Smark Out Moment

This list keeps track of the babyface turns and heel turns that happened in WWE throughout 2020.

KEEP IN MIND: When a babyface attacks another babyface, that is usually a heel turn. When a heel attacks another heel, it does not automatically make the victim a babyface. Follow-up booking determines whether an actual turn happened.

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

WWE HEEL AND FACE TURNS IN 2020:

• January 3 - The Miz seemingly turned heel on SmackDown by attacking Kofi Kingston after their match.
• January 6 - Drew McIntyre may have been a babyface after Raw. January 13 made another step in that direction and possibly confirmed his position as a babyface.
• January 10 - John Morrison was a heel again along with The Miz after returning to SmackDown and reuniting with him.
• January 26 - MVP returned at Royal Rumble and played babyface. No idea if he was a heel in his last run in WWE.
• January 27 - Charlotte Flair was at least starting to turn heel based on how she reacted to her Royal Rumble win.
• January 27 - Randy Orton turned heel on Raw by attacking Edge after teasing a Rated-RKO reunion.
• February 10 - MVP was a heel again on Raw, if he returned to WWE in the future.
• February 14 - Tony Nese and Mike Kanellis were booked as babyfaces against Ariya Daivari and The Brian Kendrick. That may have been a soft babyface turn or just random booking. In a future update...never mind.
• February 16 - Johnny Gargano turned heel at NXT TakeOver: Portland by nailing Tommaso Ciampa with the NXT Championship and costing him his match against Adam Cole.
• February 19 - Forgotten Sons may have turned babyface when they took offense to Grizzled Young Veterans' anti-USA comments.
• March 13 - Drew Gulak formed an alliance with Daniel Bryan and appeared to be a babyface.
• March 13 - Mojo Rawley was a babyface again on SmackDown.
• April 5 - Mandy Rose turned babyface at WrestleMania 36 by aligning herself with Otis and attacking Sonya Deville.
• April 5 - Bianca Belair turned babyface at WrestleMania 36 by making the save for The Street Profits.
• April 6 - Big Show was a heel again. No one saw that coming, right?
• April 8 - Candice LeRae seemingly turned heel on NXT by low-blowing Tommaso Ciampa and helping Johnny Gargano beat him.
• April 23 - Dexter Lumis was a babyface after helping Velveteen Dream on NXT.
• May 11 - Asuka turned babyface on Monday Night Raw after Becky Lynch announced her pregnancy and handed her the Raw Women's Championship.
• May 13 - Timothy Thatcher turned heel on NXT by flipping out on Matt Riddle, leaving him mid-match and attacking him backstage.
• May 18 - Kairi Sane was a babyface as well as of Asuka's babyface turn.
• June 5 - Mojo Rawley was back to being a heel after making fun of Shorty G on SmackDown.
• June 7 - Io Shirai felt like a tweener to me at NXT TakeOver: In Your House, but she was cheered with her title win and followed up those actions with some babyface stuff afterward. She's likely a babyface as of that point, if not a little earlier when she teamed with Rhea Ripley against Charlotte Flair and Chelsea Green.
• June 10 - Damian Priest may have been a babyface on NXT following TakeOver: In Your House.
• June 10 - El Hijo del Fantasma, Joaquin Wilde and Raul Mendoza turned heel on NXT by forming Legado del Fantasma.
• June 14 - Akira Tozawa was positioned as the antagonist for The Viking Profits. I'm not considering it a heel turn, as it's all goofy stuff, but he and Big Jordan and the other ninjas (......yeah) were definitely the heels in that feud, at least.
• June 15 - Big Show turned babyface on Raw by helping The Viking Profits against Akira Tozawa's ninjas.
• June 22 - Charlotte Flair seemed to be a babyface while feuding with Nia Jax, while Natalya was a heel, joining up with Lana.
• June 22 - Ruby Riott turned babyface by trying to comfort Liv Morgan. This was confirmed on June 29 when she faced The IIconics.
• July 3 - Tony Nese seemed to be a babyface after coming to Isaiah "Swerve" Scott's aid on 205 Live. Update: but worked as a heel on the July 8 NXT, so...who knows what's going on?
• July 10 - Lacey Evans seemed to have turned heel on SmackDown by attacking Naomi after losing that stupid karaoke competition.
• July 31 - Shorty G turned heel on SmackDown by aligning with King Corbin against Matt Riddle and Drew Gulak.
• August 3 - After Shayna Baszler's interactions with Nia Jax and Sasha Banks, it seemed she might be a babyface, especially after teaming with Asuka and being attacked by Nia Jax on August 17.
• August 10 - Mickie James returned as a babyface on Monday Night Raw.
• August 12 - Velveteen Dream turned heel on NXT by attacking Kushida in frustration after their match.
• August 17 - Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir aligned themselves once more with Shayna Baszler in a united front against Nia Jax to indicate Duke and Shafir were now babyfaces along with Baszler.
• August 22 - Tony Nese was back to being a heel again after attacking Jake Atlas in frustration after losing a match to him on 205 Live.
