Heels are the villains of professional wrestling, playing the foil to the biggest and most beloved wrestlers. A great heel is just as, if not more, important to a feud than a great babyface. Fans need to believe that the babyface is in trouble and often, fans will pay to see a heel they hate lose just as much as they pay to see their favorite wrestler win.

There have been hundreds of different ways wrestlers have portrayed a heel character. However, the community of Ranker.com has voted their ten best heels of all time. These are the names.

UPDATE: 2022/07/13 13:30 EST BY Shawn S.Lealos

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Wrestling heels have changed a lot over the years. At one time, a heel in wrestling made everyone in the crowd hate them. Wrestlers like Roddy Piper and Ivan Koloff had stories about fans trying to kill them as they walked through the crowd. Even in the 1980s, there was a clear line between heels and babyfaces and the bad guys did anything they could to make fans hate them. However, in the 1990s, it became cool to cheer heels, and that made it harder to become a legitimately hated man in wrestling. Looking at the list of the best heels in wrestling sees mostly old-school bad guys, although there are a few still competing in the ring that can elicit the correct reaction from fans to this day.

15 Randy Savage

Macho Man Randy Savage is an icon in professional wrestling, and even as one of the most hated heels in WWE history, fans love his contributions to the sport. That is impressive since, at his height in WWE, fans hated him more than anyone else and that is because of Savage's brilliance as a heel.

RELATED: Randy Savage's Best Matches, According To Dave Meltzer

He entered WWE and snubbed all the managers in the company to bring in a beautiful woman named Miss Elizabeth to manage him. Fans fell in love with Elizabeth, and Savage treated her horribly. By the time he dumped her for Sensational Sherri, fans wanted to see anyone take him out, and it finally happened with The Ultimate Warrior, which led to him turning face for the first time to a massive pop. It showed how great of a heel he was to see how big of a babyface he became.

14 Mr. Perfect

Before Mr. Perfect arrived in WWE, he was Curt Hennig, a second-generation AWA star who won the tag team titles and world title in the promotion his dad Larry Hennig used to haunt. However, when he arrived in WWE and became "perfect," he was more than a wrestler and turned into one of WWE's best characters.

Mr. Perfect made people hate him from the start with the promos showing him perfect in everything he tried. All fans wanted to see was him get knocked off his high horse, and it was all thanks to her arrogance and charisma, which made him a perfect heel in that era of WWE history.

13 The Miz

The Miz is someone that fans absolutely hate. Even when WWE tried to make him a babyface, there was something about him that made it almost impossible for the fans to remain behind. This started when he came from reality TV and the Real World franchise to WWE and became a wrestling superstar.

Miz knows how to soak it up too, as he has no problem insulting fan favorites. It hit its height when he kept insulting rookie Daniel Bryan, who had a decade more experience than Miz, but had yet to make it to WWE's main stage. To this day, no matter what Miz does to prove he belongs or how many great matches he has, he is such a massive heel that no one cares.

12 Rick Rude

Ravishing Rick Rude came to WWE as legitimately one of the toughest wrestlers on the planet. He proved himself in the territories and wrestlers to this day tell stories about how he scared just about anyone who crossed his path. However, in WWE, he added something to his character that made everyone hate him.

Rude hired Bobby Heenan as his manager, which made him an instant top heel, and then he started insulting every man in every town he entered, while choosing one woman from the crowd to kiss. He mocked Jake Roberts by hitting on his wife and wearing her face on his tights, and then beat Ultimate Warrior, cementing his status as one of WWE's most hated heels.

11 Shawn Michaels

"The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels did one thing to make everyone hate him instantly. He superkicked his best friend Marty Jannetty through the Barber Shop window and destroyed one of the most popular tag teams in WWE. What is impressive is that he was just getting started.

He began feuding with Bret "The Hitman" Hart, and when he took part in the Montreal Screwjob, he made many fans hate him forever, no matter what he did in the future to make up for it. Forming DX helped turn him into a sort of antihero, but watch any Raw episode where he goes to Canada and see how much fans hate HBK north of the border.

10 Paul Heyman

Paul Heyman easily has one of the best minds in wrestling history. From turning ECW into a creative powerhouse, to being a terrific commentator, to being one of the greatest managers of all time, Heyman can do it all. Heyman can shift quickly from being a babyface character that represents the fans, to a slimy weasel heel that will double-cross anyone to remain at the top.

RELATED: Every Paul Heyman Match In WWE, Ranked From Worst To Best

Fans have hated Heyman in recent years, as he has been the advocate for Brock Lesnar and is now playing that role for Roman Reigns, remaining with the top wrestlers in the company.

