wrestling / Columns
The Top Ten 10.24.06: Heel Turns
Greetings playboys and lovers and welcome to another romantic edition of The Top Ten. This week we’re going to look at The Top Ten Heel Turns of all time. It was definitely a hard list to come up with as there seems to be numerous heel turns in wrestling every year, so I hope to hear back from some of you guys about the heel turns you liked. Ok, let’s get into some emails.
First up is Adam P. who thinks I missed a MAJOR debut:
I think one debut that should of at least been honorable mention was Tazz’s arrival in WWF. They had been running the videos with his voice for weeks leading up to I believe it was the Royal Rumble. They have an undefeated Kurt Angle in the ring cutting a promo when his logo appears on the screen and does the beep, beep, beep flatine. Tazz then comes down and chokes out Kurt Angle giving him his first defeat. It may not have lead to much for Tazz, but was still a spectacular arrival.
Adam makes a good point here because many of the feedback I got asked me why the hell Tazz wasn’t on the list. I gotta say that it was a definite fuck up by me because Tazz certainly had a huge, impressive debut. I think the reason I tend to forget about his debut is because of the way WWE proceeded to take one of the most feared wrestlers in the industry and turn him into a high class jobber to the stars. That’s just a minor gripe, though, as I should of definitely included his debut because I know that I for one marked out like some type of school boy bitch when I saw him come out in the Garden.
Michael P. gives me another great debut that I forgot all about. Goddamn memory, blame it on the wee…I mean, the lack of sleep. I would never violate the 411 Wellness Policy! Ok ok, it was only one time, it was because of the cataracts. Cataracts I tell ya!!:
Okay, as soon as I finished reading the list, it popped in my head. One of the most impactful and shocking debuts left out on your list was that of the Radicalz. It was crazy to see Chris Benoit win the WCW World title the night before on a PPV and then suddenly show up on Raw the next night. And to add to the insanity, there was Saturn… and Malenko… and Guerrero! They even got to kick the living shit out of DX! I marked out bigger on this than even Chris Jericho’s debut. Speculation about Jericho jumping ship was in full force at the time. With the Radicalz, there may have been speculation about some of these guys not happy and ready to leave, but for them to debut so quickly (in this case, 24 hours after appearing on the competition’s show) it was a huge turning point in the Monday Night War, it cemented the dominance of the WWF at the time, and it signalled one of the last death knells of WCW.
Man oh man, I can’t believe I forgot this one. The funny thing about doing this column is that I’ll complete it and go over it and be confident that I didn’t leave any MAJOR item out and then one of the first emails I get will be from one of you guys telling me about a big one I missed and my ego gets immediately deflated. It’s good stuff, though, because it reminds me of some great shit that I had forgotten all about. The Radicalz debut was absolutely great. Seeing not one, but four of the best pure wrestlers that WCW had to offer show up in WWE was a big time deal. And Michael was right because I don’t think that anyone saw this coming. I remember doing a triple take when I saw Benoit, Malenko, Guerrero, and Saturn take a seat in the first row at Raw. Benoit and Eddie were one of the few reasons I watched WCW during its dying years(besides the Bookerman) so to see them show up on WWE TV pretty much killed any reason I had left to watch WCW. Great debut here, thanks for the reminder Mike.
Matt hits me with a drive-by list and pops me right on the meaty part of my ass. Yea, that didn’t sound gay at all:
just gotta say man love the column. figure i’d give u my list for my favorite debuts of all time
HM. – RVD and Tommy Dreamer WWE (out of left field)
HM. – Booker T to WWE (crowd exploded when they saw the WCW Champ and then taking out Austin which was great)
HM. – Kanes Debut in WWE
HM. – Raven’s Debut in WCW (beating up stevie richards was hilarious to me when i was younger)
10 – Lugar to WCW (i swore he was on wwf last week….. shocked me, even when i was 13)
9 – CM Punk to ECW (i saw one Punk v Joe Match and i have been a Punk mark since, great debut , espcially the signs “paid to see cm punk” just awesome
8 – The Rock debuts 96
7 – Big Show debuts 99 (again, main evented nitro like 2 or 3 weeks prior and then shows up at the PPV, just shocking)
6 – Decade + of destruction begins (taker debut 90)
5 – Team 3D debuts on TNA Spike debut (completely out of no where for me, thought they would hype it and debut at the PPV)
4 – Goldberg debuts in WWE (they hyped his debut for Backlash at Wrestlemania, so i thought we would have to wait for him. next night, bam, into it with the Rock, classic moment)
3 – Christian Cage to TNA (i knew it was gonna happen, still a great moment though)
2 – Jericho is RAW!!!! (i swore at the time it was gonna be goldberg just cause i hadnt seen him on screen in WCW in months, awesome build, awesome promo, sign of the things that came)
1 – NWO begins (Hall to WCW, most shocking debut in my opinion ever!!)
