Smark Out Moment

This list will keep track of all the official babyface turns and heel turns that happen in WWE for the year 2023.

At the beginning of this year, I've made some predictions for who I think will end up turning face or heel at some point. I won't be altering these predictions at all throughout the entire year, but I will be adding some revised guesses quarterly around the big events, so it'll be interesting to see who I'm right and wrong about. Anybody who I'm right about, I'll strike out.

KEEP IN MIND: When a babyface attacks another babyface, this is almost always a heel turn. When a heel attacks another heel, it doesn't hold the same meaning. Villains turning on villains does not make the beaten down person suddenly a hero, but the actions that come out of that dictate whether a turn happens or not.

Also, sometimes, I update the heel and face index, but not as often as the updates you see below.

• Brock Lesnar is effectively a perpetual flip-flopper. He is heel or face on any given feud and will turn on a dime. It isn't worth tracking his turns.
  
• January 2 - Alexa Bliss turned heel on Monday Night Raw by attacking a referee and going overboard against Bianca Belair
  
• January 6 - Hit Row turned heel on SmackDown
  
• Alpha Academy keep being positioned more as babyfaces without any true 100% turn
  
• Mustafa Ali started a heel turn back in January
  
• January 29 - Sami Zayn turned babyface at Royal Rumble
  
• January 31 - Alba Fyre is now a heel aligned with Isla Dawn
• February 6 - Piper Niven seems to have reverted back to being a heel; she may not have been a babyface even temporarily
  
• February 6 - Nikki Cross had a soft transition starting around here to become a babyface
• February 7 - In retrospect, it seems Jacy Jayne's attack on Gigi Dolin has been used as a means for Dolin to turn babyface
  
• February 13 - Santos Escobar and by proxy, the rest of Legado del Fantasma turned babyface to start becoming allies to Rey Mysterio
  
• February 14 - Drew Gulak turned heel by aligning with Charlie Dempsey and ditching Hank Walker
• PENDING February 17 - Emma and Madcap Moss are likely heading toward a heel turn after their frustrations following Moss losing to Gunther and blaming it on the fans (Update: Both were released without this fully coming to fruition, so it's hard to tell if that was internally a true heel turn, or just playing around temporarily and not having any true direction for them.)
  
• February 18 - At this point, Elimination Chamber, I'm classifying Brock Lesnar as a perpetual tweener, and moving Bobby Lashley into that pending spot as well, as I think he'll turn heel soon. Pending on that. We'll see.
• February 18 - Logan Paul is officially playing heel for his feud with Seth Rollins and could continue on as a heel past that, for all we know
• March 7 - Carmelo Hayes (and by proxy, Trick Williams) are at least temporary tweeners, if not on the path to full babyfaces (Update from Stand & Deliver on April 1: Trick cheated twice in the title match and Hayes capitalized to win the belt, showing they're back to being heels, if not that they were always heels to begin with) (Update 2 from NXT April 4: Hayes and Williams were respectful in their promo, while Bron Breakker attacked them. Who knows at this point what WWE wants out of the heel/face dynamics of these guys?)
  
• March 14 - Tatum Paxley turned heel by betraying Ivy Nile on NXT
• March 20 - Asuka turned heel by attacking Bianca Belair on Raw, then doubled-down on this on the May 12 episode of SmackDown.
  
• April 4 - Bron Breakker seemingly turned heel on NXT by attacking a respectful Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams
• April 10 - Trish Stratus turned heel by attacking Becky Lynch
• April 11 - Brooks Jensen turned heel by pushing Josh Briggs down and tried to convince Fallon Henley to use a foreign object to win.....only to turn back to babyface on April 25th.
• Von Wagner has been more and more sympathetic after starting this story about the picture of him as a kid.
  
