Anatomy of a Heel Turn

In March I wrote an article examining the fine art of a “babyface turn.” That article, in particular, dealt with the Shield turning from the heel stable they'd debuted as, to the babyface stable that would stand against the Wyatt Family and the Authority. Of course, all good things have to end...

In wrestling, for every good guy there has to be a bad guy. For every babyface turn somewhere down the line there is a heel turn. Last Monday, The Shield, as we'd always known them, ceased to be. Seth Rollins delivered the finishing blow; siding with Authority leader Triple H and Evolution.

Heel turns are, arguably, more important that babyface turns. Most people will give you the benefit of the doubt. It’s not common to dislike or hate someone the very first time you see them, unless they deliver a bad first impression. A heel turn, then, must give the audience reason to “boo” a wrestler. To do so, in this day and age of “smarks” and the IWC, requires an action so despicable that those who cheered you on can no longer bring themselves to do it.

Let’s examine a few of the more notable heel turns to see how things were done:

The Third Man

In the late 1990s wrestling fans bore witness to the famed “Monday Night Wars,” as WWF/WWE and WCW battled for ratings supremacy. Wrestlers jumped from one promotion to the other. Cutthroat tactics became the order of the day. That is, until WCW landed what might’ve been the deathblow to WWF, had the booking gone better.

In May 1996, Scott Hall (formerly WWF’s Razor Ramon) showed up on Monday Nitro. Shortly thereafter, Hall’s friend Kevin Nash (formerly WWF’s Diesel), made his debut on Nitro. The two quickly took on the team name of “The Outsiders.” The appearance of Hall and Nash resulted in a lawsuit by WWF, claiming WCW was using WWF characters; intellectual property. The case went nowhere.

Hall and Nash terrorized WCW for a while, and then began claiming that the “third member” of their party would soon be joining them. At Bash at the Beach 1996 (7 July 1996), Hall and Nash met the team of Sting, Lex Luger, and Randy Savage. The Outsiders repeatedly said that the “third man” was in the building.

The match was a brawl. Sting landed a Stinger Splash on Kevin Nash, but Luger was trapped in the corner behind him, and the move hurt Luger worse than Nash. Luger was taken to the back, evening the numbers game. The fight wore on…

Hall and Nash took control of the match up until the moment that perennial good guy Hulk Hogan ambled to ring side (I use that term appropriately. This was the first clue that Hogan was the “third man,” seeing has he merely trotted down to the ring). Hall and Nash abandoned the ring, leaving Hogan staring them down and a prone Randy Savage lying on the mat behind him. Referee Nick Patrick gave Hogan an incredulous look and held up three fingers in question. Hogan pushed him out of the way and delivered a monster leg drop to Savage.

In the aftermath, as “Mean” Gene Okerlund got in the ring to interview the trio, fans littered the ring and the ring side area with trash. Hogan gave a sterling, though scathing, promo insulting the fans and pointing out himself and the Outsiders as the “new world order of professional wrestling.” The moniker stuck, though it was obviously nowhere near has spontaneous as the naming of the Four Horsemen.

This was a textbook heel turn. Hogan would later express regret over having been a babyface for so long. It was now time for him to look out for himself. Gone was Hulkamania and the Hulkster. In was Hollywood Hogan. He changed his attire from the red and yellow he’d worn for years to a black and white motif that matched the nWo.

This turn also revitalized wrestling, giving WCW an undisputed lead in the Monday Night Wars. But, as I said earlier, the booking failed. Initially, the nWo was one of the best things to happen to pro wrestling in years. But because of WCW’s structure, in which several of the big-name wrestlers had incredible creative control over their characters, the entire company began to flounder. In an effort to save things, WCW brought in Vince Russo.

WCW was eventually purchased by Vince McMahon, but the failure of WCW is not the fault of Hulk Hogan turning heel.

Stone Cold is Shaking Hands with the Devil himself

Ask any WWE fan to list the greatest WrestleMania events in history and each one of them (most likely) will have WrestleMania 17 (or WrestleMania X-7) very high on that list. It remains my all time favorite installment of WWE’s marquee show.

The build-up to WrestleMania 17 was great, as everyone prepared for the Rock vs Stone Cold Steve Austin for the WWF Championship. It wasn’t often that the WWF gave fans a babyface vs babyface main event at WrestleMania. It also happened to be the top two superstars of the day. The Rock carried the WWF Championship into Houston for the event. Austin won a title shot by winning the 2001 Royal Rumble.

