For all of its efforts to modernize wrestling and evolve, at heart, WWE largely is traditional. That includes having its faces and its heels, each side locked into an eternal struggle with the other. A part of the trope is that heels tend to have evil master plans that include turns, cheating to win, and engaging in acts of cruelty well beyond what’s necessary to win matches or championships.

Related: WWE: 5 Heel Turns To Expect In 2020 (& 5 Babyface Ones)

While faces are the traditional good guys uphold a moral code and usually wind up winning out in the long run, they’re not always presented as the smartest characters. Indeed, whether it’s trusting someone they shouldn’t, accepting challenges they shouldn’t, badly strategizing in the wrong way, or setting themselves up for a loss, there’s no shortage of times when WWE’s babyfaces came across as awfully dumb.

10 AJ Styles Won’t Wear A Cup Against Shinsuke Nakamura

At WrestleMania 34, AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura engaged in a face vs. face clash over the WWE Championship. Styles won and, in the aftermath, Nakamura hit a low blow to turn heel. The moment made storyline sense, as Styles didn’t really have any reason not to trust Nakamura up to that point and it was understandable for Nakamura to be sore loser.

The months to follow saw the feud go on, with the theme of Nakamura constantly administering low blows both in impromptu attacks and the context of matches. Somehow, Styles never caught on and started wearing a cup to protect himself, coming across particularly foolish when The King of Strong Style hit the low blow on him at Backlash—their third PPV clash. The best Styles could muster under the No DQ rules was to low blow Nakamura back, but particularly with no rule concerns in place, wearing protective gear really would have been the obvious answer.

9 The Rock Trusts Vince McMahon At WrestleMania 2000

WrestleMania 2000 featured a Fatal Fourway main event with the gimmick that Triple H, The Rock, The Big Show, and Mick Foley each had a McMahon in his corner. Mick Foley trusting Linda McMahon was fair enough given that she had gotten him added to the match and was the lone consistently trustworthy McMahon in WWE lore. Likewise, heel champ Triple H had every reason to trust his wife Stephanie, and it was reasonably fair for The Big Show to trust Shane as the latter aimed to break out on his own by allying with the giant.

The Rock, as the top face in the company, came across as an absolute fool for welcoming arguably the most infamous heel of that generation, Mr. McMahon, into his corner. Sure enough, Vince wound up costing The Great One the title.

8 John Cena Celebrates Mark Henry’s Retirement

Mark Henry came out during an episode of Monday Night Raw wearing a famous salmon blazer, and proceeded to cut one of the greatest promos of his career, seemingly announcing his retirement. Despite Henry having been an upper card heel up until that night, John Cena played the consummate good guy and came to the ring to celebrate The World’s Strongest Man, even going so far as to drape his WWE Championship over the big man’s shoulder.

It was all a set up, of course. Henry was already one of the few credible world title challengers Cena had at that point, and promptly pummeled The Champ set up their rivalry.

7 Enzo Challenges Big Cass

When Big Cass and Enzo Amore initially split up, it was on the premise that Cass had secretly been attacking Amore in the weeks leading up to the reveal. The two men’s trajectory seemed clear enough. In an instance of art imitating life, Cass was an impressive physical specimen whereas as Amore was a big mouth who gave Cass buzz, but wasn’t necessarily all that good in a fight.

While it made sense for Amore to avenge what Cass had done to him, the immediate results—Cass decisively beating up his former partner again and again—made Amore look like he was too dumb to know when he was outgunned.

6 Lex Luger Trusts Mr. Perfect At WrestleMania 10

WrestleMania 10 saw Lex Luger aim to make good on the better part of a year’s build as an American hero, challenging Yokozuna for the WWE Championship. He didn’t seem to question it when Mr. Perfect came to the ring to serve as the special guest referee.

Luger’s character must have forgotten that, just one year ago, as The Narcissist, Luger had not only defeated Perfect on sketchy terms, but then knocked him out with the steel plate in his arm after the match. Perfect getting his receipt a year later only made sense.

5 Mick Foley Saves Melina

In the summer of 2006, Mick Foley cultivated a friendship with Melina. This story culminated in Foley giving up in a match with arch-rival Ric Flair, not because he was hurt, but to protect Melina from harm. The next night, he again tried to defend his friend’s honor and protect her job, only for Melina to turn on him.

In the end, Foley came across as an old man, duped by an attractive young woman who easily manipulated his emotions.

4 Dean Ambrose Tries To Use A Monitor

In the aftermath of The Shield split, Dean Ambrose became a featured face. After his first run against Seth Rollins, he moved on to battle fellow rising star Bray Wyatt.

Ambrose and Wyatt got the main event nod for TLC 2014. In the late stages of the bout, Ambrose looked to have The Eater of Worlds beaten. To finish off his heel foe, Ambrose grabbed a television monitor from beneath the ring. This was an odd, but understandable choice. It didn’t follow that, upon discovering the monitor was plugged in somewhere, Ambrose insisted on still using it, only to lead to the monitor blowing up in his face, incapacitating him long enough for Wyatt to get the pin.

3 Chris Jericho Falls For Trish Stratus

The build to WreslteMania 20 saw Chris Jericho and Christian make a lewd wager as to whether Y2J could seduce Trish Stratus. The angle saw Jericho gradually turn face as his intentions grew more pure, and as Christian grew more wicked in physically attacking Stratus.

Related: 10 Best Chris Jericho Matches Of The 2010s

The issue culminated at ‘Mania in a match that stole the show. In the end, Christian stole the victory, but the real action came after the closing bell as Stratus turned heel to reveal she was not only in cahoots, but actually in a kayfabe relationship with Christian.

2 X-Pac Assumes Triple H And Chyna Are On His Side At WrestleMania 15

WrestleMania 15 saw Chyna turn on Kane to help Triple H defeat Kane. The assumption was that The Ninth Wonder of the World had turned face to rejoin D-Generation X—an assumption that ignored the possibility that, instead, Triple H was turning heel to realign with Chyna in the Corporation.

X-Pac blindly trusted his old friends and suffered the consequences. The Game and Chyna would cost X-Pac his European Championship against Shane McMahon later in the night.

1 New Day Doesn’t Suspect The Big Show At SmackDown 1000

SmackDown 1000 saw The New Day square off with arch-rivals The Bar, with the tag titles on the line. In the late stages of the match, The Big Show wandered down to the ring for no clear reason, and Kofi Kingston, Big E, and Xavier Woods all seemed to assume that he was either there to help him, or simply to take a closer look at the match.

While fans could see it coming upon Show’s arrival, the Power of Positivity didn’t seem to help New Day foresee the new alliance between Show, Sheamus, and Cesaro. For the umpteenth time, the giant turned heel and helped The Bar walk out with the titles.

Next: Babyface Samoa Joe: 5 Feuds We Want To See When He Returns (& 5 We Don't)