Professional Wrestling's Best Face Turns
Face turns are rarely as sudden, dramatic or impactful as heel turns, but when done properly they can be just as memorable. Collected here are some of our favorites, when the vilest villains turned toward the light and became heroes.
11.
Edge
Earlier in his career, Edge found great success both in his ground-breaking tag team with Christian as well as a singles competitor, but he truly came into his own as one of WWE's most reviled villains. In relatively quick succession, Edge betrayed his real-life friend Matt Hardy by shacking up with his lady, Lita, and cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to defeat an exhausted John Cena for the WWE Championship, setting off one of the best ongoing feuds in recent wrestling history. But after years spent as a heel, fans were beginning to cheer Edge no matter how evil he was.
So, when Edge returned from an injury at the 2010 Royal Rumble it was as a full-on face (with a full-on beard), taking on one of the company's most nefarious heels, Chris Jericho. Edge went on to become a beloved fan-favorite, largely on the strength of his mega-popular "SPEAR!" chants. Though he became a villain again for a brief period it didn't stick, and the Ultimate Opportunist moved into a feud with Kane that saw a maniacal Edge kidnap and harrass poor Paul Bearer, but in a way that had everyone cheering. Edge remained a face up until his retirement in April 2011.
10.
Kurt Angle
At any prior time in wrestling history a legit Olympic gold medalist would have been the most heroic of faces, but when Kurt Angle debuted in WWE in 1999, the Attitude Era was still going strong, and this American hero became a heel. Angle took to the role easily, with a cocky, arrogant, pedantic demeanor that fans loved to hate.
But by 2001, there were far worse villains in WWE than a guy lecturing you on "Intensity, Integrity and Intelligence," as the storylines had the company invaded by a group of former WCW and ECW wrestlers known as the Alliance. Angle joined with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin to fight off the Invasion, becoming a face in the process, though both wrestlers would eventually turn their backs on WWE as part of the increasingly convoluted storyline.
9.
Fortune
When Ric Flair joined TNA in 2010, the company didn't waste much time in turning him heel and allying the legend with A.J. Styles. The two quickly branched out, forming a Four Horseman-influenced faction called Fortune, which had as its core members Flair, Styles, Kazarian, James Storm and Robert Roode. The five were some of the best heels in TNA, eventually joining forces with the company's other major heel faction, Immortal.
But their arrangement with Immortal wasn't meant to be, as Fortune (minus Flair) turned on their former allies as a way of keeping Immortal leader Eric Bischoff from destroying TNA. Though Flair stuck with Immortal, Fortune remained a face faction, adding the returning Christopher Daniels to their ranks.
8.
Triple H
By 2006, Triple H had been a heel for four long years during which he betrayed Shawn Michaels, turned on the members of his Evolution stable and committed countless other dastardly deeds. But all it took to turn the Game back into one of the good guys was making amends with an old friend.
On the June 12, 2006 episode of Raw, Triple H joined with Shawn Michaels and reformed the legendary Attitude Era stable, D-Generation X, and with a couple of crotch chops, the fans were once again cheering the King of Kings. Triple H has been a face ever since, and the DX reunion proved so successful that they did it all over again in 2009.
7.
Virgil
Before we go any further: Yes, Virgil was a black manservant that the Million Dollar Man ordered around, and yes, that's kind of uncomfortably racist. That being said, they were a great duo, and Virgil complemented Ted DiBiase's gimmick perfectly, right down to his sequined, sleeveless tuxedo jackets.
Eventually, Virgil got fed up working for the man, and turned on his boss at the 1991 Royal Rumble, clocking DiBiase in the head with his own Million Dollar Title belt. The former butler/assistant/definitely-not-a-slave went on to defeat DiBiase twice, once by count-out at WrestleMania VII, and again at SummerSlam 1991, where he won the Million Dollar Championship.
6.
Hulk Hogan
Wrestling promotions do their best to direct audiences who to cheer and who to boo, but sometimes the fans aren't that easy to convince. At WrestleMania X8, Hulk Hogan was meant to be the heel in his match against the Rock, but the Toronto crowd wasn't having it, cheering on Hogan in spite of his heel antics.
