Wrestling Champions Who Changed Alignments Mid-Reign

[Bang Bang Bart]

Basically, wrestlers who were champions and started off as one alignment and held the title long enough to change alignment for one reason or another.

Best examples I could think of is MJF in AEW going from heel to sorta-face and CM Punk as WWE Champion starting his reign as a face and ending it as a heel.

Any others?

[Gerard Gerard]

Austin turned heel-face-heel-face during his 2001 WWF title run.

2001 was a trainwreck.

[4real]

Asuka kinda in NXT? I’m not sure if she was fully heel though but she did heel stuff.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

DDP won the WCW world title for the first time as a babyface and then immediately turned heel the night afterwards. Not exactly the biggest window of time as his original alignment, but it still counts since the win itself wasn't part of the turn.

[Feyrhausen]

TNA had wrestlers win the title as a face and go heel, like the DDP example above. Pretty sure that win pre dated Russo but it seems to be a Russo trademark move. The belt "corrupting" whoever holds it.

[DiBiase is Good]

Macho Man in his first WWF title run.

[Cvslfc123]

Dean Ambrose turned face along with Rollins and Reigns during his US title reign.

Eddie Guerrero won the US title during his brief heel turn in 2003 and turned face again while holding the belt.

Los Guerreros turned face shortly after winning the WWE Tag Team Championships as heels in 2002.

[ToyfareMark]

Ric Flair in his 89/90 run.

[CMWaters]

Nov 1, 2023 8:42:11 GMT -5 ToyfareMark said:

Ric Flair in his 89/90 run.

His late 93-mid 94 run too given who came in the company, brother.

[Renslayer]

Does Lesnar in 2002 count? Started as heel but ended as a face when he lost the title that night

[karl100589]

Ronda was arguably heel by the time of Wrestlemania 35, or at the least Tweener.

[Jindrak Mark]

Charlotte's first title reign on the main roster. She won it as a face then turned heel on Becky a few months later.

[nickcave]

Diesel

[Jindrak Mark]

Nov 1, 2023 0:30:16 GMT -5 Oh Cry Me a Screwball said:

DDP won the WCW world title for the first time as a babyface and then immediately turned heel the night afterwards. Not exactly the biggest window of time as his original alignment, but it still counts since the win itself wasn't part of the turn.

The two title reigns before that (Hogan & Flair) were really weird too.

After the fingerpoke of doom Hogan was the biggest heel again and Flair cut an impassioned babyface promo the week after calling them out for disrespecting wrestling and the title. Somehow though within 2 months at Uncensored for their blowoff cage match Hogan is doing his Hulking up routine that he hadn't done in years and acting like a babyface and Flair is now a cowardly heel who needs a crooked ref and outside interference to win.

[Magnus the Magnificent]

Demolition turned heel during their last reign.

[James Fabiano]

So you used Flair, and Savage...but I still got an old school card to play...

Demolition, TWICE. Their first reign when the double turn at Survivor Series happened. Then in their third reign, they turned back into heels.

(Looks one new post above) Good minds think alike!

EDIT: How about Lex Luger's third US title reign? (the long one) He won it as a face (though a face about to turn), turned heel, then turned back after Sting was injured.

Technically he started as a face the first time he won the WCW title too.

Would a tag team championship member who turns on his partner (i.e. Barry Windham) before said partner gets pinned to lose the titles count?

[wildojinx]

Undertaker in 2002. He pretty much turned face at the end of the ladder match against Jeff Hardy and was still champion going into Vengeance where he lost the title.

[ChitownKnight]

Nov 1, 2023 0:30:16 GMT -5 Oh Cry Me a Screwball said:

DDP won the WCW world title for the first time as a babyface and then immediately turned heel the night afterwards. Not exactly the biggest window of time as his original alignment, but it still counts since the win itself wasn't part of the turn.

Same with Orton’s first title win except it was reverse. He was heel when he won the title and turned face the night after when evolution turned on him

[Jindrak Mark]

Nov 1, 2023 13:30:55 GMT -5 ChitownKnight said:

Nov 1, 2023 0:30:16 GMT -5 Oh Cry Me a Screwball said:

DDP won the WCW world title for the first time as a babyface and then immediately turned heel the night afterwards. Not exactly the biggest window of time as his original alignment, but it still counts since the win itself wasn't part of the turn.

Same with Orton’s first title win except it was reverse. He was heel when he won the title and turned face the night after when evolution turned on him

One of the most baffling booking choices ever to me is Orton's promo at the beginning of the show the night after he won the title. If you knew he was going to get kicked out of the heel stable at the end of the night and is going to be going face then why not have him cut a somewhat humble promo to set the stage? They had already started in that direction too when he shook Benoit's hand the previous night.

Instead though he cuts a completely heel promo trashing the crowd saying they will never accomplish anything in their lives. So 2 hours later when he gets beat down it gets a lot of pops and why wouldn't it? He wasn't sympathetic in the slightest. If anything him getting beatdown was comeuppance for his promo earlier.

Babyface turns that are reactive rather than proactive rarely make sense to me. Orton (and Rollins in 2016) was quite happy benefitting from heels helping him screw over the faces all the time and would have continued doing it. It only stopped because he got kicked out. No wonder they had rocky face runs to begin with.

At least they got it right with Batista. HHH didn't beat him down and kick him out. Batista made the choice himself that he'd had enough and powerbombed him through the table.

[Deleted]

Feel like Lex Luger did this a few times while a champion (us, world, etc)