9 Wrestling Heels Who Were Totally Justified

6. Do I Have Everybody€™'s Attention Now?

At Raw 1000, CM Punk - then the WWE Champion for 246 days, just over halfway through his historic run with the title between November 2011 and January 2013 - hit the Go To Sleep on The Rock and officially began the process of turning heel. His reason for turning, for laying the smackdown on €˜Dwayne€™ and his candy ass? Lack of respect.

Punk was of the opinion that the focus of the show - of the WWE promotion - should be on the WWE Champion. The WWE Champion should be headlining every pay-per-view, main eventing every Raw, and when visiting movie stars come back to say 'hi", they absolutely should not be interrupting the WWE Champion mid-promo, entering the ring with him, ignoring him for five minutes and then condescendingly informing him that he'€™s scheduled a title match with him for six months time, at which he'€™ll be taking his title away.

Of course, it'€™s common knowledge that Punk€™'s run as WWE Champion hadn'€™t exactly come with a guaranteed main event spot: he was constantly playing second fiddle and upper mid-card to John Cena, and to a lesser extent Brock Lesnar and The Rock. The hottest thing in pro wrestling in 2011 had lifted the title and taken the spot he was aiming for€ only to find that there was always another brass ring to reach for, and another spot that eclipsed his.

When, the week after kneeing The Rock in the face, Punk sat on the announce desk and explained to Jerry Lawler why he€™'d done it, he didn'€™t do so in an exaggerated, whiny, passive-aggressive way, and he didn'€™t tell the crowd that they were all idiots. All of that would come later, when his heel character mutated from a man seeking respect due him to a megalomaniac demanding worship. At Raw on July 30th, 2012, all we saw was a p*ssed off professional wrestler, six months into his reign as WWE Champion, sick of still having to prove that he was The Man over and over and over again.