Another list, CaptainCrunch's top 11 wrestling turns
Wrestling has often been described as a male soap opera performed by men in their underwear. A description that really makes me want to re-evaluate my being a 40 year old fan of Wrestling. But where would wrestling be without story lines? Without human drama? Without friends turning on friends and seeking bloody revenge. It’d be pretty darn boring and would still strictly exist at carnivals and circuses.
But when wrestling beam a work and combined with television, heel turns became king, the most exciting part of the sport. There have been hundreds of heel turns in wrestling, some good and some bad, and when I think about them, I’m reminded of Mick Foley talking about what makes for an effective heel, and it applies to the reason for turning of your tag team partner or your friend or ally, and it boils down to “It has to make sense, it has to be justified”.
So when I decided that I wanted to write up a list of my favorite heel turns, I was careful in looking back at the why, and not just the resulting feud.
Now, before I start, I know you’re saying, “Hey Captain, why 11?”, well Kiddies when I was writing this up there was a heel turn that I just couldn’t leave out, because I was in attendance on the night it happened, and it was just an incredible night.
So, live with it, it’s a top 11, and here we go.
11) Dynamite Kid turns on Davey Boy Smith
This is the feud that I just couldn’t not put in there, and the execution puts it on this list. To understand this feud, one has to understand the back stage dynamics of the British Bulldogs. When Stu Hart ended Stampede Wrestling back in 1984 and sold the territory to Vince McMahon and the WWF, Stu made the sale conditional on his son Bret, the Bulldogs and Bad News Allen getting jobs in the WWF. For 4 years the Bulldogs changed the tag team wrestling game, winning the WWF tag team championships. But Dynamite’s declining health including a devastating back injury, his unhappiness with the WWF style, and a series of bullying events back stage lead to the Bulldogs leaving the Federation and returning to the restarted Stampede wrestling where they became the top draw in the company as a good guy tagteam.
But backstage the formerly close cousins were coming apart at the seams, Dynamite was always the boss in the relationship, and Davey Boy was unhappy at leaving the big money in the WWF. So this is where art reflects reality. I can’t remember all of the details, but I remember the night that a very young 18 year old CaptainCrunch and his best friend at the time were front row and center for the disintegration of the Bulldogs. Sure, there had been signs of trouble, Dynamite snapping at Davey and blaming him for losses, but nothing serious until that Friday Night at the Pavilion. Earlier in the night Dynamite had been in a one on one match with Johnny Smith (IIRC) when the hated Karachi Vice stormed the ring to attach him. Davey came down to save his cousin and in the melee Dynamite was hit with a kendo stick and when he turned around, Davey had picked it up and Dynamite saw him holding the stick and put 2 and 2 together. In the post match interview, Davey swore up and down that he didn’t hit Dynamite, and it seemed like Dynamite accepted it and everything was ok, but we were all wrong. Later in the night when Davey had his own solo match against and I think it was Kerry Brown, Dynamite came down to the ring with a heavy chain wrapped around his fist, and he came off of the rope and destroyed Davey and proceeded to beat him bloody. The reaction of the Stampede Wrestling fans was incredible. I remember a fan next to me, was crying and begging Dynamite to stop, there were several girls crying their eyes out, and of course, I was cheering it on.
This heel turn led Dynamite to going back to what he always was, a heel. He teamed up with Johnny Smith to form the British Bruisers and we got a long bloody series of matches between Dynamite and Davey Boy Smith. The Bulldogs continued to team up in New Japan, but tension boiled over when Davey returned to the WWF, and Dynamite never spoke to his cousin again. The disintegration of Dynamite continued and by 1996, he was a forgotten footnote in wrestling. But for one bright shining moment, Dynamite was back to what he was years earlier, one of the best heels in wrestling.
(Sadly there is no real footage of this fued out there)
10) Bad News Allen turns on Archie the Stomper Gouldie
This is a tragic heel turn, because it directly led to the end of Stampede Wrestling. It also lead to a riot, the suspension of Stampede Wrestling in Calgary and Ed Whalen leaving the company.
