5 WWE Wrestlers Who Never Shined As Faces (& 5 Who Never Shined As Heels)

The art of playing a face or heel is specific to the psychology behind each role. Quite a few successful wrestlers were never able to execute one of the roles despite being talented performers. Heels need the ability to truly upset the fans and convince them to root against them during matches or promos.

The belief of most wrestlers is that playing a face is even harder since convincing someone to like you is more difficult than convincing them to like you in human nature. Wrestlers to struggle with a specific side show the struggles that come with a wrestling job. Find out which performers only connected on one side of the gig.

10 Never Face: Owen Hart

The best work of Owen Hart clearly came from the heel side playing a villainous character. Owen loved getting on the nerves of the fans and used that to find the greatest success of his career during the New Generation Era.

The outstanding matches of Owen typically came against his brother Bret Hart and fellow great worker Shawn Michaels as the three top in-ring performers of the time. Owen’s biggest face push came after the Montreal Screwjob, but it just never got over.

9 Never Heel: Davey Boy Smith

The singles run of Davey Boy Smith saw him showing the most potential as a face character. Fans loved the British Bulldog in the early ‘90s when he was a rising star after defeating Bret Hart for the Intercontinental Championship.

However, the heel run a few years later typically saw Owen getting all the heat. Any major push for Smith from the heel side never saw him getting elevated to the position WWE once expected him to reach.

8 Never Face: The Miz

The Miz just never clicked as a face during the few tries WWE attempted to make happen for his character. WWE fans loved booing Miz and it shined brightest during his run to the top as the WWE Champion.

The first major face run came a few years later when Miz entered a storyline adopting the figure-four leglock from Ric Flair. Fans rooted against Miz forcing another heel turn. Another attempt happened in his feud against Shane McMahon that yet again missed the mark and ended faster than expected.

7 Never Heel: Rob Van Dam

Rob Van Dam started off as a heel in WWE as a member of The Alliance during the Invasion storyline. WWE expected Van Dam to get heat representing ECW, but the fans instead loved him due to the exciting new in-ring style.

Many fans wanted to see RVD become a face and WWE appeased them after a couple of months. Van Dam started to get on the wrong side of Alliance leader to start his complete face run and he played a face for the rest of his WWE run.

6 Never Face: Lex Luger

WWE had potential in Lex Luger during his early years in the company as The Narcissist. Luger had a reputation for being a tad arrogant and it made the gimmick easier to sink his teeth into for the heel heat.

Vince McMahon believed Luger could replace Hulk Hogan as the face of the company in the New Generation Era when turning him face. Luger flopped in the role and only did well as a face when moving back to WCW.

5 Never Heel: Naomi

Naomi has become one of the most popular female performers in WWE as seen with her social media following. The best run of Naomi’s career came after adding the glow element to her face character following the brand split.

WWE never found much success with Naomi from the heel side even though she had good matches. Naomi was clearly destined to be a face character when seeing her energy as a performer along with her connection with the audience.

4 Never Face: Mr. Perfect

The arrogance of Mr. Perfect made him an even better heel when he was able to back it up. Curt Hennig adopted the gimmick of the perfect athlete since he was able to do just about anything WWE asked of him.

The outstanding matches of Perfect typically came when he played the heel character. WWE tried to turn him face for a short run during his feud with Ric Flair and it just never connected the same way as his heel character.

3 Never Heel: Jeff Hardy

One of the most overlooked heel turns in WWE history came in 2003 when Jeff Hardy turned heel for the first time. WWE hoped that Jeff could find singles success as a heel after years of support from the fan base.

Hardy threatened to attack Shawn Michaels for saying he was wasting his potential. The run ended after a week when Jeff saved Stacy Keibler from an attack as WWE regretted the idea. WWE never used him as a heel again since the fan connection with him was too strong.

2 Never Face: Brock Lesnar

Brock Lesnar’s WWE start was tremendous when he won the WWE Championship just a few months into his debut. WWE felt they could rock the boat by having Lesnar turn face after Paul Heyman betrayed him.

Fans were excited to cheer Brock, but he just wasn’t the same as a face. Lesnar’s promos lacked and his best character work came as a bully. Even the current run has seen Brock primarily thriving as a heel and looking out of place when showing signs of a face side.

1 Never Heel: Rikishi

WWE found success with Rikishi as a face in 2000 after a few failed runs in the past. Fans loved the dancing antics of Rikishi with Too Cool as they became one of the most popular factions for WWE during the Attitude Era.

The momentum ended with WWE turned Rikishi heel as the mystery man who ran over Steve Austin with a car. WWE needed a new heel to feud with Austin and The Rock, but Rikishi couldn’t make it work. Fans never viewed Rikishi as a credible heel to end the push in failure.

NEXT: 5 Faces That Should Turn Heel In 2021 (& 5 Heels That Should Turn Face)