Randy Orton and Chris Jericho, WWE, AEW Superstars Who Are Better as Heels
In professional wrestling, the pendulum between heel and face is always swinging, pushing wrestlers into new roles as the company needs.
Sometimes though, wrestlers are better suited for the role of bad guy than ever playing the hero.
This becomes especially obvious when a wrestler turns face and loses their personality, struggling to get over the way they did as the heel.
It is up to the company and the wrestler to realize when someone is simply better suited to the heel role rather than wasting years of a competitor's career on a failed role.
The following are wrestlers that have proved time and again that they are best suited to the role of bad guy.
Big Names That Did Not Make the List
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John Cena
While Cena's final year attempt to play the heel fell flat, The Champ originally found his popularity as a bad guy and arguably could have found greater success trying the villain route in the 2010s.
WWE's stubborn refusal to turn Cena and bad final creative do not diminish the potential of The GOAT in a heel role at other moments in his career.
MJF
While The Salt of the Earth has found the most success as a bad guy, he was massively over as a babyface on his way to AEW's biggest show ever, All In 2023.
His booking after All In failed a hot act, and AEW has pivoted to what has worked since with MJF. There is just not enough evidence to prove he cannot play a face role well.
Charlotte Flair
Until the last year, the prospect of The Queen as a top babyface always led to dread, but she found a way to finally showcase her personality alongside Alexa Bliss in 2025.
This recent face run may be the best pure character work of Charlotte's entire career and shows that years were wasted in WWE not letting The Queen be more naturally herself.
Mercedes Moné
Even back when she was "The Boss" Sasha Banks, Moné has found most of her success as a heel. She even needed to quickly turn heel in AEW due to early fan heat.
However, she has won that crowd back in her recent appearances in AEW in a similar way to how she won over the WWE fan base year after year. She is simply too flashy and charismatic to not play either role well.
Randy Orton
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Few men in WWE can match the longevity of Randy Orton, yet for his near-25 years on the main roster, The Viper has only truly thrived as a heel.
The freedom with which he plays a dastardly heel far outweighs his more subdued performance as a crowd favorite.
Time and again, Orton's short face runs turn into extended heel runs that lead to regular championship victories.
Even at this stage of his career where fans love to cheer on Orton, The Viper still showed why he thrives as a heel in 2026.
It always looks like Orton is having more fun when he gets to be the bad guy, and he will likely remain a heel for years to come until he nears his retirement.
FTR - Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood
3 of 14Throughout their wrestling careers, Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood have struggled to play to the crowd but reveled in drawing heat.
This is clear again in the past year as FTR has returned to the top of the AEW tag team division as hated heels.
While any act can grow stale stuck in a singular character, it is a wonder FTR ever turns face.
Their fairly generic throwback looks are best suited to bullying heels inspired by The Brain Busters and The Midnight Express.
Harwood and Wheeler will forever be remembered most in AEW for their heel work.
Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez
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While Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez are at different stages of their careers, they remain consistently connected as multi-time tag champions and stablemates.
They also both struggle to play confident babyfaces. At their best, they are cocky troublemakers that do not care what anyone else thinks of them.
This is the difference between Liv's first world title reign and her subsequent success.
The crowd did not embrace her the first time around, so she bet on herself and found far more confidence at the top.
Raquel herself fell into a familiar role as a face, never getting over as the smiling, happy-to-be-there hero.
Both needed to embrace their attitude to become the stars they now have become and should never return to those bland face roles again.
Chris Jericho
5 of 14Chris Jericho might be the rare wrestler that can make anything work, but he has shown time and again that his best work is done as a heel.
Y2J in WWE then later in AEW has been a stable foundation of wrestling as the bad guy everyone hopes to take down.
Even in his current face role, Jericho's upside comes off limited while he was an easy threat to any title as a stable-leading heel.
From his work in the Attitude Era contesting Triple H and The Rock to his 2000s era against Shawn Michaels and Rey Mysterio, Jericho always found her best pairings as a heel in WWE.
In AEW, the best dynamics came out of stable warfare where he led teams against The Elite and The Blackpool Combat Club.
As a face, Jericho often just goes for easy jokes. As a heel, he can be funny or dramatic with much more ease, and crowd love to hate him.
The Miz
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From early in his career, The Miz has embraced the importance of being reliable, and he has been consistently more reliable as a heel.
While there has always been potential in Miz as a babyface, it has never materialized into a serious run in WWE.
The A-Lister has charisma to spare that gives him a natural likability, but he also knows how to lean into presenting a punchable face and unyielding confidence.
His best trait in WWE is availability, allowing him to be the guy that babyface can beat up no matter where they stand on the card.
He may win the occasional championship, forcing scrappy babyfaces to chase him, but even then he is never the main character.
Christian Cage
7 of 14While Christian Cage will forever be defined by the start of his career, tagging with Edge in WWE, he has shown that he has plenty of range all on his own.
That range did not often shine in WWE. He was closest to success as a heel on his own, but he did not fully showcase his talent until he left the company.
