Greatest Wrestling Heels of All Time--Who Were the Best Heat Magnets?

[Ky Fried Redleg]

With the passing of Sheiky, (TIS), I got to thinking about who are some of the other greatest heels of all-time? Who could generate the real heat?

Of course, Flair and Piper were great. Dibiase was good as TMDM. Bruce Prichard could really draw the ire of fans as "Brother Love."

Jim Cornette and Jimmy Hart were heat magnets.

Also, Andy Kaufman was an incredible heel while working the Memphis territory in his feud with Lawler.

Down here in the hillbilly haven of SE KY / SE TN area, a man by the name of Ron Wright was the unrivaled king of the heels. The guy could draw the most toxic heat of anyone I ever saw. He had his private plane set on fire one in Harlan, KY back in the '70's. He was also sliced with a razor, nearly bleeding to death. He was also stabbed on numerous occasions. Once, when wrestling in our area here in SE KY, Wright stopped to have lunch at the local KFC. The woman behind the counter apparently recognized him and refused to serve him because she despised him so much.



https://youtu.be/daz_iJBViYg

[Bourgeois Zee]

From the sticks of Kentucky as well, so I have an admitted bias toward specific areas of the country.

5. Gorgeous George
According to family lore, my grandmother gave birth two weeks early cheering against Gorgeous George. The first of the true all-time heat guys, he did stuff before anyone else did. The hair, the robe, talking to the crowd.

4. Rick Rude
Those of a certain era just know. Rude was the total package. IMO, he, Steamboat, Savage, and Flair are the great wrestlers in history. They could do it all-- and often did.

3. Iron Shiek
More happenstance than skill, I think. Great guy, by all accounts. Good wrestler. Massive heat.

2. Rowdy Roddy Piper
No one did crazy better. Tough as nails, and you could somehow recognize that.

1. Ric Flair
Pound for pound, the greatest in-ring wrestler of all time. He also had the longest peak. Marathon matches, the Four Horsemen, "Woo!"-- there's a reason he's still a hip-hop icon 50 years after he was first recognized as the GOAT.

________

Kaufman's a great call, Ky. The Lawler/ Kaufman feud was ground-breaking and, in a certain area of the country, inescapable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA-Ibsc9gkA

[dubc47834]

Randy Orton, The Legend Killer, is my favorite.

[westofyou]

I went to this match and Piper bloodied Macho Man, stole his belt and the crowd went W I L D I mean a really went crazy... of course he was disqualified but still, N U T S


19679

[Bourgeois Zee]

I went to this match and Piper bloodied Macho Man, stole his belt and the crowd went W I L D I mean a really went crazy... of course he was disqualified but still, N U T S

Macho Man is another great heel-- but he played the face just as much over his career.

[Ky Fried Redleg]

Let's not forget this this dude. He was crazy as a loon and could draw serious heat as a heel.

WARNING: Lot of cussing in the video.


https://youtu.be/h6QasH8RXA4

[Ky Fried Redleg]

More absolute insanity from Funk.


https://youtu.be/nSRyY4IM8y4

[UKFlounder]

Bobby Heenan as a manager and commentator deserves mention

[Kingspoint]

You hit the nail on the head.

It starts and ends with Piper.

[KoryMac5]

The Greatest Intercontinental Champion Ever...

The Honky Tonk Man

I would put Vince up there as well...

[Chip R]

When Fred Blassie was wrestling he was really good at getting heat. Also, the Original Shiek.

An underrated heel was Mick Foley when he was in ECW. He would not wrestle like the fans wanted him to wrestle hard-core but he wouldn't.

[M2]

Piper got unreal heat. Also could get an unreal pop. He was gifted. A few names that haven't been mentioned yet:

Edge - His Rated-R Superstar run was dynamite. Part of it was he was legit in the ring, consistently delivered in big matches. And he turned a real-life scandal into an all-time great heel turn. He wasted no time in doing. Once the news got out that he and Lita were screwing around behind Matt Hardy's back, Edge pivoted. He was shameless about it. He reveled in it. Given that Matt was involved it is possible it was a bit of a work (Matt's pretty great at booking). Matt and Lita might have been splitsville longer than they let on. Anyway, Edge galvanized what had become a fairly divided, unable to sort out heels from faces.

