The Heel Report 05.22.13: Not So Extreme

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: The Ryback

Now I know that some aren’t happy with the finish to the WWE title match at Extreme Rules, but when you look at it from the perspective of what we thought would happen to The Ryback, and what actually did happen it was pretty good for the guy. Absolutely no one on the 411 Roundtable predicted Ryback as winning, we all saw Cena walking out victorious and thus driving another nail into the coffin of Ryback’s career. As it was Cena didn’t walk out with the victory, and while Ryback didn’t win the title, there is an argument that he probably should have, and that in itself is a much better result for the guy than simply being just another one of Cena’s victims. I’ll put it this way, last year Brock Lesnar was even made to lose to John Cena, sure Cena was then supposed to be stretchered out but instead he screwed Lesnar over, even anticipated repercussions for his actions, and nothing happened to him. Whereas Ryback was not only shown as taking Cena to that point, but he didn’t even have to lose in the process, so while we all might lament what could have been, realistically The Ryback dodged a bullet at Extreme Rules. Now sure the decision makes no sense and the audience wasn’t happy, but all things considered I think Ryback did pretty well for himself, hell he’s even getting another title shot out, in an Ambulance match, and of the two men, he was the one who showed up at Raw and dominated, Cena was nowhere to be seen.

2nd Place: Dean Ambrose

Thank you WWE for letting the Shield go out there without any outside interference or shenanigans and win their titles clean, not only did it make the group look stronger in their wins but it also means that for once I can separate them on the chart and give them their just rewards. Ambrose week after week is becoming the standout member in a group where all three men are extremely talented, each bringing something different to the table. The match between Ambrose and Kingston was nice and with more time I believe these two could do even better, what really stood out to me though was the promo that Ambrose cut on Raw, where he delivered solidly, selling himself and the group, all the while making it look effortless. Now I’m just looking forward to some actual feuds for Ambrose over the title that give him an excuse to get on the mic and into the ring more as an individual, hopefully against some credible talent that he can actually have a competitive rivalry against.

3rd Place: Roman Reigns

I was tempted to group Rollins and Reigns together as they are the new tag team champions, but for at least one week I am placing all the members apart, specifically because Roman Reigns scored three of the pinfall victories this week for the group and while it is for the most part always a team effort when it comes to the Shield, I think that puts him just slightly above his partner Rollins. Reigns looks like a powerhouse in the ring and his work with Kane both at Extreme Rules and especially on Raw afterwards looked great, the two big men worked nicely together and there was a flow to the action that you don’t get to see all that often with men of their size. Honestly while I hope that Ambrose faces a myriad of opponents to showcase his full talents as the new US champ, I wouldn’t care if Rollins and Reigns just faced Team Hell No for months on end, perhaps exchanging the belts a couple of times before eventually coming out on top, since the two teams work so well together.

4th Place: Seth Rollins

Bar Ryback’s questionable No Contest with Cena and Lesnar’s win, but only after a massive beatdown, over HHH, Extreme Rules was clearly the Shield’s night, add to that their victories on Smackdown and Raw and it is easy to see why all three men are grouped together at the top end of the chart. While I am somewhat surprised by how things turned out, as in how the WWE has opted not to position the Shield as defending the titles under ‘Freebird rules’, when looking at the team of Rollins & Reigns matched up against Daniel Bryan and Kane you can see how this could evolve into a classic rivalry. Two teams of a big man and an athletic, accomplished indy guy, who are all or could be singles stars in their own rights. Plus you have the existing history between Bryan and Rollins, which still has a lot of room to be explored as this rivalry develops, hell they haven’t even gone one-on-one yet, and you can see why these two teams really could spend the whole summer running a really entertaining program together, with Ambrose coming in when needed and at other times absent while defending his own title.

5th Place: Brock Lesnar

A year since being defeated at the hands of John Cena and Brock Lesnar finally got to stand tall in his series with HHH, which from the start has had many saying that the matchup wasn’t necessary and wasn’t really something that anyone wanted to see, and were we proved wrong when all was said and done? …Not really. While their matches together weren’t bad, HHH and Brock Lesnar didn’t exactly set the world on fire and after nearly a year their rivalry has put over exactly nobody, not even Curtis Axel, despite them setting up the perfect way to give the guy a massive victory over HHH on Raw. Instead we see no trace of the victorious Lesnar and HHH simply decides to have a little sit down after not feeling too great half way through his match. When will Lesnar next appear? Does it really matter since all he will most likely be doing is wrestling The Rock, or possible Punk?