keep the columns up
Great list here by Matt, a lot of people wrote in about RVD and Dreamer’s debut in WWE and Goldberg’s debut in WWE. Both were awesome and I could have definitely seen them getting a spot on any list. I loved the RVD/Dreamer one and while I liked the Goldberg one, I think it would have been even better if WWE hadn’t blew their load the night before at WM19 and announced that Goldberg was coming. Imagine the reaction he would have gotten if nobody knew he was coming. It would have been off the charts.
And finally we have Ryan who gives some rather unusual, but still memorable, debuts:
Your list was great and the number one spot going to Jericho was
dead-on. I
still get goosebumps thinking about it. However, I think there are two
debuts you overlooked. One being Rick Rude debuting at Halloween Havoc
as
the Halloween Phantom (or something like that). NO ONE saw that
coming.
The other being the debut of the Shockmaster. Yeah, I know it turned
into a
big joke but as far as being memorable, it’s hard to compete with the
Shockmaster’s entrance.
Keep up the good work.
Ryan has some very interesting choices here, but when you think about it, he’s quite right. I thankfully never saw the Rude one, but I only heard about it from various friends while they giggled with glee. The Shockmaster debut will probably go down forever as one of the most infamous debuts ever due to the sheer unintentional comedic value of it. Two very memorable debuts, albeit for the wrong reasons.
That’s all for this week friends. Thanks for all you guys that took the time out to email me, I appreciate all the support that you guys show me. Keep sending in your lists and thoughts as well as any suggestions for future Top Ten topics that you wanna see. Ok let’s get into this week’s list:
Heel turns are always an inevitability in wrestling. It seems that nobody, no matter how popular ther are, are exempt from being turned heel at some time during their career. Heel turns can be shocking and if done correctly, can produce some great storylines and compelling wrestling. Here’s a look at some of the most memorable heel turns of all time.
Honorable Mention: The Ultimate Warrior should have known to never trust a Snake
This was an angle leading up to Summerslam ’91 that saw Jake “The Snake” Roberts help his friend, The Ultimate Warrior, prepare for a showdown against The Undertaker. Jake said that he was going to make Warrior understand the ways of the dark side through various tests so he wouldn’t fear anything once he faced off against ‘Taker. The first test saw Jake lock Warrior in a coffin and the second test had Jake “bury” Warrior and leave him there to fight off that fear. The third test is where things got interesting. Jake placed Warrior in a room full of snakes and told him that the answer to beating The Undertaker was in a chest locked in the middle of the room. When Warrior opened up the chest, a huge snake sprang out and bit him which caused Warrior to get woozy. Before he lost consciousness, Warrior saw Jake standing next to The Undertaker and Paul Bearer and revealing that he had set up Warrior all along. This was just Jake The Snake at his demonic best.
Honorable Mention: Larry Zybszko turns his back on his mentor, Bruno Sammartino
Larry Zybszko was a popular babyface during the 70’s, mainly due to his association with the super over Bruno Sammartino. Zybszko soon stated that he was tired of living in the shadow of Sammartino and challenged him to a friendly exhibition match, just to see if he had what it took to beat his mentor and step out as his own man. Sammartino easily dominated the first portion of the match until Zybszko got frustrated and attacked his mentor with a wooden chair, leaving him laying in a pool of blood. The fan reaction was insane as the instantly DESPISED Zybszko for turning his back on their beloved Bruno. The heel heat was so insane for Zybszko that he was stabbed, hit with an iron pole, and had his car turned over in the weeks leading up to his huge showdown against Sammartino at Shea Stadium. Now THAT’S heel heat.
10) FINALLY…..The Rock goes back to being a heel
There’s no doubt that The Rock is one of the biggest faces ever to step foot in a wrestling ring, but around the beginning of 2003, fans began to get sick of The Rock’s face act. Maybe it was the fact that he was only a part time performer due to his commitments to movies, but the fans were starting to turn on The Great One big time. Seeing that he was a huge babyface and a movie star, nobody thought he was going to go back to his heel ways, but we were all given a welcome surprise when The Rock started to heel it up when he returned to face Hulk Hogan at No Way Out 2003. The Rock started delivering some of the funniest and best promos he had given in years and seemed to have a new found vigor in his new role as heel. His classic exchanges with The Hurricane and Stone Cold were some of the best highlights of 2003. It was great to see The Rock revert back to his heelish antics at least for a little while before he retired for good.
