History FaceHeelTurn / ProfessionalWrestling

* Countless competitors in ProfessionalWrestling (which is fitting, as it's the business that named the term/trope). Often, a heel turn will stem from a face feeling as though he doesn't have the respect of the fans or his fellow faces; this is sometimes set up by having the face lose for several weeks in a row, finally lose his temper and blame the fans or other faces. Usually, the new heel will prove his heelishness with a sneak attack on a former face ally, often aided by his new heel allies, and often followed by a MotiveRant about why they did it. Heel turns by wrestlers who constantly switch between heel and face (Wrestling/LexLuger and [[Wrestling/TheBigShow Paul Wight]] are two examples) don't have all that much impact on the fans, but when a long-term face goes heel it's a big deal. The biggest example of this might be babyface Hulk Hogan's heel turn at WCW event Bash at the Beach in 1996 after over a decade of superheroics, which shocked fans and generated mainstream attention. A wrestler who turns often enough eventually settles into [[WildCard "tweener"]] mode, where they're a face or a heel as the storyline demands.
* Perhaps the template for the face-heel turn came in 1980, when BrunoSammartino's protege, Larry Zbyszko, during a "scientific match" pitting the teacher vs. the student, turned into a Zbyszko CurbStomp battle. Zbyszko's reasoning: He was tired of being held back by Sammartino, he wasn't being given a fair shot at superstardom and during their match, he felt he was being made to look foolish (as Sammartino was countering Zbyszko at every turn). In the end, Zbyszko took a few cheap shots at his longtime mentor and then repeatedly broke a wooden folding chair over his head. Although a few sided with Zbyszko, fans were virtually unanimously in Sammartino's corner. Zbyszko's heel persona, by the way, would last well into the 1990s, as he played the cowardly heel role as AWA World Heavyweight Champion (1989-1990) as well as his WWF counterpart, Wrestling/TheHonkyTonkMan, would as Intercontinental Champion.

* [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]] established his popularity with one of these. After being introduced as a [[InvincibleHero Boring Invincible Hero]], his unpopularity with fans was used as the rationale for him turning heel. It worked, and he won over the crowds to his side.

** Wrestling/CMPunk's heel turn in 2009 started when he cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on Wrestling/JeffHardy. The fans were very pissed off because Hardy just won what was only his second world title and it was taken away from him. Punk started to enforce his straight-edge lifestyle on both Hardy and all of the WWE fans. He finally completed his heel turn one day when he hit Hardy in the head with a microphone and beat him up.

** Another FaceHeelTurn involving Hogan came a year earlier with "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff. Starting in the late spring of 1986, an angle was started where Hogan and Orndorff were "best friends" and vowed to stand behind one another through thick and thin. Then a series of minor misunderstandings began to take place, something that "Adorable" Adrian Adonis had observed from afar and quietly picked up on, before bringing up the subject directly to Orndorff on Adonis' "Flower Shop" talk show set. As the misunderstandings (and one missed phone call) began to mount, Orndorff began teaming with Hogan in a series of matches, leading to a tag team match pitting the two against Big John Studd and King Kong Bundy. Late in the match, Bundy and Studd beat down Hogan, and Orndorff delayed running in for the save; Orndorff raised Hogan's hand in victory before suddenly clotheslining him to the mat, then giving him a piledriver. Backstage, the whole thing was revealed to be a setup to lower Hogan's guard against Orndorff, who wanted a shot at the World Championship but was denied because they were "friends." A few weeks later on TV, Hogan recounted their friendship, even noting that Hogan invited Orndorff to his family's Thanksgiving the previous year, but then admitted that in hindsight he should have known something was up. The resulting feud -- which included a match fought before 70,000-plus fans at the Canadian National Exhibition Center in Toronto, Ontario; and capped off by a memorable steel cage match that aired on national television -- led to sellout crowds and being voted ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' magazine's Feud of the Year in 1986.