By the time this feud happened, Stampede Wrestling was in big trouble, it was bleeding money, and Stu was under pressure by his wife Helen to shut the company down before they went broke. By this time, Bruce Hart was booking the federation, and doing a lot of really interesting booking that would later make its way to the other big federation. The problem was that Stu and the veterans hated it, and Stampede Wrestling got bloodier and bloodier and was dependant on the infamous blood and guts cheap heat.
But the Archie Gouldie, Bad News Allan feud was an amazing piece of immersive story telling, and once again a young CaptainCrunch was front and centre.
To understand this feud, you have to understand that at the time, any good story had to go through the Hart family, and at the time the two most heated heels in the company were Archie Gouldie and Bad News Allen. For months Archie and Gouldie had teamed up with each other and were portrayed as good friends. They trained together, ate together, and fought the Harts (Bret, Davey, Sonny Two Rivers) together. So it was natural that Archie and Bad News challenged the Harts to a 6 man tag team battle, that would feature Allen, Gouldie and a rookie wrestler named Jeff Gouldie, you guessed it, Archie’s son had begged his dad to train him as a wrestler. The 6 man tag match started as usual with the Hart’s on the one side and Stomper, Bad News and Jeff on the other. To be honest, it was a good physical match, but nothing special. Then all hell broke lose. Allen turned on Archie, threw Jeff outside of the ring and pile drove him on concrete floor multiple times, and all hell broke lose. The crowd panicked and some fans attacked Bad News who punched out an old man about 10 feet away from me. The building was cleared. After the building was cleared, Bad News did an interview where he proclaimed that he had broken Jeff’s neck and he hoped the Son of a Bitch would die. Archie came out and made a frighteningly calm interview where he stated that he regretted letting his son into the business, and “He was going to go see his son in the hospital and then get the man who hurt his son”. At that point, Ed Whalen who at the time was a awful announcer in that he was too much of a Mark for himself, and he had not been let in on this turn, quit on live TV.
Back then there was a feeling of realism in wrestling. But Jeff Gouldie a wrestler from the Deep South territory named Tommy Lane was on a plane home, but that didn't stop the switchboard at the Rocky View Hospital from being flooded by Wrestling fans trying to find out if he was ok.
On the house show shortly afterwards in Edmonton, Bad News started another riot and assaulted a fan with a chair. That was it for Stampede Wrestling in Calgary. The Boxing commission suspended Stampede Wrestling license, and the blow off match that would have been a massive money maker in Calgary ended up happening on the Sarcee reserve on the night of a massive blizzard, so the blow off drew very little money. Stu was disgusted by the whole thing and shorlly after words shut down Stampede Wrestling and sold the territory to Vince who later reneged on the deal thanks to Bruce Hart trying to restart Stampede Wrestling behind his back.
9) The break up of the Rockers.
Going back to the theme of art imitating real life, the Rockers break up came about due to real life problems between Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels. They had come into the WWE with great hype after tearing up independent territories and the AWA in the early 80’s and were promptly fired by the WWE after their debut due to behavior issues. When they were allowed to return, they never hit their potential. Backstage Marty had gone behind Shawn’s back to give Vince an ultimatum in asking for more money. Shawn wasn’t interested in leaving the WWE and decided he wanted a solo career. It was decided that it was time to break up the team. At the time, the WWE honestly expected Marty to be the bigger star, Shawn was a pudgy wrestler who was a great worker, but was considered to be below average on the mic. This feud was expected to be a launching point for Marty. The set up of the feud was simple. Thee Rockers started losing and squabbling. Marty made mistakes during Michael’s singles matches leading Shawn to lose matches to Ric Flair and a loss at Survivor Series. Finally the tension blew up when the Rockers lost a tag team title match to the Legion of Doom and their bad feelings boiled over into a confrontation. This lead to a segment on Brutus Beefcakes Barber shop, where the two seemed to reconcile and hug it out, but in an instance Michael’s career changed for ever as he brutally attacked his former friend and threw him through the window of the Barber Shop leaving him bleeding.
