Face/Heel Turns While Champion

["Hollywood" Cactus Matt]

I've always thought it was strange, especially when a guy is a World champion, to see him change from heel to face or face to heel while still holding the title, yet it almost seems as though we're seeing it a lot more these days. C.M. Punk was technically a face when his second World title reign began, but turned heel to feud with Jeff Hardy. Kane was also (I think) technically a face when he won Money in the Bank, and it could even be argued that he was a face when he beat Mysterio later in the night, even though the whole thing, in kayfabe, was a setup to get to the Undertaker, or something.

Randy Savage turned heel on Hulk Hogan leading to losing the WWF title at WrestleMania V. Ric Flair was a face when he beat Vader for the WCW World title, but then also turned heel to feud with Hogan.

If we include lower-card titles, I'm sure the numbers would increase even more.

So, who's done it? Who has won a title while a face, and then turned heel? Who won as a heel, and turned face?

[Bald Bull]

Nigel McLariat

[Bob Schlapowitz]

Austin turned from heel to face (with absolutely no explanation, IIRC) while WWF Champion just after Survivor Series 2001.

[Slingshot Suplay]

AJ styles turned heel on Kurt Angle earlier this year when he joined up with Ric Flair.

[repomark]

Demolition changed from heel to face whilst Tag Team champions after Mr Fuji turned on them at the Survivor Series 1988 and aligned with the Powers of Pain (who also switched from face to heel).

Austin has been mentioned, but he actually turned several times during his two reigns as WWF champion in 2001. He started as face going into the match with the Rock at WM17, turned heel due to the way he won it by aligning with Vince. He then turned face again whilst champion to lead team WWF at the Invasion PPV as the "old Stone Cold", only to turn heel again that night by joining the Alliance and costing team WWF the match. Then, and as has been said without any explanation he was turned face again the night after Survivor Series 2001 when Vince McMahon tried to strip Austin of the WWF title and award it to Kurt Angle.

[Starshine]

Tyler Black in ROH
Samoa Joe in ROH
Bryan Danielson kind of did in ROH
The Young Bucks in PWG
Brock Lesnar in his 2002 reign
AJ Styles in TNA

[Angus Mcloud]

David Arquette was face when he won and turned a few weeks later

[BorneAgain]

Booker T turned while holding the WCW championship via the invasion.

[Bake Or Die]

Kane
CM Punk(About 5 seconds into his ROH world title reign)

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

DDP (1st reign) and Ric Flair did it in 1999.

[Urethra Franklin]

Does Corporate Rock count? Though, he turned AS he won the Title.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Randy Orton won the WHC as a heel and was turned face the next night when Evolution turned on him.

[Trent Valentine]

Edge and Christian won the Tag Team Belts for the first time. It's then where they went from borderline goths to goofy valley boys who insulted the fans and their opponents.

[JMA]

Oct 25, 2010 18:12:56 GMT -5 Bob Schlapowitz said:

Austin turned from heel to face (with absolutely no explanation, IIRC) while WWF Champion just after Survivor Series 2001.

That still pisses me off. It was so lazy.

[corndog]

Hasn't Ric Flair did it several times? I thought he turned from face to heel during his first reign. I know he turned heel during his second reign although winning it as a face. Also in '85 he turned face again with his match against Nikita Kolloff only to go back to heel when forming the Horseman.

[NOwave]

I've always thought the best example was when Ric Flair went from heel to face in the 1989 feud with Ricky Steamboat. Flair was the clear heel when he lost the title to Steamboat in January, but the match was so good that Ric got some cheers during and immediately following. By the next PPV match in the series, Flair was regularly getting cheered, and again he and Steamboat put on a 5-star performance. Finally, at the May rematch, he was getting more cheers than Steamboat, who was nominally the face. They put on yet another stunning performance, with Flair regaining the title. He immediately went into a feud with Terry Funk, who was present at the match as a "judge." Funk put Flair in a piledriver thru a folding table on the air, something that was unheard of at the time. This solidified Flair as the "noble champion taken advantage of by a cowardly challenger." You couldn't get much hotter than Ric Flair in mid-1989.

In his book, Flair notes that they didn't really plan it that way, but went with it as the momentum grew. They realized that the audience was starting to "get it" about wrestling, and cheering the quality of the performances as much as the usual heel-face formula. Flair noted that he then realized that kayfabe in the traditional sense couldn't last much longer, no matter what they did. Fans were becoming more sophisticated for multiple reasons. The WWF was presenting cartoonish characters at a saturation level on national TV that couldn't possibly be perceived as "real" by even the worst-educated fans, and the dirt sheets were starting to make it into public view. The NWA on TBS at the time was still trying to push the wrestlers as real competitors; emphasizing their athletic backgrounds and how different they were from the WWF. They still had no clue and as a result Flair left/was pushed out of the company within a couple of years.

[Jimmy]

Oct 25, 2010 18:12:56 GMT -5 Bob Schlapowitz said:

Austin turned from heel to face (with absolutely no explanation, IIRC) while WWF Champion just after Survivor Series 2001.

I think they expected fans to somehow sympathize with Austin by portraying Angle as cocky asshole (so sayeth The Rock) and by having Vince try and strip Austin of the title. That whole era was such a mess.

[simongr81]

Oct 26, 2010 15:36:32 GMT -5 corndog said:

Hasn't Ric Flair did it several times? I thought he turned from face to heel during his first reign. I know he turned heel during his second reign although winning it as a face. Also in '85 he turned face again with his match against Nikita Kolloff only to go back to heel when forming the Horseman.

Flair and Arn (World and TV Champion respectively) turned heel in 1990 to feud with Sting

[simongr81]

Lex Luger in 1989 while U.S. Champion

[Deleted]

New Age Outlaws, twice. First in 1998, they turned face along with the rest of DX. Then during the DX revival a year later, they turned heel again.