simonworden Posted July 3, 2020 Share Posted July 3, 2020 I never really bought the Del Rio turn in late 2012 (leaving out how much of an unpleasant swine we know he is now), he saved Ricardo Rodrigez at TLC and was then in a tag match with Miz (who was also in the middle of an awful face run) and Brawler against 3MB was rushed into a feud with the Big Show which did produce some ok matches and then enters a midcard Mania feud with Swagger which was absolutely abysmal to me only to finally get turned back heel a few months later by kicking the head off of Dolph Ziggler. That was the start for me of when Smackdown became an absolute footnote of a show in the company until the new brand split in 2016 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MVP RULZ Posted July 3, 2020 Share Posted July 3, 2020 The Miz has never been convincing as a Face in any of his runs as the good guy He seems quite a nice guy away from the ring from everything I know (someone correct me if there is some stories I'm unaware of) but every time he is turned face on screen he bombs and is turned back Heel within the year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikey Posted July 3, 2020 Share Posted July 3, 2020 Ambrose going heel on Rollins after Roman Reigns' leukaemia announcement. Rikishi doing it for the Rock. Kane going babyface to go up against Snitsky. Any time Arn Anderson went babyface. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted July 3, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted July 3, 2020 Tomasso Ciampa returning from his injury as a face to go against Adam Cole didn't work for me at all. He was the most evil, deranged character NXT had ever seen, but now I'm supposed to cheer him because he got hurt and then decided to confront someone who is slightly less evil than he is. Those babyface turns which consist of a heel getting attacked by another heel hardly work too. The Triple H/Seth Rollins one was mentioned earlier, but it didn't work in 2004 either when Triple H did it to Orton. It puts your new babyface on the backfoot straight away - they've not done anything heroic to garner fan suppport and they already look like a loser. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members gmoney Posted July 3, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted July 3, 2020 Plus making Randy a babyface then having him gob in peoples faces was terrible. Who wants to cheer someone who spits in people's faces? Just disgusting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snitsky's back acne Posted July 3, 2020 Share Posted July 3, 2020 Austin as a heel in 2001. I never bought him as aligning with Vince. He nearly made me buy into it towards the end when he started to beg off and act the coward at times but it just didnt work. Plus it inflicted the 'What!?' chant upon wrestling for which I can never forgive him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted July 3, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted July 3, 2020 Just now, Snitsky's back acne said: Austin as a heel in 2001. I never bought him as aligning with Vince. He nearly made me buy into it towards the end when he started to beg off and act the coward at times but it just didnt work. Austin's heel turn wasn't a great business decision but I do think it's remarkable how much he got over as a hell considering he'd spent the previous 4 years as the biggest babyface in wrestling history. It wasn't a Hogan situation where people had clearly tired of him meaning he needed to turn heel. He just got over as a twat so quickly. I don't think it could happen now. People would still cheer him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snitsky's back acne Posted July 3, 2020 Share Posted July 3, 2020 2 minutes ago, tiger_rick said: Austin's heel turn wasn't a great business decision but I do think it's remarkable how much he got over as a hell considering he'd spent the previous 4 years as the biggest babyface in wrestling history. It wasn't a Hogan situation where people had clearly tired of him meaning he needed to turn heel. He just got over as a twat so quickly. I don't think it could happen now. People would still cheer him. He was cheered a lot at first even when he was laying into Lita with a chair. It kind of clicked at the end but I just never bought him aligning with Vince or leading the Alliance. It was never truly explained either. JR kind of tried with a 'Was he really that desperate that he would align with Vince?!' stuff at the end of the match but... nah, not for me dog. Didnt buy it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrasslin Posted July 3, 2020 Share Posted July 3, 2020 I think the idea was it was alluded to in that awesome sit down promo before the show "I need to beat you rock, I need that more than anything in the world". But yeah agree it doesn't quite land. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinc Posted July 3, 2020 Share Posted July 3, 2020 (edited) The hard reset of Austin as a face the night after Survivor Series hurt him more than the original heel turn. If he'd remained heel for a while longer and teased the face turn so that people were desperate for it (and, more importantly, until there was a logical reason for it to happen in the storylines); he could've had one last big 'Old Stone Cold' run before he hung them up. Like a final redemption for the character before he retired. Instead he was damaged goods for the rest of his career. You can't just turn on a dime like that and retcon the previous year of storylines without breaking the audience's suspension of disbelief. That was the turn I really didn't buy. Edited July 3, 2020 by Pinc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members garynysmon Posted July 3, 2020 Author Paid Members Share Posted July 3, 2020 (edited) I quite liked Austin's heel run other than the total bollocks of this guy who was shafted by Eric Bischoff and WCW suddenly joining the Alliance, which made no sense at all. But I still get a kick out of some of the stunts absoloute cunt Steve Austin did tbh. Â Edited July 3, 2020 by garynysmon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5pints Posted July 3, 2020 Share Posted July 3, 2020 3 hours ago, gmoney said: Plus making Randy a babyface then having him gob in peoples faces was terrible. Who wants to cheer someone who spits in people's faces? Just disgusting. I choose Randy Orton as well. He never looks comfortable as a babyface and always has the look of someone counting down the days until he goes heel again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Blog Posted July 3, 2020 Share Posted July 3, 2020 (edited) Sorry to be off topic but can someone very briefly break down Austin's heel turn, I was not watching a great deal back then. Turned heel for power trip, stayed heel when he did his bullying if Spike etc, became Vince's best mate, then joined alliance is my understanding but I could be wrong. Edit: where does the Mania turn fit into it all? Edited July 3, 2020 by Joe Blog Mania Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEGABUCKS Posted July 3, 2020 Share Posted July 3, 2020 On 7/2/2020 at 5:46 PM, Michael_3165 said: Owen Harts supposed face turn on his return post Montreal. Just because he didn't like Michaels and DX. They didn't fully turn him and he was stuck in this middle ground. Owen returning as The Black Hart was amazing! I was so behind him. Just check out the pop he gets at Royal Rumble 98. They really screwed him over by not having a feud with Michaels but instead Shawn's lackey and then lost the feud. Owen was red hot after Montreal. I agree with those about Tatanka. It came from no where and wasnt needed at all. It ruined Tatanka's career and kind of ruined Lex Luger too in the WWF. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoryFice Posted July 3, 2020 Share Posted July 3, 2020 As a young fan at the time of the two turns mentioned in the original post, the one that I could get was Tatanka's. The motivation was clear - money. He joined the rich evil manager's group and betrayed his friend. I liked Tatanka as a good guy, but accepted he was now a bad guy. Shawn Michaels on the other hand was harder to get at the time. While you knew from WWF videos, older brothers etc that he was a good guy years ago, he essentially became a good guy in 1995 because Sid beat him up. As per the OP, I never truly warmed to Michaels (indeed 18 months later I was delighted when Sid mangled him again). Also, Shawn's turn meant that he was back to being mates with Diesel. Again, to me Diesel was still a bad guy who had simply fallen out with Shawn, so that was another one I didn't get at the time. Didn't help that Diesel's first major title defence was against Bret Hart and not a bad guy.  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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