9) Paul Orndorff shows Hogan that he’s not really wonderful at all
Paul Orndorff was one of Hulk Hogan’s biggest rivals leading up to Wrestlemania 1, but after Orndorff’s partners, Roddy Piper and Bob Orton, turned their back on him shortly after Wrestlemania, the Hulkster befriended Orndorff thus making him one of the biggest faces in the company. I don’t think people realize how over with the crowds Orndorff was, he had pops that rivaled that of Hogan himself. That soon changed in the middle of 1986 when after a tag team match between Orndorff and Hogan against King Kong Bundy and Big John Studd, Orndorff blindsided Hogan with a clothesline and gave him a sick piledriver to cement his heel status. Thus, one of the company’s biggest faces was now one of its most hated heels. Hogan and Orndorff would go on to have many memorable matches and this heel turn was a great way to get their feud started.
8) HHH tells DX to suck it!
Leading up to Wrestlemania 15, HHH was one of WWE biggest faces as the leader of the popular stable, D-Generation X. He fought Kane at WM15 and was able to beat the Big Red Machine with the help of Chyna, who had previously betrayed HHH and left DX. It seemed as if Chyna had rejoined DX and everything was well again. That wasn’t to be, though, as later on that night in a match between X-Pac and Shane McMahon, HHH would turn on his DX teammate, allowing Shane McMahon to pick up the victory. The crowd went apeshit for the turn and this heel turn was the beginning of great things for HHH as he used the momentum from this turn to become one of the biggest heels ever in the wrestling biz.
7) Andre doesn’t like being overshadowed by Hogan……He’s a giant after all dammit!
Hulk Hogan had taken the WWE by storm since his title win in 1984 and had easily become the #1 babyface in the company, a spot that was previously reserved for Andre The Giant. Andre at first was happy for Hogan’s success, but after Bobby “The Brain” Heenan got in the ear of Andre and told him of the greatness he was capable of, Andre turned his back on Hogan and decided to challenge The Hulkster for his title. This was the greatest challenge yet for The Hukster as Andre hadn’t been beaten in over 15 years. Andre’s heel turn of course set up the legendary Wrestlemania III showdown between himself and Hogan which is probably the most famous wrestling match in the history of the sport.
6) Bret Hart gives a big FU to America
Bret Hart was one of the most popular and beloved superstars in the world for many years until he came across a man named Stone Cold Steve Austin. Stone Cold’s foul-mouthed, defiant style didn’t sit well with Bret and once he saw how the American fans began to cheer Austin and boo him, Bret lost all respect for the American fans. He would soon reform The Hart Foundation with his brother Owen, brothers-in-law The British Bulldog and Jim Neidhart as well as Brian Pillman, and declare that Canada was the only true great Country and that all Americans were pieces of crap for cheering Stone Cold. This was one of the most interesting heel turns ever because Bret was booed relentlessly in the States, but was treated as a god whenever he stepped foot in Canada.
5) Vince McMahon the announcer becomes Mr. McMahon the ruthless, diabolical owner
Vince McMahon had always downplayed his role as owner of the WWE mainly sticking to announcing duties and leaving all the decision making to the Commissioners. That stance changed once Stone Cold Steve Austin started getting under the owner’s skin. Austin would constantly berate Vince, even going so far as to give him a Stunner and push him around. At first Vince did nothing because he figured that he would be able to reason with Stone Cold. Little did he know that there is no reasoning with a Rattlesnake. After Austin repeatedly defied McMahon and told him that there was no way that Stone Cold would ever be the kind of “clean cut” champion that Vince wanted, McMahon flipped his lid and unveiled his dark side, Mr. McMahon. As Mr. McMahon, Vince would do everything in his power to get the belt off Stone Cold and try to make Austin’s life a living hell. A lesser man might have quit due to the tyranny of McMahon, but the defiant Austin took everything that Vince dished out and gave it back to him tenfold. Vince’s heel turn signaled the highest peak in the history of pro wrestling.
4) HBK introduces Marty Jannetty to a sheet of glass
Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty were a part of one of the most popular tag teams ever in pro wrestling, The Rockers. After some communication errors and frequent squabbles, the two went on The Barber Shop, a talk show hosted by Brutus Beefcake, to try to resolve their issues. When it seemed as if everything was finally good between the two partners, HBK turned around and delivered a vicious superkick which sent Jannetty flying through a glass window. And with that one move, HBK was able to establish himself as a singles star and went on to become one of the biggest stars ever in WWE.
