WWE has seen two popular faces “turn heel” over the last month, ditching their goody two-shoes acts to become villainous characters. Neville was the first to turn heel, arriving unannounced at Roadblock: End of the Line in December and wrecking the top of the Cruiserweight Division to much applause and cheering. Last week, Dolph Ziggler likewise flipped sides, taking a chair to Kalisto when the luchadore ran to the ring to rescue Ziggler from Baron Corbin and later attacking Apollo Crews.
The heel turn is a popular wrestling trope, seen by many wrestling fans as a quick fix to storylines that aren’t clicking. When a wrestler struggles as a face, there’s always a vocal contingent calling for them to go heel. Roman Reigns needs a heel turn, Dean Ambrose needs a heel turn, Sasha Banks needs to go heel, John Cena (the FACE that runs the place) needs to go heel. If you read certain wrestling forums, you’d think that EVERY face wrestler in the WWE desperately needs to go heel to save their careers from stagnation.
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While heel turns are a key part of wrestling, they only really work under certain conditions on the main WWE roster. Heel turns need 1) a reason for the heel turn to happen and 2) a face wrestler for them to immediately oppose. Coming up for a reason for a wrestler to turn heel usually isn’t a problem. Perceived disrespect, festering resentment, in-ring misunderstandings, or capitalizing on an opportunity are all easy reasons that don’t require much buildup. But finding a face to feud with can be a trickier problem, especially due to the brand split.
Let use Roman Reigns, as an example. Fans have wanted Reigns to go heel for years, in part because it will signal an end to the WWE’s attempt to make Reigns the next John Cena. Right now, Reigns is the top face on the RAW brand, with only Seth Rollins behind him as a “main event” level face. Reigns’s main opposition is Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho, and Braun Strowman. Were Reigns to go heel now, he wouldn’t have anyone to feud with besides Rollins, unless the WWE were to elevate a wrestler like Sami Zayn or Cesaro into the Universal Championship picture.
Logistically, a heel turn for Reigns doesn’t make sense, at least not until Chris Jericho leaves to tour with his band Fozzy and Finn Balor returns from injury. There’s not even room for a double turn (where a heel turns face), because there’s really no good storyline reason for Kevin Owens (a cowardly heel champ) or Braun Strowman (a monster heel) to become good guys.
Smackdown has a similar problem. With Dolph Ziggler’s turn to the dark side, Dean Ambrose and John Cena are the show’s only WWE Championship level heels, with AJ Styles, Bray Wyatt, Randy Orton, the Miz, and Baron Corbin all acting as possible opposition. It seems that Dolph Ziggler’s turn will give a chance to push Apollo Crews or Kalisto up the card as a new “main event” level face, but we’ve seen that those builds take time and don’t always work. At least Smackdown could hypothetically pull off a double turn, since WWE fans love AJ Styles and cheer him regardless if he’s playing the hero or the villain.
We’ve seen recently that heel turns aren’t an automatic solutions, either. Titus O’Neil and Bo Dallas didn’t see their place on the card raise when turning heel last year, and the Usos heel turn didn’t really help their characters either. A heel turn won’t change a wrestler’s talent level or how the WWE views them as a moneymaker. Is Dolph Ziggler going to suddenly become WWE Champion because of his heel turn? Probably not, because he’s still Dolph Ziggler, a known quantity to both the fans and the WWE.
Heel turns are a great part of wrestling, but they aren’t a cure-all to fix your favorite wrestler. They’re great for a surprise and to switch things up, but they aren’t a solution to whatever issues you have with Vince McMahon’s booking. Expecting everyone to go bad will just ruin the surprise, which frankly is the best part about heel turns in the first place.
