immediately forgot about it. Despite being a heel, he was dismissive of Johnny Ace, and bashed both Miz and a then-heel Mason Ryan in a promo.
ReplyDeleteAhhhh! Please don't give me any more flashbacks to the land of forgotten Ed Leslie gimmicks with the Zodiac!
ReplyDeleteI was in Sacramento when HBK superkicked Hogan in '05. With the exception of my standing up and cheering the Showstopper you could hear a pin drop as everyone was stunned. Then after Summerslam, Shawn reverted back to his babyface character. Argh!
ReplyDeleteIsn't this description CM Punk up to a point? Right now Punk is going full heel obviously, but Punk telling people how it is worked for a while.
ReplyDelete"I'll fight ya." was all it took.
ReplyDeleteSort of on-topic but I really, really want the wrestling version of Walter White god damn it
ReplyDeleteit could be worse; remember Smilin' Brock?
ReplyDeleteImagine Cena trying to be that nuanced; it's laughable
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely 100% agree on Taker and Kane being pushed after WM17 - it seemed like such a gigantic step backwards after seeing guys like Angle, Benoit, Jericho, The Hardys, The Dudleys, E&C, etc. all stealing the show for the last year and seeming primed to take that next step.
ReplyDeleteWith Austin and Trips being the new "big bads", it should have been newer/younger guys trying to take them down. The Austin-Trips/Benoit-Jericho feud should have started two months earlier.
I realize that Austin's turn and Rock's departure were two big reasons for the decline in WWE's popularity at the time, but the booking sure didn't do anything to try and balance that out. If they were losing two popular acts, you have to give the audience something new and exciting (technical wrestling, high-flying, bumps, etc.), not more of the same lumbering punch-kick stuff.
Those kind of fall under #6.
ReplyDeletePunk, Orton (kinda), Steen (if we count RoH), it's not dead.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great point you bring up about the match. I'll never forget, when Austin puts on the Million Dollar Dream (another show of his desperation), when Rocky does the "climb the turnbuckles and pin" move that Bret Hart used to beat Stone Cold, and Austin barely kicks out, then the camera immediately zooms to Austin and he has this "oh shit I almost lost to that AGAIN" look on his face.
ReplyDeleteIt fits well with Sid's character too, since, you know, an unpredictable psycho ca change allegiances without much reasoning behind it.
ReplyDeleteIn a more meta aspect, I think they were trying to recapture the HBK-Nash dynamic with Sid as a face & ally of Michaels. It didn't work out too badly...
When the topic of stupid Heel turns comes up I always think of Tatanka in '94. If it had just been "Money Talks" it would have been fine, but right afterwards they had him do a promo where he claimed to have turned Heel to get revenge on the white man for having stolen his land. Why he did that by joining with another rich white man wasn't made clear, and it was never brought up again-probably because they realized "Money Talks" was a much better explanation-but at any rate the problem with that whole angle was that Luger had much better reasons to turn than Tatanka did. An embittered Luger who'd had nothing but misfortune and disappointments after turning Face and had gone back to the Narcissist days would have been a great, classic heel in the "kissing babies and signing autographs got me nowhere" mold.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the Macho Man turn was one of the best ever. The way you had the whole crowd practically begging for him to turn, all the emotions of Elizabeth getting involved, him seeing her, thinking it was she who'd been kicking him and not Sherri, the symbolism of him finally lifting the ropes for HER... That match and the aftermath is still, I say, the best Wrestlemania 'moment' ever.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite turn is Perfect's face turn on that old pre-raw USA monday show. It worked great even though it was rushed due to warrior leaving.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if this is related or not, but while Sid's heel turn in 1992 falls under #4 above, the inexplicable part was why he was paired with Harvey Whippleman, the ultimate "Hey, Harvey's out there with that guy, boo!!" manager. You'd think walking out on Hogan in a tag match and absolutely laying waste to Brutus Beefcake would have sealed the turn as it is, but the WWF had to be thorough I guess. Maybe looking past the anti-Hogan backlash (according to Scott's 92 Rumble review), it was so obvious that Sid was right to be pissed that Hogan got the title shot even after Sid eliminated him from the Rumble that he had to have a heel manager so fans would react accordingly.
ReplyDeleteYokozuna didn't turn and didn't actually realign with Cornette. Cornette was using that lie as an excuse to come out and attack Jose Lothario, which Ross soon figured out and explained on commentary. Yoko and Shawn shook hands after the match.
ReplyDeleteWhat completely gets me about Tatanka is that the Indian Casino gimmick was RIGHT THERE and they didn't remotely touch on it.
ReplyDeleteAt the very least, Tatanka needed to drop the Indian garb and start wearing suits, a la Wahoo McDaniel when he aligned with Tully Blanchard. He was supposed to be a sellout, so dammit, make him a sellout.