5 Worst Heel Turns in the WWE

Everyone needs a good villain. Someone that can help get the fans behind the good guy, someone that can really fuel an audience and force them to make noise. There have been some truly great heels in WWE history, ranging from The Iron Shiek all the way to Samoa Joe. However, sometimes the WWE Universe has a hard time accepting a character as a heel.

A heel turn is incredibly important, both in the case of the newly turned villain and the babyface they've chosen to target. When done correctly, both wrestlers get the reaction from the crowd that could give them a significant boost in their careers.

However, sometimes it doesn't work out that way, and a heel turn can leave a crowd confused or completely disinterested. Worse so, sometimes creative attempts to swerve an audience, forcing turns that don't exactly make sense in context with a story that had been told.

Recently, fans across the globe rejected the heel turn by Becky Lynch, instead choosing to cheer the Lass Kicker while booing WWE Smackdown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair out of the building.

While the company did what they could to build Becky up as a babyface who clawed her way to a title shot at SummerSlam, with the WWE Universe strongly behind her, they felt it was better to attempt to have Becky turn her back on her fans.

Over the past week, that didn't go well, and even though she tried to put the Brooklyn crowd down on Smackdown Live, she still received praise and cheers from the WWE faithful.

That's the most recent example of a poorly executed heel turn, and in the WWE there is more where that came from.

Today, we're here to look at five of the worst heel turns in WWE history.

#5 Eugene assaults Jim Duggan in 2006

The Eugene character left a bad taste in the mouth of some fans, especially after they attempted to make him a villain in 2006.

This was one of the strangest moves the WWE ever decided to make when it came to Nick Dinsmore's Eugene character, and that's saying a lot. Labeled as Eric Bischoff's "special" nephew, Eugene was more of a super fan than a wrestler, using the signature moves of his favorite superstars like Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, and Triple H.

Two years after his Raw debut, Eugene began teaming with WWE Legend "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan. In an attempt to capture the World Tag Team Championships, Eugene and Duggan were unsuccessful when they took on the Spirit Squad on September 3, 2006. A visibly upset Eugene took his frustration out on Duggan, beating down the legend.

Eugene even used Duggan's iconic 2x4 on him, choking him out with it before walking up the ramp, turning heel for the first time in his career. It was strange to see the WWE turn that character heel, but what was even stranger was that they completely dropped the angle a few weeks later, hoping that the WWE Universe would completely forget.

#4 Jim Ross turns his back on the WWE Universe in 1996, bringing in Fake Diesel and Fake Razor Ramon

Using Jim Ross to bring about Fake Diesel and Razor didn't pan out.

Scott Hall and Kevin Nash left the WWE in 1996, leveling the WWE in a huge way, giving WCW exactly what they needed to defeat them in the ratings. However, the WWE still owned the rights to the characters of Diesel and Razor Ramon. In an attempt to keep the fan favorite gimmicks around, Jim Ross reintroduced "Razor Ramon" and "Diesel" to the WWE on September 23, 1996.

Nothing about this storyline went over well with the audience

While backed up by the new Razor and Diesel, Jim Ross took cheap shots at Vince McMahon, officially outing him as the Chairman of the WWE in kayfabe. JR claimed that he was the reason why so many top stars left the company, as he looked to take down the company for treating him so poorly over the years.

The bitter Jim Ross continuously verbally assaulted Vince McMahon while badmouthing the entire WWF. The storyline was shortlived, however, and the turn was quickly dropped, along with fake Diesel and fake Razor Ramon.

#3 Ryback attacks John Cena for not "having his back" in 2013

A huge fan favorite was buried to give John Cena his first title defense under his latest title run.

Ryback was quickly pushed to the top of the card in the WWE after he returned from injury in 2012. After squashing various local talents and career jobbers, The Big Guy was inserted into a WWE Championship feud with CM Punk after John Cena was injured in September. Ryback would be screwed out of his opportunities repeatedly, even being beaten down by the debuting Shield at Survivor Series 2012.

