10 Wrestlers Who Drew The Wrong Kind Of Heel Heat
4. David Flair
Of all the names on our list, David Flair is by far the most sympathetic. He was thrust into the spotlight with next to no training under his belt, and was expected to play a prominent TV role despite his total inexperience. David started as a face, but turned heel to join the New World Order early in his run, and while he certainly drew crowd heat, it mostly came from a complete rejection of him as a performer.
WCW put Flair in a position he wasn’t capable of filling. He started life as a non-wrestler, but soon became an in-ring competitor, and that’s when his deficiencies really started showing. Sloppy, uncoordinated, and completely out of his depth, he bewilderingly became United States Champion in 1999, but was wisely shunted down the card as the years progressed, with WCW realising he was never going to get over in the way they’d intended.
Growing up in his father Ric’s shadow put David in a tough position from the start. He was going to be compared to the consensus greatest American wrestler of all-time from day one, which heaped the pressure on, and no doubt stalled his development. He has since left the business entirely, with his last match coming in 2009.