9 Bobby "The Brain" Heenan

One of the greatest talkers in wrestling history, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, is arguably the greatest manager of all time. Heenan was a despicable heel, managing the likes of Andre the Giant, King Kong Bundy, Mr. Perfect, and Rick Rude. The Heenan Family was a massive heel stable, and he was the manager for Hulk Hogan's opponents in both WrestleMania 2 and WrestleMania 3.

Heenan called himself "The Brain" because of his cunning and smarts. Heenan could say whatever he wanted because he had a wrestler to protect him. He goes down as one of the greatest commentators and managers wrestling has ever seen.

8 Ted DiBiase

Ted DiBiase was a true villain of the late 80s and early 90s WWF. The Million Dollar Man gimmick was a character that everyone could despise, and when DiBiase introduced the Million Dollar Championship into the fold, gifting the championship to himself after he could not win the world title and also gifting wrestlers a championship because he had money, the fans could not stand him.

His character became more hated by fans when his bodyguard Virgil would shine DiBiase's shoes, and when he aligned himself with Andre the Giant to feud against Hulk Hogan. His phrase "everyone has a price" is still one of the most iconic quotes in all wrestling history.

7 Edge

Fans might love Edge because of his legendary status now, but for nearly his entire career, Edge was one of the greatest heels of all time. Once Edge and Matt Hardy began their feud that dealt with real life cheating in a relationship and Edge bragging about stealing one of his best friend's girlfriends, not much could make Edge a babyface anymore.

So WWE, made Edge an even bigger heel, and he was the top heel for most of his career onwards.Edge had legendary feuds with the biggest babyfaces in the company such as John Cena, Jeff Hardy, and Rey Mysterio, all while finding new ways to make the fans hate him.

6 Roddy Piper

Rowdy Roddy Piper was a perfect heel. Piper understood he did not need championships or wins to make him the most hated man in the industry. All he needed was a mic. Piper is one of the greatest talkers in wrestling history and a tremendous in-ring worker.

Piper was not the biggest wrestler, but he could make a crowd believe he could beat their favorite wrestler because of his crazed persona. Piper knew when to flip a switch in his character from talk show genius to great wrestler, he is truly one of the most versatile wrestlers of all time.

5 Chris Jericho

Chris Jericho is the king of innovation. Jericho has played multiple characters, from beloved babyface to comedy genius to a ruthless heel. However, he is much more suited to the villain side and the fans on this list believe so too.

RELATED: 10 Differences Between Chris Jericho In WWE & AEW

Jericho was a tremendous heel back in his WCW days, playing an annoying loudmouth wrestler, but it is when he dipped into more of a psychological heel that he became truly hated. Fans remember his feud with Shawn Michaels as one of the best of the 2010s. His egotistical Y2J savior gimmick made him widely disliked by the crowd, but one thing always remained true. Jericho would make the babyface look incredible in the ring.

4 Triple H

"The Game" Triple H is arguably the greatest heel of the Attitude Era. While The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and The Undertaker all played a heel for a time in the era, it was Triple H that was the truly hated heel, and his reign of terror era added even more hatred to his character.

Triple H would have legendary feuds with Mick Foley, The Rock, John Cena, Shawn Michaels, and win so many of them. It convinced fans that Triple H was playing backstage politics with him being married to Stephanie McMahon, and was being gifted world championship reigns, which made even all the better heel. He was big, strong, smart, and had the boss's ear. There was so much to dislike.

3 Randy Orton

Randy Orton was arguably the biggest heel in the Ruthless Aggression Era, with the argument being between himself and Edge. Edge was the "ultimate opportunist", a heel that would take any advantage over someone. Orton didn't care about advantages. He embraced violence and became more sadistic as the years went on and famously had long-term feuds with John Cena and Triple H.

Orton played a perfect heel and became more vicious as the years went on, growing from a smug, arrogant heel in Evolution, deeming himself "the legend killer," taking out many greats in the process to becoming a crazed snake-like heel, punting his opponents, out to inflict as much pain as possible.

2 Ric Flair

The dirtiest player in the game has to be one of the greatest heels of all time. Ric Flair used his bravado and his wealth to create one of the best heel characters of all time. In a time when NWA fans loved "the son of a plumber," blue collar, humbled, Dusty Rhodes, Flair was the opposite - bragging, rich, loud and arrogant as all. Flair would continue to be a massive heel in WWE and WCW. He always had the crowd in the palm of his hand and could make them love or loath him with just a few word changes or simply the way he said them.

1 Vince McMahon

The most hated person in wrestling, on the screen at least, is without a doubt Vince McMahon. After the Montreal Screwjob, McMahon used that real-life hatred the fans had towards him to become the heel boss of the company.

McMahon, playing the evil boss of the company, was a perfect representation of people around the world feeling frustration from their own jobs and bosses. McMahon found every way to cheat or stack the odds against whom he disliked, and he was the perfect foil for the badass babyface Stone Cold Steve Austin character. It would create arguably the greatest feud in wrestling history.