A Look Back: Eve Torres' Heel Run

One of my favorite moments was the inevitable heel turn from Eve Torres, which occurred on February 20, 2012. I remember wanting Eve to become a villainess for a good while; she looked like she could pull off being a heel, she definitely had the look to do so. Eve's WWE career began with winning the 2007 Diva Search (the last one to date) and making her televised debut as SmackDown's backstage interviewer in 2008. She began competing in the ring in 2009, and engaged in feuds with women such as Michelle McCool and Layla before being moved to Raw in October of that year. It was in April of 2010 that Eve captured the WWE Divas Championship for the first time, with the reign lasting two months before losing the title to Alicia Fox as the Fatal 4 Way event, doing so in the titular match that also included Maryse and Gail Kim.

Eve added a 2nd reign as champion at the 2011 Royal Rumble event, but eight days after WrestleMania 27, she lost the title to Brie Bella. She would spend 2011 aligned with Kelly Kelly in a feud against the villainous Divas of Doom duo that consisted of Beth Phoenix and Natalya--a feud that saw Eve come up short on two occasions when it came to dethroning Beth as Divas Champion. The tail end of 2011 would see Eve in an interesting storyline as the object of Zack Ryder's affection; an angle that would enter 2012 and see John Cena involved, as his own feud with the returning Kane. It was on the February 13, 2012 edition of Raw that Cena had to save Eve from Kane's clutches, and it actually ended with Eve kissing Cena...in front of Ryder. Oh boy.

Even worse, Eve told Ryder that "they could just be friends." Ouch! And then came the following week; now, in the decade that has passed, I have always believed that their were three different phases to Eve Torres' heel character, which is why I loved it so much. They are as follows:

Phase One: The Femme Fatale

I'll never forget the evening of February 20, 2012; it was one day after the Elimination Chamber PPV, and I remember how nervous I was, because I knew Eve was turning heel. Since it didn't happen during the PPV, it had to happen on the following night's Raw, which kicked off with Eve backstage with the Bella Twins, who mentioned Zack Ryder and figured that Eve was feeling down over what happened to him. In a surprise response, Eve gave a loud and (somewhat) evil laugh and gave the following revelation: she was using Ryder for attention, and she was planning to do the same regarding John Cena. However, just as Eve was about to involve the Bellas in her wicked plan, she was interrupted by Cena, who later made his entrance before being interrupted himself by Eve.

Eve's attempts to appease Cena were brashly rebuffed, and it was followed by Cena letting Eve have it for her actions, which ruined his friendship with Ryder. I believe the words Cena used were: "I gave up a broski for a hoeski!" (seriously, for that alone, Cena should be in the Hall of Fame). That first week saw Eve go on what I called the "Heel Turn Tour," which actually continued on the following evening (February 21) during the SmackDown tapings. Eve played out her heel persona in an exclusive promo, where after denying using Ryder (in spite of saying that she was basically too good for Ryder and any of the men in the audience), she admits to using Ryder, but claiming that the fans would do the same thing. Eve continued to show off her new evil role on social media, and on the following Raw (February 27), the villainess boasted about her ability to use her looks to make guys do whatever she wanted, before laughing at a shocked Kelly Kelly.

Eve spent the waning weeks until WrestleMania continuing to string Ryder along, while also aligning with Beth Phoenix in a rivalry against Kelly Kelly and Maria Menounos. While Eve was on the losing end of the tag match, she ended up humiliating Ryder later on, as after her distraction led to Team Johnny defeating Team Teddy, the villainess low blowed Zack. To this day, every time I hear Bobby "Blue" Bland's song, I Pity the Fool, I think of how Eve played Ryder for all those weeks, especially when the following lyrics are sung:

"She'll break your heart one day, and then she'll laugh and walk away; oh, I pity the fool."

Phase Two: Climbing the Corporate Ladder

Eve's actions at WrestleMania 28 resulted in John Laurinaitis ended up running both Raw and SmackDown, putting SD's longtime GM Theodore Long out of a job. In addition, Eve was rewarded for her actions by becoming Laurinaitis' assistant, and boy, did she throw her weight around. The photo of "Corporate Eve" is from May of 2012, and it's from one of my favorite moments: the evil Eve berating Big Show for mocking Laurinaitis, even going as far as threatening to fire Show if he didn't apologize.

"Big Johnny" lost his job in June's No Way Out event, but that didn't stop Eve from continuing her quest for corporate power. When Booker T became SmackDown's General Manager, Eve made attempts to become part of that administration, resulting in Eve finally becoming the Executive Assistant--though she had to threaten legal action and defeat Kaitlyn in a match to get that position. However, Kaitlyn got the last laugh by winning a #1 Contender's Battle Royal, lastly eliminating Eve.

Phase Three: Conniving Champion

The Divas Champion at the time was Layla, who formed an alliance with Kaitlyn months prior, and after the battle royal, Eve acted cordial to the champion and challenger heading into their planned bout at Night of Champions, but at the event, Kaitlyn was found backstage, having been attacked by a mysterious assailant. Eve ended up replacing Kaitlyn in the match, and she ended up defeating Layla to capture the Divas Championship. With that win, Eve became WWE's first-ever three-time Divas Champion (only AJ Lee would join that short list). Even so, the question had to be asked: Who attacked Kaitlyn?

Kaitlyn's revelation that the attacker was a blonde led to Eve attacking Beth Phoenix and accusing her of the attack; but in late October 2012, it was revealed that Aksana attacked Kaitlyn, donning a blonde wig as a disguise, and committing the attack under Eve's orders. As a result, Eve had to defend the title at Hell in a Cell against both Kaitlyn and Layla; a successful defense, but Eve still had Kaitlyn chasing her heading into Survivor Series. At that event, Eve sent Aksana to attack Kaitlyn again, with Kaitlyn fighting off Aksana's attempt, which still ended up being enough to allow Eve to defeat her. Eve's feud with Kaitlyn ended up continuing in December 2012 and entering January 2013, which saw Kaitlyn win back-to-back title matches against Eve via disqualification and countout.

On the January 14, 2013 edition of Raw (the special 20th Anniversary special), Eve was set to defend her title against Kaitlyn again, but this time, her championship advantage was taken away. If she got counted out or disqualified, Eve would lose the title, but it would not come to that. Kaitlyn prevented Eve from leaving, as she wanted to win in the ring, which she did with a devastating spear. In an exclusive video, Eve ranted about the title loss and accused Booker T and Theodore Long of conspiring against her, and she ended her rant by quitting WWE.

Aftermath

Eve's departure was actually planned back in December 2012; she informed the higher-ups that she would be leaving, and that led to the backstage plan to have Kaitlyn win the title from her. Eve's departure also kiboshed a potential WrestleMania feud between her and AJ Lee, as they were the two most over women during 2012, and there were seeds planted for the pair to feud over the title heading into WrestleMania, though nothing was ever confirmed. Eve delved into acting following her WWE departure, appearing in films such as The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power and Skiptrace, and regarding the small screen, Eve appeared in a 2016 episode of Supergirl as alien villainess Maxima.

To say that I loved Eve Torres' heel run would be an understatement. I really loved the first few months, as it saw Eve really show off her new villainous side with her promos and her antics, and it would improve vastly with her corporate role. If I had to pinpoint an exact time that I knew Eve would shine as a wrestling villainess, it would be the very weird Jerry Springer segment on Raw back in 2010, which saw (among other things) a funny and heated confrontation between a fuming Eve and Kelly Kelly. That's when I knew. Two years after the segment, Eve began her final 11 months as a villainous character, and she truly showed out.

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