5 Best WWE Storylines That Turned Babyfaces Into Heels (& 5 Worst)

Most wrestlers in the industry prefer to be a heel rather than a babyface. They feel like they have more freedom, more fun, and a better chance at getting over, especially in the WWE. That's hard to argue, but while some performers are career-long heels who only had a taste of the good guy life like The Miz, others are able to bounce back and forth.

That's when it gets exciting because something that fans just love is a good heel turn. However, heel turns are typically more abrupt as opposed to a slow burn face turn, so the storylines that cause these character shifts aren't always the most riveting.

10 Worst: The Best In The World (Shane McMahon)

Shane McMahon's heel turn started to build from the 2018 Crown Jewel event when he entered the World Cup tournament during the finals, beat Dolph Ziggler who had already competed in two matches, and stole the win. This would lead to a heel turn a few months later when he attacked The Miz whom he was in a tag team with at the time.

He'd force ring announcers to call him the "best in the world" which did garner a bit of heel heat, however, the issue that fans had with him was that he was stealing TV time from the actual competitors. This heel turn only exacerbated that problem considering he would go on to compete on almost every Premium Live Event from that point forward until he left.

9 Best: Straight Edge Vs. Addiction (CM Punk)

Perhaps the only time the WWE used Jeff Hardy's real-life addiction battles as a storyline tool well. That's because it wasn't Punk randomly attacking that part of Jeff's life. It was him saying that he's straight edge, Jeff obviously isn't, so why is he more popular?

It fit so well because it was a major part of their lives. Punk turning on the fans because they love Jeff Hardy no matter what he does is something that could rightfully get under his skin. The question of why he is viewed as the bad guy when he's the clean one was the crux of the feud. The storyline would go on to show that someone doesn't necessarily need to be defined by addiction or sobriety.

8 Worst: The Judgment Day Is Terrible (Edge)

Edge turning heel in 2022, only two years removed from his heroic return from a nine-year-long retirement, was certainly an interesting choice. To be fair, he was one of the best heels in company history, but of course, it didn't work out well.

Nobody wanted to boo Edge at this stage of his career, but they kept going with it. This wasn't the Rated-R Superstar and the Ultimate Opportunist that made fans bite their lips in anger. This was Edge talking in riddles, trying to be spooky, and cackling for no reason. Nobody was intrigued, and it made fans ask themselves, is this really how he wants to spend the twilight years of his career?

7 Best: The Judgment Day Is Awesome (Dirty Dom)

On the other hand, The Judgment Day did one of the quickest 180s in wrestling history, and surprisingly enough, it was Dominik Mysterio who turned it around for them. Wrestling is weird because how is Edge of all people the problem and Dominick is the solution?

That's how it went, though. The Judgment Day were slowly crawling out of obscurity with Finn Balor taking Edge's spot, but it was as soon as Dom clotheslined his father, and the rest of the Judgment Day was off in the corner laughing their butts off that it finally worked out for them.

6 Worst: An American Traitor (Sgt. Slaughter)

Vince McMahon was never shy about using real-life events as a way to create storylines, but this is one of the times that it went a bit too far.

Sgt. Slaughter was an American hero, but in late 1990, he returned as an Iraqi sympathizer as the Gulf War was going on in real life. It was a way for Hulk Hogan to be the American hero who beat the traitor for the title at WrestleMania. It was just in bad taste, and not something that should've been done to generate heel heat.

5 Best: Andre's Betrayal (Andre The Giant)

The storyline of Andre feeling slighted at Hogan's recognition as opposed to his own and Bobby Heenan getting in his ear was carefully done. Across four Piper's Pit segments, a simple story was told to set up one of the most important matches in wrestling history.

This felt like a big deal because it was. Andre was a gentle giant and a good friend of Hogan's, so to see him walk away from Hulkamania like that made people want to watch. It was a major accomplishment evidenced by the success of WrestleMania 3.

4 Worst: "I Did It For The Rock" (Rikishi)

It wasn't just the heel turn itself that was bad, but the entire, "who hit Austin" storyline. It was a random way to write him off TV, and they had a year to figure out a satisfying payoff. Yet, they still had no idea which was obvious enough when Rikishi was the one to blame. Rikishi, the dancing guy who put his big behind in people's faces, committed attempted vehicular homicide.

Even though his quote of "I did it for The Rock" has become a wrestling meme in recent years, that doesn't change the fact that nobody took this guy seriously as a monster heel. So much so that they had to shift the blame to Triple H as the mastermind of the attack.

3 Best: The Mega Powers Explode (Macho Man Randy Savage)

Hulk Hogan had a lot of people turn heel on him in the build to a WrestleMania during the Golden Era, but this is the one that takes the cake. Andre's may have been better for the mainstream audience, but this one had been building for a year.

People will say that Hogan never gave Savage the spotlight he deserved, and that may be true, but that's part of it. With two huge egos side by side in a tag team for a year, they were bound to explode, and they did it masterfully with Macho Man finally getting fed up with Hogan eyeing up Miss Elizabeth and his title.

2 Worst: Austin Makes A Deal With The Devil (Stone Cold)

The heel turn itself is legendary. Nobody can deny that. However, it's hard to forget that the storyline surrounding it wasn't exactly masterful storytelling.

Stone Cold was still as over as he ever was, but with WCW purchased, the Monday Night Wars over, and the Attitude Era nearing its end they felt there was no longer a need for the Austin-McMahon feud. That may be correct, but there was no reason for Austin to become the stooge and joke that he was until the "old Stone Cold" came back. It was deflating, and any momentum he had was ruined.

1 Best: Seth Sells Out (Seth Rollins)

When the fallout of a heel turn still lingers years and years later, that's when fans know that it was done correctly, and nobody could've predicted how it would serve three future stars the way it did.

When Seth Rollins smashed Roman Reigns in the back with a chair, it was shocking. There were very small hints, but the fact that the three had just beaten Evolution for the second time, it seemed like a turn was still a long way away. This turn did everything it needed to do, and the storylines before and after solidify this as one of the best heel turns in WWE history.