Hollywood Hogan - I maintain Hogan was always a heel. He literally changed nothing from his heel routine when he went face. Eye pokes, back rakes, cheap shots when the ref is distracted - Hulk did all of that. So when he put on black and formed the nWo, he had the repertoire down. Plus, it gave fans permission to stop looking the other way on his crappy matches. Hogan sucked in the ring. That can be a virtue for a heel in a Johnny Rotten "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" way. So when Hogan would wind up his way-too-slow finishing sequence, fans finally to hate it properly. "Not this **** again!"

John Cena - I know, I know...but he was always a face. No, he was reverse heel. He was doing a neo-Hogan routine that rankled fans above the age of 14, though sometimes they clued in younger. My daughter might have been 9 when she realized he was consistently awful, just a bully who constantly screwed over his supposed friends. And the divided chants were kind of brilliant. It was fans trolling other fans. Credit to the kids, who instinctively got how Cena represented a chance to get under the skin of Attitude Era fans. And Vince rarely let him lose, so sticking with Cena paid off. Don't you want to be on the winning side? That's actually a heel line from a heel named Dr. Cube. Yet it was Cena's operating principle. The fix was in, and Cena winked and saluted all the way through it.

[Chip R]

I think if you're rating heels, you kind of have to take points away from the guys who were in 1980s-90s WWF like Sheik and Piper. Sure, people hated them but by then, fans knew they were part of the show. They were in cartoons, they were on ice cream bars, they were on merchandise. Sheik getting busted for drugs with Hacksaw Duggan didn't help matters. There were guys in the territories who were just monster heels. Guys like Ox Baker or Freddy Blassie or Ole Anderson or the aforementioned Original Sheik.

[sdwagers]

Piper had nuclear heat in the 80s. Sheiky was mega heat too. Flair could pick it up and put it down as well. Tully Blanchard was the guy I loved to hate as well as Jim Cornette in the NWA.

[KoryMac5]

Piper had nuclear heat in the 80s. Sheiky was mega heat too. Flair could pick it up and put it down as well. Tully Blanchard was the guy I loved to hate as well as Jim Cornette in the NWA.

Pipers Pit was a must watch for any kid in the 80's...I still remember him smashing Snuka with a coconut and than shoving a banana down his throat.

Flair tells an all time story of Piper in Puerto Rico I actually think it was the Dominican though... in which they almost did not make it out alive...PR/DR were very dangerous places for wrestlers back in the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4PT3z4r_Xc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH9CfEe-vDs

[Puffy]

The Freebirds were mega-hated all over the south for a good 8 to 10 year period. From WCCW all the way to Florida

[Ky Fried Redleg]

I think Joey Votto has the makings of a great wrestling heel.

19759

[Chip R]

Jim Cornette tells a story about when the Funks and Briscoes used to wrestle each other. They would be shown on TV in Florida - Briscoe territory - and Texas - Funk territory. They were the same matches but when they were shown in Texas, the announcers had the Funks being faces and the Briscoes being heels and vice versa when they were shown in Florida.

[Kingspoint]

Was watching on VICE the story of Matt Borne, son of Tony Borne, who used to come over to our house once in a while.

Tony Borne was my favorite wrestler growing up. Really nice guy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Borne

Rowdy Piper lived in our neighborhood (Lents) for a while also...always had a shop in our neighborhood. Most of the Oregon Gold Glove champions came from our neighborhood, reaching national recognition and it's also the neighborhood where Oregon's famed mixed-martial arts came from (via roots of Dan Anderson Karate), before moving out further East to Gresham.

Portland was always a boxing/hockey town. Only over the last 40 years did it get "girly", mostly from a huge number of people moving up from California thanks to their housing prices at the time. Everyone with that old boxing/soccer mentality have long moved out of Portland to greener pastures, though you'll still see their grandchildren going to Winter Hawk games (a Winter Hawk Goalie just won the Stanley Cup, while the name Portland Rosebuds is the first name printed on the Stanley Cup...they moved to Chicago and became the Chicago Blackhawks...now that's tradition!).

It used to be a nice place to live. Now it's a sesspool thanks to all the new people who moved in and gentrified the homes that used to belong to poor people while they took over government and made it corrupt through the control of one New York political advisor for all of the City Council members and Mayors. When he bought a car from me, he said, "yeah, it's (the political rotation of council members/mayors) ugly, but that's the way it is....what are you gonna do?".

