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
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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Jake the Snake double-crossing Ultimate Warrior. It all made sense:
When Randy Savage turned on Hulk Hogan in 1989 it was all long-term storytelling - you could see the seeds planted months before the turn actually happened. When it finally happened you could totally see Savage's justification. Look at it closer and it's clear that Savage should've been the face in that feud:
Paul Orndorff joining the Heenan Family.
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Vince had slowly started to reveal himself as the owner of WWE ~1995, but in the wake of the screw job he embraced the mega heat he was getting and created the Mr McMahon character, who would eventually grow into one of the most bombastic characters in the companies history. This character was so effective and iconic, Trump would go on to steal "You're Fired" and Connor McGregor would steal the Vince-strut.
This was also was Bret's turn from company baby face to mid-card hell. The WCW couldn't keep the heat on Bret and he never returned to the heights he had known in the WWE.
Although he remained a good guy, Sting's 'Crow' character change was a 'turn' in of itself.... and one of the greatest transformations ever for a wrestler's character. The longevity of it too, from one loved icon to another, even switching to the dark side, was amazing. He became even more popular after this, and became even more of an icon in WCW. Once of the best things to watch in the 90's.
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You know Muta, I thought long and hard on that one, and you're right, in a way it was the greatest transformation of a character ever. At the same time Eric resisted pushing the match between Sting and Hogan for nearly a year and had not only the NWO kick the crap out of the rest of WCW but have a rift between the WCW guys and Sting. When the WCW thought that Sting had joined the NWO because of the NWO sting and have Sting clean house, throw his bat at Lex and simply say "It wasn't me Lex". It was brilliant.
So why didn't I put it in?
Because the payoff was so poorly done. Remember the match finally came, and Sting came down to the ring down the ramp, and Hogan basically kicked his a$$ and pinned him, then Bret came down and restarted the match because he felt the count was fast (which it wasn't).
In the end while the Sting thing was awesome the payoff was the beginning of the end of the NWO as Hogan's politicking, Eric's ego, and the chaos backstage ended up making WCW and Sting look lke doofuses and Bret look stupid.
I still look back on WCW and their continual messing up of everything that they touched with amazement.
They had an elite group in the NWO as the ultimate rebel group, then bloated it, split it and watered it down.
They were handed the hottest potential storyline in wrestling history in Bret and the Montreal Screw job and promptly booked Bret into oblivion and made no money from it.
They had the hottest new talent in history in Goldberg, built up a Hogan vs Goldberg match, gave it away for free because Eric panicked and then let Hogan play politics and wreck Goldberg completely.
At the end of the day the biggest problem was that while the NWO was brilliant, it was basically put in place eventually to protect the older guys who night after night were putting on atrocious matches and eventually the fans picked up on that and watch as the best workers (Radicalz) and the future of their company get disgruntled and leave.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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Freebirds turning on the Von Erich's, though not as main stream, was one of the greatest turns in wrestling history. It set WCCW on a terror for several years. WCCW did not get much air up here (we had an old US Satelite dish and I watch every Saturday night) but it was th Stampede Wrestling of Texas. Some huge talent went through there and they shared the same template as Stampede with Dad running the company, setting up his sons in wrestling and brining in a steady rotation of talent paired with some mainstay heals. I think WCCW is highly underrated for the mark they left.
I'm also going to add the Freebird's "Bad Street USA" as well as the Von Erich's La Grange (ZZ Top) in the entrance category in your other topic.
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WCCW was awesome, I believe they have it on the network as well.
At the end of the day, the father, Fitz, he was basically a monster, all of his sons but one had major drug problems Two of the sons committed suicide with another one dying due to an overdose. I remember that the one surviving son Kevin recalled that when he got depressed he went to his father who basically told him he was weak and didn't have the guts to kill himself.
