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The W - Pro Wrestling - Best/Worst Heel Turn/Face Turn memories
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meaty_buys
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Since: 29.6.05

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#1 Posted on | Instant Rating: 0.70
With the recent return of Tatanka, I remember that he actually had a pretty shocking heel turn back in 93 (94?) with the whole Luger/DiBiase deal. I mean, NO ONE saw that coming. Was it even hinted at on The Torch or Observer? Too bad the rest of his career didnt live up to his great turn. Anyways, just wondering your guy's thoughts on most memorable turns (or obscure ones). I guess hands down the grandaddy turn of all time was Hogan in 96, and probably the most succesful in history regardless of how you feel about him. Worst would probably be a tie between Austin and Goldberg. As far as obscurities go, I remember Koko B Ware going heel for two weeks back in 1990 on Prime time Wrestling. He turned on Tito Santana in a match vs Demolition and the next week fought Tito. After that he was a face with no explanation or mention of the turn again.
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Since: 19.9.04

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#2 Posted on | Instant Rating: 7.96
a couple recent aborted turns spring to mind, remember when Hurricane almost went heel? He lost a match then afterwards grabbed his mask back from the kid at ringside he gave it to. They were teasing the frustrated loser gimmick, but then it was never mentioned again. I also seem to remember Mark Jindrak turning face/heel on a weekly basis during his last few months with the company. General apathy towards him prevented anyone from even noticing or caring.
UnsUwe
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Since: 6.7.02
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#3 Posted on | Instant Rating: 4.31
I always thought Austins face turn at WM13 was considered one of the best ever?

For me the worst heel turn was Kurt Angle in 2001, considering the explanation given. But they totally botched his face run anyway, so it was all just a big mess. My vote for favorite heel turn also goes to Tatanka at Summerslam 94.



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Since: 11.5.02

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#4 Posted on | Instant Rating: 1.22
    Originally posted by UnsUwe
    I always thought Austins face turn at WM13 was considered one of the best ever?

Pretty sure he was talking about his heel turn at WM 17.

Apart from the obvious Hogan turn, one of my favourites in recent memory was when The Coach turned heel on Shane McMahon. It was just so random and unexpected that for the first time in quite a while I was genuinely surprised at something. There were no teases or even hints, it just came out of nowhere.

One of the worst was Sting's heel turn in 99. The main reason it didn't work at all was he turned heel by smashing Hogan with a baseball bat and getting the loudest pop of the night for it. Then he continued feuding with Hogan (who the fans were absolutely sick of by this point) and nobody could bring themselves to boo him at all. It was a shame because I thought there was some real potential there.
Quezzy
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Since: 6.1.02
From: Pittsburgh, PA

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#5 Posted on | Instant Rating: 3.88
I'm pretty sure he's talking about Austin's heel turn too, because a lot of people didn't like it, personally I liked heel Austin. Some other good ones I remember.

Jericho's inital heel turn where he starting throwing temper tantrums after matches and eventually became the conspiracy theorist was a good one. DDP's face turn when he Diamond Cut Hall and Nash was pretty memorable and I also really liked the Radicals turning on Mic Foley.

As for worst I'd have to say the worst face turn was making Victoria turn face and worst heel turn would probably be Kidman turning heel against Hogan.



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Since: 2.12.02

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#6 Posted on | Instant Rating: 1.71
The Nikita Koloff face turn was just about perfect (after Magnum TA was injured)... and so was the Barry Windham heel turn against Lugar (where he joined the Horsemen). Other notables (off the top of my head, no particular order):

1. Savage goes face (Hogan save) & then heel (Mega Powers explode)
2. Road Warriors go face against the Russians
3. Hogan joins/forms nWo
4. Undertaker turns face against Jake the Snake (great one!)
5. Lex Lugar has gone face/heel so many times, but IMO, his best face turn was when Sting was injured, and Lex took his spot in the main event against Flair (around 1990, I think)
6. Shawn Michaels throwing Janetty through the glass was very memorable
7. Mankind's childhood home movies helped turn him from an upper midcard heel to a face world champion
8. Owen Hart's heel turn against Brett Hart was executed near-brilliantly
9. Jim Cornette & the Midnight Express going face against Paul E. and the "Original" ME was terrific
10. Beefcake's face turn (WM 3?) was so well done, it propelled him right into the main event

The trouble with most of today's heel/face turns is that, either they're completely out of the blue -- with no seeds of doubt planted -- or are telegraphed way too far ahead of time. Also, there are way too many heels that turn face because they happen to be funny or cool -- and too many faces that turn heel simply becase they are boring faces.



