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.