This list keeps track of the babyface turns and heel turns that happened in WWE throughout 2021, including confirmed turns and notable alignment changes that were unclear at the time.
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 2021:
- January 1 - Isaiah "Swerve" Scott is likely moving heel after refusing to shake Jake Atlas' hand in December 2020. He hasn't gone full-blown "point of no return" heel yet in my mind. We can trace his turn back to then, though, as he's likely a heel going forward.
- January 1 - Billie Kay opened the year in tweener territory, as her sympathetic resume comedy character was not cleanly babyface or heel yet.
- January 1 - Tamina was back to being a heel, as she had been teaming more with Natalya.
- January 20 - Timothy Thatcher seemed to turn babyface by teaming with Tommaso Ciampa in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament.
- January 27 - Jessi Kamea was positioned as a heel on NXT after being paired with Aliyah and booed heavily by the crowd in attendance.
- January 29 - Shinsuke Nakamura turned babyface on SmackDown after helping Big E and Daniel Bryan fight off Sami Zayn, Cesaro and AJ Styles.
- January 29 - Sheamus was at least being treated as a babyface by voluntarily helping the babyface side fight off the heels in the 10-man tag team match on SmackDown.
- January 29 - Braun Strowman appeared to be moving back toward babyface territory after only attacking heels on SmackDown.
- February 1 - Sheamus turned heel on Raw by hitting Drew McIntyre with a Brogue Kick.
- February 12 - Apollo Crews had been teetering on a heel turn for several weeks and pretty much sealed it by interfering in Big E's match with Shinsuke Nakamura.
- February 12 - Cesaro felt more like a babyface after fist-bumping Daniel Bryan, then teaming with him and being booked on the babyface side of the Elimination Chamber build.
- February 14 - Adam Cole turned heel at NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day by superkicking Finn Balor and Kyle O'Reilly.
- February 19 - Chad Gable and Otis turned heel on SmackDown by attacking Rey Mysterio after their match.
- March 5 - Buddy Murphy wanted to align with Seth Rollins again, putting him back in heel territory.
- March 8 - Shane McMahon was clearly a heel after the way he treated Braun Strowman and ran off like a coward.
- April 1 - Isla Dawn turned heel by attacking Emilia McKenzie to align herself with Kay Lee Ray.
- April 1 - Kenny Williams turned heel by striking his tag team partner Amir Jordan with the NXT UK Tag Team Championship belt.
- April 5 - Rhea Ripley turned heel on Raw by attacking Asuka during their tag team match.
- April 12 - Charlotte Flair was back to being a heel again, although she is one of the usual flip-flop cases WWE keeps moving around.
- April 13 - Karrion Kross and Scarlett were more accurately in tweener territory around this point.
- April 13 - Rhea Ripley had already reverted back to being a babyface.
- April 13 - Raquel Gonzalez appeared to be moving babyface, but Dakota Kai was still up in the air, especially after the Capitol Wrestling Center was reportedly instructed to boo her on April 27.
- April 26 - Rhea Ripley was in the "whatever WWE wants her to be that week" zone, so this page stopped tracking every one-week alignment bounce for her.
- April 26 - Randy Orton moved into at least tweener territory after teaming with Matt Riddle.
- May 6 - Shanky and Veer turned heel on Main Event by joining Jinder Mahal.
- May 10 - Shelton Benjamin was possibly starting a babyface transition depending on whether his feud with Cedric Alexander expanded beyond a heel-vs-heel issue.
- Mid-May - Natalya and Tamina transitioned to babyfaces after feuding with Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler, becoming adversarial with Alexa Bliss and helping Bianca Belair fight off Jax, Baszler and Bayley on the May 21 SmackDown.
- May 31 - Alexa Bliss started being booked in a more babyface fashion around this point, as WWE kept putting her against heels even without a clean turn moment.
- June 7 - Jaxson Ryker appeared to be positioned as a babyface for his feud with Elias, but it was not fully confirmed yet.
- June 14 - Piper Niven turned heel by aligning with Eva Marie.
- June 15 - Karrion Kross and Scarlett were back to being true heels, assuming they had ever left that position, after their interaction with William Regal.
- June 15 - Cameron Grimes was definitely a babyface after a few weeks of speculation.
- June 15 - Ever-Rise were in tweener territory, if not full babyfaces, based on their brewing feud with Hit Row.
- June 21 - Jaxson Ryker appeared to have transitioned to a babyface role after feuding with Elias and being supportive of Mansoor backstage.
- June 22 - Ari Sterling turned heel after badmouthing Ted DiBiase, which was essentially confirmed when he faced Cameron Grimes on June 29.
- June 22 - Mercedes Martinez was in tweener territory while feuding with Xia Li and Boa, but also teaming with Jake Atlas.
- June 22 - Roderick Strong turned heel on NXT with the debut of the Diamond Mine faction.
- June 24 - Rohan Raja turned heel by aligning himself with Teoman and attacking Oliver Carter.
- June 28 - Natalya and Tamina were at least temporarily positioned back as heels, but they were sliding into the "whatever WWE needs at the moment" category, so minor back-and-forth changes were not worth tracking from there unless something major happened.
- July 13 - Aliyah may have turned babyface after splitting from The Robert Stone Brand and blowing kisses to the crowd.
- July 20 - Hit Row seemed to move into a more babyface position once they started feuding with Legado del Fantasma.
- July 23 - Toni Storm was a babyface by her SmackDown match against Zelina Vega, based on her crowd interactions and opponent choice.
- July 30 - Sasha Banks turned heel on SmackDown by attacking Bianca Belair after their match.
- August 17 - Indi Hartwell had fully transitioned into a babyface role by teaming with Dexter Lumis against Jessi Kamea and Robert Stone.