Whether it was his run in TNA using the Cage name or his later arrival in AEW, The Patriarch has embraced the bad guy role better than just about anyone.
His unabashed audacity has made him a mainstay in AEW to the point that a pure babyface role for Christian no longer seems possible.
Even now as he works a fan favorite role with his old friend Adam Copeland, Christian is still the same heel character, refusing to play nice for the fans.
This is where he thrives both in his in-ring style and character attitude, allowing him to deliver memorable promos regularly.
As he winds down his career, fans may cheer The Patriarch, but he will likely never fully embrace it in order to play his favorite role.
Tiffany Stratton
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It is easy for Tiffany Stratton to get fan support. She is naturally charismatic and traditionally beautiful in a way that would have made her a star in any era.
However, everything that makes her likable can also make her unlikable. She is blessed with all the tools to be a star and lacks any of the relatable struggle.
From the time she first arrived in NXT, Stratton knew that she could lean into that as a heel, playing the cocky "Barbie" who respected no one.
The only reason she ever turned face was because fans were enamored with her style, and she never found the character to back the crowd support.
To this day, Stratton is still struggling to play the face when a heel turn would suit her well.
Few are in a more reliable spot in WWE than Stratton, but she has the potential to take over the business if she returns to her heel roots.
Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D.
9 of 14At one time, a heel Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. was on top of AEW. She was the woman that everyone else was chasing.
Even after losing the Women's World Championship, she was an imposing threat in AEW while playing the cocky mean girl.
Whenever AEW has tried to turn The Doctor face, it has not worked, leaving her as just another name on the roster.
While some crowds have support Baker consistently over the years, her promo style only works when she fully embraces a cocky edge.
Her in-ring style also leans more toward controlling her opponents with a technical edge, and that has never worked as well when playing the hero.
It is unclear if Baker will return to action in AEW or choose to go somewhere else at the end of her contract, but she should always lean heel.
Nattie
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Whether she is Natalya Neidhart, just Natalya or simply Nattie, The Low-Key Legend has nearly 20 year of experience under her belt.
She has played a variety of roles over her career, but any time she has strayed from her tough technical edge, she has struggled to get over.
She languished over recent years on the main roster while she returned to a cockier heel presence outside of WWE.
While she has finally embraced that edge in WWE as well, she has not gotten a chance to fully show off what she can do.
Still, she is back in comfortable territory where he can speak cocky and work with vicious focus.
The Low-Key Legend has upside to return to the world title scene, but WWE must keep her in a heel role for as long as possible to get there.
Tommaso Ciampa
11 of 14While his time in AEW has been short so far, Tommaso Ciampa has once again reiterated the truth of his wrestling career. He is made to be a heel.
From his time in NXT, The Blackheart has always found championship success as the bad guy and struggled to get over as a more casual face.
Even while the AEW fans embraced Ciampa, he moved back into a familiar role as an unstable destructive force.
This allowed him to embrace the more physical side of his offense and wear a wicked grin through it all.
It would not be a surprise if Ciampa spent the rest of his career as a heel because any move the other way has not served him well in the past.
Logan Paul
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Working with The Miz, Logan Paul found his role in WWE and has stuck to it ever seen. He is the man that everyone wants to punch in the face.
While his flashy in-ring offense could make him a babyface, fans have hated him since he was barely connected to WWE.
Controversies followed him from a YouTube career to wider media aspirations. Even though he has show his commitment to WWE, fans are unlikely to ever forget who he was first.
This is why his initial attempt to play the face backfired and forced him into the role he has played through the rest of his time in WWE so far.
This is fine for The Maverick, who has easily leaned into the heat while clearly inspired by the man that helped him acclimate to WWE, Miz.
Paul may try to play the face down the line, leaning into big spots, but it will still likely come off forced by the man and the company behind him.
Ricochet
13 of 14No one with Ricochet's absurd athleticism is supposed to be more natural as a heel, but The One and Only's personality only comes out as the bad guy.
He struggled in WWE because he was stuck in a role that did not suit him. He could fly around in impressive fashion, but Ricochet never stood out on the mic.
That changed when he came to AEW and embraced an annoying heat magnet persona that allows him to get on everyone's nerves.
He is still flashy in the ring but is so cocky about it that it makes him even more unlikable.
It has brought him success including the National Championship and made sure that The One and Only has a reliable role for years to come.
At this point, Ricochet has leaned so far into the villain role it would be a genuine surprise to see him as a face again.
Kevin Owens
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Kevin Owens may be a likable man in real life, but he has never spent too long in a crowd-pleasing role in WWE for a reason.
While his in-ring style can be flashy, KO is best served in presenting himself as a dangerous man that only works for himself.
Even when leaning more comedic, he comes off over-the-top to the point of corny when a face but is consistently believable as a heel.
His charisma may be off the charts, but The Prizefighter always sounds most at home when he is angry not just at the wrestlers but the fans that back those performers.
If Owens can return to the ring after his neck surgery in 2025, he will be beloved by fans, but it is likely he will still want to find a way back to the justified heel role that had him on a world championship trajectory.
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