Shining a Spotlight 9.13.12: A Turn For the Worse

Last week had me talking about the best face/heel turns and how well they were pulled off. Well, there’s a flip side to everything and in wrestling, known for an amazing ability to screw up potential winning situations, that’s even more prominent. Too often, turns are made with little reason or planning, simply to give a nice show which doesn’t work out. Making things more difficult is that some guys just aren’t cut out to be a face or a heel, it doesn’t work right for them. But it doesn’t help when there’s little reason for the turn and the fall-out isn’t good either.

I’ll begin by stating how many might cite Austin’s turn in 2001 as a bad one given how it turned out. Thing is, the actual turn was good, the idea of Austin so obsessed with beating the Rock for the belt that he would ally with McMahon. The following weeks established Austin as a maniac which fit his brutal character already established. Sadly, the decision to have him do goofy songs and then the mess of the Invasion gave it a bad stain. Austin has said he regretted it but at the time, he welcomed being able to alter his character a bit. It speaks again to how it takes the right guy sometimes to make a turn work but creative needs to help it out and sadly, the examples here show that not happening.

Randy Orton: Ah, yes, one of the biggest. Orton was on fire in the summer of 2004, his great skills and awesome mic abilities letting him get more over with the crowds. He was rising as the new star of Evolution and ready to face Benoit for the World title. When he beat Benoit clean, the pop was big as most fans believed they knew what was coming: Orton would use his new reign to take control of Evolution, push HHH to a face role to fight back and be the company’s new top heel. Unfortunately, WWE completely misread the fan cheers to believe that they wanted Orton to turn face, despite the fact the man was a born heel. How they did it was worse with Orton winning a rematch with Benoit the very next night, Evolution celebrating only for HHH to give a thumbs-down and beat him up. There was no reason for fans to cheer for Orton other than “well, HHH hates him so we have to love him.” Orton can be a face of sorts but it’s as still an intense guy, being a true babyface just didn’t suit him and what promised to be a good title reign was completely undone and sent Orton’s career in a spiral that would take years to escape from.

The Road Warriors: One of the more troubling aspects of Jim Crockett in the ‘80’s was his treatment of the Road Warriors. Despite the fact they were regarded as the best team of their era and monster over with the fans, Crockett was stubborn over letting them have the NWA tag team titles. His reasoning was the old line on how the Warriors were already over, they didn’t need the rub of the belts. That ignored the massive payday the Warriors as champs would have given JCP. In 1988, Crockett finally decided to pull the trigger but first had the Warriors turn heel by attacking Sting and Dusty Rhodes, claiming they were tired of being used and going back to their old ways. That was good for a heel turn except for one tiny little problem: Fans liked the Road Warriors brutal and merciless. Hell, it’s how they got over in the first place. As much as JCP pushed the Midnight Express as new faces, the fans were clearly cheering when the Warriors decimated them to win the tag titles at last and the cheers continued even as they faced Sting and Dusty. By early 1989, the company finally gave up and started booking the Roadies as faces once more, realizing you just couldn’t fight the fans.

Monty Brown: Contrary to what some say, I’ve never claimed that Monty Brown was going to be the future of TNA. He was rough in the ring but the guy was over with fans and had a powerful style and with Jeff Jarrett dominating the title scene in 2005, most expected him to get a shot at the belt sometime which would have given TNA a bit more excitement. Instead, he came up short although still hot with the crowds. So when with no warning whatsoever, he attacked DDP at Destination X and allowed Jarrett to retain the belt, the reaction was less “whoa” than “Um, the hell?” The lackluster attempt to sell it as Brown tired of passed over for title shots made no sense as how would allying with Jarrett help him there? It was a blow Brown’s career never recovered from and cost TNA what could have been a major star of their own creation.

Jim Ross: Poor JR has had to put up with a lot from WWE over the years. Constant humiliations in his home town on RAW, forced to wrestle a few times and that terrible 2005 video mocking his surgery which the “McMahon” DVD had Ross openly stating he hated. But the worst of it all may be 1996 where Ross was pushed on TV as a new heel announcer with a promo blasting McMahon for treating him poorly after a stroke, the crowd not exactly thrilled by this. It got worse as Ross then brought out the infamous “fake” Diesel and Razor Ramon, a bit meant to show up WCW but instead just made WWF look more foolish. A bit that ultimately went nowhere when the company needed to be focusing on the competition.

Brian Pillman: 1993 may well have been one of the single most damaging years in WCW’s history. The list of disasters included giving away months of programming via the Orlando TV tapings, the horrific mini-movies for “Blast at the Beach” and “Lost in Cleveland,” the firing of Sid and more. But one of the most notable remains the treatment of the Hollywood Blondes. Steve Austin and Brian Pillman were the hottest tag team the company had seen in years, over huge as heels and dominating as tag champions, giving the company some much-needed life. Pillman was injured and due to the TV tapings, they had to get the belts off Austin and William Regal. But WCW compounded the error by suddenly splitting the duo apart at the height of their power and making Pillman a face, the two going from trusted partners to enemies in an instant with no build. Sure, he’d started out as one but the man had just blossomed so wonderfully as a heel, closer to his own nature and to suddenly be the babyface again just didn’t suit him. Pillman’s career took a dive for a while afterward until he went heel again in 1995, showing that some guys just are better as heels.

Samoa Joe: The whole Main Event Mafia storyline was a crazy thing, showing yet again the obsession with rebirthing the New World Order. That TNA e-book history even notes how it was bad as you’d have two MEM guys beating up the Frontline, meant to be the faces. The need to have the MEM dominate was shown at Slammiversary as Samoa Joe, one of the main Frontline members, helped Angle win the title, joining the MEM himself. This made no sense as Joe had been pushed as one of the TNA younger guys fighting back and claiming he saw the MEM as winners went against his character as the solo fighter. It just served to show how poor the whole angle was and annoying fans more at the MEM being made as the top guys.

