10 WWE Matches Where Fans Turned On The Babyface

A WWE babyface wants one thing and one thing only – the adoring love of the fans they’re performing in front of. WWE fans, however, don’t always go along with the programme and have, on occasion, turned their backs on the babyface. 

These are 10 WWE Matches Where The Fans Turned On The Babyface. 

10. The Rock vs. Brock Lesnar - SummerSlam 2002

The Rock’s Undisputed Title match with Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam 2002 had one of the best pure sports builds WWE has ever done. Videos showing the two men training for the main event clash did a great job of hyping fans up for what promised to be a standout athletic contest between two gladiators.

WWE should have done a better job of having The Next Big Thing play the heel, however, as many of the fans in Uniondale, New York cheered him ahead of The Great One. The reaction started out mixed but gradually turned more in favour of Lesnar as the match wore on, with loud chants of ‘Rocky Sucks!’ impossible for the men in the ring to ignore. 

Eventually, Brock scored the win, to a huge pop. What fans didn’t see was after the show, when the so-called People’s Champion was booed even louder and then started playing to the jeers for extra heel heat. 

The theory was that fans were upset that The Rock was going off to film The Rundown, but the reception he received here was clearly a big factor in him returning with his ‘Hollywood Rock’ gimmick a few months later. 

9. Goldberg vs. The Rock - Backlash 2003

After getting booed while ‘passing the torch’ to Lesnar, The Rock smartly pivoted and went back to playing the bad guy. 

The change proved The Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment was back to his very best in feuds with Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin and, of all people, The Hurricane. But before Dwayne Johnson jetted off back to Tinseltown, he had one more piece of business to take care of – wrestling Goldberg in the former WCW World Heavyweight Champion’s WWE debut match. 

The blockbuster bout was booked for Backlash 2003 and, really, should have been an easy slam-dunk for the promotion. But WWE had bungled Goldberg from the off and the way the match was laid out did him no favours whatsoever. The upshot was fans grew restless and directed their hostilities towards Da’ Man, booing when he kicked out of the Rock Bottom and People’s Elbow. 

The supposed ‘dream match’ had turned into a bit of a nightmare, pretty much setting the tone for the rest of Goldberg’s first WWE run. The company did reference the boos the next night on Raw, with Goldberg saying that paying fans could react any way they wanted. 

8. Eugene vs. Triple H - SummerSlam 2004

SummerSlam 2004 was a strange night for WWE, with the vocal Toronto faithful in attendance flipping the script by booing the babyfaces, cheering the heels and generally causing all sorts of mayhem with their unpredictable behaviour. 

The unexpected reactions clearly threw the company off its game, with the announce team (who were relaying the message from backstage) referring to the Canadian city as ‘Bizarro World’.

While several wrestlers were met with reactions they weren’t prepared for, nobody got it as bad as Eugene. 

Nick Dinsmore’s controversial character was due to clash with Triple H, the leader of Evolution who had manipulated and then destroyed Eugene and his handler/friend William Regal that Summer. 

Toronto had little sympathy for Eugene, showering him with boos or otherwise treating him with indifference while they audibly rooted for the diabolical Cerebral Assassin.

Dinsmore eventually managed to muster a positive reaction when he flipped The Game off and hit a Stone Cold Stunner, but it wasn’t enough to save himself or the match. 

This was basically the end of the Eugene as a would-be main eventer experiment, as he became a midcard tag act thereafter.

7. Edge vs. Batista vs. Chris Jericho - SummerSlam 2004

In SummerSlam’s fourth outing, Edge defended his Intercontinental Title against Chris Jericho and Batista. 

Edge had not long since returned from a major neck injury and, though he held the IC strap, it’s not lying to say his character’s direction was, frankly, aimless. He was a standard good guy who had no motivation and didn’t come across like the badass WWE were trying to present him as. 

At SummerSlam, Edge in his hometown was booed against Y2J (the more popular Canadian) and The Animal (who was starting to garner a smattering of babyface reactions).

Perhaps the Toronto fans were resentful of Lilian Garcia’s mention of Edge being the ‘hometown’ guy before she introduced him and wanted to throw the manipulation back in WWE’s faces. 

Adam Copeland decided to play into it, giving heelish facial expressions as the crowd turned on him. It wouldn’t be too long until Edge turned heel proper and became the Rated-R Superstar, giving his career a much-needed momentum boost.

6. Rey Mysterio vs. Edge - Royal Rumble 2008

Given his experience in Toronto at SummerSlam ‘04, we’re sure Edge sympathised with his opponent at the 2008 Royal Rumble. 

The Ultimate Opportunist was defending his World Heavyweight Title against The Ultimate Underdog and the consummate babyface - Rey Mysterio. 

For whatever reason, the fans in Madison Square Garden that night turned against Mysterio, pelting him with boos. 