• August 23 - Roman Reigns returned at SummerSlam and was a heel from that point forward.
• August 24 - Aleister Black turned heel on Monday Night Raw by attacking Kevin Owens.
• August 24 - Nia Jax aligned herself with Shayna Baszler, but I'm not quite sold on it being a true babyface turn. If it ends up being solidified, I'll go back and change this.
• August 26 - Tommaso Ciampa turned heel on NXT by excessively attacking Jake Atlas after their match.
• August 28 - Alexa Bliss did a pretty heelish thing by smashing the mug she bought for Nikki Cross and flipping out at her. Maybe not a 100% confirmation of a heel turn, but it sure seemed like it. I'm counting it and if they undo it, I'll update this.
• August 28 - The Brian Kendrick seemed to be a babyface after being a good sport and supportive of teaching Tehuti Miles, who was a heel, so maybe it's not so much a babyface turn as much as a friendly thing for two heels to do together.
• September 7 - Cedric Alexander turned heel on Monday Night Raw by betraying Apollo Crews and Ricochet and joining The Hurt Business.
• September 8 - Tehuti Miles seemed to be a babyface and received a name change as Ashante "Thee" Adonis. Update: Ashante "Thee" Adonis was solidified as a babyface when he came out to help Isaiah "Swerve" Scott at NXT TakeOver 31 on October 4.
• September 21 - Dominik Dijakovic (T-Bar), Dio Maddin (Mace) and Mia Yim (Reckoning) turned heel as members of RETRIBUTION, while Shane Thorne (Slapjack) and Mercedes Martinez already were before RETRIBUTION even started.
• October 2 - Carmella turned heel on SmackDown through her promo running down the WWE Universe.
• October 2020 - Sasha Banks will be a babyface, but WWE hasn't done anything to 100% lock that down. She's fighting with Bayley, but that doesn't mean she won't go back to being a heel after the feud. I'll "confirm" this down the line and put a date on it, but we know she's been feuding with Bayley since she was attacked. That just doesn't mean it makes Banks a babyface by default.
• October 4 - Ridge Holland was a heel as of NXT TakeOver 31.
• October 5 - Mustafa Ali turned heel on Raw by revealing he was the leader of RETRIBUTION.
• October 5 - Murphy turned babyface after fighting with Seth Rollins, unless this is all a ruse.
• October 7 - Killian Dain became a reluctant babyface, but he was definitely more babyface after helping Drake Maverick out after teaming with him.
• October 8 - Amale seemed to have settled into a heel role.
• October 12 - Elias turned heel on Raw by hitting Jeff Hardy with a guitar.
• October 20 - Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax came off more like heels than in recent weeks on Raw, but they were still booked against both heels and babyfaces while arguing with each other. They'll remain tweeners for now.
• October 20 - Braun Strowman may not have been 100% heel, but he sure as hell was booked like it when he low-blowed Keith Lee.
• October 21 - Xia Li attacked Kacy Catanzaro again after her loss. That's far too many times for it not to be a heel turn at this point.
• October 21 - Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan turned heel on NXT by aligning with Pat McAfee to screw over The Undisputed ERA and Breezango and become NXT Tag Team Champions. Also, it's pretty official at this point that all members of The Undisputed ERA are babyfaces, so they're off the pending list.
• October 25 - Tucker turned heel at Hell in a Cell by hitting Otis with the Money in the Bank briefcase.
• October 28 - Pete Dunne turned heel at Halloween Havoc by turning on Kyle O'Reilly and aligning himself with Pat McAfee, Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan.
• October 29 - The Hunt turned heel on NXT UK by aligning with Eddie Dennis and attacking Flash Morgan Webster and Mark Andrews. This applies to Wild Boar and Primate.
• October 30 - Jey Uso turned heel on SmackDown by aligning with Roman Reigns and attacking Daniel Bryan after their match. Jimmy Uso wasn't involved yet, but we can assume he's a heel going forward, too.
• November 18 - Tommaso Ciampa seemed to maybe be either a babyface or at least a tweener at this point. He had feuded with Velveteen Dream a bit and then went after Timothy Thatcher.
• Late 2020 - Chad Gable seemed to be more of a babyface lately after partnering with Otis.
• Late 2020 - Updates that I can't remember when to track back to: Lana is definitely a babyface. Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler are definitely heels and not tweeners anymore.
• November 25 - Toni Storm turned heel on NXT by feeding Ember Moon to Candice LeRae, Indi Hartwell, Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez.
• December 9 - Tyler Rust, aka Russ Taylor, turned heel on NXT by trying to help Timothy Thatcher distract/interfere with Tommaso Ciampa's match and then partnering up with Malcolm Bivens.
• PENDING: Grizzled Young Veterans are playing the babyface part in a feud with Ever-Rise and Imperium, but that may not be a true turn. We'll see in the coming weeks.
• PENDING: Isaiah "Swerve" Scott appears to be heading toward a heel turn as of December 9.

