The art of a heel turn can lead to brilliant results if the wrestler is truly hated by the audience and has an interesting story moving forward. WCW had some outstanding heel turns with Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff and Ric Flair (multiple times) proving that a character change to the dark side can lead to positive results.

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Unfortunately, not everyone involved in such a scenario will see it working out as well. WCW also had their fair share of heel turns that missed the mark and culminated with very little following it. Each story to feature the negative side of things had various reasons causing the failure. The wrestlers in question had heel turns that went nowhere for WCW.

10 Goldberg

Goldberg New Blood

WCW getting the massive boost of a Goldberg return from injury in 2000 should have been a huge success. Fans wanted to cheer Goldberg for being such an impactful and beloved superstar with all face moments before his injury.

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Vince Russo decided to turn Goldberg heel right away in his comeback by betraying Kevin Nash to join the New Blood. However, the direction ended there as WCW had no idea what to do with Goldberg. The character turned into a tweener threatening to break character in a confusing angle.

9 Stevie Ray

Stevie Ray NWO

Booker T becoming a breakout singles star when Stevie Ray was injured put the tag team success of Harlem Heat on hold. WCW realized that Booker deserved a singles push and didn’t want to mess with that by reuniting the team full-time.

Stevie Ray turned heel on WCW when he joined the New World Order for the Hollywood faction led by Hulk Hogan. The turn should have made him a relevant member since that group was limited, but he turned into a lackey for the bigger names.

8 Mike Awesome

Team Canada WCW

WCW signing Mike Awesome should have been a bigger deal as the former ECW Champion, but the company fell apart at that point. Awesome was mostly a face in his feud with Lance Storm after a couple of outlandish gimmicks doomed him.

This made it more confusing when Awesome turned heel to join Storm’s Team Canada faction. The heel turn didn’t make much sense as he just teamed with Storm as a sidekick. Little changes were made to Awesome’s character beyond insulting American fans.

7 Ron Simmons

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Ron Simmons becoming the first black WCW Champion was an all-time great wrestling moment. The rest of Simmons’ WCW run should have been completely as a face since that moment made him a hero to many viewers.

WCW tried to turn Simmons towards the end of his time in the company by claiming the fans turned on him. Fans were lukewarm in booing Simmons as his run ended in a forgettable whimper with the lackluster role as a generic heel.

6 Kimberly Page

Kimberly Page  WCW promo

The New Blood storyline completely reset WCW in mid-2000 and inspired many changes to various characters. Kimberly Page turned heel for the first time after she cost her husband Diamond Dallas Page the WCW Championship by hitting him with a guitar.

The new angle for Kimberly was that it was now “all about her” moving forward. Kimberly actually had an underrated heel character, but there was no direction beyond making DDP miserable. WCW had the heel turn going nowhere due to the lack of a long-term plan to benefit from her heat.

5 Lex Luger

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WCW witnessed Lex Luger becoming one of the company’s most important stars ever. Luger was important at various stages, but the final few years were quite disappointing. A shocking move joining the face version of the Wolfpac may have been his last great run.

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Luger turned heel when the nWo Elite formed and was among the rare non-former heel members to remain with them. Unfortunately, the rest of Lex’s heel run was rather lackluster coming off as a sidekick to Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Eric Bischoff.

4 Rick Steiner

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The Steiner Brothers breaking up saw Scott moving into a new character role as Big Poppa Pump with hopes of a main event run. Unfortunately, Rick had less of a plan beyond fans supporting him as a face in his feud with Scott to get revenge.

WCW didn’t want to book Rick as a noteworthy star, so a change would eventually be needed. Rick turned heel to rejoin Scott in 1999 and started adopting a darker look. The aftermath just saw Scott as the bigger star and Rick being a sidekick of sorts in their mutual feuds.

3 Jimmy Hart

Lex Luger, World Champion the Giant, Kevin "Taskmaster" Sullivan and Jimmy Hart of the Dungeon of Doom give Tony Schiavone an interview in WCW

WCW pulled one of their more surprising heel turns of the pre-NWO era when Jimmy Hart betrayed Hulk Hogan. Hart helped The Giant defeat Hogan by DQ and added a stipulation in Hulk’s contract that the WCW Championship could change hands in that manner.

The Dungeon of Doom faction added Hart as their manager to hopefully gain more relevance. Hart felt out of place since his character was quite limited and lacked chemistry with a generally intimidating faction. The rest of his WCW run was nowhere near the success Jimmy achieved in WWE on-screen.

2 Billy Kidman

Hulk Hogan v Billy Kidman The Great American Bash 2000

The cruiserweight division saw their best talents frustrated about never getting to move up the card. WCW tried some new things in the New Blood by having that change when Billy Kidman turned heel to enter a feud with Hulk Hogan of all people.

Real-life insults from Hogan about names like Kidman not being able to draw money was used in the storyline. Kidman attacked Hogan most weeks to sell his credibility, but Hogan won all the big matches. WCW turned Kidman back face shortly after the program since the heel run was going nowhere fast.

1 Sting

Sting Halloween Havoc 1999

One of the more controversial and surprising heel turns of WCW featured Sting cheating against Hulk Hogan to win the WCW Championship. The story of the match was Sting questioning Hogan as a face after his past New World Order moments showed his evil side.

However, it was all a swerve for Sting to be the one that was ready to cheat to get ahead when Lex Luger gave him a baseball bat to use on Hogan. Fans still cheered Sting as a heel, and WCW didn’t know how to adapt to that. Sting was a face just a few weeks after the heel run that made no impact.