The Heel Report: 08.23.12: Respect the Show Off

This is the Heel Report. A weekly chart spanning from Tuesday’s NXT to the Raw Super Show, ranking the heels in professional wrestling based on their actions, wins and losses.

Each Week there are ten places, with points out of ten awarded based on these positions. These points are then added to a rolling chart that will continue each week to show who is wrestling’s overall top heel.

This is a place where the heels of wrestling can be praised for all the hard work they do trying to get us all to hate them, so without further ado let’s get on with the report…

Weekly Top Ten

1st Place: C.M. Punk

While there is still some doubt here in the IWC as to whether or not Punk is a ‘tweener’ or a heel I would say that to the casual fan, seeing Punk kick Lawler in the back of the head would definitely put him in heel territory and so he gets to claim the top spot on the chart this week. I quite like the way the WWE are handling Punk at the moment as he has gone back to telling the truth and yet it really depends on your own standpoint as to whether this makes him a heel or not. Is he a whiny crybaby who can’t accept his spot behind more deserving names such as Triple H or John Cena? Or is he the best performer the WWE has to offer who has finally made it to the top of the pile and managed to stay there and therefore deserves top billing and to be treated like the face of the company? Once again Punk is stating on air legitimate gripes that people in the IWC have been saying for months, which is always refreshing and perhaps why there is still some confusion over this whole issue. In the end I think it will all boil down to who wins at Night of Champions. If Punk wins he will be being recognised as the real deal and will probably go onto face the Rock at the Rumble and maybe even Austin at Wrestlemania, making his protests about being the Best in the World valid and meaning that the WWE are finally prepared to see Cena without the belt at least once a year, having realised that, as Cena said on Raw, his fans support him whether he is champion or not, so why not let someone else have the belt, and possibly the main event from now on. However if Punk loses to Cena, and Cena walks away the hometown hero then everything Punk is saying will be fruitless and it will look like a nice run but have meant next to nothing since he was only ever in the main event a couple of times and Cena having a crappy match seemed to trump him at every turn even if he was wrestling a five-star classic, basically summing up everything wrong with wrestling today. So somehow the WWE has managed to run a kayfabe storyline where the consequences are also true in real life, so good job WWE I guess!

2nd Place: Dolph Ziggler

He might have lost at Summerslam and been brained by his briefcase on Raw but there isn’t a heel alive with a brighter future and a bigger upside than Dolph Ziggler right now, and he can now be added to the long list of men who have made Chris Jericho be fired on Monday Night Raw. The only thing Ziggler really needs to do now is watch himself with his bumps and his selling since making others look good is a great skill to have, but if you are too good at it you will be used that way for the whole of your career and while you might get some respect you aren’t exactly going to get to the top of the company by helping other guys look good. I think we in the IWC are getting a little too eager with this whole ‘cashing in the case’ thing, I know they keep teasing it but when I was watching Summerslam, thinking Ziggler might cash in the case simply because the World Title match wasn’t on first for once, I realised that he has only had the thing for a month and Cena already cashed his in. So when you think about it the WWE would be pulling the trigger on the whole MitB thing way too soon. Two guys win the cases and both blow their load within a month of the PPV? That would have been a little premature since part of the reason for the MitB case is to guard against title vacations due to injury or time off or whatever, or to facilitate smooth title transitions between guys for whatever reason, or for a surprise swerve somewhere down the road. Sure these things don’t exactly always work out for the guy cashing in the case and I hope that Ziggler will get a fair run when he does finally cash in the case, but when you think about it the WWE would be mad to let him cash it in now and then leave themselves unprotected for the rest of the year against such occurrences, so I don’t think it will happen for quite a while yet.

3rd Place: Brock Lesnar

The Beast took the Game to the limit at Summerslam and then past it to make him tap out. His match with Triple H was nowhere near as brutal or shocking as his one with John Cena at Extreme Rules but it told a nice story and wasn’t a bad match, although I would argue that maybe the WWE should have switched John Cena and Triple H and kept the same finishes as Triple H getting the last minute victory and then disappearing along with Lesnar, and then Lesnar making Cena tap out at Summerslam would have been a much bigger deal and he would look a hell of a lot stronger, even if Cena did pull his whole ‘Super Cena’ thing and came back the next week fine as anything, plus we wouldn’t have had to have anywhere near as much pointless build for the Cena-Lesnar match or the Lesnar-Triple H match as they would have only had a month after his debut to book it and Triple H is the one who loves to hear himself talk for weeks and weeks before a big time match, as if the more you say, the more important the match will be. Anyway apparently Lesnar is now King of the Brocktagon and has retired from professional wrestling in some kayfabe lazy way to explain why he won’t be on TV for several months, I don’t see why they don’t just tell the truth on this one, just with a little creative spin on it. I.e. Lesnar could simply say: ‘I’m the biggest star this company has ever seen and I’m only going to work the biggest events against the best opponents, call me when it’s time for Survivior Series.’ and walk off, which would be no more damning to the stars of the WWE than to have him say he is the King of the WWE and walk away unchallenged, and he would have looked like way more of a douche and you wouldn’t have to faff about in a few months when he has to come back for yet another match when he has apparently said that he won’t be wrestling again.

