Stone Cold's second heel turn in 2001

[mcstoklasa]

Stone Cold had an incredible 2001 in terms of match quality, and his character was very entertaining.

However many feel his turn at WM X7, aligning himself with 'satan himself' Vince Mcmahon was a huge mistake; ie, it hurt business as fan didn't want to boo ol' Stone Cold. Also Stone Cold had only just returned from injury 6 months prior and fans were nowhere near sick of him, nor ready to boo him. This wasn't Hulk at Bash at the Beach 96, Austin was as over as ever.

Hell, as 14 year old mark, Austin's heel turn DEVASTATED me and made me stop watching! I remember being so sad. After the turn at WMX7, I caught a glimpse of the (what I now consider brilliant) Backlash match with the power trip vs the brothers of destruction; Austin got tagged in and then begged for his life in the corner from Undertaker before, hilariously trying to shake Taker and Kane's respective hands and getting beat up. However, the 14 year old me was just waiting for the old Stone Cold to come back.

Now, having watched it back. Austin is one of my favourite heels and he was entertaining the whole time. The first turn totally freshened up the character, whether fans wanted it or not. However, I really think the second heel turn at Invasion 2001 was the mistake, not the first.

When Austin came out to save Team WWF on RAW and stunnered about 10 guys, that was epic. Truly awesome. Austin was now a face again, and fresher than ever. Rejuvenated as a face! Like the 14 year old me, fans had been waiting for Stone Cold to turn into a good guy again, and now he had in glorious style! This yearning for to be a face, made the fans cheer him louder than ever. This could have been a fantastic face run. The face turn made sense, Austin may have become a paranoid, insane, hugging son of a bitch, but he was going to put that aside to save WWF! After all, he hated his time in WCW.

That week on Smackdown he also had a short match and came out to an intense pop. Also Austin's character was now near invincible:

( Here is an official WWE link to the match Austin had just before Invasion on Smackdown: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgmOgNrmQCA )

He was over like gangbusters!

The night of Invasion, he again came out to a crazy pop, but alas of course he turned heel and ended up on team Alliance in the convoluted Invasion storyline. Even though in retrospect, Austin himself, was still very entertaining and humorous in that angle, it was still the wrong move. And of course, Austin's glorious heel run would end with that completely inexplicable and crappy face turn after Survivor Series 2001. Austin was popular again after that, but it was never quite the same. He then all of a sudden, totally sucked in 2002 (I never watch his 2002 stuff), but thankfully had one last good match with Rocky in 03.

I think had he stayed face after saving Team WWF, his short heel run prior could have made him a more edgy interesting, tweener like, crazy, paranoid character, and he would have not harmed the Stone Cold character. I just think its a shame.

What do you think?

[Baby, it’s Jes outside]

I loved Austin's heel turn! He stomped mud holes into basically anyone who looked at him wrong. His EPIC beatdown of Michael Cole was a thing of sadistic beauty, 'You bowin' up to me?' lol. But there was literally nowhere for his character to go. Instead of 'taking his ball and going home' when being told to do Brock the favor, Steve could have stayed and jobbed. I think that could have jump started Stone Cold.

[mcstoklasa]

I hated it as a 14 year old, but love it now. I just think that it should have ended after he saved Team WWF. That was such an epic way to turn face. To then turn heel again after becoming red hot over was a shame and then his eventual face turn the night Flair come back was nonsensical and flat.

[Deleted]

The first heel turn produced the most idiotic "hero turns into a coward" character change ever. The night after WM, Rock gets a rematch in a cage, and proceeds to make Austin tap out within seconds to a Sharpshooter and visually pin him about 2-3 times in a span of minutes. I guess they wanted to make Rock look strong after losing the night before, but it was laughable. At least Hogan's heel cowardice didn't happen overnight in 1996.

[Lancers]

Sept 8, 2014 23:46:10 GMT -5 @conebone69 said:

The first heel turn produced the most idiotic "hero turns into a coward" character change ever. The night after WM, Rock gets a rematch in a cage, and proceeds to make Austin tap out within seconds to a Sharpshooter and visually pin him about 2-3 times in a span of minutes. I guess they wanted to make Rock look strong after losing the night before, but it was laughable. At least Hogan's heel cowardice didn't happen overnight in 1996.

One of my biggest minor grievances in pro wrestling is how when a wrestler goes from face to heel, their ability to withstand submission holds goes from wrestling being able to work with kidney stones to calling in sick because of a hangnail.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

I think the reason his second heel turn sucked, was because first Booker T injured him on his debut (he gave austin a weird spinning back Suplex on the announcers table) and he couldn't work much, therefore he could only do comedy, the second reason was that his heel turn relied on the Invasion angle as a whole, if the Invasion would've been succesful and not a Gooker award winner, I believe we would be discussing the heel turn in a different manner.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Austin probably had the right idea when he said on his podcast, he should have called an audible in the ring and stunned Vince after all that.

Would have been better, wasn't time to turn Austin.