The Stone Cold heel turn: Good or Bad?

[What?]

People have mixed feelings in general about the Austin 2001 heel turn. Some people found it entertaining, some people thought it was stupid because it really went against character. What is your opinion on it and why?

Whilst it did go against character, I think it was explained really well. Austin becoming obsessed with being champion and becoming totally paranoid to the point he was psychotic, paranoid and actually wanting to hug Vince allowed him to broaden his character and add to it. The hugging Vince thing might look crazy at first glance but it's not as if he just started doing it for no reason. His character was completely paranoid over his reign as champion and was doing things that obviously weren't him. Then they even managed to carry this paranoia through into the Alliance in a different way.

The heel turn also led to the excellent skits with Angle of course. ;D

[4real]

It was needed at the time, Austin was very stale as a face. Not everybody bought it obviously, but i think Austin did it very well. And the skits were, of course, gold.

[BHB]

It was great.

[-Lithium-]

Was good, just came at a bad time cause then Austin had to turn good, then bad a few months later...

[repomark]

Nope. Still the worst moment in the history of wrestling for me was the end of Wrestlemania 17 - I still have a major chip on my shoulder about it. As you have said - the heel turn just went too far against character - there has to atleast be a definable reason for a heel turn to work well. Never will sit well with me - although Kurt Angle in a small cowboy hat did go some way to appeasing my fury.

[salTy]

I didn't necessarily agree with it since I was an Austin fan and not a Rock fan. However, he played it to a tee because well, he's the greatest of all time.

[Dean-o]

The fans would never boo him for long, but the comedy skits with Kurt Angle were classic stuff to this day.

[Black Hammer Rocks the AssWhip]

Good: The skits with Angle are indeed classic.

Bad: Led to the invention of "What?", probably one of the most annoying things ever. The "This is Awesome" of the WWE.

[Dean-o]

I think I am the only one who still finds the "What?" chants funny.

[Hiroshi Hase]

faded said:

Good: The skits with Angle are indeed classic.

Bad: Led to the invention of "What?", probably one of the most annoying things ever. The "This is Awesome" of the WWE.

Agreed on the bad part, it's super annoying and stopped being funny at least to me 4 years ago.

[wrongnesattax]

I got annoyed with the "what" initially but when the fans were doin it to khali i was lmao at the fact it still exists. I enjoyed the heel turn cos there was a wat the f*** factor

[What?]

What? is nothing like This Is Awesome. What? is a simple chant to get on a heel's case, This Is Awesome is often chanted at things that not only aren't awesome but aren't even entertaining.

[sabbath]

Austin was working the heel turn greatly...but it just didn't quite seem to get over with the fans; seeing as Austin is way up there as a face. Same story with Undertaker......just can't be viewed as a heel anymore.

So in conclusion; I would say Austins heel turn at that time was a good thing for the storyline plot.

[MGH]

Fantastic idea on paper, somewhat lousy in execution. The Angle stuff was great, so was the two man power trip. But there was a lot of stuff in between that I just thought sucked. And the WHAT WHAT WHAT chants are right up there.

[BorneAgain]

Character wise, it was great, making Austin into a brand new interesting person, getting him away from the stale redneck badass.

Business wise it was foolish, as by turning Austin at the same time Rock is leaving, you lose both of your number 1 babyfaces in less than two days. Combine that with keeping HHH heel, and there's no surprise that business dropped between Wrestlemania and Invasion.

[Free Hat]

It was good until he joined the Alliance. Yet another reason why the Invasion sucked.

And I'm sorry, but "What?" was never funny. It's easily the most annoying catchphrase in wrestling history. The fact that it has endured this long just makes it that much worse.

[Jiren]

it's funny when the "What?" is reversed

"If you like to sleep with your sister say what?"

Crowd: "What?"
Hogan: "Cha Gonna Do?"

[Rapper & Actor Sammy Davis III]

I liked Austin and Hunter the 2 man power trip, unfortunately it was cut short by Hunter's injury.

[Dynamite Kid]

Austin played it, well, brilliantly. And for me that's what made it work. I think what made less sense was him turning sense and returning to the redundant Stone Cold character from late 2001 to the present day.

The heel turn was perfection. The Angle skits were great, especially when Regal ended up hugging Vince and they gave him shit about it.

[Sumbody Gon' Get Dey Kneelift]

cropsy13 said:

Crowd: "What?"
Hogan: "Cha Gonna Do?"

WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN BECAUSE IT IS AWESOME.

Also, I loved how everyone was still cheering Austin, so they went "LET'S HAVE HIM MURDER THE HARDYZ AND LITA"

"What, you mean like a heel-on-face beatdown?"

"NO. MURDER THEM."