* One of the biggest shockers in the 1980s was long-time face Wrestling/AndreTheGiant turning on Wrestling/HulkHogan in dramatic fashion, aligning himself with [[Wrestling/BobbyHeenan Bobby "The Brain" Heenan]], a villainous manager of many known heels in the WWF. Heenan had not only been trying to dethrone Hogan for the past three years up to that point, he'd also sent many of his proteges after Andre over the years. Nobody saw the turn coming, and Hogan seemed as much horrified as he was stunned by it. Andre took matters further, challenging Hogan for the WWF World Championship at Wrestlemania III, and then proceeding to rip off Hogan's shirt and more importantly, his cross. Hogan, who in storylines (and apparently in real life) is a devout Christian (which denomination is unknown), was so shocked by this he actually started ''crying'' from the entire event and was so enraged by the turn that he responded to Roddy Piper asking if he would take Andre's challenge with an absolutely [[BigYes massive yes]] (one of the rare cases of a BigYes not indicating happiness). Andre stayed heel for nearly the remainder of his career, not changing alignments again until 1990, retired around late 1990-early 1991, and died only 2 years after that.

* [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]] established his popularity with one of these. After being introduced as a [[InvincibleHero Boring Invincible Hero]], his unpopularity with fans was used the rationale for him turning heel. It worked, and he won over the crowds to his side.

* Another contender for biggest face heel turn, especially of the 1990s though it was overlooked by most fans in the USA, was that of El Hijo Del Santo, when he disguised himself as Felino to attack Felino's brother, Negro Casas. It (along with actually pushing younger talent), is credited with turning around Wrestling/{{CMLL}}, which had to deal with Wrestling/{{AAA}} breaking away and a recession in Mexico.

* One of the biggest shockers in the 1980s was the turning of longtime face Wrestling/AndreTheGiant, who turned on Wrestling/HulkHogan in dramatic fashion, aligning himself with [[Wrestling/BobbyHeenan Bobby "The Brain" Heenan]], a villainous manager of many known heels in the WWF. Heenan had not only been trying to dethrone Hogan for the past three years up to that point, he'd also sent many of his proteges after Andre over the years. Nobody saw the turn coming, and Hogan seemed as much horrified as he was stunned by it. Andre took matters further, challenging Hogan for the WWF World Championship at Wrestlemania III, and then proceeding to rip off Hogan's shirt and more importantly, his cross. Hogan, who in storylines (and apparently in real life) is a devout Christian (which denomination is unknown), was so shocked by this he actually started ''crying'' from the entire event and was so enraged by the turn that he responded to Roddy Piper asking if he would take Andre's challenge with an absolutely [[BigYes massive yes]] (one of the rare cases of a BigYes not indicating happiness). Andre stayed heel for nearly the remainder of his career, not changing alignments again until 1990, retired around late 1990-early 1991, and died only 2 years after that.

** However, The Rock's natural charm couldn't be hidden by his heel-ness and he often had to try really, REALLY hard to keep fans booing him. The fans could tell that, underneath the obnoxious villain, there was still the entertaining face everybody loved. By the time of his match with Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} at Backlash '03, it seemed he just stopped trying to get fans to hate him and accepted his role as a fan favorite.

** To further illustrate how bad this got, WCW once attempted to turn Sting heel by having him sucker-punch Hulk Hogan. It didn't work, because kayfabe or not, no wrestling fan is going to buy Hulk Hogan as a more heroic figure than Sting. Sting was universally cheered for punking Hogan.