4th Place: Big Show

He might not have walked off with the gold after Summerslam, but at least this time the Big Show was able to be booked right. In his title match he truly looked like a force to be reckoned with and it was only when both men locked in respective submission holds that he was forced to tap out, then soon after he got up and chokeslammed both men. I’m betting that Show will be the first one after Punk to get a shot at Cena’s title if he manages to capture the gold at Night of Champions, although it will probably be in an unsuccessful attempt. Although having said that, if the plan truly is for Punk to face Rock at the Royal Rumble then it would seem to make sense from the WWE’s standpoint, if they don’t feel like they should let Punk keep the title until then, that he should lose to Cena and then you have Cena protected by losing to the Big Show through nefarious means, who then has the title taken away from him by Punk himself. Hell I wouldn’t mind seeing a kind of Andre the Giant- Million Dollar Man type deal where Punk buys off Big Show to win the title from Cena, only to give the belt to Punk, but this would require a lot of work and build to be pulled off successfully, then again it’s not like the WWE doesn’t have the air time!

5th Place: Christopher Daniels

He might not have been featured in a PPV bout this week, or even won his match on Impact, but the fact is that Christopher Daniels showed himself as being one of the most entertaining heels in all of professional wrestling in his match with AJ Styles. Throughout the entire match he was focused on working the crowd, gaining a huge amount of heat from the fans and using a bunch of heel tactics and some innovative new ones to make sure that even the crowd in the Impact Zone were solidly invested in seeing him lose the bout, which in the end is really what being a heel is all about.

6th Place: The Miz

While it is far from a massive comeback just yet, the Miz did make sure that he wasn’t relegated to jobber status once again through his win over Mysterio at Summerslam and his walking out on his tag match on Raw. Not only did he not get pinned this week but he also managed to retain his IC title and get a clean pinfall over the slippery aforementioned Mysterio, which is difficult at the best of times. I can’t be the only one to have noticed how the Miz has seemed to mature in his short time off to now being an in-ring competitor who might have a much better run with the WWE title than he did before once all this Rock/Brock stuff is done with and the WWE have to start relying on internal talent to sell their product once again. When you consider that in Miz’s run as champion he managed to defeat Randy Orton and John Cena, at Wrestlemania no less, then you have to think that he could seriously make an impact if he was given another shot with his much improved look, mindset and moveset, I guess time will tell on this one.

7th Place: Antonio Cesaro

Your new US champion would have probably come a little higher on the list if his title win had actually taken place on the main card for Summerslam rather than the pre-show. Still as it stands everyone has to be happy with the new US champion as Santino holding the belt for as long as he did shows just how pointless the belt really is at this point as no one really came to consistently challenge him for it. I really hope that Cesaro holding the belt will mean that it is defended more regularly and will be part of actual storylines, because that is what the WWE is sorely lacking right now; real storylines built around the titles and the superstars who want to gain possession over the championship gold. Some decently contested PPV matches for the title wouldn’t hurt either.

8th Place: Alberto Del Rio

Del Rio really doesn’t have much luck with the world title does he? Hell this is the guy who won the WWE championship twice, twice! At a time when C.M. Punk and John Cena were heatedly contesting for the title no less! Yet when it comes to the world title Del Rio couldn’t beat a retiring Edge, Christian, or the current champion Sheamus. Of course arguably it would have been much better if Del Rio never won the WWE title on either occasion, but where the world title is concerned I see no reason not to give Del Rio a shot with the belt, after all although the company wants to build up Sheamus it seems a little ridiculous that they were willing to rob all the momentum away from the Summer of Punk just to jimmy this guy into the title picture and now he can’t even get his hands on the belt. Maybe it is a case of the WWE getting their hands burnt once and so now they won’t let the guy hold a major belt, but then why have him challenge for it all the time? I really can’t see why the WWE doesn’t want to give Orton, Ziggler or Rhodes a shot at Sheamus and instead continue to book the same boring match over and over again, so boring that it seems to get cancelled at every opportunity, only to be put on again at the last minute as if Vince McMahon and Triple H are wrestling over the headset backstage and yelling in opposing orders every time they get an opportunity, someone please sort it out once and for all!

9th Place: Daniel Bryan

Well there was no Charlie Sheen, no AJ and no men in white coats during Bryan’s match with Kane and things were better for it, although I would question why the match went on at all, as well as why it seems like it might be continuing on even after Bryan managed to pin Kane clean. I still think it would have made more sense to stick Daniel Bryan in the WWE title match, or even have put him against Sheamus and have Del Rio go against the Great White this month instead, but whatever. Bryan like the Miz managed to win at Summerslam and avoid getting pinned on Raw, the only difference is that Bryan doesn’t have a title to show for it, but who is really in the better position in the company right now?