6th Place: Cody Rhodes

This placement might come as a shock but in a week where many of the WWE’s top heels were beaten and broken down, Cody Rhodes actually won three out of four of his matches. Sure the one he lost was his actual match at Extreme Rules, but nothing was on the line and it was only the pre-show, to me his momentum is still way up from where it was a week ago, now if only creative could actually develop some rivalries for their talent to actually have something to do apart from have meaningless back and forth matches with each other.

7th Place: Jack Swagger

If the finish between Cena and Ryback was unsatisfactory, then the finish between Swagger and Del Rio was just confusing. The whole towel thing seemingly did nothing to help Swagger, and the tease of having him win the match just seemed strange as throwing in the towel should surely have nothing to do with the match stipulation, let alone the whole ‘instant replay’ thing, which calls into question pretty much every dusty finish ever in the WWE. Maybe if they expressed a specific shift in how things were contested or highlighted the ‘new’ presence of laptop displays for the refs to check then you could say fair enough, but it all just came out of nowhere and probably won’t happen again, as such the whole thing just looked so sloppy, I really hope Ziggler can come back soon to save us from this dire situation of a title picture without the actual champion, especially when his challengers have nothing to offer but the same old rubbish.

8th Place: Bully Ray

The TNA champion kept things verbal this week but in doing so negotiated himself into the position where he might get TNA’s first Hall of Famer to move one step closer to actually retiring. Bully Ray as champion is the right way to go and if the belt went to Sting at Slammiversary I think that would be proof that Hogan and Sting are both mad. Hell even if Sting doesn’t win there is still the threat that Hogan will take the title at Bound For Glory, like Sting, even the thought of Hogan wrestling the title is pretty annoying, but if he actually won the belt then that would be a thousand times worse than how the whole Cena-Rock-Punk thing went down this year, with the WWE making out like Cena was the down-and-out hero who finally climbed back to the mountain top.

9th Place: Big Show

He might have lost in the end but he and Orton put on a decent enough show at Extreme Rules to garner the Big Show a place on the chart. What’s next for the World’s Largest Athlete? Honestly I am not sure since he took a punt to the head and since this was the first time in years we have seen the move it is possible that the WWE will be selling Show’s absence for some time to come, or he could be back by Smackdown, who can tell due to the sheer lack of consistency that exists in the world of professional wrestling.

10th Place: Fandango

I’m actually quite surprised that Jericho got the win over Fandango on Sunday, but then again it doesn’t seem like Fandango needs to be the winning type to be successful anymore, no matter how shoddy some of the action was in the match his Wrestlemania win over Jericho should keep him in good stead for some time to come. Although having said that I’m not sure if he is in such good stead that he can just start dancing during a match and lose it without even batting an eye like he did on Raw, that was just confusing and seemed to put him against Barrett more than anyone else.

(Week 94):

1. Dolph Ziggler (308)

2. Robert Roode (305)

3. C.M. Punk (288)

4. Alberto Del Rio (281)

5. Daniel Bryan (274)

6. Cody Rhodes (272)

7. The Big Show (271)

8. Mark Henry (261)

9. Bully Ray (239)

10. Austin Aries (204)

The Wright View:

HHH: The King of Douchebags

The good thing about HHH is that behind the scenes he seems to be doing nothing but trying to help the product by trying to bring new talent to the WWE and rejuvenate failing divisions, although that hasn’t always been too successful at least he is pushing in the right direction. The bad thing about HHH is that he wants so bad to be the best ever and regarded in the same way as say the Rock or Steve Austin and it is just never going to happen. The painful plea for the standing ovation for the valiant hero that HHH tried to garner after his match with Lesnar was awful. Then on Raw it looks as if he was going to help put over the newly re-invented Curtis Axel and instead he belittled the guy, called him a kid and then slapped him, showing that he didn’t belong in the same ring as the ‘almighty Game’. Then when it came time for their actual match, did he let the guy beat him? No. Did he even let him look pretty decent in the fight he put up against ‘the King of Kings’? Not really. What happened was HHH was basically dominant until suddenly he felt a bit faint, had to sit down and then then whole of the attention was put on him for the remainder of the show, completely forgetting about Axel, not even awarding him the count-out victory. What makes matters worse is that apparently it was HHH himself who was the one pushing for McGillicutty to get this chance, so this really was his idea of getting the guy over, in which case this is just sad. It looks like to HHH’s mind, even being allowed to step into the ring with the ‘Cerebral Assassin’ is a blessing, let alone to not get completely destroyed. When Ambrose lost to the Undertaker it made sense, and the Shield made the Deadman pay afterwards, when Fandango lost at Extreme Rules it was alright because he had already ‘won the big one’, but what happened on Raw didn’t really serve any purpose, at least if Axel had been given a count-out victory it would have been something to brag about later, when the WWE had presumed that their audience would have forgotten that Axel actually played little to no part in why the Game could no longer compete. Of course now next week Paul Heyman will probably spin some lie about how it was Hennig who was responsible for HHH not being able to continue, but we will all know the truth, hell maybe that is what they were going for, I suppose it will put some heat on the guy, but he will still look small-time, a win over HHH here, even if it was due in part to his weakened condition, could have been huge for Curtis Axel, it is a major opportunity wasted, and for what? HHH’s ego, that’s what, even in trying to put a guy over he can’t seem to let go of his own insecurities as a competitor, and that’s just sad.