• May 23 - Reggie seems to have dropped the SCRYPTS name and is trying to make amends with Axiom for a babyface turn.
• May 27 - Jimmy Uso turned babyface by superkicking Roman Reigns at Night of Champions
  
• May 28 - Oro Mensah turned heel to align with Noam Dar for NXT Battleground
• June 16 - Jey Uso sealed his babyface turn by choosing to side with Jimmy Uso
• June 19 - Tommaso Ciampa turned babyface upon his return to Raw by fighting The Miz
• July 1 - Shayna Baszler turned babyface upon splitting from Ronda Rousey at Money in the Bank.
• July 17 - Shinsuke Nakamura seems to be in the midst of a heel turn starting with kicking Tommaso Ciampa out of frustration for losing a match against Bronson Reed on NXT. He sealed the deal on this on the August 7 edition of Raw.
  
• July 18 - Scrypts is now a heel by turning on Axiom during NXT
• July 28 - LA Knight seems to be positioned as a babyface now after weeks of fans considering him one already
• (PENDING) July 31 - Thea Hail started what seems to be a heel turn after losing to Tiffany Stratton and being mad at Andre Chase for throwing in the towel, but hasn't 100% turned yet.
  
• August 4 - Bobby Lashley and The Street Profits started a slow heel turn around this date. That was set in stone on September 29th.
  
• August 6 - Jimmy Uso turned heel at SummerSlam
• August 8 - Myles Borne started a heel turn joining Drew Gulak, Charlie Dempsey and Damon Kemp. Borne cemented his heel turn on NXT by turning on Josh Briggs, Brooks Jensen and Fallon Henley to help out Damon Kemp, Drew Gulak and Charlie Dempsey
• September 2 - Zoey Stark turned babyface after splitting from Trish Stratus at Payback, solidified by her coming to Shayna Baszler's aid to fight off Chelsea Green and Piper Niven on September 11th.
• October 30 - The Miz seems to be transitioning to a babyface role for a feud with Gunther.
• November 10 - Santos Escobar turned heel on SmackDown
• November 13 - Drew McIntyre turned heel on Raw by siding with Judgment Day over Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso
• December 15 - AJ Styles turned heel on SmackDown by attacking LA Knight and allowing The Bloodline to get a pass (for some reason)
  

PREDICTIONS FOR FUTURE HEEL/FACE TURNS:

** QUARTER 1 PREDICTIONS [FROM JANUARY 1] **

WILL TURN HEEL: AJ Styles, Alba Fyre, Alexa Bliss, Ashante "Thee" Adonis, Asuka, B-Fab, Braun Strowman, Cameron Grimes, Charlotte Flair, Elias, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, Randy Orton, Top Dolla

WILL TURN BABYFACE: Bayley, Dakota Kai, Dominik Mysterio, Doudrop, Iyo Sky, Sami Zayn, Tommaso Ciampa

** QUARTER 2 PREDICTIONS UPDATES [AFTER WRESTLEMANIA] **

WILL TURN HEEL: AJ Styles, Apollo Crews, Asuka, Braun Strowman, Cameron Grimes, Charlotte Flair, Elias, Emma, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, Natalya, Randy Orton, Riddick Moss, Trish Stratus

WILL TURN BABYFACE: Bayley, Chad Gable, Dakota Kai, Iyo Sky, Tommaso Ciampa

** QUARTER 3 PREDICTIONS UPDATES [BEFORE SUMMERSLAM] **

WILL TURN HEEL: Cameron Grimes, Charlotte Flair, Drew McIntyre, Elias, Emma, Ilja Dragunov, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, Natalya, Randy Orton, Riddick Moss, Shinsuke Nakamura

WILL TURN BABYFACE: Damian Priest, LA Knight, Iyo Sky

** QUARTER 4 PREDICTIONS UPDATES [BEFORE SURVIVOR SERIES] **

WILL TURN HEEL: Carmelo Hayes, Drew McIntyre, Odyssey Jones (shot in the dark), Tegan Nox

WILL TURN BABYFACE: Ashante Adonis, B-Fab, The Miz (surprisingly)