History HeelFaceTurn / ProfessionalWrestling

* When a face tag team breaks up, it is always the betrayer who turns heel. However, the split of heel tag teams are just as likely, if not more so, to have the betrayed member pull the face turn as the traitor. Wrestling/TheMiz is especially fond of this, as no less than ''four'' heel alliances of his that fell apart had him remain the heel while his partner went over to the good side, regardless of whether he betrayed his partner (Wrestling/JohnMorrison, [[Westling/RonKillings R-Truth]]), got betrayed (Wrestling/BigShow), or, in the case of Alex Riley, saw his apprentice stand up to his bullying.

** Wrestling/RoddyPiper was the WWF's ur-example, having been ''the'' antagonist of the Rock'n'Wrestling era and main villain of the first Wrestlemania, he'd been becoming too popular with fans to get boos, returned from filming a movie to a hero's welcome, and finally turned face by taking back his infamous talk show segment from Wrestling/AdrianAdonis. He was a beloved anti-hero for the rest of his career.

** In fact [[Wrestling/RandySavage Macho Man]], one of the only superstars to come close to rivaling [[Wrestling/HulkHogan Hulk Hogan's]] fame during Hulkamania, started as a heel and occasionally went back to being one.
** Wrestling/RoddyPiper was the WWF ur-example, having been ''the'' antagonist of the Rock'n'Wrestling era and main villain of the first Wrestlemania, he was becoming too popular with fans to get boos, returned from filming a movie to a hero's welcome, and was turned by taking back his talk show segment from Wrestling/AdrianAdonis. He was a beloved antihero babyface for the rest of his career.

** In fact [[Wrestling/RandySavage Macho Man]], one of the only superstars to come close to rivaling [[Wrestling/HulkHogan Hulk Hogan's]] fame during Hulkamania, started as a heel and occasionally went back to being one. Wrestling/RoddyPiper was another example.

** Spoofed well by Website/TheOnion in this [[http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28125 piece]].

** In fact [[Wrestling/RandySavage Macho Man]], the only superstar to come close to rivaling [[Wrestling/HulkHogan Hulk Hogan's]] fame during Hulkamania, started as a heel and occasionally went back to being one.

* When a face tag team breaks up, it is always the betrayer who turns heel. However, the split of heel tag teams are just as likely, if not more so, to have the betrayed member pull the face turn as the traitor. Wrestling/TheMiz is especially fond of this, as no less than ''four'' heel alliances of his that fell apart had him remain the heel while his partner went over to the good side, regardless of whether he betrayed his partner (Wrestling/JohnMorrison, [[Westling/RonKillings R-Truth]]), got betrayed (Wrestling/TheBigShow), or, in the case of Alex Riley, saw his apprentice stand up to his bullying.

* Wrestling/RandyOrton is a peculiar case. The reason he became a face wasn't because of any entertaining, hilarious antics like how a DracoInLeatherPants becomes a face. It was because the crowd liked watching him beat up people. It originally started because he attacked the [=McMahon=] family who, despite being the de facto faces of the feud, the crowd hated due to feeling like they had it coming for a while, so they cheered for Randy by default. However, it eventually evolved to the point where they just liked watching him attack people in general. No matter how many dogs he kicked, the crowd kept on cheering for him before the company threw their hands up and went with it. It's noted that when a popular heel turns face, their characters are tweaked to pander more to a crowd -- not so with Randy. The only thing that changed about Randy's character is that he attacked faces less than heels, otherwise he was the same {{Jerkass}} psychopath he's always been.

* Wrestling/TheShield, a heel faction, started to turn face in March/April 2014 after having problems with Wrestling/{{Kane}} and the New Age Outlaws, and fully cemented their face status when Kane let it slip that Wrestling/TripleH had authorized an attack some weeks prior, and came to the aid of [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] after a beatdown from Kane, Wrestling/RandyOrton, and Wrestling/{{Batista}}.

