WWE Wrestlers Who Turned Babyface And Fans Didnt Care

What's good y'all? It's your boy Ross back at it again with another video. So, we're going to check out 10 WWE wrestlers who turned babyface but not a single soul cared. Yeah, man. Sometimes even with a babyface turn, people just don't care. You'll be like, "Oh, well, I I gave them something fresh, you know, I you know, I switched things up." If they're not caring about your character, no matter if you're good or a bad guy, fans are just not going to connect with it. So, it's it's really unfortunate when that happens. We've seen that before where wrestlers switch it up and fans are just like, "Okay, and?" So, we're going to check this out. Should be an interesting one. Appreciate all the love and support you guys have shown on the channel. Let's get right into it, man. >> Professional wrestling has evolved a ton from its humble beginnings during the 19th century to its current gimmick-heavy form. But, one aspect of the industry that has remained consistent from the start is a strict split between babyfaces and heels or in layman's terms, good and bad. Many within the industry have proven themselves to be the ultimate good guys such as career babyfaces like Rey Mysterio and Ricky Steamboat. While others, however, they were severely miscast in the role no matter how hard WWE tried to make it work. Join us now as WrestleLamia looks at 10 of the most disastrous WWE babyface turns. Be sure to subscribe and hit that notification bell for daily wrestling videos. Number 10, The Miz. One of the most effective heels in history, The Miz is something of an old-school heel in the way that he's capable of generating real visceral heat. Audiences love to boo him because he carries himself with a deep level of smugness which only grew deeper when he adopted the gimmick of an A-list movie star in 2014. But, 2 years before that, WWE tried something daring. They tried to turn him babyface. >> Yeah. >> Defecting from Paul Heyman's team to make Foley's ahead of the 2012 Survivor Series, The Miz's sudden change of alignment made no sense at all. His turn wasn't executed to make up for a lack of good guys, nor was it done to necessitate a lack of babyface champion challenges. He just turned babyface because it was something different for WWE to try. Even more nonsensical, however, is that WWE stole an idea from circa 2010 TNA by portraying The Miz as the second coming of Ric Flair. >> Do y'all remember that? I remember that. That was a weird time where they were trying to pair him up with Ric Flair. He's doing the figure-four. I was just like, what is this? I don't like this. Miz is just better as a heel. He works better as a heel. And probably should end his career as a heel. Not a babyface. >> He became a protégé to the Nature Boy and adopted his figure-four leglock, which he used to capture the Intercontinental Championship on the WrestleMania 29 pre-show, which he lost the next day. He emotively returned to his roots as a heel in 2014. Number nine, Alberto Del Rio. Remarkably, WWE's decision to suddenly market The Miz as a good guy wasn't even the worst babyface turn during the winter 2012. As just weeks after he gained the support of the fans, he was joined by, oddly enough, Alberto Del Rio. >> [music] >> The rumor at the time was that WWE officials had long been toying with the idea of turning Del [music] Rio. The idea being that he could be WWE's long-awaited answer to finding the next Rey Mysterio. Now, it could have actually worked had WWE actually made an effort. But his supposedly groundbreaking babyface turn came after he saved Ricardo Rodriguez and the Spanish announce team from an attack by 3MB at the TLC pay-per-view. [laughter] That was then followed by an abrupt six-man tag team match that pitted the wannabe rockers against Del Rio, The Miz, and of all people, the Brooklyn Brawler. What a team. It was hardly the sort of rub that was going to propel Del Rio to the same level as Rey Mysterio, but much like the master of the 619, WWE strapped Alberto with winning the World Heavyweight Championship for a severely underwhelming reign. There was nothing to enjoy in realizing how badly he was performing as a good guy. WWE turned him back to a heel just after 7 months. >> Which worked. He's better as a heel, man. >> former tag team partner, the Big Show, Kane endured countless babyface and heel turns throughout his career, many of which carried any sense of logic. Just like his turn to the dark side in the summer 2008, for example, came after he assaulted commentators Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole. Didn't quite hit the same as twacking your teammate in the back with a steel chair or throwing him through a window. Worse yet was the babyface turn that preceded it. Kane had been cast as a heel since his unmasking in June of 2003, but by September the following year, WWE instructed its audience to begin cheering for the Big Red >> Yeah, this was Yeah, this This was weird because you're being told to cheer a guy that kind of forced himself, not even kind of, he did force himself on Lita per story. She didn't consent to what happened with them. And he's the good guy. And then he got out healed by Edge, and Edge was the bad guy. Even though he was he did some wild stuff, like There's only a few times I I liked Kane when he was a good guy. The whole, you know, Kane and nights and stuff, that [ __ ] was