11 Surprising WWE Heel Turns You Never Saw Coming
9. Paul Bearer On The Undertaker (1996)
There was a rare - extremely rare, for WWE - sense of cinematic sadness in the air as Paul Bearer and Mankind left the ring in each other's tender embrace at the climax of SummerSlam 1996's genuinely unique Boiler Room Brawl. Soundtracked by the 'Deranged One's "Ode To Freud" piano exit theme, the melancholia that hid underneath each of his pyrrhic victories was never darker than when his violent feud with The Undertaker resulted in the severance of one of the organisation's most beloved relationships.
Keen to grab power from an ever-changing WWE landscape, Bearer hitched his horse to an even scarier wagon than the one he'd clung to since arriving in the company over five years earlier. Alongside Mankind, The Executioner and later Vader, Bearer would lead a charge on 'The Deadman' that would ultimately lead them both to Kane. This turn here broke a bond fans assumed impenetrable by the trivialities of Sports Entertainment.
The reveal of their ruse is the most heartbreaking moment of all. On one expectant knee awaiting his Urn, 'Taker absorbs a shot to the head with it unexpectedly, then pulls himself up to receive another whilst still rapt in weakened disbelief. It was a state the new version of himself that emerged at 1996's Survivor Series wouldn't allow to happen again.