10 Popular WWE Babyfaces Who Went To Another Level As Heels
2. Bret Hart
It'd be pointless to argue that Bret Hart's heel turn helped him in-ring. The 'Hitman' was always a workhorse during matches - he just didn't have bad ones, and that consistency helped him become someone Vince McMahon relied on time and time again.
No, Bret didn't get better as a wrestler when he turned heel in 1997, but he did level up as a character and promo man. The anti-American bile spewing from his mouth was grounded in reality, and that believability fostered the most creatively-satisfying period of his WWF career.
Seeing Hart get spat on, jeered and threatened in the States, but cheered and idolised everywhere else on the planet, was bewitching stuff. On paper, it probably sounded good. In execution, it worked better than anyone could've hoped, and it remains a curious closing chapter of Bret's first run with the promotion.
It only lasted around six months, but Hart's heel run was glorious.