* [[WrestlingTheUndertaker The Undertaker's]] first Heel/Face turn was an unusual one: He was aligned with Jake "The Snake" Roberts, who was in a feud with "Macho Man" Randy Savage. Roberts was set up to attack Savage and Miss Elizabeth, but 'Taker stopped him. When Roberts angrily asked him whose side he was on, he famously answered "Not yours". This let him become a face without actually changing his persona or wrestling style.

* Oddly enough, WWE heel Wrestling/ChrisJericho has been doing a nightly version of this -- while still a heel on PPV and the other shows, on the rookie-oriented show NXT he becomes a Face in the eyes of {{Smar|tMarks}}ks whenever he joins Josh Matthews and Wrestling/MichaelCole on commentary, as he is sheer ''gold''. He's also the "Pro" who's been most helpful to his rookie, Wrestling/WadeBarrett, and has gone out of his way on commentary to talk Barrett up, at one point demanding that Matthews and Cole do so too:

* In the Mexican style of lucha libre, tecnico and rudo are about a luchador's personal alignment as much as they are about fan response, illustrated in such cases as Blue Demon giving up the ways of a rudo and becoming a tecnico to escape the wrath of Wrestling/ElSanto after his TagTeam partner Black Shadow was unmasked by him.

** In fact [[Wrestling/RandySavage Macho Man]], the only superstar to come close to rivaling [[Wrestling/HulkHogan Hulk Hogan's]] fame during Hulkamania started as, and occasionally went back to being, a heel.
* A staple of ProfessionalWrestling, along with its cousin, the FaceHeelTurn.
** Spoofed well by Website/TheOnion in this [[http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28125 piece]].

** The very night after the angle ended, Austin was looking to wreak vengeance upon Kurt Angle for interfering in his fight with The Rock and costing the Alliance the victory. Despite the fact that Angle was saving the WWE, when Austin beat the crap out of Angle, the crowd erupted as if the last few months since Wrestlemania X-Seven never happened. The fans were just happy to have a Stone Cold they could cheer again. It was the most jarring, abrupt heel face turn in the history of prowrestling... and nobody had a problem with it.

* Wrestling/MickieJames was Wrestling/TrishStratus's StalkerWithACrush and eventually turned heel on her...except the crowds cheered for her because they loved her PsychoLesbian character. When Trish retired, Mickie became a face by default when [[XPacHeat hated heel]] Wrestling/{{Lita}} cheated to win the title off her and sparked a feud. Even though her psycho characteristics were dropped she remained insanely popular for the rest of her career.
* It's quite common in Professional Wrestling for heel wrestlers become popular for their movesets (especially common if the wrestler uses high flying moves, which are more associated with faces) and thus they have to turn face. Chris Jericho got this during his first Intercontinental Championship reign. Athena from Wrestling/{{SHIMMER}} is another example. As a result heels tend not to do too many flashy moves since they're not supposed to impress the crowd.

* In a rare example of [[RealLifeWritesThePlot unscripted real-life events afftecting a wrestler's alignment]], [[Wrestling/PrimeTimePlayers Darren Young]] was playing a heel in August 2013 when he spontaneously [[ComingOutStory identified himself as gay]] to a TMZ reporter. Public reaction to Young's coming out was almost universally positive. On the episode of Raw three days later, he and his tag partner Titus O'Neill were booked as faces in a match against the Real Americans, received a massively positive crowd reaction, and have been treated as faces since then despite WWE's not having officially acknowledged Young's sexuality in-universe.
* Wrestling/TheShield, a heel faction, started to turn face in the April/March of 2014 after having problems with Wrestling/{{Kane}} and the New Age Outlaws, and fully cemented their face status when Kane let it slip that Wrestling/TripleH had authorized an attack some weeks prior, and came to the aid of [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] after a beatdown from Kane, Wrestling/RandyOrton, and Wrestling/{{Batista}}.
* Wrestling/RandyOrton is a peculiar case. The reason he became a face wasn't because of any entertaining, hilarious antics like how a DracoInLeatherPants becomes a face. It was because the crowd liked watching him beat up people. It originally started because he attacked the [=McMahon=] family who, despite being the de facto faces of the feud, the crowd hated due to feeling like they had it coming for a while, so they cheered for Randy by default. However, it eventually evolved to the point where they just liked watching him attack people in general. No matter how many dogs he kicked, the crowd kept on cheering for him before the company threw their hands up and went with it. It's noted that when a popular heel turns face their characters are tweaked to pander more to a crowd -- not so with Randy. The only thing that changed about Randy's character is that he attacked faces less than heels, otherwise he was the same {{Jerkass}} psychopath he's always been.