Rey had encountered some resistance in the years prior when a section of the fanbase felt he was being pushed too hard because of his association with the late Eddie Guerrero, but this was flat-out hostile. 

5. Batista - Royal Rumble 2014

The 2014 Royal Rumble was another night to forget for Rey Mysterio, who was booed out of the building when entering the match at number 30 for the crime of ‘not being Daniel Bryan’. 

Poor Rey took the brunt of it, but it’s also worth remembering that the ire of the Pittsburgh fans was also turned towards Dave Batista. Drax the Destroyer was supposed to be the returning hero, wrestling his first match in close to four years after going off and making himself something of a movie star. 

But these fans didn’t want Batista; they wanted The American Dragon. In a delicious bit of irony, the fans even began to cheer Shield member Roman Reigns ahead of Batista when it got down to the final two, before The Animal punched his ticket to WrestleMania as annoyed punters booed some more while quickly making their way to the exit. 

The booing of Batista would continue – including against Alberto Del Rio at Elimination Chamber – necessitating a heel turn and a major change to the ‘Mania main event.

4. Shawn Michaels vs. Sycho Sid - Survivor Series 1996

Shawn Michaels was unquestionably WWE’s MVP of 1996. The Heartbreak Kid beat Bret Hart to bag his first WWE Championship at WrestleMania 12 and then spent the next eight months defending the title in bangers with the likes of Diesel, Vader and Mankind. 

Michaels was routinely cheered during these successful defences, but things changed when he ran into The Master and Ruler of the World at the ‘96 Survivor Series. 

While defending the title against Sycho Sid, HBK was booed out of the World’s Most Famous Arena, as those inside The Garden opted to throw their fervent support behind the challenger and Sid got a huge pop when he beat Shawn to win the title.

This was largely put down to the New Yorkers marching to the beat of their own drum, but the fact is Michaels was a white meat babyface who danced around in chaps, while Sid was a cool ass-kicking machine at a time when the winds of change were beginning to turn as WWE got more ‘attitude’.  

3. Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte Flair - Survivor Series 2018

It all started so well for Ronda Rousey. The former UFC star was embraced by the WWE Universe from the get-go and had an in-ring debut for the ages, as she and Kurt Angle beat Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in the best match at WrestleMania 34. 

Somewhere along the way, however, fans began to resent Rowdy Ronda. 

The Raw Women’s Champion was battling SmackDown’s Charlotte Flair at Survivor Series 2018 when the Los Angeles crowd gave The Baddest Woman on the Planet a piece of their mind. The match ended in a disqualification when The Queen brought out a kendo stick, before proceeding to violently beat Rousey down in what was supposed to signal a heel turn. 

Unfortunately, the fans - who wanted to see Becky Lynch but weren’t able to as ‘The Man’ had been replaced after getting Nix Jax’d on the previous Raw - cheered the onslaught and then booed Ronda when she went for the sympathetic exit. 

Rousey – a pro-wrestling rookie, remember – was clearly distraught by the crowd’s response, which included chants of ‘Thank you, Charlotte!’.

2. Eddie Guerrero vs. JBL - WWE House Show on June 6, 2004

Though Eddie Guerrero had worked his entire career to get to the unlikely moment where he won the WWE Title, Latino Heat didn’t exactly handle the pressure and responsibility that came with being the champ very well. 

Eddie himself admitted he wasn’t ready with what holding the title truly meant, something the fans who attended the SmackDown house show in Oberhausen, Germany, on June 6, 2004, could attest to. 

According to reports, a section of the audience loudly booed Guerrero against JBL, which the reigning champ did not appreciate. Grabbing the microphone, Eddie answered the catcallers by saying ‘Eddie doesn’t suck, Germany sucks!’ and proceeded to spend the rest of the match giving fans the one-finger salute.  

Which is all well and good, but JBL was also a heel and with neither man trying to play babyface, the match went to hell and ended the show on a sour note.

Backstage afterwards, Guerrero apologised to his close friend and WWE road agent Dean Malenko, admitting that he was unprofessional and let what was simply a very vocal minority get the better of him. 

1. The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan - WrestleMania X8

Hulk Hogan’s return at No Way Out 2002 (alongside Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) set the stage for a bunch of tantalising potential dream matches at WrestleMania the following month. 

Steve Austin turned down the chance to work with The Hulkster, paving the way for The Rock to step in for an Icon Vs. Icon showdown. 

While he may have been the villainous leader of the New World Order on the surface, the fact was that Hulk Hogan was a bona fide legend who hadn’t wrestled on a WWE show in Canada for close to a decade. 

It really was no surprise when a large amount of Hulkamaniacs attending from around the world began cheering Hogan. The 68,000 hammered home their partisanship by booing The Rock, causing the two men in the ring to change things up and work a different match than the one they had mapped out beforehand. 

The reaction was so strong that it also caused WWE to call an audible and officially turn Hulk babyface afterwards, sending him down a short path towards the Undisputed Title.