* By the end of WCW's life, writers were doing this with everybody whether it made sense or not, possibly hoping they could reignite the excitement of the Hogan turn with someone else. It didn't work, but that didn't stop WCW from doing it every week. Fans were more confused than anything, as they couldn't tell from week to week who was a face and who was a heel. By the time they pulled one with their cash cow, ''Goldberg'' of all people, fans simply stopped watching out of frustration and WCW went belly up not long after that.
* The heel turn is also a popular way to split up a face tag team, [[BreakupBreakout especially when one member of the team is thought to have more potential as a singles wrestler]]. One of the most famous of these was when the Rockers, a pair of high-flying pretty-boy faces, appeared on [[Wrestling/BrutusBeefcake Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake's]] talk show "The Barbershop" to air out their tensions of preceding weeks. After seeming to reconcile with a hug, Wrestling/ShawnMichaels proceeded to kick Marty Jannetty in the face and toss him through the (fake) glass window of the set, setting up his new persona of The Heartbreak Kid and a lifetime of superstardom.
* Another famous tag team split occurred in the late 80's in the Jim Crockett NWA, when Lex Luger and Wrestling/BarryWindham were the top faces, feuding with Wrestling/RicFlair's devious Four Horsemen stable. In the weeks prior to a huge tag team title match, the Horsemen constantly told Windham that Luger (who had recently ''left'' the Horsemen in a HeelFaceTurn) was only out for himself and would abandon Windham when he needed him most, teasing that Luger would turn on him and join the Horsemen. In the match itself, a badly beaten Windham tried to tag his partner, but Luger had just been knocked off the ring apron by Horsemen associates, thereby "proving" that he wasn't there when he needed him, and prompting Windham to turn on Luger and join the Horsemen himself.

* During the infamous Invasion angle, everyone representing Wrestling/{{WCW}} and Wrestling/{{ECW}} became heels regardless of prior status. In particular, Wrestling/BookerT went from being a highly competent champion face in WCW proper to a fairly inept heel during the Invasion who couldn't keep his title unless guys like Steve Austin and [[Wrestling/ShaneMcMahon Shane [=McMahon=]]] got involved.
** The one exception at that event was Wrestling/RobVanDam. As one of the ECW invaders, he behaved like a DirtyCoward in his Ladder Match with Jeff Hardy for the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwf-hc.html WWE Hardcore Championship]] but got cheered anyway - and won!
** On the other side, all WWF superstars were supposed to be faces. They forgot why X-Pac [[XPacHeat has his own trope]] and he was booed in his match with Kidman. He quickly blamed the fans and so at Summerslam every match was WWF vs. Alliance except his.
** Along with RVD, the only other Alliance member who WWE could not get the fans to oppose, for completely different reasons of course, was Wrestling/StacyKeibler.

* Trish Stratus was WWE's biggest babyface Diva ever since ''Wrestle Mania X-Seven'' when she turned on Vince. However three years later (notably when the equally popular Wrestling/{{Lita}} had returned) she turned heel at ''Wrestle Mania XX'' when she slapped Wrestling/ChrisJericho[[note]]Who had underwent a HeelFaceTurn when he fell in love with her[[/note]] and allied herself with his ArchEnemy Wrestling/{{Christian}}. Several critics who thought the PPV was disappointing praised the turn as one of the few high points of the night.
* Wrestling/{{Lita}} herself also had to turn heel due to real life issues. She had been in a relationship with Matt Hardy and it was revealed she'd had an affair with Edge. When that became public knowledge, crowds began to chant "slut" and "You screwed Matt!" at her. Thus they turned her heel for the first time ever in her wrestling career and paired her with Edge on screen. This actually resulted in her abrupt retirement from wrestling a year later as she kept getting excessive abuse from Matt's fans.

** Wrestling/ChrisJericho is a shining example of this. Jericho has never...EVER, won a World Championship as a face. However, when he was a face he played the perfect underdog - being screwed over by anyone with a shiny waist.

** However, The Rock's natural charm couldn't be hidden by his heel-ness and he often had to try really, REALLY hard to keep fans booing him. However, the fans could tell underneath the obnoxious villain, there was still the entertaining face everybody loved. By the time his match with Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} happened at Backlash '03, it seemed he just stopped trying to get fans to hate him and just accepted his role as a fan favorite.
* By the end of WCW's life, writers were doing this with everybody whether it made sense or not, possibly hoping they could reignite the excitement of the Hogan turn with someone else. It didn't work but that didn't stop WCW from doing it every week. Fans were more confused than anything as they couldn't tell from week to week who was a face and who was a heel. By the time they pulled one with their cash cow, ''Goldberg'' of all people, fans simply stopped watching out of frustration and WCW went belly up not long after that.