10th Place: Bully Ray

The man with the largest calves in the world manages to steal the last space on the chart, simply by being one of the best heel promo men in the business right now. He might have lost his match with Jeff Hardy at the end of Impact but at least he was in the main event and he also pulled a ‘WWE face on Raw’ move and attacked his opponent after the match, except for a heel this is a good thing. Maybe the WWE’s big angle wasn’t Punk’s turn after all but more that was a starting pistol for faces to act like complete heels and get away with it, as if the WWE’s concept of justice has shifted back from ‘obey the rules at all costs in pursuit of victory’ to ‘doing to a heel what they would do to you is completely fitting and justified’, which would in a subtle way hark back to the Attitude Era way of thinking, which would be interesting…Bully Ray is awesome!

(Week 55):

1. Daniel Bryan (246)

2. Robert Roode (218)

3. Cody Rhodes (215)

4. Alberto Del Rio (209)

5. Mark Henry (181)

6. The Miz (146)

7. Dolph Ziggler (145)

8. Bully Ray (141)

9. Chris Jericho (125)

10. Big Show (107)

The King of Kings Needs Love Too

The Wright View:

Kevin Rudolf Performance

No one cared and that WWE title match could have done with the extra time; that is all.

Scotty 2 Hotty

I’m not sure how many of you would have seen it but Scotty 2 Hotty returned on NXT and he looked pretty good to me. He still had a way of working the crowd and he seems to have kept in pretty damn good shape, and somehow the Worm is still at least slightly believable, at least when it is done against Heath Slater. Of all the legends to come back in recent weeks, unless we are counting Billy Gunn, I think Scotty could have the best potential for a full time return.

C.M. Punk & Heyman

While the rumours of these two working together has been denied by both men, and other sources have pointed out that Punk in no way needs a mouth-piece, what I would like to see having heard this is the two becoming the announce team for Raw and have King booted down to Smackdown along with ‘the voice of the WWE’ Michael Cole. Heyman already sowed the seeds of descent by proclaiming that he was way better ten years ago than those two are today and he is right. What’s more Punk booted Lawler on Raw and might get the chance to take him out on Raw next week. Now I’m not saying that they are actually planning anything like this, but I just think it would be awesome and technically the groundwork is all there and it could be pulled off in a number of weeks, and we would finally have an announce team to be proud of on Raw after all this time. Finally for all those of you out their asking what the WWE would do when their WWE champion had a match at a PPV or on Raw? Well perhaps they could call in Good ol’ JR to call those ones (the PPV matches only maybe) and then perhaps Matt Striker for the Raw matches… A man can dream can’t he?!

Cody Rhodes

Wow, this month has not been kind to Cody Rhodes! First of all he lost at Money in the Bank in a match that I, and many others, were sure he was primed to win. Then after that he barely appeared on Raw, or even Smackdown, and when he did he wasn’t very featured or successful. Then he was left off the Summerslam card completely and once again lost to Sin Cara, this time in a tag match on Raw. Things have to change soon or Rhodes could turn into the next Miz, and without the claim of a former WWE title run to cling onto.

Cheap Pops:

Steve Cook Presents Fact or Fiction

Gavin Napier Rates US Champs in The Contentious Ten

Joseph Lee Slams the Idea of an Evil Dead Remake in A Bloody Good Time

Mike Gorman Gives us his Top Ten Found Footage Films in Ten Deep

The 411 Staff Rate ‘Um Up in The Weekly Top Ten

Matt Striker on Superstars – Okay so Striker isn’t really a heel, but he sure is good at putting them over, at least when he is given something to work with. His calling of Damien Sandow’s match against Justin Gabriel was great. Highlighting how Sandow uses Maths and Physics to beat his opponent was a stroke of genius in terms of shaping a wrestler’s performance into being educational, which not only plays into Sandow’s gimmick, but also helps in this PG environment. I really hope that Sandow and Striker get to play off each other more going forward.

That’s all for this week, the three big companies have had their PPVs and I have to say that once again it looks like TNA have triumphed, which is surprising considering that they had what should have been a gimmicky filler PPV and the WWE had Summerslam, arguably the second biggest PPV of the year and certainly where a lot of monumental matches are supposed to take place. I think this truly cements TNA as having grown as a company and if they can keep their development up they might actually get an increase in ratings, although I have the slight opinion that most people who appreciate wrestling also use torrents, it’s just a theory but it would explain why everyone has been banging on about how much better they have gotten and yet their ratings haven’t reflected this change in opinion one bit and have actually been going down for the most part, although you could blame a portion of that on this whole Viacom-Direct TV mess that was going on before. Anyway what do you think? Why hasn’t TNA’s rise in quality been rewarded with higher ratings? For now this is James Wright signing off.