best character change

[ucladavid]

Just read a good article on 411 about how cena never changes and how great movie characters change from beginning to end.

This got me thinking of who had the best character change (not heel/face turn) that made total logical sense. To me, it is Bret going from fan favorite to whiny wrestler. Austin or Rock going from cool heel to face was no change at all because the fans changed their thoughts about them and the actual character didn't change. However with Bret, his true character never changed but he just got fed up with everything around him. He was still doing the same stuff and this punk (austin) was getting cheered and he was getting booed. He attacked the US and its fans; he had the right motivations and you can see that everything he was saying was true. However, people just got sick of his whiny do-gooder act so he rightly attacked him in his mind. Then when DX came along and he rightly called it trash, he was still wondering why people still didn't cheer him in the US. The change made total sense, took a long time to develop and he was 100% correct. He was so good in his act that he was half-heel/half-face.

[scottyflamingo]

That Bret character is one of the greatest things wrestling has ever done. Subtle, and they didn't try and force the character to do things to get heel heat. Bret was still a megaface everywhere but the US. I think they'd try and change that if the angle went down now.

That's why I hate the Punk heel turn. They are just trying SO HARD to make people hate him, it isn't organic.

I'll throw in Randy Savage. He was paranoid about Elizabeth to the point that it destroyed all his relationships, then she saves him from Sherri at WM7 and he marries her. Good stuff.

[ucladavid]

One great example of a character change that isn't a heel/face change. HBK was doing his DX thing and helping HHH fight Legacy. However, there is one thing he couldn't do (beat UT had wrestlemania). Thus, you can see his obsession and everyone was rooting for Shawn to win the rumble. When he couldn't win it, you can see his desperation getting worse and worse. At WM, many people were cheering for him even though many didn't want to see UT lose. That had to be one of the best 3-4 months of any wrestler.

Cena has never been close to that kind of character changing development.

[scottyflamingo]

I really thought they could have done something with the deal where Piper was basically telling Cena the fans wouldn't accept him until he became his own man and turned heel.