3 excellent heel turns which had mediocre executed run

Overview

• John Cena's heel turn was one of the best in WWE's history, completely opposite to how his heel run turned out to be
• The New Day had a great leadup to their heel turn and its execution, only to suffer bad booking
• Stone Cold Steve Austin's heel turn shocked the world, but the fans cheered even for his bad antics

Over the years, WWE has witnessed some great heel turns which produced the shocking factor but could not materialize into a highly impactful business model for the company. While some of these had to do with the booking, others failed due to the fact that the leading heel was a beloved babyface whom fans couldn't receive as a negative character.

Some of the greatest heel turns were executed when fans expected them to happen the least. The shocking factor made such heel turns insane. However, WWE could not quite pull the trigger to execute the eventual payoff due to many reasons. Hence, despite a great heel turn, some of them did not necessarily have a great run with the changed characters.

3 excellent heel turns which had mediocre executed run

The New Day

The New Day's heel turn was teased for months and was almost bound to happen. However, what interested the fans was to know how WWE would execute it. On the 10-year anniversary of the New Day on WWE Raw, Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston kicked Big E out of the faction.

It led to huge heat for Woods and Kingston backstage and from the fans. Unfortunately, WWE could not capitalizs on the heat, as they mostly feuded for the Tag Team titles against the War Raiders and Judgement Day, which took them nowhere. The fact that Raw has nearly an inexistent tag division doesn't help their case.

Stone Cold Steve Austin

Stone Cold Steve Austin was the biggest Babyface WWE had seen. At WrestleMania 2001, he did the unthinkable - joined forces with Vince McMahon and delivered a joint steel chair beat down, which helped him secure win. The turn was indeed shocking and got intensified when even Triple H joined the group.

Together, the idea of Triple H, Stone Cold, and McMahon on the same page seemed great on paper. However, as Hunter got injured, fans saw no potential in Stone Cold as the negative character. The heel wasn't given proper booking aid, as the Invasion storyline began where Stone Cold acted as WWE's babyface, eventually leading to the end of his run.

John Cena

John Cena's heel turn at the Elimination Chamber 2025 was one for the ages, probably the biggest heel turn of all time. It was years in the making and Cena had sold his soul to the Final Boss. What was supposed to be an assured domination, provided two biggest WWE stars join forces to dictate the business could never materialize.

After showing up at the Chamber, The Rock never appeared, which led to Cena's heel turn void. The entire heel run failed due to poor creative booking and finishes in matches. WWE realized its mistakes and abruptly ended the heel turn on SmackDown before SummerSlam and even took a shot at Travis Scott through Cena's promo.