10 Best Impact Face/Heel Turns Vol.1
Photo Credit: IMPACT Wrestling
Outside Impact Wrestling. A long time "Jerichoholic", Mick Foley, Kurt Angle & Hardys fan, pop open a little bit of the Bubbly, read what's being written by me with an open perspective & enjoy.
- Impact Wrestling’s build to the big 20. Part 1 - February 25, 2022
- (Exclusive) Rosemary: A Journey through the Valley of Shadows – PART 1 - September 19, 2021
- Revival of the X-Division: Tale of the Tape - June 20, 2021
3. Moose (Building The Wrestling God)
An absolute Juggernaut on Impact’s roster & one of the biggest names & currently amongst the longest active superstars alongside Eddie Edwards & Rosemary. Moose has been the subject of big matches & bigger rivalries since arriving on July 16th 2016 as Mike Bennett’s muscle, interfering in a match between Bobby Lashley & Eddie Edwards attacking both of them, establishing himself as a Heel. But given Moose’s long history, skim through the most relevant parts of his build.
Moose turned Face after things broke down between Mike Bennett at Bound For Glory 2016, he beat Aron Rex for the Grand Championship on December 1st 2016, losing to Drew Galloway on February 9th, regaining it from him on March 30th & eventually losing it to EC3 on August 3rd. In between chasing the Grand Championship Moose would be involved with various storylines from rivalries with Mike Bennett, Lashley & Cody Rhodes finally getting a real sense of moving forward (to staying main event material) by 2018, his role predominantly Face but this would finally change after failing to beat Austin Aries at Slammiversary XVI, he’d soon join Aries & Killer Kross, attacking Johnny Impact, Taya Valkyrie, Eddie Edwards & Tommy Dreamer, slowly building up the attitude that Moose is all that matters, his rivalry between Eddie Edwards creating some good character build for both, Eddie Edwards still lost & unpredictable, often over protective over anyone’s interactions with Alisha Edwards which even resulted in Eddie being sent to the Asylum with a guest appearance from Raven. The rivalry with Eddie Edwards would carry both through the rest of 2018.
Moose’s Heel turn finally seemed to settle (he was feeling more confident in exploiting it, promos were better etc) after a feud with The Rascalz started, Moose was under a big name, big money persona, bullying the rest of the roster (from intrusion of the Knockouts’ locker room to body shaming Fallah Bahh) & after attacking the Rascalz at their Treehouse he formed an alliance with The North for an astonishing match against The Rascalz at Bound Rebellion 2019. This would then bring him onto facing TNA legends such as RVD (also beating him at Slammiversary 2019), Sabu & Tommy Dreamer, facing Ken Shamrock at Bound For Glory 2019. Money Moose was slowly becoming the unstoppable force we see now, legend by legend. Impact Wrestling’s experimentation days with Moose finally seemed to be over. 2020 was Moose’s real break out year for a majority of the fans, especially since “the main even player” feel had dissolved since Moose’s matches against Lashley & Eddie Edwards. As good as his past exploits were, they weren’t memorable to many fans (a majority just wanting Impact to drop from the roster) but now Moose was using his loyalty to Impact to boost his Heel role, proclaiming he’s the best & deserved more than he had been given & after a special TNA throwback show was cancelled (due to the pandemic), Impact Wrestling still pushed this next storyline forward.
After beating Hernandez & Michael Elgin at Rebellion Night 2. Moose (who was carry an old but familiar looking title belt with him), proclaimed that if Impact wouldn’t recognise him as the 5-Star athlete he is & just hand him the Impact World Title (held by Tessa Blanchard), then he’d just make his own, making himself “The man to beat to be the best” which he had done in the form of the declaring his TNA World Heavyweight Title is now the only (unofficial) title that matters, bringing very mixed reactions from the fans, some wondering if this was going to mean a re-brand back to TNA by Impact, others waiting to see if other TNA legends would be randomly coming in as Moose would be defending it against TNA associated superstars such as Suicide, Crazzy Steve & Hernandez, this would then lead onto Moose vs. Tommy Dreamer “Old School Rules” at Slammiversary 2020 for the title, Moose would win & the more he was winning the angrier he was getting… this would then lead into an unwelcome surprise return by EC3, who was fired from the WWE over Wrestlemania week‘s “Black Wednesday“. EC3 was re-branding & rebuilding himself & like Eric Young working with Cody Deaner, the build & already existing history or familiarity Moose & EC3 had with each other would see Moose’s current Heel turn just get colder & darker after months of mind games EC3 & Moose would face off at Bound For Glory, EC3 having stolen Moose’s title prior & unless Moose could “Control his narrative” & realise that it’s not the belt that makes the man, it’s the man that makes the belt Moose would lose his beloved prop & EC3 would never return it.
After beating EC3, Moose’s heel turn was at it’s peak, his popularity was through the roof & now his attention was on to Rich Swann after he’d beaten Eric Young for the Impact World Title. Moose would rarely confront Rich Swann physically, using close friends like Eddie Edwards, Willie Mack (who had challenged Moose to a Last Man Standing match at Genesis 2021) & Jake Something. Come February 21st Scott D’More brought Moose & Rich Swann out to officially make Moose’s TNA World Heavyweight Championship a legitimate sanctioned title but, Moose would have to put this title on the line against Rich Swann at Sacrifice the stipulation? A Title vs. Title unification match & the winner goes on to headline Rebellion to face Kenny Omega. Moose would lose & Rich Swann would then go on to face AEW World Champion Kenny Omega, Title for Title at Rebellion. Now that Kenny Omega has the “Unified” Impact World Championship. Moose (at the time of writing this article) is the number 1 contender after winning a 6 man scramble at Under Siege. He has gone from the hottest free agent (when coming in after his time at Ring of Honour) to becoming the self proclaimed “Wrestling God”. Moose has taken this Heel turn direction from experimentation to one of the most entertaining Heel characters on Impact’s roster with very cold, promos, brutal matches & staying in character in & out of the ring.
About Author
