5 Obvious Heel Turns in WWE That Worked

3. Stone Cold Steve Austin Joins The Alliance

The face turn wasn't going to last long.

On April 1, 2001, Stone Cold Steve Austin won the WWF Championship at WrestleMania X-Seven by selling his soul to "the devil himself" and beating The Rock. In a complete role reversal, Vince McMahon helped Austin beat the Rock, instead of helping Rock beat Austin. Stone Cold became something of a comedic-yet-vicious heel, and it worked out pretty well.

When the Invasion angle started coming to a head, Austin became the hero that the WWF needed. The story was that people were unsure if he would do anything at all, but during a gigantic brawl between WWF Superstars and ECW/WCW invaders, the glass shattered and Austin stormed down to the ring, handing out Stunners to every non-WWF guy he could get his hands on. This was on the final episode of RAW before the InVasion PPV, and Austin was slotted in as the final member of Team WWF in the "Inaugural Brawl" 10-man tag team match.

"The Old Stone Cold" existed for less than 6 days. The Inaugural Brawl ended when Austin attacked the man who had previously been leading the charge for the WWF, Kurt Angle and allowed the WCW/ECW Alliance team to score the victory. Based on the fact that Austin hated Kurt Angle, had been feuding with Vince McMahon since 1997 and was still extremely unstable and paranoid, it made sense that he wanted to protect his spot. He couldn't trust Vince or Kurt, and he knew that staying on the side of the WWF meant that he would be at McMahon's beck and call. He was stronger than Shane and Stephanie, so he knew he could control his destiny by being the leader of The Alliance. Many people on the internet at the time were surprised that the match went as long as it did (nearly half an hour) before Austin made his turn. It was actually suspected that he was going to walk out early and not even be part of the match, either to come back and turn at the very end or wait until the following RAW.

It may sound odd to say this was a turn that actually worked, but you have to consider the circumstances. Stone Cold had been playing the exact same character for 5 years (though he did lose 10 months toward the end of that run due to a broken neck) and it needed changing. Austin was a very dynamic performer, and although it took a bit for the crowd to buy into his turn, Austin's complete 180-degree overhaul was very refreshing and entertaining. During the Invasion storyline, Austin would go on to have some great matches, including a legendary war with Kurt Angle at SummerSlam 2001.

Yes, it was dumb to have the WWF's biggest star become the leader of the WWF's biggest opposition, but the turn helped Kurt Angle become a true star, and Austin was very entertaining.