10 Heel And Face Turns That Were Miserable Failures
8. Ric Flair Turns Heel (1994)
When a wrestler gets to a certain point in a legendary career, they attain whats essentially a permanent babyface status with the fans. Weve seen it with Shawn Michaels, Hulk Hogan and others. The most prime example of this is Ric Flair. Its no secret that The Nature Boy prefers working heel and did his most critically-acclaimed work as a villain, but at this point the fans love the guy and are going to cheer him no matter what. Back in 1994, WCW was going all in on their acquisition of Hulk Hogan. The man synonymous with WWE arriving in the rival promotion was unthinkable and his signing was huge news. Unfortunately for those in Atlanta, the WCW fans werent nearly as excited as the brass was, and The Hulkster was met with reactions ranging from lukewarm to apathetic to downright hostile. Enter Ric Flair. A smart promoter would have seen this as an opportunity to put their own icon over the man so closely identified with the competition. The WCW audience were diehard Flair supporters and had no interest in seeing Flair turn heel on put over Hogan repeatedly in an attempt to get Hulk over by sheer force of will. But thats exactly what they were subjected to. And it flopped terribly and did awful business at a time when WCW really couldnt afford to be losing money.
Brad Hamilton is a writer, musician and marketer/social media manager from Atlanta, Georgia. He's an undefeated freestyle rap battle champion, spends too little time being productive and defines himself as the literary version of Brock Lesnar.
