8 Wrestling Heels Who Took Real Hatred And Turned It Into Heat

6. Honky Tonk Man

This was a clear-cut case of a performer asked to be something they were not. Before he joined the WWF, the Honky Tonk Man was a heel. He was always a heel. Cockiness and meaningless style were built into the character from the ground up, and for two years prior to signing up with Vince and Co, HTM was working Canada, hitting dudes over the head with guitars and racking up hatred. But Vinny Mac had a different vision for the character and debuted him as face. He wanted to see row after row of little kiddies in sparkly jumpsuits and Elvis wigs. But a man pretending to be Elvis without the cocksure charisma or the self-importance was just another bland weirdo in an elaborate costume and it was the 80s. The WWF had plenty of those. He flopped. The fans started to resent him, especially whenever the WWF taped in Canada where he has made his name as a despised heel. When he walked out several times a night to tape one show after another the confused fans just booed him all the more, double than they did before because the guy was pretending to be sweetness and light. But the WWF capitalised on this ill feeling. They began a series of vignettes called the 'Vote of Confidence'. They invited fans to call in and vote whether they (a) digged what Honky Tonk was doing, or (b) they hated what he was doing. They voted (b) in overwhelming numbers; 603,000 people voted against him. https://youtu.be/l0BGiSRagvs?t=180 From that point on he turned on the fans, finally embraced the role in which he was comfortable and took his first steps towards becoming the Greatest Intercontinental Champion of All Time.