10 Wrestling Face/Heel Turns That Shouldn't Have Worked (But Did)
6. Nikita Koloff Joins Forces With Dusty Rhodes
Big, bad, wrestling Russians were all the rage in the '70s and '80s. With Cold War tensions at their highest, promotions preyed upon America's widespread apprehension and paranoia to draw easy heat from the audience, creating some of the most effective foreign heels of all time.
Nikita Koloff was one of the most famous. He, his uncle Ivan, and Krusher Krushev ran roughshod through the NWA in the 1980s, feuding with all the top babyfaces, from the Rock N' Roll Express to the Road Warriors, with Nikita achieving considerable notoriety as a singles act.
A monstrous heel, the musclebound star drew massive heat wherever he went, engaging in memorable rivalries with Ric Flair (during one of his fleeting babyface runs) and Magnum TA. The latter was one of the era's most heated feuds, and provided the impetus for Koloff's unthinkable heel turn. Magnum, a beloved babyface hero, suffered a career-ending car accident, leaving Dusty Rhodes without an ally in his ongoing war with the Four Horsemen, and in stepped Nikita.
Having spent the entirety of his career working as a foreign heel, Koloff aligned himself with the 'American Dream' and became an immediate fan favourite, despite his old anti-USA rhetoric.