* Countless competitors in ProfessionalWrestling (which is fitting, as it's the business that named the term/trope). Often, a heel turn will stem from a face feeling as though he doesn't have the respect of the fans or his fellow faces; this is sometimes set up by having the face lose for several weeks in a row, finally lose his temper and blame the fans or other faces. Usually, the new heel will prove his heelishness with a sneak attack on a former face ally, often aided by his new heel allies. Heel turns by wrestlers who constantly switch between heel and face (Wrestling/LexLuger and [[Wrestling/TheBigShow Paul Wight]] are two examples) don't have all that much impact on the fans, but when a long-term face goes heel it's a big deal. The biggest example of this might be babyface Hulk Hogan's heel turn at WCW event Bash at the Beach in 1996 after over a decade of superheroics, which shocked fans and generated mainstream attention. A wrestler who turns often enough eventually settles into [[WildCard "tweener"]] mode, where they're a face or a heel as the storyline demands.

* Play-by-play commentator Wrestling/MichaelCole did an odd form of this. In early 2010 he was still a face on RAW, but on the debut episode of ''Wrestling/{{WWE NXT}}'' he lit the Internet on fire with his de facto burial of "debuting" [[{{Determinator}} underdog face]] [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] and didn't let up for months, verbally bickering with face NXT commentator Josh Matthews who continually [[LampshadeHanging calls him out on acting]] [[AscendedMeme like an establishment mouthpiece]], with even heel Wrestling/ChrisJericho has joined in mocking Cole when guest commentating. By October 2010, Cole began making the transition to being a heel on RAW as well, serving as the unctuous "mouthpiece" for the brand's [[HeWhoMustNotBeSeen mysterious General Manager]], who communicated with the arena via e-mail alerts. Cole TookALevelInJerkass in December when [[KickTheDog he cost his colleague]] Wrestling/JerryLawler [[NeverMyFault the title]] against [[HoYay the superstar he praises over all others]] Wrestling/TheMiz. He played the DirtyCoward role for all it's worth and entered the ring against Lawler at Wrestlemania XXVII. He won after the General Manager reversed the decision. Teaming with Wrestling/JackSwagger, he continued to antagonize Lawler and JimRoss for a few more months, before he lost the final blowoff match with Lawyer and endured a HumiliationConga to end the feud. While this toned down his more abrasive aspects, Cole would still act heelish until Lawler's real-life on-air heart attack several months later, during which his professional conduct and real life pain and fear immediately turned him face again.

* Countless competitors in ProfessionalWrestling. Often, a heel turn will stem from a face feeling as though he doesn't have the respect of the fans or his fellow faces; this is sometimes set up by having the face lose for several weeks in a row, finally lose his temper and blame the fans or other faces. Usually, the new heel will prove his heelishness with a sneak attack on a former face ally, often aided by his new heel allies. Heel turns by wrestlers who constantly switch between heel and face (Wrestling/LexLuger and [[Wrestling/TheBigShow Paul Wight]] are two examples) don't have all that much impact on the fans, but when a long-term face goes heel it's a big deal. The biggest example of this would be babyface Hulk Hogan's heel turn at WCW event Bash at the Beach in 1996 after over a decade of superheroics, which shocked fans and generated mainstream attention. A wrestler who turns often enough eventually settles into [[WildCard "tweener"]] mode, where they're a face or a heel as the storyline demands.

* Play-by-play commentator Wrestling/MichaelCole does an odd form of this on a weekly basis. In early 2010 he's still a face on RAW, but on the debut episode of ''Wrestling/{{WWE NXT}}'' he lit the Internet on fire with his de facto burial of "debuting" [[{{Determinator}} underdog face]] [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] and hasn't let up since, verbally bickering with face NXT commentator Josh Matthews who continually [[LampshadeHanging calls him out on acting]] [[AscendedMeme like an establishment mouthpiece]], and heel Wrestling/ChrisJericho has joined in mocking Cole when guest commentating. By October 2010, Cole began making the transition to being a heel on RAW as well, serving as the unctuous "mouthpiece" for the brand's [[HeWhoMustNotBeSeen mysterious General Manager]], who communicates with the arena via e-mail alerts. Cole TookALevelInJerkass in December when [[KickTheDog he cost his colleague]] Wrestling/JerryLawler [[NeverMyFault the title]] against [[HoYay the superstar he praises over all others]] Wrestling/TheMiz. He played the DirtyCoward role for all it's worth and entered the ring against Lawler at Wrestlemania XXVII. He won after the General Manager reversed the decision. Teaming with Wrestling/JackSwagger, he antagonizes Lawler and JimRoss on a weekly basis.

