Any time you turn the biggest babyface in the business heel you better hope it's going to work. If it doesn't, it's a move that you're going to regret for years to come. In the case of Austin's heel turn in 2001, it was something that may have sounded like a good idea on paper just because he's a talented enough guy to make it work, but it wasn't something that the fans were ready for. What WWE needed to do was book Austin as a face at the start of WCW's invasion of WWE. Not only that, but they needed to do something where somebody injured him for a few weeks or a month. If they did something major like that, whoever took him out would have been a big deal. Austin was the top guy in WWE. To make others bigger stars, you have to make the top guy look vulnerable. Remember Austin's pop when he returned to help WWE prior to the Invasion PPV in July? Enormous. One of the loudest ever. A week later he was back to being a heel because he helped WCW win the match at Invasion. Kurt Angle ended up in the top babyface role. As much as I love Angle, he was always better as a heel especially in the early portion of his career. Even Angle turned during that period too. It was all so confusing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lurAemW4_YY This was also around the time that Austin started doing the "WHAT" thing too. It began as something he did as a heel that annoyed people. It grew into something the fans loved chanting and still do to this day.
John wrote at WhatCulture from December 2013 to December 2015. It was fun, but it's over for now. Follow him on Twitter @johnreport. You can also send an email to mrjohncanton@gmail.com with any questions or comments as well.
