3 WWE heel turns in 2019 that worked and 2 that didn't
After a five-year run as a babyface in NXT and WWE, Bayley finally turned heel on the September 2 episode of Raw when she attacked Becky Lynch and realigned with Sasha Banks.
The timing of the storyline development came as a surprise, especially as Bayley is preparing to take on one of WWE’s biggest heels – Charlotte Flair – at the upcoming Clash of Champions pay-per-view.
WWE previously planned to build towards a Champion vs. Champion match between Banks and Bayley at Survivor Series, as reported by Sportskeeda’s Tom Colohue, so it will be interesting to see whether the reunited allies will soon become enemies again in the coming months.
For now, though, it appears that “The Hugger” has joined a long list of WWE Superstars to become a villain in 2019 – something that has worked well for some people and not quite as well for others.
With that in mind, let’s count down three WWE heel turns this year that succeeded and two that, as of the time of writing, look to have failed.
#5 Heel turn worked: AJ Styles
AJ Styles had a year-long reign with the WWE Championship as a member of the SmackDown Live roster between November 2017 and November 2018.
Following his unexpected title defeat against Daniel Bryan shortly before Survivor Series 2018, “The Phenomenal One” lost a ton of momentum as a good guy and did not look like a serious contender to regain the title in rematches at the TLC and Royal Rumble pay-per-views.
After teasing a possible heel turn during his brief rivalry with Seth Rollins after WrestleMania 35, Styles officially became a bad guy when he won the United States Championship from Ricochet and realigned with fellow Club members Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson to form The OC.
Since then, the three-man group has quickly established themselves as the top faction on Raw, with Styles arguably being more entertaining now than at any stage of his babyface run.
The only problem, as we saw during the Seth Rollins vs. Braun Strowman contract signing, is that fans appreciate Styles’ good work so much that they want to chant his name!