* Wrestling/AJLee had a heel turn that took six months to properly complete. After she accidentally cost beau Daniel Bryan the title at ''Wrestle Mania'', he told her he wished she had never been born. AJ actually snapped and became a loose cannon, attacking her former best friend Kaitlyn and eventually developing some disturbing {{Yandere}} tendencies towards Bryan, Kane and CM Punk. A heel turn was teased when Daniel Bryan eventually proposed to her but she left him at the altar in favour of becoming the Raw General Manager. She finally turned heel properly at the last PPV of 2012 as she cost John Cena a match against Dolph Ziggler. After that she also crossed the MoralEventHorizon by manipulating Kaitlyn into thinking she had a secret admirer and then publicly humiliating her.

* Wrestling/{{Batista}} finally turned heel in the fall of 2009 after nearly five years of being a face. Funny thing is, WWE had attempted to turn him heel twice before, but without success. They had him betray the Undertaker in 2007, but the fans still cheered for him. Then they had him mete out some DisproportionateRetribution to Shawn Michaels in 2008, but that didn't go over, either. Finally, they had him beat the shit out of Rey Mysterio Jr.. Since Mysterio is so squeaky-clean good, the best way to turn another wrestler heel is to have him pick on the Ultimate Underdog (as was done with both Eddie and Chavo Guerrero).

* Countless competitors in ProfessionalWrestling. Often, a heel turn will stem from a face feeling as though he doesn't have the respect of the fans or his fellow faces; this is sometimes set up by having the face lose for several weeks in a row, finally lose his temper and blame the fans or other faces. Usually, the new heel will prove his heelishness with a sneak attack on a former face ally, often aided by his new heel allies. Heel turns by wrestlers who constantly switch between heel and face (Lex Luger and [[Wrestling/TheBigShow Paul Wight]] are two examples) don't have all that much impact on the fans, but when a long-term face goes heel it's a big deal. The biggest example of this would be babyface Hulk Hogan's heel turn at WCW event Bash at the Beach in 1996 after over a decade of superheroics, which shocked fans and generated mainstream attention. A wrestler who turns often enough eventually settles into [[WildCard "tweener"]] mode, where they're a face or a heel as the storyline demands.

* The heel turn is also a popular way to split up a face tag team, [[BreakupBreakout especially when one member of the team is thought to have more potential as a singles wrestler]]. One of the most famous of these was when the Rockers, a pair of high-flying pretty-boy faces, appeared on Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake's talk show "The Barbershop" to air out their tensions of preceding weeks. After seeming to reconcile with a hug, Wrestling/ShawnMichaels proceeded to kick Marty Jannetty in the face and toss him through the (fake) glass window of the set, setting up his new persona of The Heartbreak Kid and a lifetime of superstardom.

* Another famous tag team split occurred in the late 80's in the Jim Crockett NWA, when Lex Luger and Barry Windham were the top faces, feuding with Wrestling/RicFlair's devious Four Horsemen stable. In the weeks prior to a huge tag team title match, the Horsemen constantly told Windham that Luger (who had recently ''left'' the Horsemen in a HeelFaceTurn) was only out for himself and would abandon Windham when he needed him most, teasing that Luger would turn on him and join the Horsemen. In the match itself, a badly beaten Windham tried to tag his partner, but Luger had just been knocked off the ring apron by Horsemen associates, thereby "proving" that he wasn't there when he needed him, and prompting Windham to turn on Luger and join the Horsemen himself.

