The heel. The bad guy. The thing that the wrestling industry was built on. Who is going to stop the heel? It’s the one thing that’s sold us on match after match for over 5 decades now.
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But who is the best? Who are the heels that make your skin crawl? That made you throw trash at the TV, that made you curse their name?
In other words, which heels did their jobs the best? We’re going to check that out today and find out who the most despicable heels in WWE history are.
We’re going to focus strictly on full-time wrestlers, so managers or public figures who only wrestle occasionally are not going to make the cut.
10Rowdy Roddy Piper
A Warrior of Words
The microphone is key to every heel that has ever existed, and when it comes to that aspect, Rowdy Roddy Piper may just stand alone.
He could compete with any superstar of his era, from Bret Hart to Hulk Hogan, whether in the ring or in a promo. This man was so easy to hate, yet looking back on his considerable impact on the industry, it’s impossible not to pay homage to him.
He was equal parts hilarious and cruel, and though he did not cut an imposing figure in the ring, he could certainly wrestle with the best of them, delivering a technical masterpiece with Bret Hart in one of his best matches ever.
His countless amazingtalk show-like segments on Piper’s Pitare as good as any the WWE has ever produced, and his endless charisma, good or bad, led to him having a decent post-wrestling career in acting as well.
9Shawn Michaels
Shawn Michaels today may be one of wrestling’s most beloved figures, but back in the 90s? There were few more detestable than the Heartbreak Kid.
When his singles career began, he was a cocky, arrogant heel who acted like he was better than everyone else in the company because, well, he was. He turned face for a brief period of time following his first WWE title win, but that didn’t last too long, as his true calling was as a heel.
Enter Degeneration X, Shawn’s magnum opus creation in which he mooned the crowd, wiped his nose with Canada’s flag, and was just the most annoying presence on TV the company had seen in quite some time.
While crowds went crazy for DX during the era, it was more a sign of the times rather than Shawn being a face, as he did everything in his power to be as detestable as humanly possible, most notably in his feud with Bret Hart.
His involvement in the Montreal Screwjob cemented his spot as one of the best heels imaginable, and he even brought that persona of his back during his second act, famously turning the tables on aCanadian crowd who were hungry for a Bret Hart appearance.
8Chris Jericho
The WWE Will Never Be The Same Again
When the countdown to the Millennium began, nobody knew it would result in the birth of one of the biggest stars of the era. The heel energy was palpable as soon as Jericho got hold of a mic.
Calling out every wrestler in the WWE, right in the face of The Rock, it was the stuff of legends. Jericho was already a legendary heel in WCW, with promos like thelist of 1004 holdsremaining fondly in the memory of many fans, but WWE is where he took that persona global.
Hell, he managed to turn Triple H into a face during their feud, which was hard to do during that era. He took his heel actions to another level against Shawn Michaels, his idol, in one of the best feuds of his career that went down not once but twice.
The second feud is the most interesting, as he was pretty much right in all of his accusations against Shawn of cheating to win a match. Yet he knew that HBK was a legend the crowd couldn’t hate, and he used it perfectly, stringing countless crowds along and insulting the hell out of them in the process.
From the moment he walked in, Jericho was heel energy personified, and he has kept that up throughout his impressive and still ongoing career.
7Randy Orton
The Viper Cometh
Randy Orton may have been the chosen one early in his career, but that quickly slotted him into a heel persona that he used to build his legend.
It started with the amazing Legend Killer run, during which Randy took on various wrestling legends and ended most of them with a vicious punt kick.
While that was good heel work on its own, it wouldn’t be until 2009 that his heel energy would kick into overdrive. His feud with Triple H was, in a word, sinister. While the match it culminated in wouldn’t be too memorable, his energy and deviousness throughout it would come to personify the viper.
Home invasion, attacking Stephanie McMahon, punting John Cena’s dad. These are just a few of the detestable acts in Randy’s repertoire and once he went with the saved head look, he had an evil aura that needs to be studied by every heel out there because the man looked like a demon and acted accordingly.
So Easy To Hate
Is there anything easier to hate than a rich guy? Well, JBL took that idea and ran with it. Although we knew him from his days in the Attitude Era with APA alongside Farooq, JBL was able to reinvent himself into arguably the most hated heel of the Ruthless Aggression era.
He was excellent at fusing real-world politics with his character and even went overboard a few times with his heel work, notably doing a Nazi salute during a match in Germany, which got him in big trouble.
We’re talking about detestable heels, though, and JBL was pretty much the easiest person to hate imaginable. His feuds against Eddie Guerrero and John Cena cemented both as massive stars, and his work in the ring was good enough to go with anyone at the time.