Joseph Parks as Abyss

This has been brewing for months now and kudos to TNA for actually letting the Abyss-Joseph Park angle develop naturally. Sure we all knew from the start that they would turn out to be the same guy in a further homage to Mick Foley, but the sheer contrast with which the two characters act is just great and Park has been believable in his role as the reluctant lawyer, standing up for what’s right. I also like that blood is his trigger, because there is a slight reality to that which the audience can cling to so as to suspend their disbelief. That is all we need in wrestling, a slight explanation that makes enough logical sense and we can buy it, now exactly how TNA will use this from here on out is the question: will things work the other way? Now that Abyss is back will we suddenly find the Monster turning into Joseph Park half way through a match? How exactly will they and more importantly Park himself deal with that? Will TNA try to bring back the fake Abyss to have the two ‘brothers’ work together and destroy what little sense there is in this storyline? I sure hope not, but I am not going to hold my breath. Whatever the case though I was sold on the Park angle the moment I found myself thinking ‘What is this guy doing in a Hardcore match?’ before remembering exactly who this was. Park’s ability to convince the audience, even for a second, that he is actually a mild-mannered guy who has no real business in a wrestling ring, after appearing as the Monster for so long, speaks to his ability as an entertainer, and is a big part of the real magic of professional wrestling, where being suckered in is actually a good thing, and can lead to a more enjoyable show for everyone. Will Abyss become TV champion? I don’t see why not. Will the resurgence of Abyss spell the end for Joseph? I don’t see why it has to. Will we see yet another personality appear at some point? Perhaps. Whatever the case this writer has gone from a confirmed sceptic to a stanch supporter and that in itself speaks to the merits of these characters and the angle in general.

Bo Dallas & the Wyatt Family

While the Shield dominate the main roster this group is slowly but surely taking over NXT. Now maybe Dallas was just acting super weird on the show because he was high or something, but I’d like to think it is because his brother has gotten to him and he is now an unofficial member of the Wyatt family, perhaps even to the point where he had lost the tag titles to the group on purpose. While Bo plays a pretty convincing face underdog I wouldn’t mind seeing him morph into a card carrying member of the Wyatt Family, maybe even growing a crazy beard for himself. Maybe I’m just reading too far into things but his creepy demeanour on NXT certainly indicated that there was more going on than meets the eye, and with his *spoilers* impending shot at the NXT title we might soon see the Wyatt Family with even more gold around their waists.

Barrett Gets Screwed

Your Intercontinental champion ladies and gentlemen, wasn’t even on the card for Extreme Rules and then the next night on Raw eats a Code-breaker and then is forced to tap out to the Figure-Four, not exactly riding a wave of momentum is he? Despite this he debuted a new theme on the show and is still wearing his ‘Barrett Barrage’ t-shirt, which has to have become some kind of ironic joke at this point. Honestly was this all some kind of strange jokey punishment for Barrett dressing to compete rather than in a suit for the pre-show, because he certainly was made to put a shirt on by the time the post-show rolled around. I honestly have no idea what the WWE was thinking by having Fandango dance while his partner got pummelled, surely if anyone should have been protected it is the IC champion, honestly at this point it seems like winning a title is actually worse for your career since it apparently means that it is alright for you to lose on a regular basis because you have the belt, honestly it makes me worried for what will become of the Shield now that they have some gold around their waists.

Cheap Pops:

Michael Benjamin presents the best wrestling movies in the Wrestling Top Five

Jeremy Thomas goes over the top ‘threequels’ in The 8-Ball

Joseph Lee hails to the Stephen King in A Bloody Good Time

Steve Cook brings us another Fact or Fiction

Another round of ranking by the 411 staff in The Wrestler of the Week

That’s all for this week, Extreme Rules was a little less extreme than I predicted but at least the Shield all went over and continued to build momentum, to what I am not sure of but it sure is nice to see a team of young, talented guys being booked as if they are such. Slammiversary is coming up and so far TNA hasn’t really done all that much to make it feel as significant as it should do considering it is one of their only four live events of the year. Will this strategy of cutting down the number of PPVs work? Or will it just encourage more buys for the WWE on the months when TNA doesn’t have an event to compete with them? Who knows, all I can say is that time will tell and for now this is James Wright signing off.