Tony Borne:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Tony_Borne.jpeg/160px-Tony_Borne.jpeg

Matt Borne:

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP. 1-39Whbet6h-obOg5paKkwAAAA%26pid%3DApi&f=1&ipt=a08d2f599fcffbadd431592d280ed17fcc34722a3ac404 8397cfe1190f2c89ad&ipo=images

[Kingspoint]

Jim Cornette tells a story about when the Funks and Briscoes used to wrestle each other. They would be shown on TV in Florida - Briscoe territory - and Texas - Funk territory. They were the same matches but when they were shown in Texas, the announcers had the Funks being faces and the Briscoes being heels and vice versa when they were shown in Florida.

Jesse Barr, son of Sandy Barr, gained some level of fame teaming with Dory and Terry Funk as Jimmy Jack Funk. Sandy Barr helped to train Matt Borne. For decades here, there was a Sandy Barr flea market. It's where the current Portland Expo is and it used to be called the Portland Sports Arena. Harry Glickman, founder of the Portland Trail Blazers, was promoting every type of sports he could. He ran the Portland Buckaroos in the WHL when there were only 6 teams in the NHL. They were almost as good as the NHL teams. Glickman ran regular boxing at the Portland Sports Arena where I'd go watch many of my friends fight on Thursday Nights. Sandy Barr spent most of his time in Portland Wrestling as a referee with occasional matches.

[Chip R]

Jesse Barr, son of Sandy Barr, gained some level of fame teaming with Dory and Terry Funk as Jimmy Jack Funk. Sandy Barr helped to train Matt Borne. For decades here, there was a Sandy Barr flea market. It's where the current Portland Expo is and it used to be called the Portland Sports Arena. Harry Glickman, founder of the Portland Trail Blazers, was promoting every type of sports he could. He ran the Portland Buckaroos in the WHL when there were only 6 teams in the NHL. They were almost as good as the NHL teams. Glickman ran regular boxing at the Portland Sports Arena where I'd go watch many of my friends fight on Thursday Nights. Sandy Barr spent most of his time in Portland Wrestling as a referee with occasional matches.

I believe Don Owen ran that promotion and it was one of the hottest promotions for a while with Piper and Art Barr and Eddie Guerrero. I found a PBS documentary on it a few years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgXAXF-MaF0&list=FLyNGuLRWwhwgwvKefx4JKSg&index=104&t=15s

[Kingspoint]

I believe Don Owen ran that promotion and it was one of the hottest promotions for a while with Piper and Art Barr and Eddie Guerrero. I found a PBS documentary on it a few years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgXAXF-MaF0&list=FLyNGuLRWwhwgwvKefx4JKSg&index=104&t=15s

Today on CBS Sports or Fox Sports at 7:30 EST, there's a Formula 1 (or is it 2?) race live from that old Portland Sports Arena site.

[Kingspoint]

Today on CBS Sports or Fox Sports at 7:30 EST, there's a Formula 1 (or is it 2?) race live from that old Portland Sports Arena site.

OK...it was Formula E, the only U. S. appearance of the World Formula E series (all electric vehicles). It was interesting. There was one turn on the track where if the driver took it wide, he would receive an energy boost while going over that spot...I don't know if it was like adding fuel or rpm's, but it was interesting. Attendance was 20,000. It's not loud like the regular races where you can hear it well from our house about three miles away, but you could still hear the winding of the motors. Seems you would have to make even a fake sound so that fans could enjoy that experience. A silent race would be extremely boring.

[Ky Fried Redleg]

19817

[Chip R]

19817

He's right up there. Some of that stuff he did was hilarious. He was a heel before that though. He was the best man at Junkyard Dog's wedding then he turned on him when they were in Mid-South. I always had trouble thinking of him as a villain because when he was first starting out in the mid-late 70s, he was a huge babyface. When he was in the Kansas City promotion he was right up there with my favorite athletes.

[M2]

He's right up there. Some of that stuff he did was hilarious. He was a heel before that though. He was the best man at Junkyard Dog's wedding then he turned on him when they were in Mid-South. I always had trouble thinking of him as a villain because when he was first starting out in the mid-late 70s, he was a huge babyface. When he was in the Kansas City promotion he was right up there with my favorite athletes.

