WWE and AEW Stars Who Need to Turn Heel in 2021

Being a by-the-books paragon of virtue is a tough task. Even the greatest heroes can fall victim to becoming villains, as evidenced by Roman Reigns turning into The Tribal Chief.

Sometimes, this is brought about from frustration after going on a losing streak. Other times, it's the fans who aren't appreciative enough, so a babyface cracks and goes down a darker path.

Whatever the reason, if someone has been a babyface long enough, sometimes it can be good to change things up once in a while and refresh their characters.

Looking at the rosters for WWE and All Elite Wrestling, there are a handful of wrestlers who could stand to take off their gloves, ditch their moral codes and become villains.

Let's look at the babyfaces in WWE and AEW who should turn heel at some point in 2021.

We've seen a full year of babyface Jon Moxley fighting all the heels, gritting through the pain and standing tall as a champion of good. In 2021, let's see what damage he can do as a heel.

Once he's done feuding with Kenny Omega, that will take the top spot away from him and force him lower on the card to fight for the TNT Championship, at best.

As a babyface, he's limited to lose No. 1 contender matches and put over the heels who will go on to fight Omega. As a heel, though, he can be one of the biggest attractions for the other noteworthy feuds going on at the moment.

There's no questioning he can be vicious, as evidenced by his hardcore style.

He's also proved in his past runs in WWE that he can grow bored of playing the babyface part for too long. There are only so many times you can cut a promo about standing up for what is right before you start phoning it in.

Being a heel is more fun and he does his best work when he's motivated, so a turn would be the best course of action.

Much like Moxley, Edge does arguably his best work when he's one of the most evil people on the roster.

Most of the Rated-R Superstar's biggest achievements came about when he was screwing people out of their championships, capitalizing on breaking the rules and stealing victories that earned him the moniker The Ultimate Opportunist.

When he returns, he'll still be able to ride the wave of pure bliss with fans just happy to see him back in action. But eventually, he'll exhaust the babyface programs he can work.

That's when Edge will need to switch gears and turn evil once again to freshen up his list of opponents to include Superstars like Daniel Bryan, Kevin Owens, Drew McIntyre and more.

Dominik Mysterio's career is in its infancy, but one thing he's shown us quite a bit so far is that he has a lot of anger in him. Perhaps that could lead to a good heel run in the future.

While Rey Mysterio stayed a strict babyface for nearly his entire career, Dominik will undoubtedly have to suffer some negatives Rey was able to avoid. Namely, Rey made a name for himself in the United States without his lineage casting a shadow, while Dominik will forever be compared to his father.

Much like how Rocky Maivia couldn't avoid being booed, it's going to happen to Dominik sooner or later when fans are back and he's no longer protected by the bubble of silence.

It shouldn't happen until he's had enough seasoning to stand on his own, though. For the coming months, he should stick with his dad and even win the tag team titles alongside him before eventually turning on his father.

Taking out such a revered legend like Rey and turning on his father in a general sense will secure the right heel heat to get him started and see if he has legs as a heel. If he doesn't, he can always come to his senses and turn face again just by making amends with his dad.

Outside of his feud with his half-brother Dustin, Cody Rhodes has been one of the biggest babyfaces in AEW despite claiming that heels and villains are tired tropes and that he's neither.

He may think he's not a babyface, but when he's booked to be cheered against the likes of obvious villains like Lance Archer and MJF, he's not fooling anyone but himself.

Likewise, if he were to go up against Sting, only a fool would think Rhodes would be cheered over The Icon.

Since AEW is clearly teasing that confrontation will go down at some point, Rhodes turning heel in advance of that seems natural.

In particular, if he and Arn Anderson were to join forces with FTR and Shawn Spears, who have Tully Blanchard by their side, this will create a new Four Horsemen group of sorts, which was among Sting's greatest rivals.

This year alone, Asuka won the Money in the Bank and held the women's tag titles and Raw Women's Championship twice. Prior to that, she had been the SmackDown and NXT women's champions, which saw her incredibly difficult to beat, and even won the Royal Rumble.

Despite all that credibility, Asuka usually struggles creatively when she's not playing more of a heel role.

WWE has a tendency to treat her as an afterthought and someone that heels can beat up to look strong against, rather than someone who is capable of taking down everyone on the roster and should be feared.

This year has been indicative of that. Even after Becky Lynch handed her the title and there were no other options who could lead the brand, WWE tried to shift the focus to Charlotte Flair showing up despite how she was NXT champion at the time.

Flair's injury should have forced WWE to keep the attention on The Empress of Tomorrow, but it was decided Bayley and Sasha Banks needed to come over from SmackDown to compensate.

Heading into Survivor Series, she was an afterthought. Then, for TLC, it was a bigger deal to focus on Lana being put through a table than to set up a proper No. 1 contender for the Raw Women's Championship.