** During the Wrestling/AttitudeEra, this became the primary way wrestlers would become top faces: if you were a really cool bad guy, you'd eventually have the crowd behind you enough that you became the de facto face

** The anti-heroes were also often the faces by comparison. Austin was a bit of a [=JerkAss=] but at least he wasn't abusing power at random (Vince [=McMahon=]) or subjecting innocent people to satanic sacrifices (The Undertaker).

* Some superstars who were originally Heels ended up later becoming Faces due to their popularity with the fans. A few examples are: [[DwayneJohnson The Rock]], StoneColdSteveAustin, EddieGuerrero, JohnCena, TheUndertaker, {{Batista}}, and many more.
** During the AttitudeEra, this became the primary way wrestlers would become top faces: if you were a really cool bad guy, you'd eventually have the crowd behind you enough that you became the de facto face.

** Spoofed well by TheOnion in this [[http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28125 piece]].
* MickFoley's disgust at wrestling fans in {{ECW}} led to him doing an inverted face heel turn (by ECW standards, the heels were faces) and he turned into an ECW "heel" (by other standards, this would be a face.) Indirectly, this had the same effect in the collapse of ECW as HulkHogan's for {{WCW}}.
* On one hand, the WWE barely averted this catastrophe as part of the fallout of the MontrealScrewjob. At the time, BretHart was the biggest star in the WWE, and quite possibly one of the most popular wrestlers in history. At the time, this was taken almost as a white flag of surrender by VinceMcMahon in the [[MondayNightWars ratings war]] with WCW.
** On the other hand, Vince made a startling discovery: you didn't need faces. The fans loved heels. From then on, the entire WWE was in a war of heels, led by VinceMcMahon, SteveAustin, [[DwayneJohnson The Rock]], KurtAngle, and many more...[[NinetiesAntiHero It was the 90s]].
** It wasn't so much that it was nothing but heels battling out...that was WCW. The line simply shifted in a grayer direction as far as being a face. Austin, for instance, was a hero in the way [[Film/DieHard John McClane]] is, meaning for all his positives, he's still a Badass [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold asshole]] loner with a chip on his shoulder. It really just reflected the 90s as a whole.
** The anti-heroes were also often the faces by comparison. Austin was a bit of a JerkAss but at least he wasn't abusing power at random (VinceMcMahon) or subjecting innocent people to satanic sacrifices (TheUndertaker).

* During the infamous Invasion storyline, two entire companies (WCW and ECW) were portrayed as heels against the WWF/WWE. However, several of the wrestlers (RobVanDam in particular) were immensely entertaining and being cheered despite kayfabe trying to destroy the WWF. Almost immediately after the angle ended, RobVanDam, StoneColdSteveAustin, the Hurricane, and Tommy Dreamer turned face once their quest to overthrow the WWF failed.
** The very night after the angle ended, Austin was looking to wreak vengeance upon KurtAngle for interfering in his fight with The Rock and costing the Alliance the victory. Despite the fact that Angle was saving the WWE, when Austin beat the crap out of Angle, the crowd erupted as if the last few months since Wrestlemania X-Seven never happened. The fans were just happy to have a Stone Cold they could cheer again. It was the most jarring, abrupt heel face turn in the history of prowrestling... and nobody had a problem with it.
* Oddly enough, WWE heel ChrisJericho has been doing a nightly version of this -- while still a heel on PPV and the other shows, on the rookie-oriented show NXT he becomes a Face in the eyes of {{Smark}}s whenever he joins Josh Matthews and MichaelCole on commentary, as he is sheer ''gold''. He's also the "Pro" who's been most helpful to his rookie, Wade Barrett, and has gone out of his way on commentary to talk Barrett up, at one point demanding that Matthews and Cole do so too:

