Top 10 heel turns in the modern era – Part One

Unlike in the real world or in comic books, where heroes remain heroes while the villains try to destroy the society, professional wrestling offers “swerves” and “turns”, where the good guys turn bad and the bad guys become good.

This has been a long followed tradition in the industry, and has made the wrestling fans sit on the edge of their seats, staying intrigued by the storylines and angles. Unlike movies or other forms of art, this “turn” is quite common in professional wrestling. Since professional wrestling was considered to be “real” before the 1950s, these turns came about only once in a while, which was followed by angry mobs chasing the newly turned bad guys out of the arenas!

Since then, the more famous “heel turns” were followed by the loud chorus of boos and profanities from the audience. The art of a heel turn depends upon the kind of reaction the audience generates. A successful heel turn is one which produces the shock factor, resulting in the outpour of anger from the live audience and those watching at home. There have been quite a few successful heel turns, which sent shockwaves in the wrestling industry and around the world. In this article, I take a look at the top 10 heel turns in the modern era of professional wrestling.

10. Chris Jericho turns on Shawn Michaels

Chris Jericho’s childhood hero was none other than “The Heartbreak Kid”, Shawn Michaels. In 2008, WWE decided to go ahead with their feud, and while they feuded before in the WWE leading to an outstanding match at WrestleMania, their 2008 feud was undoubtedly the feud of the year. It all started with the Highlight Reel, as Jericho brought out Shawn Michaels as his special guest. Jericho then proceeded to call Shawn a fraud and a liar, and things escalated from there.

Jericho and Shawn started to brawl, and Jericho got the upper hand with a low blow. Jericho then proceeded to break the Jeritron 5000 by driving Michaels face first into it, reminding everyone the infamous Barber shop incident between Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty. This led to a series of outstanding matches through the summer between Jericho and Michaels.