It's arguable the only reason she's holding the tag title right now is because WWE wants to use that to fuel her rivalry with Flair, to whom she'll drop the title.

If Asuka turns heel later in 2021, maybe WWE will care enough about giving her some decent storylines instead of treating her poorly and expecting the championship to compensate for being overlooked.

Then, she can fight with some of the babyfaces who could use seasoned opponents like her, such as Rhea Ripley (if she moves up to the main roster) and Bianca Belair.

The only time Kevin Owens was truly on top of both NXT and WWE was when he was a heel. As a babyface, he's more of a punching bag.

The experiment of turning him face for the past stretch of time was worth a shot, but not enough effort was put into maintaining his credibility. He quickly became the upper-midcarder who couldn't get the job done against the top heels.

Owens is far too good in the ring and charismatic on the mic to be hindered by wrestling a babyface style and keeping his character from getting too edgy. He just feels watered down and, at times, like he's going through the motions.

Something needs to reinvigorate him. Perhaps it's just a tweak to his character and not a full turn. Maybe he needs a new tag team partner to play off and find chemistry with.

But if WWE doesn't figure that out soon enough, it's worth moving him back to a heel role and letting him be the prizefighter brute that led to his greatest successes.

Private Party's entrance theme literally bills them from a location where you need an invitation, meaning you aren't cool enough to hang out with them, in theory.

They've been babyfaces for a while now in AEW, but they continue to carry themselves with a bravado that skirts the line and can go into heel territory rather quickly. All they have to do is turn up the obnoxiousness a tad and they're set.

With a few wins under their belts that can go to their heads and make them even more self-assured and arrogant, they'd make for better heels to feud with The Young Bucks than the other way around.

It's also easier to turn Private Party heel than to put significantly more effort into making villains out of Jurassic Express or Best Friends, who are sillier and tend to act more heroic.

Nikki Cross comes off stuck between characters at the moment. She used to be the intense wild child of Sanity before settling down as Alexa Bliss's best friend.

For a bit, it was OK for her to keep the manic mannerisms, as she was the wired and energetic opposite of Bliss, who was more reserved. But in recent months, Cross has been a more reserved, quiet, introspective character.

All she tends to do these days is complain about her friend and looks sad. Yet, for some reason, during the few moments of her entrance, she's still sometimes feral.

If Cross doesn't want to abandon that trait, she has to go heel. Otherwise, she'll continue to look weak when she mellows out by the time she gets to the ring and loses.

If Roman Reigns makes good on his claims, Jey Uso isn't the only one who will be his "indentured servant" for the foreseeable future. This extends to Jimmy Uso and should, in theory, apply to Naomi, too.

She's part of the family. Even if she protests, Reigns should give her the same ultimatum he gave The Usos: fall in line or you no longer have a seat at the table.

Naomi's done about everything she can with the "feel the glow" character. She's a multitime champion and winner of the WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal who spent the last year on the shelf with nothing to do but a terrible karaoke competition.

She also hasn't been a heel since her days in Team B.A.D., so it would be a refreshing change of pace to see her tap into a more wicked side.

Otherwise, Naomi will continue to be the steppingstone that heels use to build themselves up against.

For someone called The Bad Boy, Joey Janela has yet to tap into his more heelish side.

It can certainly be seen here and there, as his character carries himself like someone who could make a lot of enemies on the roster. He's rarely joining in the fight to help out other babyfaces, for instance, and is pompous without having much to show for it.

Outside of teaming with Sonny Kiss and fighting more villainous characters, there's nothing at all indicating why he's a babyface, so AEW should steer into the skid and make him a true bad guy already.

Turning on Kiss would be a perfect trigger for this, too, as there will be no doubt which one fans are supposed to boo in that scenario.

Rounding out this list are some babyfaces who could stand to turn heel but may not be as big of a priority.

For instance, Dave Mastiff has lost all credibility as a babyface on NXT UK. He's failed to win any important match and no longer looks threatening, so he should take back that power by becoming a more dominant heel and someone babyfaces have to struggle to overcome.

Dexter Lumis does everything a heel should do and just happens to fight Cameron Grimes, who is one of the most amazingly obnoxious Superstars in WWE. Unless he continues to fight people as adversarial as Grimes, Lumis will look out of place as the babyface in the feud and should just play heel.

When Ivar returns to action, The Viking Raiders could use a heel turn to restore some of their credibility. They've spent the last year mostly goofing around and Erik has just chased R-Truth for the 24/7 title, which hasn't helped, either.

Last, but not least, Dana Brooke and Mandy Rose have it in them to turn heel and be powerhouses in the women's tag team division.

They're working perfectly fine right now as babyfaces, but should the need come when there aren't enough heel teams to spread around, they could fit the bill. As some of the most muscular women on the roster, they look imposing enough to play up their strengths quite literally and bully the smaller teams like The Riott Squad.

Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.