* Wrestling/{Lita}} herself also had to turn heel due to real life issues. She had been in a relationship with Matt Hardy and it was revealed she'd had an affair with Edge. When that became public knowledge, crowds began to chant "slut" and "You screwed Matt!" at her. Thus they turned her heel for the first time ever in her wrestling career and paired her with Edge on screen. This actually resulted in her abrupt retirement from wrestling a year later as she kept getting excessive abuse from Matt's fans.

* AJLee had a heel turn that took six months to properly complete. After she accidentally cost beau Daniel Bryan the title at ''Wrestle Mania'', he told her he wished she had never been born. AJ actually snapped and became a loose cannon, attacking her former best friend Kaitlyn and eventually developing some disturbing {{Yandere}} tendencies towards Bryan, Kane and CM Punk. A heel turn was teased when Daniel Bryan eventually proposed to her but she left him at the altar in favour of becoming the Raw General Manager. She finally turned heel properly at the last PPV of 2012 as she cost John Cena a match against Dolph Ziggler. After that she also crossed the MoralEventHorizon by manipulating Kaitlyn into thinking she had a secret admirer and then publicly humiliating her.

* TrishStratus was WWE's biggest babyface Diva ever since ''Wrestle Mania X-Seven'' when she turned on Vince. However three years later (notably when the equally popular {{Lita}} had returned) she turned heel at ''Wrestle Mania XX'' when she slapped ChrisJericho[[note]]Who had underwent a HeelFaceTurn when he fell in love with her[[/note]] and allied herself with his ArchEnemy Christian. Several critics who thought the PPV was disappointing praised the turn as one of the few high points of the night.
* {{Lita}} herself also had to turn heel due to real life issues. She had been in a relationship with Matt Hardy and it was revealed she'd had an affair with Edge. When that became public knowledge, crowds began to chant "slut" and "You screwed Matt!" at her. Thus they turned her heel for the first time ever in her wrestling career and paired her with Edge on screen. This actually resulted in her abrupt retirement from wrestling a year later as she kept getting excessive abuse from Matt's fans.

** [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] won the [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwe-world-h.html WWE RAW World Heavyweight Championship]] as a plucky underdog face and gradually morphed into an arrogant, LargeHam heel loudly over-celebrating all his victories with a BigYes chant. His heelish acts such as tricking Wrestling/MarkHenry into pushing him just so he didn't have to beat Wrestling/TheBigShow and using Wrestling/AJLee as a human shield also helped behavior-wise.

** When Kane won the WWE RAW World Heavyweight Title in 2010, it started a feud between him and underdog face Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr. Eventually he confessed that he attacked Wrestling/TheUndertaker that Memorial Day weekend, fully completing his turn.

* One of the biggest shockers in the 1980s was the turning of longtime face AndreTheGiant, who turned on HulkHogan in dramatic fashion, aligning himself with [[BobbyHeenan Bobby "The Brain" Heenan]], a villainous manager of many known heels in the WWF. Heenan had not only been trying to dethrone Hogan for the past three years up to that point, he'd also sent many of his proteges after Andre over the years. Nobody saw the turn coming, and Hogan seemed as much horrified as he was stunned by it. Andre took matters further, challenging Hogan for the WWF World Championship at Wrestlemania III, and then proceeding to rip off Hogan's shirt and more importantly, his cross. Hogan, who in storylines (and apparently in real life) is a devout Christian (which denomination is unknown), was so shocked by this he actually started ''crying'' from the entire event and was so enraged by the turn that he responded to Roddy Piper asking if he would take Andre's challenge with an absolutely [[BigYes massive yes]] (one of the rare cases of a BigYes not indicating happiness). Andre stayed heel for nearly the remainder of his career, not changing alignments again until 1990, retired around late 1990-early 1991, and died only 2 years after that.
* [[DwayneJohnson The Rock]] established his popularity with one of these. After being introduced as a BoringInvincibleHero, his unpopularity with fans was used the rationale for him turning heel. It worked, and he won over the crowds to his side.

