How many guys have become legit main event faces without first being a super popular heel?

[Supreme Olajuwon]

Talking last 15 years or so. Obviously the early 90s had different rules about getting over.

Can think of Jeff Hardy and Rey Rey. Any others?

[CSL]

Batista maybe, he was heel before his slow burn turn and push but not "super popular", he really started getting over/becoming popular once they'd started planting the seeds. Had the rub from super popular heels Triple H and Orton which helped though.

[Rammsteinmad]

Bret Hart?

[CSL]

Sting

[Supreme Olajuwon]

I dunno about Batista. He got a massive pop when he won the Rumble.

[Ultra Mantis]

Goldberg

[Shisen Kopf]

<code><marquee direction="LEFT" scrollamount="30" width="100%">ULTIMATE WARRIOR!</marquee>

</code><code><marquee direction="RIGHT" scrollamount="30" width="100%">RAAAAAAAAAARRGGGGH!!!!</marquee>
</code>

[CSL]

I dunno about Batista. He got a massive pop when he won the Rumble.

Outside of a run in here and there to keep up the faction pretence, he was acting and being booked like a face for some time before that.

[Kal-El]

Not counting his WCW run . . . Jericho, he was pretty much always a fan favorite.

[Gertner]

Hogan. His heel run with the WWF when he started out didn't amount to much.

[dhellova guy]

Kofi hasn't worked as a heel yet, and he started to get a push (although short lived).

CM Punk was a face all the way up to his first championship (although he was a heel in other organizations). Even when he was with the New Breed on WWECW he was still a face.

Thats all I can think of.

[Emperor Smeat]

Bobby Lashley

[Xero]

Kofi hasn't worked as a heel yet, and he started to get a push (although short lived).

CM Punk was a face all the way up to his first championship (although he was a heel in other organizations). Even when he was with the New Breed on WWECW he was still a face.

Thats all I can think of.

I don't feel like Punk was a legit main eventer at that time, though. It's about on par with Swagger being a "legit main eventer".

[RiX1024]

Only ones i can think of is Ultimate Warrior and Goldberg.

[XL]

Would we say Cena?

I mean he had a fued with Lesnar as a heel but soon went back to midcard. He was never in a "top spot" as a heel before he turned, won the US Title at Mania 20 before up to the ME as a face.

[CSL]

he was red hot right before they turned him, he was getting face reactions/was over like rover and I assume was turned because of it. I seem to remember "the internet" being quite the fan also. How times change.

[Fox]

Not counting his WCW run . . . Jericho, he was pretty much always a fan favorite.

Jericho was a heel for probably his first 2-3 months in the company, and he never became a "legit main event face" until maybe 2006/07. And prior to that, he did several runs as a super popular heel.

[Fox]

- Goldberg (definitely, no question about it)

- Rob Van Dam (at least in the WWE - he came in as part of a heel faction in the Alliance, but he never DID anything that was really very heelish and within a couple of weeks was majorly over as a face... never played a heel in the WWE.)

- Rey Mysterio (as discussed previously)

- Bobby Lashley is arguable... he only really main evented one PPV with Cena and I don't think he was with the company long enough to be considered a "legit" main event face.

- Jeff Hardy (was a tweener for a very short amount of time in 2002 and when he debuted, but other than that, never played a heel - certainly not a "super popular" heel)

[Mr. Nerfect]

I think Bobby Lashley and Jeff Hardy are both good cases. Lashley was being pushed as Superman. If he didn't leave the company, he'd have been treated as a top star.

[Aguakate]

Ultimate Warrior?

[Anybody Thrilla]

Jericho and Cena are two terrible answers to this thread. Jericho would have never have even been popular without his WCW heel run, AND he was a super popular heel when he debuted in the WWF. Basic Thuganomics put Cena on the map.