DiBiase was an amazing technical wrestler during his face days. I always wished they let him do more of that as a WWF heel. The best heels are the ones who are as good as they tell you they are. DiBiase could have been one of them. Yet the most legitimate heel of the Hogan Era (a guy you actually thought could beat Hogan on any given night) was this guy:

https://mlpnk72yciwc.i.optimole.com/cqhiHLc.IIZS~2ef73/w:auto/h:auto/q:75/https://bleedingcool.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Paul-Orndorff.jpg

[westofyou]

https://media2.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExMmdwanFrYWJidGJkNzI0NTBiZ2pncnl ydXYwazE1ZjBrNDE5ZzFjcCZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfY nlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/3tMP78X2hmwjvgzwS7/giphy.gif

[Bourgeois Zee]

https://media2.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExMmdwanFrYWJidGJkNzI0NTBiZ2pncnl ydXYwazE1ZjBrNDE5ZzFjcCZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfY nlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/3tMP78X2hmwjvgzwS7/giphy.gif

The piledriver might be my favorite move of all time.

Or maybe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kfxg38O_TM

Or maybe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpSRgjq6cfg

[jrdunnit]

Jim Cornette tells a story about when the Funks and Briscoes used to wrestle each other. They would be shown on TV in Florida - Briscoe territory - and Texas - Funk territory. They were the same matches but when they were shown in Texas, the announcers had the Funks being faces and the Briscoes being heels and vice versa when they were shown in Florida.

I remember back the in the day, Jerry Lawler being the same way. He would wrestle in Texas (Von Erich territory) as the heel but come back to Memphis area where he was second only to Elvis with the fans.

[Ky Fried Redleg]

When I was a youngster, this dude legitimately scared the crap out of me.

Canadien Lumberjack, Jos Leduc. I think he about killed Lawler once. Pressed the King over his head and tossed him out of the ring and onto a table. He also brought an axe onto the TV set and sliced his arm with it. A truly petrifying character. Fans were scared of him.


19855

[Ky Fried Redleg]

Leduc taking a blood oath, slicing his arm with an axe:



https://youtu.be/nGir6HSRq-Y

[Ky Fried Redleg]

Another guy who scared me for real was the guy with the Heart Punch, Ox Baker. He claims to have killed two men. In this clip, he tells what he told the widows of the men he killed.


https://youtu.be/d5xKPgHpLhs

[Ky Fried Redleg]

Here's the infamous Ox Baker riot incident at the old Cleveland Arena in 1974. Baker, the villain, relentlessly delivers one heart punch after another to Ernie the Cat Ladd, causing drunken spectators to riot. Metal chairs were tossed into the ring. Th ring announcer took a direct hit but escaped serious injury. Baker got skewed with a chair , direct to the forehead and temple. Those are plain-clothes cops that come into the ring trying to protect the wrestlers. The remainder of the card was cancelled, of course.

Baker was the real deal heel.



https://youtu.be/oRFrOb00xnA

[Chip R]

Here's the infamous Ox Baker riot incident at the old Cleveland Arena in 1974. Baker, the villain, relentlessly delivers one heart punch after another to Ernie the Cat Ladd, causing drunken spectators to riot. Metal chairs were tossed into the ring. Th ring announcer took a direct hit but escaped serious injury. Baker got skewed with a chair , direct to the forehead and temple. Those are plain-clothes cops that come into the ring trying to protect the wrestlers. The remainder of the card was cancelled, of course.

Baker was the real deal heel.



https://youtu.be/oRFrOb00xnA

Now that's heat.

[KoryMac5]

Went to see WWE Raw with my daughter last night who is 10...

Dominik Mysterio generates a ton of heel heat to the point you couldn't hear a word he or Rhea said when they came out...he's probably the best heel they have currently on the roster.

[sdwagers]

Went to see WWE Raw with my daughter last night who is 10...

Dominik Mysterio generates a ton of heel heat to the point you couldn't hear a word he or Rhea said when they came out...he's probably the best heel they have currently on the roster.

this. he has nuclear heat - but not yet X- Pac level heat (who has n't been really mentioned here)

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/XPacHeat

[mr_luck07]

Buddy Rogers
Ric Flair
Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase
Roddy Piper
The Sheik (original)