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Since: 5.2.03

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#7 Posted on | Instant Rating: 0.79
Anytime Flair turns on Sting is a classic. Arn Anderson turning on Dustin Rhodes in a tag match against Buckhouse Buck and Terry Funk. Actually, the Horsemen turning on anyone or enticing someone to turn is usually good.

To go old school, the Ragin' Bull Manny Fernandez turning on his partner, the "Boogie Woogie Man" Jimmy Valiant is one of my earlier wrestling memories. Orndorff turning on Hogan was great. "Georgeous" Jimmy Garvin coming to Ron's aid after he was fireballed by Cornette.

The Nation of Domination gave us some horrible heel turns. Ahmed Johnson joining the NOD was pretty bad. Savio Vega turning on Johnson and joining the Nation was also pretty bad, considering it helped lay the groundwork for Los Boricuas.

Russo-era WCW gave some bad heel turns. 90% of anyone joining the NWO was horrible, especially if it was to join the NWO B team.
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Since: 27.6.04

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#8 Posted on | Instant Rating: 1.55
My favorite turn of all time was Mr. Wonderful punking the hell out of Hogan when they were taking on Bundy and Studd. It made Orndorff a face in my book...
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Since: 13.4.04
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#9 Posted on | Instant Rating: 1.37
I'd say that Crush teaming up with Yokozuna and Fuji to destroy Randy Savage...because Savage didn't help him when YOKO AND FUJI took him out. Thats one of the worst ones that I can recall.





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Since: 14.4.04

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#10 Posted on | Instant Rating: 1.87
I just watched an old Saturday Nights Main Event, I think it was a primetime show, just this afternoon, with Savage turning on Hogan (mega powers explode). Great angle, the kind where after you say "I should have seen that coming" though at the time you didn't. Jesse Ventura defending Savage, after Savage destroys Hogan, takes out Beefcake and even shoves down Elizabeth (in the 80s, that was really pushing the limits), was classic. Blaming Elizabeth for all of it, then Hogan, while McMahon expressed disbelief (he basically cheered for the faces while announcing, for those who don't know) was great stuff.
chill
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Since: 18.5.02

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#11 Posted on | Instant Rating: 2.96
I still remember the MegaPowers blowup like it was yesterday. It was predictable, I thought, but executed in the best way possible that meant it still was interesting to watch. The locker room fight was unlike anything I'd seen from wrestling at that point, because the camera work was much like a reality TV show today (unless I'm mistaken).

I have a special place in my heart for Andre's face turn at WM 5, when he chokes out Heenan. Also, Andre's heel turn on Piper's Pit, when he snapped the chain off Hogan's neck.

How and when did Piper turn face between WM 2 and 3?

(edited by chill on 7.8.05 2353)


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#12 Posted on | Instant Rating: 1.55
Chill: I don't remember Piper doing anything to turn face actually. He'd been on vacation (think he was making Body Slam or some other movie) and when he was gone Adrian Adonis was hosting The Flower Shop. Piper returned (and so did Piper's Pit), which pissed off Adonis so he broke Piper's leg. Piper came out a week or two later and destroyed the Flower Show set. That was it...
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Since: 5.3.03
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#13 Posted on | Instant Rating: 7.33
    Originally posted by Quezzy
    I'm pretty sure he's talking about Austin's heel turn too, because a lot of people didn't like it, personally I liked heel Austin.


I think he may mean the face turn following the Bret Hart/Steve Austin match (WM13). Austin was slowly turning face there anyways, but that match cemented it.




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Since: 21.4.04
From: New York, NY, USA

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#14 Posted on | Instant Rating: 3.73
I seem to remember seeing the Tatanka heel turn coming, to be honest. I mean, he was accusing his friend of selling out in a kind of assholey fashion. Doesn't that generally mean you sold out yourself? (Works in life as well as wrestling!)

I thought that a very elegant face/heel turn -- if the word "elegant" can be applied to a wrestling angle -- was at the Raw after the Survivor Series where the InVasion ended. The night before, Steve Austin had been a nefarious heel and Kurt Angle was the guy you thought had turned but was actually a double agent for the side of good. But the InVasion was such a bust that the very next night they decided to completely reshuffle the deck. Everything went back to the way it should have been: Austin was a babyface, Angle was the conceited heel, and it seemed like it had always been that way. It was very natural.

Sometimes when I think, "Mark Copani will never be able to come back as anything other than evil Mohammed Hassan!" or something like that, I think of how well they executed that.