While there have been longer heel reigns, JBL was public enemy number one in the mid-2000s, and hearing him talk down to every crowd for being poorer than him was the easiest trigger to get us all wanting to see him get punched in the face.
5Ric Flair
Dirtiest Player in The Game
Ric Flair has had an incredibly long career, but it was his second run with the company that would go on to cement his legend.
As one of the pillars of the legendary heel faction, Evolution, Ric Flair was at his most dastardly during this time. He had star power and already had a legacy, yet he was the dirtiest wrestler around. He interfered in matches to get Triple H wins, committed low blows, you name it—he did it.
The limousine-riding, jet-flying, kiss-stealing, wheeling-and-dealing son of a gun was the heel in countless feuds against industry legends like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, and Shawn Michaels.
The fans would eventually respect his heel work during his amazing final run, where the rules were that one loss would end his career.
Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair will go down as one of the best matches of all time because of the emotion and because it was the final match before the departure of one of the best heels the industry has ever seen.
4Brock Lesnar
The Beast Incarnate
Few wrestlers are able to establish a heel presence based on their appearance alone, but if there ever was one, it’s Brock Lesnar. Whether you like him or not, one thing is for sure. He’s intimidating.
His devastating presence in the ring has resulted in countless jaw-dropping moments, and, coming out of his MMA career, it further established that this guy was not one to be messed with.
Of course, Lesnar’s mouthpiece, Paul Heyman, did much of the heel work in his career, but I’m considering them a package deal here.
Lesnar has been involved in some of the most high-profile feuds in WWE’s history, with highlights coming against John Cena, Roman Reigns, and, of course, The Undertaker.
You know how you get heat easily in the WWE? How about beating a legend in Wrestlemania to becomethe one in 21-1? Lesnar’s victory over the Undertaker took him to another level of hatred, and he would ride that wave for the next decade.
Know Your Role
The Rock is one of the biggest stars of all time, so you might be surprised to think of him as a heel. But really, that was where he was at his best.
Whether it was a fresh young face, angry at the fans' reaction to him as he took over the leadership of The Nation of Domination, or during his epic run as Hollywood Rock, either way, he was gold.
His mic work put others to shame, and he had a special ability to get a crowd to cheer him on and boo him during the same promo.
He was too funny to hate, but he really played up the superiority angle in his Hollywood Rock days, which led to some of the best segments the company has seen, such as one of his many concerts he’d break out during shows.
He also had a hell of a run as the Corporate Champion, being Vince’s lapdog during the big feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin. No matter what the role, The Rock got it over with ease.
The Ultimate Opportunist
Every superhero needs a supervillain. For the Ruthless Aggression Era, John Cena was that hero, and Edge was that Villain.
Edge started as a tag team star, but once he transitioned to a singles career, he gained main event status, over and over again.
He was a master of psychology both in the ring and on the microphone, picking on insecurities, manipulating the crowd, and being as slimy as can be.
Real life definitely helped cement his heel status, with his infamous relationship with Lita giving weight to his feud with Matt Hardy.
But there was one moment where Edge cemented his name in the annals of WWE infamy—the Money in the Bank contract. You can’t help but think of Edge when it comes to that event.
He gained the moniker ofthe ultimate opportunistby cashing in contracts against some of the biggest names in WWE, including the first one, against John Cena, to win the WWE championship.
As far as popular and detestable heels go, Edge personified that in so many ways during his iconic run in the 2000s.
The King of Kings
What does it mean to be a heel? Hated? Despised? Booed? Endless posts on Reddit about how awful and overbearing they were when they wrestled?
I’d say Triple H hits all those marks. As one of the most important members of the Attitude Era and the Ruthless Aggression era, Triple H was your favorite wrestler’s biggest enemy.
The Rock, Shawn Michaels, Stone Cold Steve Austin, CM Punk, John Cena, Batista. Triple H faced off against them all in the most high-profile matches the WWE has ever hosted.
Although his popularity skyrocketed during the DX era, once he ditched the stable, his star grew and grew, and his pairing with Stephanie McMahon cemented him as the most hated heel in the company.
Everyone hates the guy dating the boss’s daughter, and he did just that, using that position to jump into the main event repeatedly.
His most egregious acts took place during the infamous Reign of Terror, where Triple H would win just about every feud he was in, resulting in countless championships while burying wrestlers like Booker T, who fans were dying to see get a push.
The rumors of his backstage pull would become insidious, causing incredible amounts of fan backlash as the talents they wanted to see become “the guy” were constantly buried under the golden shovel of the man known by three letters.
Then came his epic feud with CM Punk, which mixed real-life tension and kayfabe to the point that you had no idea what was real and what was scripted.
To this day, people still talk about how much they hate Triple H. I’d say that’s about as high of a compliment the most dominant heel in WWE history could possibly receive.