hilarious. Like some of that stuff actually worked. This This right here? No. >> [laughter] >> machine again. Following the start of his feud with Snitsky, the timing of the turn was the issue. How was Kane supposed to be be good guy in this situation when he just impregnated Lita potentially by force and forced her to marry him. And this carriage angle that saw Kane fall on top of Lita after being struck in the back with a chair was the most critically intensive aspect of the whole charade. Neither Kane nor Lita even got their revenge. Kane was written off by having his larynx crushed. Lita moved back to the women's division as if nothing ever happened and their unborn child was never spoken [laughter] of again. What a great end. Number seven, Edge. While some wrestlers operate better as a babyface than they do as a heel and while he certainly had his enjoyable moments on the other side of the ledger, the character of Edge wasn't created to be cheered. Monica, the ultimate opportunist, Edge's whole stick is that he would do whatever was necessary to walk away the victor, which is why as a heel he was the perfect man to begin the legacy of the Money in the Bank cash in. He had to work hard to reach that level though because he wasn't really cutting it as a white meat babyface. Edge has been a babyface since his 2001 singles breakthrough and although it was a three-year run that brought him plentiful success, he struggled to connect with the audience. That was by maintaining the childish humor from his partnership with Christian, which had made both men uber popular during the Attitude Era. But it wouldn't be until November 2004 that WWE finally invested in Edge as a major heel singles act, even if it was at least three months overdue. At SummerSlam the previous August which emanated from Edge's billed birthplace of Toronto, he was booed out of the building. As a bad guy though, he was the most popular guy in the world by the time WWE rolled back into his hometown. >> And that's what makes that so funny. He got booed as a good guy, but then years later when he's facing John Cena in his hometown, he got cheered because he was the cool bad guy. And you know, he's in his hometown. They people were were starting to get tired of John Cena. It's it's crazy how that happens, but nevertheless, him being a bad guy, he he's just much better. Now, obviously and this happens most of the time, as a wrestler get to that legend status, get towards the end of their wrestling career. People appreciate them. And they will cheer them no matter what they do. Randy Orton's in that spot now. John Cena, when he turned heel, guess what? He was still most likely He was still getting cheers. They didn't care. And the same thing with Edge. He could do no wrong. Don't matter. We We've appreciated the years of entertainment. So, at that point, once you become legend status, you're going to always get cheered, no matter what you do. >> [laughter] >> Tough. And I'm forgiving 2006. Number six, Randy Orton. Like Edge, Randy Orton has historically always been better received while working as a heel, which is exactly why his baby face turn in 2004 was so inadequate. At the time, Orton was 1/4 of the Evolution stable until he was ejected the night after becoming the youngest world champion in WWE history. The turn itself was one of the core moments of the Ruthless Aggression era, but Randy wasn't ready to be a headlining baby face. >> Mhm. >> His character changed too much as he went from being a cocky underdog heel to just a bland baby face. And the quality of his matches wasn't exactly great. Turning heel and becoming the Legend Killer in time for WrestleMania 21 set Randy back on course. In 2011, Orton spoke to ESPN about his second baby face turn that occurred the year before, during which he discussed why his original turn went down so poorly. When you go from being a good guy to a bad guy or vice versa, like I did, everyone always tells you, "Don't change. Don't change." And in my case, the less change the better, because what really happened is the fans turned me. This wasn't some master plan where all of a sudden I was going to be a good guy. I just started getting a lot of fan support. >> Yeah. >> It's a fine line because I wasn't going out there like John Cena high-fiving kids and hugging grandmas and pumping my fist and smiling. If I would have done that, I would have failed tremendously, kind of like I did back in 2004 when I became the youngest champion in WWE history. >> That didn't work at all because I changed so much. So, it's really about looking at your character, seeing what people like about me, like about my character, and seeing how much I can change without changing too much, and walking that fine line. Number five, Lacey Evans. >> for him. Cuz he's had some good babyface runs. He has. He's one of the few people early in his career didn't work. He always works better as a heel, but later in his career he had some pretty fun, entertaining babyface runs because even though he was a babyface, he was still someone that would snap on you. So, you can appreciate that. You you enjoyed that. It was like he wouldn't He doesn't have a problem going to that level, listening to those voices. It just so happens that the fans enjoy it, you know? So, and he's one of those characters now that he's you would technically think he's a heel against Cody, but no one gives a [ __ ] because they