Ryback fought the Shield for months after being pushed out of title contention, though he never got a win over the Hounds of Justice. Eventually, after losing two feuds back to back, he would go on to face Mark Henry at WrestleMania 29, losing there as well. On the Raw after Mania, The World's Strongest Man assaulted John Cena, but Ryback made the save.

However, Ryback immediately turned on Cena, beating down the WWE Champion. Over the next few weeks, he blamed Cena for not having his back during his crusade against The Shield, but would ultimately be crushed by Cena.

Love or hate him, Ryback was red hot with the WWE Universe, even after losing three straight feuds. The WWE had a star in The Big Guy but instead tossed him to John Cena, and he would be put on the list of promising talent that the leader of the Cenation buried.

#2 Rikishi did it for The Rock in 2000

Ironically, Rikishi's most memorable moment in his heel run was a fall from the main event heights at Armageddon 2000.

Stone Cold Steve Austin was run over in the parking lot at Survivor Series 1999. While the Rattlesnake returned to WWE TV in April of 2000, everyone was still looking to find the culprit in his hit and run case. After six months working as an active commissioner for the WWE, Mick Foley figured out that Rikishi ran over Austin.

Prior to this coming out, Rikishi was a member of Too Cool along with Scotty 2 Hotty and Grand Master Sexay. The trio were fan favorites at the time, and using Rikishi at this moment didn't sit right with the WWE Universe.

Rikishi's reasoning behind the attack was that he took Austin down for The Rock, claiming that Samoans were always pushed to the side for "The Great White Hope" including Buddy Rogers, Hulk Hogan, and Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Rikishi then aligned himself with Triple H, as it was revealed that The Game hired Rikishi to drive the car that night. Little is remembered of this angle, as the use of shock value over good storytelling left a foul taste in the mouths of the WWE Universe.

The most memorable moment of Rikishi's heel turn was when he was tossed off the Hell In A Cell at Armageddon 2000, landing in a flatbed truck full of wood chips.

The WWE attempted to keep pushing the big man as a big heel, but nothing really worked, and he was back to teaming with Scotty 2 Hotty shortly after.

#1 Stone Cold Steve Austin shakes Vince McMahon's hand at WrestleMania X-7

Stone Cold shocked the world when he aligned himself with his longtime enemy Vince McMahon

As entertaining as Stone Cold may have been when he was a cartoonishly insane character during the Invasion, it was in no way a good idea. The fans of the WWE were never comfortable booing their hero, and they definitely couldn't accept his heel turn at WrestleMania X-7 when he joined forces with Vince McMahon to get the upper hand on The Rock.

The build to their Mania match was absolutely incredible and is considered by most to be one of the best builds to one of the best Mania main events of all time. With Limp Bizkit's "My Way" hyping up the match, it was one of the most anticipated matches in WWE history.

As great as it was, that moment at the end of the PPV left fans in attendance and around the globe completely confused.

It only got worse from there, sadly. Nothing about this turn made sense, and Austin's character went through a drastic change in just a few weeks, going from complete badass to psychotic yet cowardly heel afraid to lose his title.

Austin would go on to double cross McMahon, joining the side of the Alliance, and attempted to ruin the WWE by leading WCW and ECW in a war against the company left standing after the Monday Night Wars.

At best, the Austin/Rock rivalry continued, but that came at the price of seeing Austin turn his back on the fans, hiding behind the numbers of the Alliance.

This could go down as the worst heel turn in history, not just in the WWE. It's so bad, in fact, that Stone Cold Steve Austin himself, who took credit for the idea, has repeatedly said that he regrets ever turning heel, and believes he should've stunned McMahon in the middle of the ring at WrestleMania X-7.

Did you agree with our list? Which heel turns are on your list for the worst of all time? Let us know in the comments below!