Below are the 2020 prediction rounds, kept as an archive of the original guesses and quarterly adjustments. Correct picks are struck out, while the weird cases that bounced around remain exactly the sort of chaos this page was tracking.

PREDICTIONS FOR HEEL AND FACE TURNS IN 2020:

QUARTER 1 PREDICTIONS [FROM JANUARY 1]

WILL TURN HEEL: Alexa Bliss, Bronson Reed, Dominik Dijakovic, Elias, Isla Dawn, Kenny Williams, Mia Yim, Oney Lorcan, Piper Niven, Randy Orton, Tyler Bate, The Usos, Velveteen Dream

WILL TURN BABYFACE: Bianca Belair, Bray Wyatt, Buddy Murphy, Gallus, Jazzy Gabert, Kairi Sane, Sarah Logan, Sonya Deville

WILL BOUNCE AROUND BACK AND FORTH: The B-Team (house shows), Charlotte Flair

QUARTER 2 PREDICTIONS UPDATES [AFTER WRESTLEMANIA]

WILL TURN HEEL: Apollo Crews, Bianca Belair, Braun Strowman, Bronson Reed, Dave Mastiff, Isla Dawn, Joaquin Wilde, Mandy Rose, Pete Dunne, Raul Mendoza, Samoa Joe

WILL TURN BABYFACE: Bobby Lashley, Johnny Gargano, Sarah Logan, Sasha Banks

WILL BOUNCE AROUND BACK AND FORTH: The B-Team (house shows)

QUARTER 3 PREDICTIONS UPDATES [JULY / BEFORE SUMMERSLAM]

WILL TURN HEEL: Apollo Crews, Braun Strowman, Bronson Reed, Dana Brooke or Naomi, Dave Mastiff, Dexter Lumis or Dominik Dijakovic, Isla Dawn, Pete Dunne, Samoa Joe

WILL TURN BABYFACE: Sasha Banks

WILL BOUNCE AROUND BACK AND FORTH: Big Show, Charlotte Flair

QUARTER 4 PREDICTIONS UPDATES [OCTOBER / BEFORE SURVIVOR SERIES]

WILL TURN HEEL: Brian Kendrick, Ember Moon OR Toni Storm, Kalisto, Matt Riddle, The Usos, Xia Li

WILL TURN BABYFACE: Braun Strowman (possibly early 2021), Lana, Natalya, Shorty G

WILL BOUNCE AROUND BACK AND FORTH: Akira Tozawa, Braun Strowman, Charlotte Flair, Drew Gulak, Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler