Actually, screw it, I have to do what True North did: turn my back on a turn that I personally prefer in favor of what I think is greater value. It kind of irritates me to have landed on a decision that this is the greater value though. Writing up now...
In late '91/early '92, Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty, one of the great tag teams of the Golden Era, started teasing a split. It was very obvious that we were headed for a Shawn Michaels heel turn, even for a young fan like me.
And when the time came to pull the trigger, the payoff was absolutely beautiful anyway. They met in Brutus Beefcake's interview segment, The Barber Shop, to attempt to hash things out. Michaels denied that there was any dissension between the two. Marty told him to cut out the bull**** and start telling the truth. He offered Shawn the chance to leave him right then or to shake his hand and bury the hatchet. Shawn seemingly chose option 2, then superkicked the **** out of Marty and threw him through the plate-glass window. For extra fun, we ended up seeing a reverse angle of Marty going through the window, because why wouldn't there be a random camera set up to look through that window from behind?
This turn, one of the historic segments of that period of wrestling history, launched one of the all-time greats in the direction of superstardom. In the fall he became the Intercontinental Champion, and by the end of the year he was in the main event of Survivor Series. It would be four years before he took down his first WWF Title, but that's a function of a time when you could properly push someone slowly toward the top (a time when there wasn't 50 hours of content per week to fill).
This turn checks the boxes for being one of the elite turn moments of all time, it went over beautifully, and it paved the way for a headlining Hall of Fame career for probably a top five guy in company history. Bonus points for being one of the peak moments of Heenan's commentary career.
I select: Marty Jannetty tries to escape through the Barber Shop window
Agree with LKJ that there is a substantial drop from 2 to 3, and there’s probably about a half dozen reasonable picks in this spot, so I’m just going to go with a personal favorite.
Spoiler:
Mr Perfect dumps water on Bobby Heenan
Spoiler:
The big match in the 1992 Survivor Series was set to be the team of Ric Flair and Razor Ramon vs the awfully named “Ultimate Maniacs” teams of Macho Man Randy Savage and the Ultimate Warrior.
But just weeks before the event, Ultimate Warrior left WWF. So what to do? The tag match was still on, but Savage needed a new partner. On the November 16 episode of Prime Time Wrestling, Savage stated that he wanted the “Perfect partner”.
Mr Perfect came in to the WWF in 1988 as a cocky wrestler who was shown in vignettes to be “perfect” at a variety of athletic endeavors. He would go on a lengthy undefeated streak and had high profile feuds with Hulk Hogan and Brutus Beefcake, followed by a pair of IC title reigns, but would need to take over a year off due to injury.
He would return in late 1991 as the consultant to Ric Flair and as the heel commentator on WWF television. In 1992, with Mr Perfect in his corner, Flair would win the WWF title on two occasions.
.
Back to the Prime Time Wrestling show. For those unfamiliar, it was a panel show with intermittent breaks of taped wrestling action. Savage led off the program in an off-site interview saying that he needed someone familiar with Flair. A perfect partner. Mr Perfect.
Mr Perfect and Bobby Heenan laugh it off as a ridiculous proposal. But over the course of the show, seeds of doubt begin to appear. There’s a quite a lot of back and forth between Heenan and Perfect, along with off-site commentary from both Savage and Flair. Savage starts saying that Heenan has been holding Perfect back, and very gradually Perfect begins to start taking Savage seriously. Heenan is put in the awkward position of trying to convince Perfect to not accept, but simultaneously state that Perfect is great. Of course, in classic Heenan fashion, he fails miserably.
At the end of the show, Perfect would accept Savage’s offer and enter the ring for the first time in over a year. The team of Perfect and Savage would win the match, and two months later Perfect would defeat Flair in a loser leaves WWE match.
Unfortunately, Perfect would not win another WWF title, which does damage this pick a little bit, but the execution of this basically one night face turn was flawless. Everyone involved played his part masterfully.
Spoiler:
It’s a poor quality video, but seriously, take a look at how masterful this turn was.
I didn't think there was any chance of that still being there for me in round 2. I might be overvaluing it a bit, but it's a real personal favorite. Plus there's really only so many great face turns.
With my first round selection I have to go with one of the best face turns in history. A culmination of two years of brilliant heel work results in one of the best Wrestlemania moments of all time
In 1989 Macho Man was WWE Champion and one of the top faces in the company. But Elizabeth was his weakness. After Elizabeth was injured during a match, Hulk Hogan took care of her which cause deep seated jealousy to boil over in Macho Man. That jealousy and Elizabeth's reluctance to choose a side pushed Macho over the edge. He tried to replace his love with a new manager,
Senational Sherri, but all the fans knew that nothing could replace what Macho had with Elizabeth. After two long years apart the "Macho King" lost a retirement match at Wrestlemania VII but won a much bigger prize. Sherri was furious with Savage for losing and costing her her top client so she attacked him after the match. This was too much for Elizabeth, who was watching in the crowd. She ran in to save Macho Man and the long awaited reunion was on. I mean just look at that crowd reaction. People throughout the arena are crying from joy. Sure, Macho Man was out of competition after this but the angle was so hot and the turn so effective that the storyline continued through his commentary leading to an eventual on-screen wedding between the two.
Yeah, that was what I had as the best face turn available. I suspect it's what True North wanted to take instead of Austin.
The one I was about to take at #3 overall when I audibled back to HBK is still on the board, which is making me happier about taking HBK even though I'm sure my other choice isn't coming back to me.
