Pro Wrestling: Which Guys Were Heels In The Ring, But Good Guys In Real Life (And Vice Versa)?

[D_Odds]

Sam Houston, though eminently forgettable, did have at least one heel run. Went about as well as his face runs.

[Happy_Scrappy_Hero_Pup]

@Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker

Fabulous Moolah was a bad guy in the ring. Outside the ring, she was the nicest, sweetest person you can imagine. But behind the scenes, she was a calculating business woman. This article isn’t really about Moolah, but it’s about one of her wrestlers. It’s a long article, but offers some alternate insights into Moolah herself.

Moolah was a conniving, avaricious, and all-around terrible person.

She controlled bookings to keep herself on top, stole her students’ earnings, may have pimped some of them out, and was singlehandedly responsible for the death of women’s wrestling.

[Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker]

@Happy_Scrappy_Hero_Pup

Moolah was a conniving, avaricious, and all-around terrible person.

She controlled bookings to keep herself on top, stole her students’ earnings, may have pimped some of them out, and was singlehandedly responsible for the death of women’s wrestling.

Yeah, and the linked article goes into all that. But her public non-wrestling persona was that of a sweet li’l country lady.

[Reluctant_A]

@Oakminster

Honky, aka Wayne Ferris worked babyface early on in Memphis, I think. Dibiase was a lead babyface and a lead heel at different times in MidSouth/UWF and Georgia prior to going to WWF.

According to what I’ve heard (and I only know this secondhand, as I didn’t start watching WWE until two years later), Honky debuted in WWF as a face, and was turned heel almost immediately, because fans were like, “Nah.”

@Happy_Scrappy_Hero_Pup

Moolah was a conniving, avaricious, and all-around terrible person.

She controlled bookings to keep herself on top, stole her students’ earnings, may have pimped some of them out, and was singlehandedly responsible for the death of women’s wrestling.

Leading to a legendary tweet from Wrestling Superstar Virgil during last year’s Mania, where he said (paraphrasing), “Somewhere, Moolah is looking up from hell, with a tear in her eye, as she watches this [Women’s] triple threat match.”

[Superdude]

@Hoopy_Frood

Didn’t they turn face when their manager Jimmy “Mouth of the South” Hart sold them out so that he could form “Money, Inc.” which was made up of Ted “The Million Dollar Man” Dibiase and Irwin R. Schyster (AKA I.R.S., real name Mike Rotunda)?

Or did they go heel again?

(On a side note, Typhoon started as Tugboat, who was a face.)

How dare you neglect to mention The Shockmaster!

[Atamasama]

@Superdude

How dare you neglect to mention The Shockmaster!

This is why Rogue One had no Glittertroopers.

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

@Reluctant_A

According to what I’ve heard (and I only know this secondhand, as I didn’t start watching WWE until two years later), Honky debuted in WWF as a face, and was turned heel almost immediately, because fans were like, “Nah.”

Of course, Randy Savage had a crazy look in his eyes as a ‘wild man’ heel who fought dirty and bellowed as if his blood type was ‘cocaine’ until the day he eventually turned face, at which point he – kept doing all of that stuff I was just talking about.