Shawn Michael’s then grabbed the glass ring, reinvented himself as the cocky Boy Toy and the rest is history. Marty Jannetty effectively ended his career with WWE due to his behaviour and addiction problems. A feud with Michael’s that was supposed to launch him never happened due to repeated firings and suspensions. But it didn’t matter, the WWE had accidentally created a major star.
8) Chris Jericho turns on Shawn Michaels
Chris Jericho can be a creative Genius, I’m still convinced that left to his own devices without supervision, he’s his own worst enemy creatively. But his feud with Shawn Michaels where he turned heel and changed Character, represents some of his finest work. Putting Michaels and Jericho in the ring in a feud was equivalent to putting two great artists together and letting them paint. This feud had it all, emotion, real life heat behind the scenes, and a really good reason for a heel turn.
To understand this feud we have to realize that it had been a slow build from about 2002, when Jericho had been on a high career trajectory and feuded with Michaels on and off with the intention of ending Micaels career.
In 2008 while the WWE landscape had changed, Shawn and HBK were both main event talents, and faces. HBK had just famously ended Ric Flair’s career with the Iove you I’m sorry super kick, the seeds were planted during the Ric Flair retirement ceremony when Batista stared down HBK and showed resentment over Flair’s retirement, and Jericho injected himself into the feud, by questioning Shawn’s character and accused him of enjoying Flair’s retirement a little two much.
This led up to a Batista versus HBK match where Michael’s faked a knee injury to buy some time and eventually beat Batista in a very clever and calculated move by Michaels, showing that nothing was too low in order to get a ring.
On the next Raw Michael’s appeared on the Highlight Reel and Jericho awarded HBK with a “Best Actor in Sports Entertainment” award. Michael’s made the mistake of denying the injury and claiming that he was legitimately hurt..
On May 5, 2008 the two faces teamed up to take on the excellent team of the Miz and Morrison. Once again, HBK’s kneed acted up, and led to Michael’s hitting the Sweet Chin Music and Jericho hitting the Lion salt to win.
The next week on Raw, Jericho proclaimed that he believed that Michael’s was legitimately hurt and he wanted to apologize to his friend for questioning his integrity. Shawn then admitted h wasn’t hurt, Jericho acted like he didn’t buy it, and Shawn hit the sweet chin music, then stood over Jericho and told him “that he wasn’t hurt”.
This led to a Judgment day where Shawn Michael’s beat Jericho in a quick match, but the two shook hands and showed mutual respect.
Jericho again hosted HBK on an episode of the Highlight Reel. He then noted that the fans will love HBK no matter what he did. HBK replied by reminding Jericho that he would do anything to win. You could see the anger boiling in Jericho as he went on one of the great rants. “Howe does Shawn Michael’s, one of the greatest performers and most highly decorated superstars in the history of the business turn into a lying, cheating, pathetic little work of a human being?”. Then in a moment that is just epic, Jericho threw Michaels face first through the hideously expensive Jerichotron 6000, after promising a bloody Michaels that the worst was left to come.
This so far was such a unique turn, Jericho’s reasons were legitimate, and in the old days would have been Honorable, but Jericho was taking advantage of fans that cheered for the villians and everything was shades of gray.
The next week, Jericho continued to slowly build his heel character, he blamed the audience for what occurred, a series of confrontation happened where Jericho and Michaels would face off with Michael’s further injuring his damaged eye.
For the next few weeks, Jericho and Michaels continue to have nasty confrontations, meanwhile Jericho had moved away from his Y2J rock star gimmick and transferred into a slow talking, suit wearing serial killer feeling type of heel based on Anton Sugar from “No Country for old men”. He also stole heavily from Nick Bockwinkel in using a big word vocabulary, and turned in his long tights for gasp short tights.
Then things got real. In August Shawn Michael’s came out to the ring with his wife, former Nitro Girl Rebecca, to announce that his eye injury and other injuries had led him to decide to retire. As Shawn made his emotional speech with his wife crying by his side, Jericho stormed the ring and noted he would not allow Shawn to retire and he wanted Shawn to admit that Chris Jericho had chased him from the business. Shawn retorted by telling Jericho to tell his wife and kids that Daddy would never be as good as Shawn Michaels.