Buff Bagwell: I don’t hold to this being the same level of disaster as R.D. Reynolds does in his Death of WCW book but it’s still pretty bad. In 1998, a routine match with the Steiners ended with Buff Bagwell taking a wicked bulldog that ended up breaking his neck. It was a jarring moment with the fans pulled in completely and Buff was instantly over with fans. He eventually returned in a wheelchair with the fans cheering for him huge and on his side when Rick came out to apologize. Buff accepted when Scott Steiner ran out to attack. Buff got out of his wheelchair to take a chair…and turned on Rick and revealed he was working with the NWO all along. In one instant, the potential of Buff as a big face was flushed away thanks to WCW’s obsession with all-NWO all the time, another blow to a career.

Rikishi: After years of failed gimmicks, Solofa Fatu finally found his calling as Rikishi. It may seem crazy to fans today but somehow, the idea of this fat guy sticking his ass into people’s faces and doing dances after matches caught on with crowds, even earning him a run as IC champion. He was truly over with his partnership with goofy tag team Too Cool and still on a rise. But then WWF decided to make him the fall guy for the year-long “who ran Steve Austin over” mystery, a key example of how you should never start a storyline unless you have an ending in mind. To pick Rikishi of all people was crazy but even more nuts was his “explanation” that he did it to help the Rock as a fellow Samoan fighting against “the man.” It was one of the worst payoffs to an angle you can imagine and Rikishi himself just wasn’t cut out for the role of a major heel for a feud with the Rock that didn’t go anywhere and just annoyed fans in an otherwise hot year for the company.

Goldberg: I could probably fill this list up with plenty of examples of WCW under Russo as the man was obsessed with “shocking” turns like ultra-USA Jim Duggan joining Team Canada or David Arquette going bad after his terrible title run. But perhaps the worst was Goldberg. With WCW taking hits in the ratings and fan approval dropping, the company needed something big to get attention again. Russo’s big idea was to take Goldberg, still the company’s hottest act and biggest merchandise-mover and turn him heel at the Great American Bash. There was no build for it or real reason, the only explanation being Goldberg claiming the fans had turned on him during his injury, ignoring how he got monster pops upon his return. Despite his rep as a monster, Goldberg just didn’t fit as a heel and in typical Russo fashion, the whole thing was dropped soon afterward. Yet another ugly blow for a company already bleeding hard.

Jimmy Hart: For years, Jimmy Hart was one of the best heel managers in WWF. With his lanky frame, insane outfits and that ever-present microphone, he led multiple workers to titles and was killer on the mic boasting of his greatness yet ready to run in the face of danger or sometimes take his lumps well. As manager of Money Inc, he was perfectly okay with them doing sneak attacks on opponents and helping out as well. So when Ted DiBiase and IRS attacked Brutus Beefcake in an interview, it made no sense for Hart to suddenly stand up for Beefcake and try to prevent them from smashing him up. After years as a major thorn in Hogan’s side, Hart suddenly leapt to being the Hulkster’s biggest fan, sticking with him and Beefcake at Wrestlemania and later in Hogan’s WCW run. Hart never seemed right in the part as the guy was great as an obnoxious jerk and that was far too softened being Hogan’s right-hand man. It was a relief when he back to being a heel again, far more suited to that.

Ed Leslie: Poor, poor Ed Leslie. An okay worker but boosted high thanks to his friendship with Hogan. He got over as “the Barber” and was prepped for an IC run when he smashed his face in a parasailing accident that pretty much sent his career in a tailspin. He returned in ’93 and later in ’94 when Hogan was on top at WCW. And so Hogan decided to “reward” him for all his service with a main event run by having Leslie turn out to be the masked man who’d been attacking Hogan, becoming the “Barber.” The problem was that fans were sick by now of the “Hogan betrayed by a best friend” angle and the brutal truth that Leslie just wasn’t a major enough star to make it work. To see the life-long mid-carder against Hogan at Starrcade, the biggest show of the year, was ridiculous and it hardly helped the match sucked. Leslie would continue to wind through one horrible gimmick after another, bouncing back and forth between heel and face but ironically his big break at the main event turned into the beginning of the end for his stardom.

Jeff Hardy: I have my issues with Jeff Hardy but I recognize his star factor and how fans respond well to him. He had a lot of that when he returned to TNA in 2010, the fans hot for him as he was soon in the tournament for the vacant TNA World title. So when he suddenly turned heel and joined with Hogan and Bischoff, it was jarring to many fans. TNA tried to push it as Hardy took on an even more bizarre than usual demeanor and even had his own specially created title belt. This was pretty wild but even more crazy by the fact that at the time Hardy was in the middle of a criminal trial over drug possession so for TNA to take a chance on a guy facing possible jail time was frankly insane. It got worse as the year went on, Hardy just not seeming right as a heel and his personal demons coming to call. Even TNA had to recognize it, putting the belt on Anderson briefly before Hardy lost to the returning Sting and then the disaster of Against All Odds’ one-minute main event. Turning a guy so popular is one bad thing but doing it to someone known for his less-than-stable demeanor is even worse.

Many more examples of course but thought these would serve best. Sometimes it’s creative to blame, other times the guy himself just isn’t right for the role. It shows again how wrestling can be a gamble and a bad turn can lead to a lot of bad business to come.

For this week, the spotlight is off.