10 Wrestling Heel Turns That Never Should Have Happened
8. Jim Ross (WWF, 1996)
It's upsetting that a true announcing great like Jim Ross has more than one failed heel turn under his belt. Back in 1996, 'Good Ol' JR' was fighting against the need to constantly wear a cowboy hat on WWF television, but Vince McMahon loved the idea of turning Ross into a curmudgeonly on screen caricature of his real-life self.
Casting the commentator as cranky and old-school was one thing, going full-blown heel turn with Ross was another entirely. Worse still, the entire purpose of JR's heel run was to re-debut the Razor Ramon and Diesel characters on Raw.
The original portrayers of the gimmicks, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, had long since moved over to WCW. This only made Ross look like a fool as he tried to assert that this 'new' Razor and Diesel were better than their predecessors.
WWF tried again with Ross in 1998. This time, the cranky announcer was joined by 'Dr. Death' Steve Williams, and comprehensively failed to elicit any heel heat. Much of this was down to how cherished JR was by wrestling fans, something McMahon failed to spot.