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Since: 8.5.03
From: North Carolina

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#15 Posted on | Instant Rating: 6.78
I love briefcase turns. A heel manager offers a suitcase of cash to a face, and the face takes it and punks out his partner. NWA had two of them: Manny Fernandez nailing Boogie Woogie Man Jimmy Valiant (with money from Paul Jones, I think), and Ricky Morton clocking Robert Gibson (when Ricky joined the York Corporation). When the Raging Bull turned, my grade-school heart broke. That was the first heel turn that I can recall.

I remember the Scott Steiner turn was so long in coming, it was anti-climactic when it finally took place. But he had the most radical packaging adjustment I can remember for a face going heel. The white hair, the new outfit, the utterly new look. I mean, compared to his smiling mullet days, White Thunder/Superstar Scott Steiner is almost a whole other person.

Worst heel turn was probably The Big Show going heel and joining the WWE nWo. It was a repeat of the WCW version.

(edited by Matt Tracker on 8.8.05 0809)


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Since: 5.5.05
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#16 Posted on | Instant Rating: 4.38
The only bright spot of WWE NWO big show was how much comedic material it gave goldust. Do you remember the crocodile hunter skit where he hunted the giant sleeping big show?

Actually the WWE NWO was a horrible horrible embarassment, and thank god vince (or was it ric or eric? eh whoever) ended it. I mean seriously, a bumbling big show and x-pac trying to act like a badass... I'm just not impressed.

The best face turn in recent memory is probably batista, but that's just because all the other ones have sucked so bad. Brock's face turn was utterly pointless (Crowd turned him and then creative had no idea what to do with him so he and kurt angle drank milk). Kurt's most recent face turn was good for about two weeks. Triple H's face turn (if it can even be called that) in 2002 was horrible. However I agree that Victoria's face turn blew really bad, probably the worst in recent memory. She had a good strong character, and they completely threw it away. Plus I miss the old Tatu crazy bitch music.

The one that ammuses me most is Eddie. They so want him to work heel and the crowd so wants to cheer him. I'm thinking at this piont Eddie basically has to shoot someone to stay heel for more than 2 months, doesn't he?

Best heel/face/heel of all time (or at least the 80s) is probably savage. It was gonna take one hell of a feud to carry the company after hogan/andre played out and hogan/savage did it well.



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Since: 25.4.03
From: Nashville, TN

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#17 Posted on | Instant Rating: 3.81

I really liked the first face turn of Randy Savage where he cut that awesome promo in his feud with the Honky Tonk Man on Saturday Night's Main Event that I still remember to this day.

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Ah, the childhood memories.





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Since: 7.2.02

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#18 Posted on | Instant Rating: 4.33
There's a few heel turns that popped into my head:

Barry Windham turning heel on Lex Lugar and joining the Horsemen.

Terry Taylor turning heal on Chris Adams in the UWF. They had a hell of a feud in both the UWF and WCCW.

As far as face turns go, Mr. Perfect turning face and winning a Loser Leaves Town match against Ric Flair is the only one that really stands out for me.

God I'm old.



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Since: 19.5.02
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#19 Posted on | Instant Rating: 6.02
    Originally posted by CTX
      Originally posted by UnsUwe
      I always thought Austins face turn at WM13 was considered one of the best ever?

    Pretty sure he was talking about his heel turn at WM 17.

    Apart from the obvious Hogan turn, one of my favourites in recent memory was when The Coach turned heel on Shane McMahon. It was just so random and unexpected that for the first time in quite a while I was genuinely surprised at something. There were no teases or even hints, it just came out of nowhere.

    One of the worst was Sting's heel turn in 99. The main reason it didn't work at all was he turned heel by smashing Hogan with a baseball bat and getting the loudest pop of the night for it. Then he continued feuding with Hogan (who the fans were absolutely sick of by this point) and nobody could bring themselves to boo him at all. It was a shame because I thought there was some real potential there.


Austin basically turned face at WM13. Actually, the crowd did. It was the Hart/Austin submission match. Actually, IMO, it was probably the 3nd most important match in WWF history (behind Hogan/Sheik and Hogan/Andre).



By the way, Storm's gimmick includes 1.) telling the audience to shut up, and 2.) occasionally making everyone stand for the Canadian national anthem. You know they don't know what to do with a wrestler when he's making fans stand for a national anthem. It's like waving a white flag and saying, "This guy has no personality -- we give up."

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Since: 25.6.03
From: Home of The Big House

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#20 Posted on | Instant Rating: 2.70
I rather enjoyed Mr. Perfect's face turn in '92 when Savage asked a heel Perfect to be his partner against Flair and Razor at Survivor Series. Especially since Gorilla Monsoon (and Jim Duggan, I believe) were there in the studio when Perfect grabbed Heenan and slapped him around and poured water on him. Just funny to hear the place get eerily silent as you watched Perfect flog The Brain.
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