I’m torn between two heel turns for my first pick, so I guess I’ll go with the one that set up the biggest wrestling show ever. Or at least one of the biggest now. So with that brief set up, I take with my first selection overall:
This took place on Piper’s Pit that air in early February of 1987. Andre, with Bobby Heenan in his ear had decided he was ignored by Hogan enough and decided to take matters into his own hands and demand a title shot from Hogan. This was very well done with Hogan appearing to be blindsided by all of it, Heenan invoking the Hogan hating heel side of his persona, and Jesse and Piper adding to the entire presentation. However the little thing that really put this over the top was André ripping Hogan’s shirt and necklace and drawing blood on his chest. Piper’s selling of that was fantastic too.
If I remember correctly, the site for Wrestlemania III either hadn’t been announced yet or was just announced so in the strength of this angle alone, they were able to sell 93k or 75k, depending on who you believe, in less than eight weeks. That is something the WWE can barely do today with 6 months notice.
1997 was a tough year for the WWF, big name superstars were leaving left and right, and WCW had surpassed them as the biggest wrestling company in the world. Behind the scenes, there was financial turmoil just as Vince McMahon was trying to go public. And, finally, two of his biggest stars, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, were in the midst of a heated locker room feud.
With Vince McMahon eager to shed the 20-year contract signed just the year before with Hart, and Hart not feeling like he was a big part of the WWF's future, Hart signed a contract with WCW in November. One small issue, he was the reigning WWF Champion.
McMahon feared Hart's leaving for WCW as the WWF Champion, especially with a long list of previous transgressions orchestrated by Eric Bischoff with previous WWF superstars. After a series of tense negotiations, an agreement was reached for Hart and Michaels' match a Survivor Series, about a month before Hart's debut with WCW.
One day before Survivor Series, however, McMahon had a change of heart and, with a small group of trusted WWF officials, put a new plan in place to crown Shawn Michaels as the new WWF Champion immediately.
The biggest impact came the next night in a one-on-one interview between Vince McMahon and Jim Ross when Vince uttered the infamous "Bret Hart screwed Bret Hart" and the genesis of the Mr. McMahon character that would be a cornerstone of the Attitude Era and the return of the WWF as the biggest wrestling company in the world.
The McMahon heel turn was the one I nearly took instead of HBK. The reason I opted against it was mostly based on sheer annoyance with the fact that they fell into this heel turn by accident, and thus I couldn't really credit the turn itself for being well-executed. That McMahon conversation wasn't the next night; it was at least a week past that. The next night they pretended that the screwjob didn't happen. Then Vince gave that interview and obviously thought that the was somehow going to come out of it as the sympathetic babyface, which is an amazing level of tone-deafness. Obviously he did extremely well to read the room after that, at which point he adjusted beautifully and then Vince turned out to be one of the great heels of all time.
I'm perfectly happy not to have been the one to pick it, but it's great value late in the round.
The year was 2002. Hogan had just returned to the WWE for the first time in almost 10 years. He returned heel alongside his fellow NWO members Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. Despite being heel the crowd was so happy to have Hogan back they couldn't help but cheer him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7N8IBanV88
This all led to one of the biggest WM matches of all time Hogan vs. Rock. Hogan went in the clear heel, and Rock the super babyface. It didn't take long for the crowd to completely get behind Hogan, and actually boo the Rock. The two legends changed the match on the fly, and Rock started working heel, and Hogan face. The Rock would end up beating Hogan to a chorus of boos from the crowd. After the match Hall and Nash ran in and started attacking the Rock. Hogan turns on his NWO members and make the save for the Rock, and Hulkamania is back. The next night on Raw Hogan came out to one of the loudest ovations in Raw history: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukj47Hd8HB8
He would return to the red and yellow attire and have one last championship run.
And for my second pick:
Spoiler:
[B]The Rock Turns Heel in 2003/B]
Spoiler:
After losing to Hogan at WM X8 the Rock took a short break from WWE. He returned and quickly won the WWE championship. This led to a SummerSlam feud with Brock Lesnar, where the Rock would lose his title. During this match the crowd turned on Rock once again. After the match the Rock took a break again, and focus on his movie career. The Rock would then return again to the WWE and debuted a new "Hollywood Rock" character. He would attack the fans, and act like he is better than everyone. He feuded with Hogan briefly, a WM feud with Austin, and a feud with the newly debuted Goldberg. He cut some amazing promos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gul21TfgYw0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaAC7wvKddo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHvPWaCXdnU&t=3s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOSpU29FS_w
This was easily some of the greatest work of the Rock's career.
I've always been confused on that Hogan turn. He helps Rock at Mania but the next night he comes out in black and white and to the NWO music/b+w filter. Why?
Through 2003 and 2004 Evolution was the dominant group in the WWE, even holding all the major belts of the Raw brand for a while. In the midst of their dominance, however, it became readily apparent that the past (Flair) and the present (Triple H) weren't ready to cede their places atop tge wrestling world to their self-selected future (Randy Orton and Batista). Randy Orton went first after a brutal beatdown from the group following a defense of his WHC belt.
It took a little longer for Batista to see the light. Triple H plotted several times to try to keep Batista both out of the limelight and away from the WHC he eventually won from Orton.
It all backfired for Triple H, as it always does, and the crowd got the moment it had been waiting for when Batista gave Triple H and Flair the thumbs down and put Triple H through a table.
Batista would win the WHC at Wrestlemania and hold it for the next 282 days, cementing a superstar status along the way.
