10 Wrestling Heel Turns That Totally Saved Careers
9. Tetsuya Naito
He might be one of NJPW’s biggest stars today, but Tetsuya Naito didn’t have much going for him a couple of years ago. A bland, vanilla babyface, he was always a tremendous wrestler, but the crowd never took to him as a top guy. Naito won the 2013 G1 Climax, granting him an IWGP Heavyweight Championship shot, but the fans’ response was so negative that NJPW ran a poll that saw him moved out of the main event, and replaced by a secondary title bout.
Naito was vanilla ice cream: perfectly acceptable, but not particularly interesting. A brief excursion to Mexico’s CMLL changed everything, however. Naito turned on the crowd and joined the promotion’s Los Ingobernables stable, before returning to Japan a few months later, and establishing the faction’s Japanese arm in NJPW.
Apathy became his defining character trait. Naito’s new attitude was the antithesis of NJPW’s “fighting spirit” ethos, and he stopped trying to conform to those who’d rejected him. He went full on anti-establishment, and when he finally became IWGP Champion, Naito would regularly tarnish the revered belt's legacy by carelessly tossing it around. He has not only become the company’s biggest troublemaker, but a certified draw, and one of Japan’s most popular wrestlers.