** However, The Rock's natural charm couldn't be hidden by his heel-ness and he often had to try really, REALLY hard to keep fans booing him. However, the fans could tell underneath the obnoxious villain, there was still the entertaining face everybody loved. By the time his match with {{Goldberg}} happened at Backlash '03, it seemed he just stopped trying to get fans to hate him and just accepted his role as a fan favorite.
* Countless competitors in ProfessionalWrestling. Often, a heel turn will stem from a face feeling as though he doesn't have the respect of the fans or his fellow faces; this is sometimes set up by having the face lose for several weeks in a row, finally lose his temper and blame the fans or other faces. Usually, the new heel will prove his heelishness with a sneak attack on a former face ally, often aided by his new heel allies. Heel turns by wrestlers who constantly switch between heel and face (Lex Luger and [[TheBigShow Paul Wight]] are two examples) don't have all that much impact on the fans, but when a long-term face goes heel it's a big deal. The biggest example of this would be babyface HulkHogan's heel turn at WCW event Bash at the Beach in 1996 after over a decade of superheroics, which shocked fans and generated mainstream attention. A wrestler who turns often enough eventually settles into [[WildCard "tweener"]] mode, where they're a face or a heel as the storyline demands.

* The heel turn is also a popular way to split up a face tag team, [[BreakupBreakout especially when one member of the team is thought to have more potential as a singles wrestler]]. One of the most famous of these was when the Rockers, a pair of high-flying pretty-boy faces, appeared on Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake's talk show "The Barbershop" to air out their tensions of preceding weeks. After seeming to reconcile with a hug, ShawnMichaels proceeded to kick Marty Jannetty in the face and toss him through the (fake) glass window of the set, setting up his new persona of The Heartbreak Kid and a lifetime of superstardom.
* Another famous tag team split occurred in the late 80's in the Jim Crockett NWA, when Lex Luger and Barry Windham were the top faces, feuding with RicFlair's devious Four Horsemen stable. In the weeks prior to a huge tag team title match, the Horsemen constantly told Windham that Luger (who had recently ''left'' the Horsemen in a HeelFaceTurn) was only out for himself and would abandon Windham when he needed him most, teasing that Luger would turn on him and join the Horsemen. In the match itself, a badly beaten Windham tried to tag his partner, but Luger had just been knocked off the ring apron by Horsemen associates, thereby "proving" that he wasn't there when he needed him, and prompting Windham to turn on Luger and join the Horsemen himself.