Whoops, Chris went to punch Shawn, but he ducked, and Rebecca zigged instead of zagging, and Jericho punched her out for real.
Up until this point, backstage, Jericho and Michael’s weren’t really close. Jericho was at the height of his obnoxiousness and drinking leading to some pointed conversations wiht Shawn, Jericho documented in one of his books, that he also felt that Shawn had very little respect for him as a person. Maybe because Jericho was following Shawn’s path a little too closely.
However the show must go on. Jericho continued to needle Shawn, blaming him for his wife getting knocked out and it lead to a brutal unsanctioned match, between Michael’s and Jericho.
The end result was that Michael’s became even more beloved, which Jericho had predicted at the start of this story. Jericho had transformed his character from the Y2J gimmick and showed that he was a master creative force, and had changed himself to the top heel on the business.
Logic and reason ruled the day.
Coming soon 7 through 5
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
This has become a bit of a tale of woe due to the untimely death of Owen Hart and the disintegration of the Hart Family. But, at one time this was one of the best rivalries in the WWE. Bret in 1994 was a star in the WWF, considered to be one of the best story tellers in the the wrestling business at the time, Bret had also won tag team Championships, the Intercontinental Championship and the World Heavy Weight Ttile. Bret was the go-to guy for the company. Owen had struggled since he had joined the WWF, a supremely talented wrestler who had re-energized the Stampede Wrestling Territory, he was an amazing ring technician and far exceeded Bret in terms of an arial attack. However, by 1992 it was clear that the WWF didn’t see the potential in Owen. A run as the masked Blue Blazer was followed up by a run with Jim Neidhart as the New Foundation and a ridiculous run in the Zabba Pants wearing High Energy tag team with Koko B. Ware. Owen had moved into Jobber territory.
Bret looked on with some dismay, he knew his brother had talent, he just needed a break, so Bret when asked by Vince McMahon who he wanted to work with, he said “Owen”. The problem was, how do you make Owen a heel? He was as white bread Baby Face as there was and had never been a heel.
But Owen and Bret created a story line that led to 5* matches and a long run as a hated heel in the company.
It all started when Owen returned from a knee injury and Bret bought him in at his side in the feud with Jerry Lawler. After Owen fought a series of matches in Lawler’s USWA, he returned to the Fed in time for the Survivor series where the Hart Family of Bret, Owen, Keith and Bruce would face off against Lawler and his team. Unfortunately, Lawler missed the show and Shawn Michael stepped In, but it didn’t matter. During the match Bret and Owen collided and Owen was eliminated, Owen confronted his big brother while the other Harts cooled things down, but Owen left the ring to boo’s, while Helen Hart cried in the crowd and sold it perfectly, as he played the jaded little brother perfectly.
The next night Owen changed his look, he dawned Pink and Black tights, started wearing Sunglasses and adopted the Sharp Shooter as his finishing move. Owen railed against being in his brother’s shadow, blaming his lack of a career on Bret. He angrily challenged Bret to a match, but Bret declined saying he’d never ever fight his brother.
Over the holiday season as the story goes. Bret and Owen worked things out and were on the same page., Bret would team with Owen regularly, and Bret even got them a title match against the excellently heelish Quebecers at the Royal Rumble.
During the match Bret injured his knee and was unable to tag his brother for a long period of time and took the baby face beatdown while Owen Fumed on the sidelines. Finally the referee concerned about Bret stopped the match, Owen Snapped and kicked Bret’s injured leg out of his leg, and stormed off later berating Bret “All you needed to do was tag me, but you’re too damned Selfish”.
Suddenly Owen had arrived, he became a exceptional heel, they clashed at Wrestlemaina X, where they had a 5 star match where Owen pulled off the upset cleanly pinning his brother. Later in the night Bret won the WWF title, and during the celebration where Bret was carried around the ring by his fellow wrestlers, Owen came out to ring side and glare at his brother, once again Bret had stolen his thunder.
Owen continued to do everything he could do to become a hated heel, he won the King of the Ring Tournament and named himself “The King of the Harts.”