Fitz was a monster.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
All the good ones from my youth have been mentioned already. But I was still watching and remember when the Rock turned heel. This was a good move because he was absolutely terrible as a face, entering the ring with that pineapple haircut and goofy smile. I don’t recall the full dynamics of his turn, and don’t believe the events in and of themselves were all that memorable (Nation of Domination or something?), but it set in motion a pretty historic career and really enabled his true charisma to come out. People loved him no matter if he was a good or bad guy because of his personality.
[QUOTE=Strange Brew;7443922]I watched to that clip again. Heenan's quote "What an act of cowardism!".[/ QUOTE]
This is a little off topic but my goodness, was Heenan funny. Even as a kid his schtick was pure gold to me. As I grew up I appreciated his one liners even more, but as a youth who was all in, I would legit laugh as they showed things like a replay of a 3 count where the good guy lifted his shoulder but the ref ignored it as was clearly in cahoots with the bad guys and Heenan would say “did he lift his shoulder? I can’t tell from my vantage point!” (And on the replay the good guys shoulder was like a foot off the ground.)
Man I miss wrestling as a kid. I just turned 42 this week and haven’t watched wrestling in like 25 years but always love reminiscing of it. It was a huge part of my childhood
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All the good ones from my youth have been mentioned already. But I was still watching and remember when the Rock turned heel. This was a good move because he was absolutely terrible as a face, entering the ring with that pineapple haircut and goofy smile. I don’t recall the full dynamics of his turn, and don’t believe the events in and of themselves were all that memorable (Nation of Domination or something?), but it set in motion a pretty historic career and really enabled his true charisma to come out. People loved him no matter if he was a good or bad guy because of his personality.
... but it didn't last long ...
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I think the best "fake" turn ever done was DDP taking the shirt from Nash and Hall. putting it on, and then hitting the most casual Diamond Cutter ever delivered like it was quietly-running water. The crowd went ape#### for that brief moment where DDP looked liked he was going to give in, and the payoff was incredible to watch - both with the crowd that night and with DDP's career.
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The Rockers breakup is the best for me.
Such a classic betrayal & Marty Janetty was pretty much done after that.
Marty had a decent run after the breakup, even becoming tag champ again with 1-2-3 kid, it could have been good for him but outside of his ability to do high-flying and technical moves, he was a pretty bad wrestler: terrible promo and terrible selling (where Shawn is elite), he just never seemed like he was taking things seriously.
Everything about that angle was originally designed to push Marty into a mid upper card performer in that angle. He was seen as the better worker and talker of the two.
Both of them at the time were in the doghouse in the WWF, they had been fired previously for being unprofessional and had only been bought back by Vince if they promised to take the opportunity seriously and grow up.
The feud came from a very big backstage problem between the two, where Marty lied about an offer from WCW to Shawn and Vince and decided to quit the company, but when he quit he told the WWE that it was both him and his partner leaving. When Shawn found out he hit the roof and reached out to Vince to try and keep his job.
The other incident that happened was that Piper one night while drinking egged on a very drunk team telling each of them that the other was holding them back. This lead to a very real brawl between the two that ended up with the police being called in and Marty almost going to jail.
The WWE decided at that point that art should imitate real life and break up the team. Marty hit the roof over the break up of the team, Shawn tired of Marty had seen the future as a singles wrestler.
The problem was that Marty was seen as the better worker and in a funny way the more mature of the two. The whole thing was designed to get Marty a strong baby face push, while Shawn would be firmly put in the mid card.
What people do forget is that the feud never happened to the level that it should have and it benefited Michaels. shortly after the barber shop breakup, Marty was arrested for possession and resisting arrest and sentence to house arrest and the WWE suspended him. During his time away Michaels really burst onto the scene as a strong heel and pushed his way up the card. By the time the Marty returned to the WWE the feud was an afterthought. They had a couple of matches Marty was fired again and bought back, but the feud never really happened and they eventually created the new rockers for Marty.
The break up was awesome don't get me wrong, but the backstage stuff was more interesting then the feud.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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Best turns in wrestling