3) Owen turns on Bret: So much for brotherly love
Owen Hart had entered the WWE as the blue chipper brother of the very popular Bret Hart and the two positioned themselves to challenge for WWE tag team gold despite a few squabbles along the road. They got their chance at The Royal Rumble ’94 against The Quebecers who were the champs at that time. The two teams had an excellent back and forth match with The Quebecers focusing on Bret’s knee and absolutely demolishing it. Bret fought valiantly to stay in the match and finally got a break after avoiding a move and seemed ready to make the hot tag to his brother Owen who was calling out for it on the apron. Instead of tagging Owen, though, Bret decided to try to win the match by applying the Sharpshooter, but his knee was so severely damaged that he crumpled to the mat and the ref stopped the match due to the severity of Bret’s injury. Owen was pissed at losing, but seemed to be helping his brother up after the match. Once his brother was on his feet, Owen kicked Bret’s knee out from under him sending The Hitman crashing down to the mat in pain. Owen then gave an interview proclaiming how selfish Bret was and how he wanted all the glory instead of trying to share it with Owen. This heel turn would lead to one of the best feuds in WWE history that produced some of the best matches in WWE history. The best part of this heel turn was the slow dissention leading up to it as Owen would occasionally have temper tantrums, but would be soon be fine until he completely lost it at The Royal Rumble. Fantastic angle.
2) Stone Cold aligned with Vince McMahon? WHAT?!?!
When you think of bitter rivals you think of Yankees and Red Sox, Cowboys and Redskins, Bulls and Knicks, OJ Simpson and white women. You could never imagine any of them joining forces together so imagine the shock of every wrestling fan around the world when they saw Stone Cold Steve Austin shake hands with his most hated rival, Vince McMahon. To say that it was a surreal moment would actually be an understatement. For years, the two of them had tried to beat the holy hell out of each other so to see the two of them co-exist and to actually see Austin taking orders from McMahon was unbelievable. That was one heel turn that had everyone, mark and smart alike, absolutely stunned.
1) Hulk Hogan? A heel?!? Say it isn’t so!!
I remember being home on a warm Sunday night in 1996 when I received a frantic call from one of my friends exclaiming how Hulk Hogan was now a bad guy. Of course, I thought my friend was lying or had forgotten to take his meds, but when I tuned in to Nitro the next night, I saw Hulk Hogan not wearing his signature Red and Yellow, but instead all black and calling himself “Hollywood” Hogan. I was absolutely floored as I could not believe what I was seeing. Obviously the incident I’m referring to is Bash at The Beach ’96 when Hulk Hogan turned his back on WCW and joined up with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash to form the New World Order. To see Hulk Hogan, the biggest babyface EVER, all of a sudden become a heel was one of the most shocking things ever. It had been rumored for years that the Hulkster might turn heel, but it seemed as if they would never pull the trigger on it in fear of a backlash from the loyal Hogan supporters that didn’t want their hero to be a bad guy. This was a gamble that definitely paid off and became one of the biggest angles in wrestling history. It was the ultimate heel turn.
Check out all these great columns by my 411 brethren:
-Andy Clark’s “Shimmy”
-Ari’s “Column Of Honor”
-Sean, Alex and David’s “Triple Threat”
-Bayani’s “Truth B Told”
-Weyer’s “Shining The Spotlight”
-Byers’ “Cheap Wrestling for Cheap People”
-Larry and Geoff’s “3R’s”
-Fact Or Fiction
-O’Dog’s “Forgotten Goodness”
-Sat and Rajah’s “High Road/Low Road”
-Phill Feltham’s “Quick Talkdown”
-Sarnecky’s “Piledriver Report”
-Slimmer’s News Report
-Hidden Highlights and The Great Positivity Debate
-Carapola’s “That Was Then” and “The Week in Hardcore”
-The Fink’s Payload
-Gamble’s “Just ‘Spose”
-Clarke’s “Ask 411”
-Meehan’s “Meethinks”
-Sforcina’s “Evolution Schematic”
-Prag’s “In Defense Of….”
-Wrestlers of the Week
-Sullivan’s “Crystal Ball”
-Randle’s “Wrestling News Experience”
-Double M’s Rasslin Report
-News To Start Your Weekend
-Dunn’s Rawtopsy, ECW Breakdown, Smackdown Breakdown and TNA Breakdown
-Cook’s “News From Cook’s Corner”
-Mike LaFave’s “Getting Over”
-Your News, Larry’s Views
Well I’m done for this week guys. Join me next week when we celebrate the NEEEEWWWWW NWA Champion by counting down The Top Ten Sting Matches. Until then, go wash your ass!