After the Rock won the match, Hogan was ambushed by Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, prompting the Great One to rush to the aid of the Immortal One. After dispatching with the interlopers, the Rock asked Hogan to do his trademark poses for the audiences, fully transforming the Hulkster back into a face.
5.
Ric Flair
For most of his career Ric Flair played the cocky, arrogant, egotistical heel, and while he wasn't the first to do the "Nature Boy" gimmick, he was certainly the best, building upon the template established by Buddy Rogers back in the 1950s. But more than a decade before he slid into the noble, elder statesman role he inhabited toward the ends of his time in WWE, Flair had another face run.
Back in 1989, Flair defeated frequent rival Ricky Steamboat at WrestleWar to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Immediately after the match, Terry Funk, (one of three judges who would choose a victor in the event it went its full one-hour time limit with no winner) challenged Flair for the title. The Nature Boy refused, citing Funk's time spent in Hollywood away from wrestling as the reason why. Funk attacked Flair, piledriving him on top of the announcer's table and setting up a feud that would turn the dirtiest player in the game into a face.
4.
John Cena
When he originally debuted, John Cena was dull as dirt, a plain babyface who put up a good fight against Kurt Angle in his first WWE match. He started to find real success with his white rapper gimmick, but it wasn't until he turned back into a face that he became a star.
After playing the villain to Brock Lesnar's face in early 2003, Cena became a fan-favorite once again by joining Kurt Angle's Survivor Series team that same year. While the turn itself was nothing remarkable, it set Cena up for a truly meteoric rise to the top of WWE, where he has stayed entrenched ever since, whether the internet likes him or not, as the most popular and successful professional wrestler in the world
3.
"Macho Man" Randy Savage
After breaking up the Mega Powers and kicking Miss Elizabeth to the curb, "Macho Man" Randy Savage took on the valet services of (the far superior) Sensational Sherri. With his new accomplice at his side, heel Savage won the King of the Ring Tournament, dubbed himself the "Macho King" and entered into a feud with the Ultimate Warrior.
Their rivalry climaxed at WrestleMania VII, where Savage faced Warrior in a retirement match, which he failed to win despite giving his opponent five flying elbow drops. After Warrior was declared the winner, Sherri turned on Savage, attacking him as he lay in the ring. But the wrestler's once and future valet Miss Elizabeth rushed to his aid, chasing off his attacker. Then, in one of the sweetest moments in wrestling history, Savage held the ropes open for Elizabeth after years of having her do the same for him.
2.
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin
In early 1997, WWE was on the cusp of the Attitude Era, but while wrestlers like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and the Rock were both on the card, the heights of their careers were still a few years off. Austin at this point was still a brash, rude heel who didn't give a damn about anyone else, but by the end WrestleMania 13 he would be transformed into a brash, rude face who didn't give a damn about anyone else.
Going into their submission match, Bret "The Hit Man" Hart was the face while Austin played the heel, but over the course of the contest, the wrestlers told such a clear, compelling story that the audience began to support the Texas Rattlesnake. They sealed the deal when Hart refused to break his Sharpshooter submission and "Stone Cold," refusing to give up, passed out from the pain. Starting with that one match, WWE and Austin redefined what a wrestling face looked like and made a ballsload of money in the process.
1.
Tommy Dreamer
We might catch some heat for putting this one above "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, but we're perfectly okay with that. Even though this particular face turn might not have had been as impressive from a technical wrestling standpoint, or had anywhere near the long-term impact, it still stands as a pretty phenomenal piece of wrestling drama.
For some reason, when Tommy Dreamer first debuted with Eastern Championship Wrestling (before it became Extreme), he did so with a pretty boy gimmick, and the Philadelphia crowds absolutely despised him. That all changed after a match against the Sandman in 1993, for which Paul Heyman had declared that the loser must receive 10 lashes from a Singapore cane (in reference to the then-topical Michael Fay incident). Dreamer lost the match, but gained the respect of the ECW crowds by asking for additional strokes from his sadistic rival. This not only set up Dreamer's long-standing underdog persona, but also established ECW as promotion that was both extreme and forward-thinking.