The feud continued through 1994 as they fought in single matches and tag team matches where Owen tagged up with Jim Neidhart, and Bret tagged with Davey Boy Smith. This lead up to the a steel cage match at Summer Slam where Bret beat Owen, that was labelled as another 5 star match. Then a lumber jack match that Owen originally won the world heavy weight title only to have the match restarted due to outside interference.
At the height of the feud though, they didn’t meat in the ring as Owen cost his brother the world heavyweight title during a match with Bob Backlund where Owen tearfully convinced Helen to throw in the towel, then laughed in her face when she did it. The Feud then wrapped up with a blow off match where Bret soundly beat Owen.
But Bret’s original plan was successful, Owen had ascended to the upper card, and had a new heel persona, that fans loved while they boo’d him.
Its important to know that the Hart’s old school belief in Kayfabe was on full display. They never appeared in public together, traveled on different planes, and when they went to family events, they were careful to not be seen together. When they were in Calgary when fans asked about the feud Owen would blast his brother, Bret would act heartbroken.
The brothers wouldn’t reunite until Bret turned heel and built the Hart Foundation.
6) Larry Zybszko turns on Bruno Sammartino
People sometimes sleep a little bit on Larry Zybsko remembering him as the horrible announcer on WCW’s Saturday night show. But in his prime Larry was an exceptional heel and exceptional with the mic. The story of this feud is rooted in real life.
Bruno on the other hand it could still be argued is one of the greatest to tie up his boots, over his long career he had played the everyman, immigrant face champion who constantly sold out the Garden.
But Bruno was slowing down, and injuries were taking their toll including a broken next caused by Stan Hansons devastating Lariat.
Because of this Bruno’s schedule was lightened by the then WWWF. This allowed Bruno to pick and choose his opponents, from different territories.
While this was happening Bruno’s former for real student and protégé Larry Zbysko was bought into the WWWF in 1973 thanks to the political connections of his mentor. In real life, Larry had begged Bruno to train him in 1971, and then Bruno who would only train Larry if he got a degree first used his connections to help Larry to avoid the usual hardships that rookie wrestlers have to face in their first years in the business.
Larry originally came in as a baby face and was voted rookie of the year in 1974. But Larry in his promo’s seemed to forget the benefits of Bruno’s mentorship and connections.
Bruno on the other hand acted as an upset teacher dealing with an ungrateful student, and he decided to teach this uppity youngster a lesson in humility.
This was a long burning build as Larry left the WWWF for a time, then returned in 1976, by this time Bruno was a color commentator, but Larry still playing the Baby face said that despite all of his own success, he couldn’t escape from Bruno’s shadow, and people didn’t know his name or referred to him as Bruno’s kid.
At this time the WWWF had transitioned to the WWF, and the Fed was struggling because their champion Bob Backlund was just not drawing. So, the Sammartino v Zybysko was put front and center.
Larry and Bruno continued to clash in interviews, where Bruno refusing Larry’s challenges because he didn’t want to hurt their friendship. Meanwhile Larry swore to quit the business because he couldn’t get out of his mentor’s shadow and get credit for himself.
This led to a final interview, where Bruno stated that he was not going in to hurt Larry, and he wouldn’t give him anything, his student would have to prove himself.
This led to a series of sold-out excellent matches until Larry fully turned heel by bloodying his mentor with a wooden chair, where Bruno was stretched out of the building.
In real life their friendship changed. Bruno was angry because as he claimed Larry didn’t protect him with the chair shots and clobbered him for real.
Remember at this time, there were no PPV blowoffs, TV was used to build house shows, and ticket sales were everything. And this feud boiled over with sold out shows in Boston, Philly, Pittsburgh and New York, but most important there were never definitive winders, the matches would end with DQ’s. Larry’s new heel persona was so successful that he was stabbed by a fan during a show in New York and his car was turned over in Boston.
This led to a rare angry emotional interview by Bruno.