love Randy Orton. We know his time in wrestling is almost done, so we don't care what he does. We appreciate it all. >> Evans. Now, after doing the absolute bare minimum in NXT, Lacey Evans was set up to fail on the main roster after she was lumped in a batch of call-ups that followed Triple H and the McMahon family's awkward address about the poor state of the place. Subsequently, in Lacey's first match outside the black and gold brand, she fell flat on her ass during the Royal Rumble match. >> [music] >> Great. She actually had two babyface turns on the main roster that went >> absolutely nowhere. >> The first of those saw Lacey confront Sasha Banks and Bayley, then the SmackDown Women's Champion after they had insulted Lacey and her teammates for dropping the ball at Survivor Series 2019, which set up a title showdown between Evans and Bayley for the Royal Rumble. Then, nothing. [music] She turned heel again following the July after having a falling out with Naomi over a karaoke contest. Well, that about sums up WWE in 2020. The second babyface turn meanwhile was been before he could even begin. In April of 2022, vignettes began airing a Lacey leaning into a babyface military character, but by the time she returned to television, she was a heel. Then she was a babyface when she returned to the ring. [laughter] Then she turned heel again when she betrayed Aaliyah. WWE had given up and thus so had the audiences hopes. >> Turn heel, turn babyface, turn heel, turn babyface, back heel, BACK BABYFACE. WHAT ARE YOU? >> [laughter] >> WHO DO YOU WANT TO BE? PEOPLE JUST DIDN'T CARE about her her her in-ring presence. It was a lot of things. Like, there was nothing She's one of the people heel, babyface, it didn't matter. People just didn't care. >> Scott Steiner. Considering he had returned to WWE with one of the loudest pops of the Ruthless Aggression era, had been quoted on screen by both Raw and SmackDown general managers, and had then world champion Triple H as his first feud, Scott Steiner's success should have carried over from WCW. The problem is that his rivalry with The Game was more of a hindrance than Steiner's reported that two problems. [music] A miscast babyface, Big Poppa Pump would work two genuine stinkers against Triple H at the Royal Rumble and No Way Out in 2003. The first of which was voted the worst match of the year [laughter] by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The feud just wasn't interesting. Nobody wanted to watch a pose down or an arm wrestling contest between two jacked up men comparing the size of their dicks. But this [laughter] feud in an earlier era and maybe it might get a pass, but stacked against the work rate heavy Ruthless Aggression era, it stood out like a slug. Steiner turned heel a little under a year after his return, but it was too late. And he was gone from WWE before celebrating his second anniversary. Number three, Lex Luger. The departure of Hulk Hogan from WWF in '93 left Vince McMahon absolutely desperate to find his replacement, which he believed would be answered by turning Lex Luger babyface. >> [music] >> Well, spoiler alert, it wasn't. Positioned as Yokozuna's challenger for the WWF Championship at SummerSlam, Lex Luger's face turn was cemented when he slammed Yoko on the deck of the USS Intrepid on the 4th of July. It was a solid start and he followed it by driving around North America on the Lex Express to meet his adoring public, which should have been the follow-up he needed to reach Hogan's level. But he stalled it. Luger didn't have the same interpersonal skills that Hulk did. >> [music] >> The fans weren't buying him as the American hero, resulting in his push dying in real time. After defeating Yoko at Summer Slam, Lex Luger celebrated as if he just conquered the world with confetti falling from the ceiling and the babyface locker room emptying. The problem? He won by count out, meaning he hadn't even won the belt. Discussing Luger's failed push on his Something to Wrestle With podcast, Bruce Prichard explained why Vince McMahon held back on strapping the belt on Lex. >> Yeah, Vince wasn't sold. He just wasn't 100% sold on Lex. There was, you know, when you originally start on this journey, I think we all kind of started it with the end result being, okay, Lex beats him and then that's your guy. Okay, let's go. But along the way, Lex stumbled along the way and he wasn't drawing and he wasn't really connecting with the audience the way that we thought he should connect with the audience. And Yoko was. People were believing in Yoko. But I think the biggest, probably the biggest thing was Vince wasn't sold on Lex 100%. He wanted to build Lex more and see if if Lex could withstand the test of time. So this is the idea was, we'll just keep going with Lex. We're going to keep pushing him and if they're going to get behind him, they'll get behind him on the chase. And that decision was made well ahead of the show taking place. >> Number two, Batista. The wrestling world was abuzz with excitement in late 2013 with the announcement that Batista was en route back to WWE. But that excitement quickly faded when it became apparent that he would be positioned as a top babyface over Daniel Bryan. >> This was timing. This is the only reason why he should probably be on this list for this specific this specific reason, timing. If the yes movement wasn't a thing, he would have been good. He would have