Greatest turns in wrestling history.

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

Bob Backlund snaps on the Hitman. Shite quality, but you get the idea. On paper a woeful idea to me, but a brilliant way of transforming a harmless nobody into a compelling psychopath and an interesting character. Awesome. I love it now, but as a 12-year-old Bret Hart fan it upset me greatly.

 

yeah i felt the same way, little known fact that if the crazy bob gimmick hadnt taken off, then charles wright was gonna be brought back under the papa shango gimmick and have it revealed that shango had placed a curse on backlund to make him go crazy

[andrew "the ref" coyne]

Some great shouts here.

 

One that always stuck in my mind as well executed was the Triple H / Chyna / Kane turns from mania 15. For what could of been a very confusing and nonsensical mess, was actually well executed and made sense.

 

In case people need reminding it was triple h vs Kane, who was accompanied by his love interest and former dx member Chyna.

 

At the end of the match, Chyna turned on Kane, seemingly rejoining dx. However later in the night it was all a swerve... As triple h and Chyna turned on xpac, allowing Shane McMahon to regain the European title.

 

So to recap:

 

- triple h had just sold out to get a leg up on the corporate ladder.

- the corporation has their new corporate crown jewel.

- kanes been used and returns as a pissed off face again.

- chynas original turn helped facilitate the whole thing, thus making the whole thing make sense.

 

Really well done IMO.

[wandshogun09]

The best ones have been said but I loved these most

 

Hogan joining the NWO at Bash at the Beach 96

The Rock at Survivor Series 98

Austin at Wrestlemania 17

Owen at Royal Rumble 94

Shawn's turn on the Barbershop

Bret slow heel turn in 97

 

and this...

 

Barry Windham's heel turn on Dustin Rhodes in late 1992 was a thing of beauty. It had continuity and everything.

 

Basically, in 1987 at Starrcade it was Baz vs Dr Death for the UWF Heavyweight title. Face vs Face. Dr Death tried to leapfrog Barry and smacked his spuds on Barry's head. Barry was nice, let Dr Death recover instead of taking the easy pin, and got beat and thus losing in his title shot.

 

Fast forward to late 1992. Windham and Rhodes are tag team champs and take on the face team of Steamboat/Douglas. Steamboat tries to leapfrog Rhodes and punishes his pills on Dustin's noggin. Windham's seen it before and implores Rhodes to pin him and not make the mistake he made. Rhodes lets Steamer recover and Rhodes and Windham loses the title. Windham goes on to give Rhodes a winding.

 

This was brilliant. I fucking loved the Windham and Rhodes team and it was probably the first time I felt proper gutted by a heel turn. Really well done and I didn't know the backstory then I was just going off what I saw.

 

Did they ever really have a big one on one match after that though? I can't recall one, think I saw them face off in a few tags or something.

 

Couple more I'll add

 

Bulldog's heel turn on Diesel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu22YibVd58...feature=related

 

Scott Steiner's WCW heel turn in 92 (shame it led to fuck all)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfv6n2d4pas

[PowerButchi]

turns on Sammartino. It's all about context - Larry Z is Bruno's protege, and to this point the match was a polite little match, almost an exhibition, and it seems Larry got pissed off that there were points were Bruno could have beaten him but didnt. Bit patronizing, that. So Zybyszko goes mental on his mentor and takes him to Larryland. LISTEN to the reaction of the live crowd. It seems so simple, but it's one of my favourite turns and one of the oldest bits of wrestling that I have any real fondness for.

 

I always thought that angle makes Sammartino look the dick, not Zbyszko. Made Bruno look really cocky.

[Kata Ha Jime]

As stupid as it may sound to all of you.

 

I really liked Punks recent turn. The use of real names, backstage names/talent gave something real about it.

 

Plus a few people thought Punk was really going to leave and I enjoyed watching the videos of him popping up at indy events and stuff.

[wandshogun09]

Not sure if this one really counts because the babyface turn was so brief but Owen Hart's performance outside the ring during the Hart/Backlund 'throw in the towel' match at Survivor Series 94 was a thing of beauty. It should count, the man turned twice in one match.

 

I genuinely bought into him showing remorse at the time, he even convinced his mom to throw in the towel for fucks sake. Then the way he turned back heel and celebrated as soon as the dastardly deed was done was great. Proper slimey bastard heel antics.

 

And here's his backstage interview with a chubby Todd Pettengil in a cowboy hat just after

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t16QJpZZveQ

 

Wooooh

[PowerButchi]

The Freebirds turning on Kerry Von Erich on Christmas night 1982 was another corker. And again, the heel felt, and was, justified. Hayes was guest ref for a Von Erich vs Flair cage match for the NWA title, Hayes knocks Flair out, Von Erich refuses to pin Flair that way, Hayes says "Go fuck yourself" and goes to leave, Flair knocks KVE into Hayes, so Terry Gordy fucking mullers KVE with the cage door.

 

Tremendous.

[Bus Surfer]

WWF Superstars June 15, 1991. Tugboat turns Heel. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x734ve_tugboat

 

As a small child I couldn't understand why Tugboat wouldn't take the tag when offered by the Bushwackers, instead he turned to the audience to do his signature pose a few times. I just put it down to the big man's miscommunication with the 'Whackers. Then I was shocked as he entered the ring and splashed one of them and formed The Natural Disasters with Earthquake.

 

Truly gutted.

 

 

[Vice]

Perfect's deserves extra credit for getting them right out of a jam AND being executed well, and all in the space of one show. Talk about making the best of a bad situation, they came up smelling of roses, and the Savage/Perfect team was a blinding (and better) to mesh with the Flair/Ramon pairing. Inspired stuff.

Side question: how was Warrior's absence explained/covered on TV?

[Dr Reefer]

I fucking loved Tatanka's when I was a kid you know. Lex Luger was such a pleb, and Tatanka actually looked smart for the first time ever taking the cash and kicking the fuck out of him. "You wanna give him a little more.......let's give him a little more!"

 

 

For me the greatest heel turn has to be

 

 

I was 10 at the time and liked it then

 

These are arguably some of the best stories ever, along with Bret Hart / Austin double turn AND subsequent Bret's slow mega heel turn with the segements/fued with Austin were wrestling gold.

 

Michaels turn on Janetty made me mad as hell. I couldn't understand why that ingrate Michaels, who held the Rockers back with his bum knee (Summerslam '90) would turn on Marty. If anything Marty should have kicked his ass for being injured all the damn time.

[EdgarTheSlouch]

British Bulldog Heel Turn

[huss]

Matt Hardy turns on Jeff at Royal Rumble

watching this live with a bunch of mates and cheering so loud we woke half the block of flats up

other than this i hate matt hardy

[The Miz]

[Loki]

Hulk is the master of the turn. Not only was his original heel turn the match that lit the WCW bonfire, but his face turn on returning to the WWF was well-handled and produced some amazing crowd reactions. His face turn in TNA recently was also aces, one of the best moments in wrestling of the past couple of years.

[Thunderplex]

The Road Warriors turning on their 6 man tag partner Dusty in (iirc) '88. At the time, I was getting tapes about a week before the stories were being published in the Apter mags, so I saw Dusty getting his eye gouged by a shouder-pad spike, then a couple of days reading the classic PWI cover "Dusty, Sting and the Fans can go to Hell"

 

Awesome.