** ChrisJericho is a shining example of this. Jericho has never...EVER, won a World Championship as a face. However, when he was a face he played the perfect underdog - being screwed over by anyone with a shiny waist.
** One prominent example of this would be StoneColdSteveAustin's turn on The Rock at [=WrestleMania=] X-Seven, where he teamed up with his hated nemesis VinceMcMahon due to desperation to become WWE Champ. Somewhat {{narm}}ed by the Texas crowd acting as if it was a HeelFaceTurn for Vince, as Stone Cold is a local hero there.
** After winning his first WWE Championship in 1999, it took TripleH eight years to win the title as a face for the first time.
*** TripleH was the DesignatedHero for the main event against ChrisJericho at ''Wrestlemania X8'' in 2002 mostly because 1.) many fans believed he TookALevelInBadass by coming back from his infamous quad injury like a true {{Determinator}} and 2.) he was feuding with {{Stephanie [=McMahon=]}} while she was in full-on spoiled brat mode and supporting Jericho in their match. He won against Jericho and then immediately started his heel turn by picking a fight with perennial fan favorite Hogan. Once he attacked ShawnMichaels, it was complete.
** DanielBryan won the World Heavyweight Championship as a plucky underdog face and gradually morphed into an arrogant, LargeHam heel loudly over-celebrating all his victories with a BigYes chant. His heelish acts such as tricking Mark Henry into pushing him just so he didn't have to beat Big Show and using AJ as a human shield also helped behavior-wise.
** CMPunk's heel turn in 2009 started when he cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on JeffHardy. The fans were very pissed off because Hardy just won what was only his second world title and it was taken away from him. Punk started to enforce his straight-edge lifestyle on both Hardy and all of the WWE fans. He finally completed his heel turn one day when he hit Hardy in the head with a microphone and beat him up.
*** Punk would yet again turn heel in Summer 2012 after nearly a year as an edgy AntiHero face. This time around, his heel turn was facilitated by feelings of being overshadowed by stars like John Cena and The Rock despite being the WWE Champion. Punk attacking The Rock at the end of the 1,000th episode of Monday Night Raw started this turn off slowly, and said turn was made complete by the time Paul Heyman officially affiliated himself with Punk in early September.
** When Kane won the world title in 2010, it started a feud between him and underdog face ReyMysterio. Eventually he confessed that he attacked the Undertaker that Memorial Day weekend, fully completing his tern.
* {{Batista}} finally turned heel in the fall of 2009 after nearly five years of being a face. Funny thing is, WWE had attempted to turn him heel twice before, but without success. They had him betray TheUndertaker in 2007, but the fans still cheered for him. Then they had him mete out some DisproportionateRetribution to ShawnMichaels in 2008, but that didn't go over, either. Finally, they had him beat the shit out of Rey Mysterio. Since Mysterio is so squeaky-clean good, the best way to turn another wrestler heel is to have him pick on the Ultimate Underdog (as was done with both Eddie and Chavo Guerrero).
** The reason it was even more effective is that Batista and Rey were HeterosexualLifePartners...seriously, the HoYay was palpable. Both of them were good friends of the late EddieGuerrero, they had each others' back for years, and both were among the top babyfaces in the company. With the heel turn, and still armed with his customary GenreSavvy, Batista was on the cusp of real [[MagnificentBastard magnificence]]. (Too bad it ended almost as soon as it had begun.)

* Play-by-play commentator MichaelCole does an odd form of this on a weekly basis. In early 2010 he's still a face on RAW, but on the debut episode of WWE NXT he lit the Internet on fire with his de facto burial of "debuting" [[TheDeterminator underdog face]] [[BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] and hasn't let up since, verbally bickering with face NXT commentator Josh Matthews who continually [[LampshadeHanging calls him out on acting]] [[AscendedMeme like an establishment mouthpiece]], and heel ChrisJericho has joined in mocking Cole when guest commentating. By October 2010, Cole began making the transition to being a heel on RAW as well, serving as the unctuous "mouthpiece" for the brand's [[HeWhoMustNotBeSeen mysterious General Manager]], who communicates with the arena via e-mail alerts. Cole TookALevelInJerkass in December when [[KickTheDog he cost his colleague]] JerryLawler [[NeverMyFault the title]] against [[HoYay the superstar he praises over all others]] TheMiz. He played the DirtyCoward role for all it's worth and entered the ring against Lawler at Wrestlemania XXVII. He won after the General Manager reversed the decision. Teaming with Jack Swagger, he antagonizes Lawler and JimRoss on a weekly basis.
* During the infamous Invasion angle, everyone representing {{WCW}} and {{ECW}} became heels regardless of prior status. In particular, BookerT went from being a highly competent champion face in WCW proper to a fairly inept heel during the Invasion who couldn't keep his title unless guys like Steve Austin and ShaneMcMahon got involved.
** The one exception at that event was RobVanDam. As one of the ECW invaders, he behaved like a DirtyCoward in his Ladder Match with JeffHardy for the Hardcore Championship but got cheered anyway - and won!

* EveTorres spent five years of her career as a face and her heel turn came completely out of left field. She was being stalked by Kane for weeks and when JohnCena rescued her from an attack, she passionately kissed him. She was supposed to be having a thing with Cena's best friend (and super over) ZackRyder. The storyline seemed set up to have Kane manipulating Eve but it's likely WWE took note of the insane amount of heat she was getting. Thus the next week she abruptly announced she'd been using Zack all along and ended up getting branded a [[ItMakesSenseInContext "Hoeski"]] by Cena in the middle of the ring. The turn paid off as she became Divas' Champion for the third time before the end of the year.