- August 21 - Doudrop cut ties with Eva Marie and likely turned babyface in the process.
- August 21 - Brock Lesnar returned at SummerSlam and was booked as a babyface against Roman Reigns.
- August 23 - John Morrison split from The Miz and seemingly turned babyface.
- August 24 - WWE was definitely treating Raquel Gonzalez as more of a babyface.
- August 24 - Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne became heels going forward, seemingly alongside Mandy Rose.
- August 24 - Elektra Lopez turned heel to align with Legado del Fantasma.
- August 31 - Grayson Waller appeared to transition to a babyface role after teaming with Drake Maverick against Imperium on NXT.
- September 6 - Mustafa Ali had been on the babyface spectrum as a tweener for a while, but looked more fully babyface after helping The New Day with Mansoor against Mace and T-Bar.
- September 9 - Saxon Huxley became essentially a babyface after teaming with Ashton Smith and Oliver Carter on NXT UK against Symbiosis.
- September 10 - Becky Lynch's anti-crowd language was rather firmly heel.
- September 10 - Katrina Cortez appeared to be a heel on 205 Live.
- September 14 - Josh Briggs was repackaged as a babyface.
- September 14 - Carmelo Hayes appeared to turn heel alongside Trick Williams.
- September 14 - Andre Chase was a heel as of the InDex wedding.
- September 20 - Humberto Carrillo appeared to turn heel after forming a tag team with Angel Garza.
- September 21 - Joe Gacy possibly settled into a heel role with the safe-space gimmick.
- September 27 - Shelton Benjamin turned heel by rejoining The Hurt Business.
- October 11 - Mustafa Ali turned heel on Mansoor.
- October 19 - Johnny Gargano turned babyface on NXT.
- October 22 - Katrina Cortez's heel turn, whatever it was, was over when she and Yulisa Leon were full-blown babyfaces on 205 Live showing respect to Valentina Feroz and Amari Miller.
- October 29 - Sasha Banks was a babyface again for her feud with Charlotte Flair on SmackDown.
- October 29 - Shotzi Blackheart turned heel on SmackDown by attacking Sasha Banks after their match.
- November 4 - Rampage Brown turned heel.
- November 8 - Kevin Owens turned heel on Raw.
- November 8 - Doudrop turned heel on Raw.
- November 9 - Pete Dunne seemed to be a babyface.
- November 23 - Grayson Waller was back to being a heel. Random, but that was the direction.
- November 23 - Kay Lee Ray apparently transitioned to a babyface somewhere around this stretch, so this marks the official note even if the change may have happened a little earlier.
- November 23 - LA Knight appeared to be a babyface to balance out the Waller heel turn.
- November 23 - Bron Breakker was on the heel side for Team 2.0 ahead of WarGames, but reverted back to being a babyface on the December 7 episode of NXT, so that was treated as temporary.
- November 25 - Xia Brookside seemed to be a heel after many weeks of heading in that direction.
- November 25 - PENDING: Is Sam Gradwell a babyface? Did I miss something?
- November 30 - Solo Sikoa was now a babyface.
- December 5 - Von Wagner turned heel at WarGames by trying to attack Kyle O'Reilly behind his back.
- December 10 - Xia Li turned babyface by making the save for Naomi on SmackDown.
- December 20 - AJ Styles turned babyface through his split from Omos and subsequent interactions opposite Grayson Waller and Apollo Crews.
The prediction archive is kept below so the original guesses still make sense in context. Names that ended up matching the year's booking are struck out.
PREDICTIONS FOR HEEL AND FACE TURNS IN 2021:
** QUARTER 1 PREDICTIONS [FROM JANUARY 1] **
WILL TURN HEEL: Ashante "Thee" Adonis, Asuka, August Grey, Brian Kendrick, Dave Mastiff, Isaiah "Swerve" Scott, Isla Dawn, Kenny Williams, Kevin Owens, Naomi, Ricochet, Sasha Banks, Tamina
WILL TURN BABYFACE: Alexa Bliss, Bobby Lashley, Bray Wyatt, Cedric Alexander, MVP, Natalya, Peyton Royce, Shelton Benjamin
WILL BOUNCE AROUND BACK AND FORTH: Akira Tozawa, Charlotte Flair, Drew Gulak
** QUARTER 2 PREDICTIONS UPDATES [AFTER WRESTLEMANIA] **
WILL TURN HEEL: Erik, Ivar, Killian Dain
WILL TURN BABYFACE: Bray Wyatt, Cedric Alexander, Omos, Raquel Gonzalez, Reckoning/Mia Yim, Seth Rollins, Shelton Benjamin
WILL BOUNCE AROUND BACK AND FORTH: Akira Tozawa, Charlotte Flair, Drew Gulak
** QUARTER 3 PREDICTIONS UPDATES [BEFORE SUMMERSLAM] **
WILL TURN HEEL: Andre Chase, Ari Sterling, Gigi Dolin, Jacy Jayne, Jaxson Ryker, Kevin Owens, Mandy Rose, Naomi, Randy Orton, Rhea Ripley, Shelton Benjamin
WILL TURN BABYFACE: Alexa Bliss, Doudrop, Indi Hartwell, Raquel Gonzalez, Seth Rollins
WILL BOUNCE AROUND BACK AND FORTH: Drew Gulak, Reginald Thomas
** QUARTER 4 PREDICTIONS UPDATES [POST-DRAFT, BEFORE SURVIVOR SERIES] **
WILL TURN HEEL: Aliyah, Dominik Mysterio (maybe not until 2022), Keith Lee, Kevin Owens, Jaxson Ryker
WILL TURN BABYFACE: Mia Yim, Sasha Banks, Xia Li
WILL BOUNCE AROUND BACK AND FORTH: Akira Tozawa, Drake Maverick, Drew Gulak
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