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

5. Hollywood Rock

Dwayne Johnson pulled the double. Not content with turning the fans hatred into marketable heat once, the Rock decided to do it again. At Summerslam 2002, the Rock defended the WWE Undisputed Championship against Brock Lesnar. The People's Champ was set to leave the company shortly thereafter to go to Hollywood, where his post-Scorpion King career was set to take off. Angry at their hero for 'abandoning them', at some point during the match, the fans turned on him. After losing the match, what was supposed to be a farewell address, turned into almost a heel promo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAAyjf98UNQ When the Rock returned to the company before Wrestlemania in 2003 he suddenly found that he wasn't welcome anymore. The fans saw him as a Hollywood bigshot, a part-timer who was using the WWE as his summer home whenever he didn't feeling like shooting movies. The Rock embraced it and went full cowardly heel, eschewing his regular catchphrases and toying with the crowd, playing Rock concerts for them and running his mouth against all his opponents. And it was brilliant. One of the funniest promos the Rock ever gave was at Backlash 2003 before facing Goldberg. This is glorious: https://youtu.be/JaC76JbhRno?t=125 Speaking of returning moviestars...