[CaptainCrunch]

Let me indulge myself, I wanted to keep my brain busy. I'm going to do one more list today, and Probably tomorrow I'm going to do my own version of a top 10 wrestlecrap of worst debuts or angles or even federations.


But for the last list of the day, I thought I would cover the concepts of turns. For a long time turns were something that was carefully planned and laid out and Turns were something that didn't happen as often as they do today. The sad thing about Wrestler turns today is they don't feel like turns, they just kind of happen simply by starting a feud where a face takes on a face or a heel takes on a heel, and then after its over they revert back.


but in the hey days of wrestling turns were amazing, and there were multiple ways that they could happen.


1) Tag team partners become disgruntled the old I've been carrying you for too long


2) Jealousy The World Champions friend wants a title shot, doesn't get it and frankly snaps



3) The evil manager bribes the hero over to the darkside.


So today's list is going to focus on what I think were my favorite turns whether a hated heel becomes a face, or a face becomes a heel


1) Hulk Hogan joints the New World Order


The NWO is a legacy heel organization and books have been written about how to do a proper heel group, unfortunately in the same breath books have been written about how the WCW and Eric and Hogan's political wranglings destroyed the NWO as well. But that one night at Bash on the Beach it became the heel turn of heel turns.



To put this into perspective, the NWO was originally Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, they jumped to WCW and instead of WCW doing pre promotion that they were coming, they just showed up, and pretended that they were there fighting a war for WWE, this eventually lead to a real life lawsuit by WWE. They were booked to be incredibly strong, they destroyed everyone even the strongest faces. This lead up to a 6 man tag at Bash at the Beach featuring Hall and Nash and a mysterious third member against Randy Savage, Lex Luger and Sting.



Now backstage the original plan was to bring in Bret Hart, that was the rumor as Bret was negotiating with WCW at the time, but when that fell through Bishoff went to Hogan who's star was rapidly falling as a babyface and convinced him that he could save his career by going heel. Hogan himself was unsure but eventually agreed.


Now during that event Hall and Nash came out and destroyed the team of Sting, Luger and Savage which lead to Tony Schivani exposing himself as the biggest idiot in wrestling as he screamed that the three on two advantage by the WCW team was unfair and demanded to know who the third member of the NWO was.


Enter Hogan who came to the ring and fans cheered as team WCW was laid out and Nash and Hall fled the ring. Hogan surveyed the crowd nervously and then turned dropping the leg on Savage, he then invited Hall and Nash into the ring and in a iconic scene during a shower of garbage proclaimed the New World Order of Wrestling Brother. As the show went off of the air Tony sold it by telling Hogan that he could go straight to hell.





2) The Barbershop breakup


The Midnight Rockers of Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels were a fan favorite tag team, they were high flyers the likes of which really hadn't been seen before they were young and hip and the woman squealed whenever they appeared. But cracks began to appear in the team as they started losing matches and Shawn started showing an ego. They were bought together to air out their issues in the Barbershop and they aired out their grievances at the end of it, they shook hands and the fans cheered and what happened next shocked the world.


Now before I post the video, at the time Vince and the WWE thought that Marty was going to be the bigger star of the two and this was designed to get Marty over, but Marty's self destructive back stage behavior and Michael's taking the ball and running with it changed the result of this feud and both of their careers as Shawn ended up in the hall of fame and Marty talked about wanting to have sex with his step daughter on line.





3) Stone Cold Bret Hart Double Turn Submission match


Bret Hart had always seen the potential in Steve Austin, and these two had amazing chemistry during their long feud. However their roles were slowly changing. Bret was become the disgruntled out of touch face who couldn't understand the fans. Austin was the unrepentant heel who the fans were cheering. So Bret and Austin decided to do a double turn where Bret would become the leading heel in the company and Austin the leading face. This was unique in terms of a turn. It wasn't done with sneaky attacks or mic work but in a amazing submission match at Wrestlemania 13.



Now if you watch interviews both wrestlers were freaked out by this match because neither were submission wrestlers. But they made this work, as during the match Bret started using heel turns. Ken Shamrock as the special guest ref became frustrated with Bret but the best part of this was Stone Cold. At the end of the match, Austin who was bleeding and bloody was caught in the sharpshooter, and did the very face fighting the hold and not surrendering until he passed out. After the match a victorious Bret attacked the unconcious Austin and then went after Shamrock. The result. Bret was a hated heel except in Canada, and Austin was the companies new top face.


Its tough to find the match or even highlights, but I thought I would post Cornette's thoughts on it





4) Dynamite Kid turns on Davey Boy Smith


Sadly I couldn't find the video for this. But the Bulldogs pretty much got themselves fired from WWF due to Dynamites injuries and back stage issues and returned to Stampede Wrestling. Sadly the two cousins could not stand each other due to jealousy and the manipulations of Diana Hart who Dynamite thought screwed him out of a Japanese tour. This was a heel turn that came out of nowhere, and it was surprising. Mostly to a young Captain who was in the crowd that night.


Basically iirc Dynamite fought a singles match against I think Kerry Brown, and halfway through the match he was viciously attack by Duke Myers and took a beating. Davy Boy came out to save his partner using a chair but Dynamite who had taken a blow to the head turned around and saw Davey with the chair. At the time everyone thought it was water under the bridge until the main event when Davey was fighting I think Myers. Again the heels attacked Davey and Dynamite came rushing to save his friend with a chain. But the heel turn happened and Dynamite turned on Davey busted him open and laid a tremendous beating to Davey. I remember the emotions in the building that night as fans were actually crying and screaming at Dynamite to stop. This lead to a bloody feud through the territory as Dynamite returned to being his natural heel stuff.


Sadly I couldn't find any video.


5) Andre turns on Hulk


This was the turn of turns at the time and it made sense. Andre was a huge star at the time, but he was nearing the end of his life. But the WWF played up his undefeated nature and Andre continually asked for a title shot. Of course Hogan didn't want to fight his best friend. The turn came during an interview when Andre showed up with Bobby the Brain Heenan, asked for a title shot, and when Hogan wouldn't give it, Andre completely turned. This was a passing of the torch moment, after the slam heard around the world Andre showed up to wrestle on occasion but died not too long afterwards.





6) Archie Gouldie Bad News Allen


The turn that ended Stampede. But it was brilliant. Archie was one of the best heels in Stampede Wrestling history feuding with the hated Harts. Over time he formed an alliance with Bad News Allen to take on the Hart army, during that match Gouldie's son was attacked and pile drove outside of the ring and sent to the hospital or the morgue, Allen bragged about it, and Gouldie made a heart felt promo for revenge and became a face. Unfortunately due to the riot (Captain in the middle yo) Stampede was banned and had its license pulled and the blow off match took place outside of town during a blizzard. Also Ed had started to hate the blood and gore antics quit at the end of the show.





honorable mentions


Sgt Slaughter turns on America
Owen Hart turns on Bret
Austin sells out to the corporation
Larry Zybysko turns on Sanmartino
Jericho turns on Michaels (Lead to Chris punching out Shawn's wife for real to his horror)
Rollin's turns on the shield
Macho reunites with Elizabeth