10 DUMB WWE Heel Turns (We Didn't Want To Admit Were GENIUS!)

Uber heel Mikey Cole, people.

Look, there will always be those who dump all over the obnoxious commentary Cole provided during his heel run. That's fair enough, 'cause some of it did go overboard and proved detrimental towards some matches/programming (NXT, mainly). However, Michael deserves huge plaudits for putting his all into a role suddenly thrust upon him.

There was context to the turn too. Years of backbiting from fans and critics about how lame he was next to Jim Ross were used as fuel for the heel announcer gimmick, and let's not forget that JR had previously booted Cole in the stones back in 1999. Something had to give eventually. Michael had put up with enough.

A heel commentator was something different for the saccharine, kid-friendly era too. Too much of WWE's output seemed safe and lacked edge, so hearing Cole lay into wrestlers for their work and brag about how he was actually the greatest of all time won back some much-needed spice on episodes of Raw and SmackDown.

It also gave the world a gift: That pic you see above. It's meme-ready.