10 Wrestlers Audiences Weren't Ready For
9. Stone Cold Steve Austin...
...as a heel.
Stone Cold Steve Austin has gone on record as saying that if he could change two things in his career, one would be the manner he dealt with his personal and professional frustrations in 2002, and the other would be to kill his WrestleMania X-Seven heel turn with a Stone Cold Stunner on Vince McMahon to send the fans home as happy as they'd been for all the years previous.
Of course, he had to want it at the time, and he really really wanted it. An instincts guy for much of his run, Austin had sensed a downturn in his fortunes since returning in 2000, and elected to blame that on being replaced as top babyface by The Rock.
He wasn't wrong, but turning heel wasn't the solution either. 'The Rattlesnake' was a lot less fun to be around as a hero, but he was a hero nonetheless. The turn never took for this and other reasons, and by the time he was back on the face side of the divide much of his original love had been lost.