“I’ve created a Frankenstein, and I’m going to destroy that Frankenstein I created. You climbed that mountain using me, the guy who poured his heart out to you. Larry, you’re going to make the biggest splash when you fly off that mountain and hit the bottom. You’re going to make such a big splash that there won’t even be a spot left of you. No one will even remember that such an idiot like Larry Zbyszko existed!"
Larry then responded with one of his best promo’s of all time.
"I don’t know if I can go through another three minutes of Bruno crying to his fans over how bitter he is. What does he have to be bitter about? He came on TV and tried to embarrass me, and it didn’t work. Well, I want to confess to everybody: I have never felt so happy and free in my entire life. I took myself, by myself, out of that ridiculous little box of a shadow Bruno put me in for the last eight years, and I broke it myself and raised it myself above everybody. Now Larry Zybyszko is on the front page everywhere, and the only thing I lost was the support of Bruno Sammartino, you fans, maybe you (Vince), and some of the wrestlers. And you know what? It doesn’t matter!"
Finally, we came down to the blow off, in front of a sold out Shea Stadium (36,000 fans) the teacher and student faced off in a brutal cage match. Bruno finally dispatched his protégé by escaping the cage, by leaving his student standing Larry retained his heel heat. After leaving the cage Larry confronted Bruno and got punched in the face for his effort, and then in a final cynical move, Larry raised Bruno’s hand in victory with a sneer on his face.
For Bruno his career was winding down, this was one last big payday and historical feud in his long career. For Larry he became one of the most hated heels in the business, In a feud that bled the lines between reality and Kayfabe, more importantly for Larry, he had final escaped the shadow of Bruno Sammartino.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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What do you do when a top wrestlers fans start slowly turning on them? Or a top wrestlers gimmick no longer really works? And how can you take a simple heel turn and make it one of the most unique storylines in wrestling?
Bret Hart was a pure awshucks style of heel in 1996 when the seeds were planted for his heel turn. He was nice to fans, didn’t swear a lot, didn’t cheat, he always saw himself as a hero, but the seeds were planted thanks to the fans swinging into the attitude era. Suddenly bad asses were cool, swearing was tits, and a foul-mouthed Red Neck was heading towards becoming the greatest draw of all time. And Bret Hart was getting left behind.
Backstage Bret could see the shifting sands with Austin, in fact Bret was partially responsible for the WWE bringing Austin in, and after a terrible start as the bland Ring Master. Austin exploded with his Austin 3:16 speech, his straight-talking manner, his simple ring style and his black boots. In 1996 Bret was pretty much the top dog in the WWE, but it was a time of difficult draws, and the WWE was losing the wrestle war.
You can say a lot of things about Hart, but one thing he was exceptionally good at was elevating his opponent, whether it was single matches with Tom Mcgee, or Sean Waltman. OR in a lengthy feud like he did with Austin.
Bret was decidedly undecided about his wrestling career, he had left the company to heel years of wear and tear and try his hand at other things like acting. But he hand picked Austin as his opponent for his return.
When Bret returned in November on 1996, at MSG, it was the last time that he would receive a truly explosive hero’s welcome. And he faced off against Austin at Survivor series in a 5 star match where Bret may have won, but Austin won the respect of the fans.
But Bret’s character was stale, and the fans in 1996 were not like the fans in 1995. In Bret’s book, he talked about Vince McMahon sitting down with him to try to convince him to turn heel, something that Bret hadn’t been since he was part of the Hart Foundation tag team. Bret had also signed the infamous 20-year deal with the WWE and Vince was concerned about Bret’s fading ability to draw.
But Bret wasn’t sure, he admitted that turning heel would give his character new energy, he also, and Bret does have an ego, believed that the fans had turned heel on him, he didn’t really understand why the fans had turned on him.
In truth, Bret came across as a bit whiny and entitled, not like the hard-working ass kicking Texas Rattlesnake. Bret started laying the ground work. On Monday Night Raw Bret lost a cage match his title in a cage match to Psycho Sid, after the Undertaker slammed the door in his face. When Vince McMahon entered the ring to interview Bret, Bret attacked the at the time Vince Commentator action figure, shoved him to the ground and unleashed one of his best blistering promo’s in his WWE tenure. It was an angry bitter profanity laced promo, and it got the intended reaction as part of the crowd started to boo him.