The match became a “No Disqualification” match, thanks to a last minute announcement. As with Hogan’s entrance, this was a clue very few picked up on at the time. The match was back and forth, with both men kicking out of each other’s finishing moves. During the excitement, an exhausted Vince McMahon, fresh off a Street Fight loss to his son, Shane, made his way to ring side.

McMahon pulled the Rock away from a pin-fall opportunity. The distraction allowed Austin to hit a Rock Bottom on his opponent. After another Stunner, the Rock was still able to kick out at two. This led an angered Vince to hand Austin a chair. Sixteen chair shots later, Austin and McMahon, longtime rivals, were celebrating together in the ring. This was a shocker. No one expected Austin to turn heel (even though he’d always been a tweener), much less to see Austin align with McMahon.

The next night on Raw, things went from bad to worse for the rest of the roster. In a steel cage rematch, Austin took on the Rock. Triple H rushed to the ring, seemingly to take out his old nemesis, Austin. However, The Game proceeded to lay out the Rock with a sledgehammer. The rock was subsequently written out of programming as part of a suspension angle. Austin and Triple H stormed ahead as the newly renamed “Two-Man Power Trip.”

Triple H would completely tear his quadriceps muscle a few weeks later, causing him to miss the entirety of the Invasion angle, as the newly purchased WCW was folded into the WWF. Some people consider that fortuitous, seeing as the booking really failed the company during that angle.

But on April 1, 1002, fans nationwide were left struggling for and answer as to why Austin did what he did. As Jim Ross proclaimed from ringside that night “Stone Cold is shaking hands with the Devil himself!”

The Beginning of the Slow-Burn Turn of CM Punk

A slow-burn heel turn is one in which a wrestler doesn't go fully heel. He'll drift into tweener territory for a while, letting individual actions build up a profile of a truly dastardly heel.

Enter CM Punk.

Punk was WWE Champion entering the special 1000th episode of Raw. On that same episode, the returning, and very much part-time wrestler, the Rock, announced that he had been granted a WWE Championship match at the 2013 Royal Rumble. Punk was also in line to defend the WWE Championship against John Cena, who was cashing in the Money in the Bank contract he'd won just two weeks earlier.

Punk's match with Cena wore on until the Big Show interfered. Show knocked out Cena and Punk reluctantly covered the fallen challenger. Cena, in typical Cena fashion, kicked out. Children everywhere squealed with glee.

Punk tried to land a GTS on Cena, but Cena countered and caught Punk in the STF submission hold. Big Show once again interfered, causing a disqualification and leaving the title on Punk. Show continued his assault on Cena as Punk walked away. Ever the consummate actor, Punk displayed reluctance and regret over leaving. Until the Rock came running in to make the save. Rock knocked Big Show to the ground and was about to deliver the People's Elbow when CM Punk returned and clotheslined Rock. As the Rock lay on the mat writhing from the attack, Punk picked him up and delivered an staggering GTS, leaving Rock knocked out.

This would be the start of a fairly slow burn heel turn, in which CM Punk still got solid fan reaction and support, but every day saw him drift closer to full heel territory, culminating in him joining forces with Paul Heyman and roping in the Shield to do his dirty work.

CM Punk is one of those wrestler that can work well as a heel or a babyface. Personally, I enjoy his heel work better, as it gives him more freedom than being a babyface allows.

There’s Always a “Plan B”

Another shocker of a heel turn took place just last Monday night, when Seth Rollins threw in his lot with Triple H and Evolution, leaving The Shield crumpled in the ring after a series of vicious chair shots.

But a heel turn takes more than just one wrestler turning on another, or turning on the fans...a heel turn takes reactions from all parties. Dean Ambrose delivered the perfect reaction to the Rollins turn. Reigns wasn't really able to react, as he was the first one taken out.

While Triple H and Randy Orton stood a ringside, Rollins did what no one else had been able to effectively do: He took out the Shield. Sure, the Wyatt Family had beaten the shield before, but no one had ever taken them out the way Rollins did. It was a classic heel turn. No one saw it coming. And it just might elevate everyone's careers.

And let's face it, that's what a good heel turn, or babyface turn, should do. Everyone involved should come out better on the other side...so long as John Cena's not involved (but that's another story for another day).