** And during Season 2, Team LayCool (Layla and Michelle [=McCool=]) turned face to cheer on Kaval (some may know him better as LowKi). They still retained some heel values because they're making him carry their Women’s Titles (at the time of season 2, LayCool called themselves co-champions even though Layla was the official champion).
* In 1988, during the Survivor Series, Demolition (heel), managed by Mr. Fuji, took on the Powers of Pain (face) for the title. During the match, Mr. Fuji attacked Demolition and joined forces with the Powers of Pain. A double turn took place as Demolition turned face while the Powers of Pain turned heel.
* Mickie James was Wrestling/TrishStratus's StalkerWithACrush and eventually turned heel on her...except the crowds cheered for her because they loved her PsychoLesbian character. When Trish retired, Mickie became a face by default when [[XPacHeat hated heel]] {{Lita}} cheated to win the title off her and sparked a feud. Even though her psycho characteristics were dropped she remained insanely popular for the rest of her career.

* Speaking of Layla mentioned above, her face turn was expected as soon as she won the Women's title in 2010. Fans expected LayCool to immediately implode and feud with each other. However the turn didn't happen until almost a year after this. Layla essentially began to worry that their friendship wasn't going to survive so many hardships and so booked the two of them in for counselling. Michelle however eventually turned on Layla and left her high and dry. Layla's face turn was even more gradual. It didn't properly start until she apologised to all the Divas backstage for all she had done while in LayCool. The momentum of the turn was interrupted slightly with a torn ACL that left her out of action for over a year. Some speculated that she would return still as a heel as fans might not have remembered her face turn. However she returned and solidified her face status by thwarting the Bella Twins and winning the Divas' Championship on her first night back.

* In a rare example of [[RealLifeWritesThePlot unscripted real-life events afftecting a wrestler's alignment]], [[Wrestling/PrimeTimePlayers Darren Young]] was playing a heel in August 2013 when he spontaneously [[ComingOutStory identified himself as gay]] to a TMZ reporter. Public reaction to Young's coming out was almost universally positive. On the episode of Raw three days later, he and his tag partner Titus O'Neill were booked as a face in a match against the Real Americans, received a massively positive crowd reaction, and have been treated as faces since then despite WWE's not having officially acknowledged Young's sexuality in-universe.

** On the other hand, Vince made a startling discovery: you didn't need faces. The fans loved heels. From then on, the entire WWE was in a war of heels, led by VinceMcMahon, SteveAustin, The Rock, KurtAngle, and many more...[[NinetiesAntiHero It was the 90s]].

* Michael Cole seems to have gotten a unintentional turn (though he's since revealed that he was ready to go back to being face before this) due to how he handled himself on air during Jerry Lawler's (real) heart attack during the September 10th 2012 episode of Raw. After the episode, fans have begun giving him more pops due to his professionalism and real emotion that he showed during the rest of that episode. Cole has not looked back since.

* Michael Cole seems to have gotten a unintentional turn due to how he handled himself on air during Jerry Lawler's (real) heart attack during the September 10th 2012 episode of Raw. After the episode, fans have begun giving him more pops due to his professionalism and real emotion that he showed during the rest of that episode.

** And, of course, who can ever forget that the Screwjob was, to many, the unintentional birth of the "Mr. McMahon" character, who became synonymous with screwing over Austin's title chances in several creative ways.