been fine. But the yes movement was a thing, and that's what messed us up. That's literally what this messed us up. Like they had to call an audible and change his character because once again, if it wasn't Daniel Bryan, no one gave a [ __ ] honestly. So this really was just timing. Like people didn't want to boo Batista, but once he won the Royal Rumble, >> [laughter] >> he became boo Batista. They they had to pivot. They had to pivot, bro. >> Regrettably for the animal, his return coincided with Bryan's meteoric surge in popularity. But though he was already a two-time WWE Champion by the time of Batista's re-emergence, the company had few plans for him come WrestleMania 30. He was planned to collide with Sheamus on the grand stage, while Batista, the Royal Rumble winner, was challenging Randy Orton in the main event for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. That Royal Rumble match, by the way, came without Daniel Bryan even being an entrant, resulting in the Philly crowd heckling both Batista and Rey Mysterio, the number 30 entrant. Batista was forced to turn heel shortly after because that was his fault, apparently. WWE did at least attempt to make good on their word by inserting Bryan into the Mania main event and having him overcome the odds. While that was good for him, it was too late for Batista as he quit that June. He spoke with the Washington Post ahead of WrestleMania 30, revealing that he had petitioned against returning as a good guy. They told me that it was going to come back and be this huge babyface. I said, "No, it's not going to work." They said, "No way, they're dying for you to come back." I said, "That's going to last two minutes. [music] Just watch." And sure enough, it did. And number one, I'm going to say this. I think it would have worked fine and I think he would have been okay if Daniel Bryan, that whole thing didn't exist, I don't think anyone would have tripped off of Batista coming back as a babyface. It's [ __ ] Batista. Like, what are we talking about? But once again, it didn't work because of the Daniel Bryan thing. And I get his point of view. He's like he wanted to come back here. He would have came back here. That would have been cool, too. But once again, you take Daniel Bryan out the equation, people would have been cheering for him. But because Daniel Bryan was there and there was only one thing they wanted to see, Daniel Bryan as the WWE Champion, that was it. That was literally it. There was nothing anybody else can do. That's how over he was. It ain't too many people that get that over. And he was one of those individuals that was too over. When you can get people to boo Batista of all people, who's a fan favorite by many, that's when you know, okay, all right, you have something here. And obviously, Roman Reigns being number one, come on now. >> [laughter] >> Roman Reigns, the most popular member of the Shield at the time of that controversial 2014 Rumble match. Reigns was the least popular member of the entire WWE roster by the time of the following year's event. >> Yeah. >> was that Roman suffered from the same wretched over pushing that had plagued John Cena's relationship with the public. >> He won the Rumble in 2015, but he was met with such negativity from the Philly crowd that not even a surprise appearance from The Rock could salvage the mess. >> Boo. >> Those negative reactions followed him for the next five years as did regular fan chance of boring, Roman sucks, and shut the F up. Writing for ESPN following WrestleMania 32, which was headlined by the universally hated match between Reigns and Triple H, David Shoemaker claimed that Roman had become the most despised wrestler since the company had turned Sgt. Slaughter into an Iraqi sympathizer. Finally turning heel at SummerSlam 2020 and then embarking on his legendary reign as undisputed Universal Champion really helped redeem Roman's legacy. But those who had followed his career hadn't forgotten when he defeated Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 39, it was like 2016 all over again. Like John Cena, it may take Roman Reigns announcing his retirement for fans to truly appreciate them as a generation's answer to the face that runs the place. There you have it. >> We all know he should have turned heel a long time ago. Should have turned heel many, many years ago. Um his babyface run just wasn't working because of what they were giving him. They weren't really allowing him to be himself. And him being himself is more of a cocky heel. And it works. So and now he's kind of I made a video about this. He's never really ultimately changed. He's getting back to that arrogant family over everything, but I'm at the head of the table. I'm the top guy. You you know, you either do things my way or you get packed up. He's getting back to that bag and Roman works better that way. He just does. And I can appreciate it and I think a lot of us fans can too. But anyway, comment down below. Let me know some other wrestlers you feel like when they did turn babyface, it just didn't click. But when they were heels, they performed better, it just made sense. It was a smoother transition and you can kind of get invested more in their character when they were the bad guy. Let me know down below if they weren't listed in this video, but I appreciate all the love and support. Road to 200K. Appreciate y'all kicking it with me. See y'all next one. Peace.