In his promo Bret proclaimed that “Frustrated isn’t the word for it, this is Bullsh$t. Bret then blamed everyone for screwing his out of his title. He then got into an altercation with the Undertaker, Stone Cold Steve Austin and McMahon.
6 days later, Bret and Stone Cold Steve Austin engaged in what I think is the best Wrestlemania match ever. Bret entered the ring as a face and left as the top heel in the company, Austin entered as a heel and left as the top face in the company.
The visual of Bret holding a bloody and screaming Austin in the Sharp Shooter, and Austin never giving up but passing out, and then Bret attacking Austin after the match, until refereen Ken Shamrock challenged him, and then Bret did something that he never has done before, he walked away from the fight and marched up the aisle to the back with the entire audience booing him.
Here’s where this heel turn bordered on genius. Vince convinced Bret to be a heel in the United States and the company’s number 1 face everywhere else. Bret went on his best character based run in the WWE and showed that he could be a completely detestable heel.
When he was in the States he blamed American’s for everything wrong in the world, compared cities to toilet bowls, and suddenly Bret began to draw better in the States. In Europe and Canada Bret played off a wave of anti-Americanism, and the fans saw him as a hero fighting against a corrupt system.
On the Raw after Wrestlemania Bret opened the show with a 22 minute bile filled promo, and it made sense, Bret justified his actions brilliantly. Bret bitterly talked about how American fans had turned against him, they cheered for the bad guys. Hart claimed that only in America could criminals like OJ Simpson and Charles Manson become heroes. Bret’s promo game with the freedom of being a heel had definitely gone up a notch.
The next week, Bret interrupted a match between his brother Owen and the British Bulldog, and delivered a another top notch promo, where he blamed American fans for the split in his family and reminded Owen who broke down in tears that family was the most important thing. And then in a brilliant ending when he was hugging his brother, he looked at the American fans with a look of complete disdain.
On the span of two weeks Bret had delivered a series of promos that were so much better then his face promo’s over the last 5 years. And he had created a powerful heel faction in the Hart Foundation, that was composed of Bret, Owen, Davey Boy Smith, Jim Niedhard and the loose Cannon Brian Pillman.
The late 90’s WWE was heavy with factions, everyone was in a group. But the Hart Foundation quickly moved to the top of the card. Completely despicable in the United States, completely popular everywhere else.
So what changed with Hart, why was he suddenly knocking it out of the park in the ring and on the mic? Because, simply put, Bret whole hardily believed what he was saying, he never understood why the attitude era fans turned on him, He was resentful at the attitude era changes and sexualization of the attitude era, and he was allowed to use that to keep his hero status everywhere in the world but the United States.
The USA versus Canda storyline continued to grow, but you could see storm clouds gathering in the back with Shawn Michaels, and Bret poured more of that real life bitterness at Michael’s into his promo.
The height of the heel turn occurred in Calgary at the In your house ppv, for those in attendance it was the loudest the Saddledome has ever been, especially when Bret walked out to the ring.
After In your House, Bret continued to use reality based promo’s as he insulted American, and it lead to his 5th WWE title taking it from the Undertaker in a match that featured special referee in Shawn Michaels who cost Taker his title. And the heel turn began to fizzle thanks to Sean Michaels decided he wanted to be the number 1 heel in the company and turning during that match.
With Shawn and Hart both being heels, the fans found it easier to hate Sean who by that point was equally hated by the fans and everyone in the back. Bret started sliding down the card working a program with the Patriot. By the time Bret and Shawn moved into a program, all of Bret’s momentum had been sucked out of the room, he had given up his spot as the number 1 face in the company to become the number 1 heel, and now Shawn was the to heel, and Bret couldn’t really become a good guy again.
We know the rest of the story, and Bret’s heel turn was buried by time and the WWE, but Bret’s turn in my opinion was one of the top turns in TV, not because of name recognition, or a tag team breaking up, but because it felt real and authentic and it just made sense.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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Another list, CaptainCrunch's top 11 wrestling turns
