The Heel Report 06.20.13: Feints and Switches

This is the Heel Report. After a bunch of work and distractions I was unable to write my report last week and so for the first time ever this report is a rollover where the points for heels from last week is carried over to this and so things will be running from Tuesday the 4th of June to Monday the 17th, so there should be lots to talk about, let’s get on with it shall we…

Weekly Top Ten

1st Place: Mark Henry

Despite missing Payback and the week leading up to it there is little doubt who the top heel of the week was. Mark Henry’s ‘retirement’ speech suckered pretty much everyone in and then did everything and more that Ryback’s attack on Cena on the post-Wrestlemania Raw should have. Now I don’t think that anyone actually thinks that Henry will win the title at Money in the Bank, but I think we all want to see him compete for the title, and if he can tell a story as well as he did this week then maybe he can even get us to start believing that Cena could lose the belt before Summerslam rolls around. Will this rivalry be worth Ryback’s turn and having to wait for Cena vs. Bryan? We’ll just have to wait and see, certainly though it is off to a good start, Henry sucked the audience into believing that this was the real deal and that he was a genuinely likeable fellow, and then just as quick destroyed this image, declared that it is what he does and then called everyone puppets. Classic.

2nd Place: Alberto Del Rio

This double-turn came out of nowhere but I for one am completely for it, even if it does threaten Ziggler’s spot at the top of the Rolling Chart as we near the 100th report. Ziggler deserves to be a face and unlike some I really do believe that he can be believable as such, simply through selling alone. We have already seen an example of how through action alone he can get the crowd behind him in the match at Payback, even if he did end up losing the title to Del Rio, that makes him already more likeable than Miz and it has only been a couple of days since his turn. Del Rio on the other hand has a second chance to become something more than a one-dimensional heel character who just goes on about his ‘destiny’. I don’t necessarily think that he deserved another title run but hopefully it will be transitioned back to Ziggler, or possibly Bryan, but hopefully Ziggler. We’ll just have to see how he does this time around.

3rd Place: AJ Lee

A high placing for a little lady who is causing a lot of trouble right now. First and foremost in terms of Ziggler’s face turn there could be a bump in the road in the form of AJ, or perhaps the WWE still don’t care enough about the divas to think that it will be a problem to keep the couple together despite their differing alignments. Besides this we are going back two weeks here so this ranking includes her big reveal as Kaitlyn’s secret admirer, as well as her title win and showdown with Stephanie McMahon. These three events are probably the most important divas segments in the past few years and AJ was central to all of it. Hell the match was even actually booked with a story to reflect the events of the past week when Kaitlyn could have won the match but cost herself the title by blowing AJ a kiss before pinning her. This was simple stuff but it is actually more than most mid-card title rivalry matches get in their booking at a PPV.

4th Place: Curtis Axel

The new IC champion is perhaps one of the luckiest men alive, being handed victories on a technicality and then a title due to an ill-timed concussion for Fandango. Axel is doing a lot better than he could be, sure a real victory over the likes of John Cena or HHH would put him higher in people’s estimations but maybe we were expecting too much too soon for him since if he had actually pinned HHH and the WWE champion then surely he would have to be competing for the WWE title now, and he isn’t exactly ready for that. Instead he now holds the same gold that his father once did, which makes the belt mean more in my opinion and could be used to give him something to actually talk about in his promos rather than keeping them short and pointless as they are now. Technicality wins have given the former McGillicutty more heat from the crowd then he has ever received before and it makes it appealing to see him actually taken down by someone, although perhaps not the Miz, more likely he will become a victim as the newly developed Punk-Lesnar rivalry develops.

5th Place: Rollins & Reigns

The tag team champions successfully retained their title at Payback and continue to dominate the WWE, as shown in their reaction to Vickie Guerrero on Raw. Sure the Shield were handed their first loss in a three-man tag match on the Smackdown before the PPV but in the end it just went to show how far the team has come. Before it seemed like if the right team could come together and defeat them then their reign of terror would be over, but since they are now champions and they lost on ‘the B-show’ it actually meant very little and their momentum was barely even scratched. Once again I will state that these men have been pushed to the moon for the last six months and it has been at the cost of no one (Ryback was already damaged from the Brad Maddox Hell in a Cell fiasco), and by association they are actually helping to elevate Daniel Bryan once again despite him mostly losing to the group for the past few months. I just hope the tag champs can go from strength to strength, and a lot of that will depend on who their opponents end up being at Money in the Bank.

6th Place: Damien Sandow

Unsurprisingly Sandow lost at the Payback Kick-Off, surprisingly however he did win the next night on Raw, even if it was in a handicap match. Continuing this feud is better than nothing for Sandow but I can’t help but think that he will only be ending up on the winning side of things very rarely, it is also possible that this rivalry will bleed into a MitB match rather than have its own thing at the PPV, I just wonder if the WWE will be running the same deal as last year where there is a briefcase for each title or if they will be mixing things up still further.

7th Place: Dean Ambrose

The US champion took the cheap way out against Kane on Sunday but in a smart way, winning by count out rather than doing the usual heel thing of losing that way but retaining the title. Maybe it would have been better if Ambrose had won against Kane clean but then again like Curtis Axel the WWE do have to be wary of building up a guy too high to where he is backed into a corner in terms of booking, just like the Ryback was before he lost at Hell in a Cell. The next thing is to see who his new challenger will be, unless Ambrose is going to be involved in a MitB ladder match, although if he won there I think it might upset the balance of the group somewhat.

8th Place: Antonio Cesaro

After a relative slump in the wins department it seems like Antonio Cesaro might be getting back into the swing of things through the management of Zeb Coulter. The choice of the pairing is a little strange, especially since Cesaro has spent most of his WWE career rubbishing everything that is America, but like with the Kaitlyn-Secret Admirer angle it is easy to manipulate things to make them look like they actually make sense. Here I would cite that Cesaro several times stated that he didn’t hate the country of America, only the people who didn’t appreciate it and were fat, lazy and stupid, now while that might seem to include everyone, least of all Coulter, you could argue that Cesaro loves America more than most actual Americans: Instant heel heat while actually being a compelling argument, I expect this promo to be delivered within the next week from either Coulter or Cesaro himself.

9th Place: The Ryback

Booked badly and having to rise above his limitations, the Ryback didn’t do a bad job on Sunday in his Three Stages of Hell Match, no one expected the match to be amazing but it certainly wasn’t a train wreck. I can’t help but think that if Ryback had Paul Heyman behind him he would have done a hell of a lot better in his run thus far, since if the WWE had simply kept Ryback to being a squash machine he could have become a fixed feature of WWE television for a long time, as it stands he falls further and further away from his goal of being a solidified star and I wouldn’t be surprised if within a year he became a sort of Great Khali figure who is simply called out to squash people or be made fun of.

10th Place: Mickie James

I’m giving the final spot on the chart to the Knockouts Champ so suck it. This is because she has been selling the ‘smiling’ heel for weeks and finally cracked, taking out Velvet Sky before she could become an actual threat to her title. I just hope TNA give her some good women to work with because they are spread pretty thin right now.

(Week 97):

1. Dolph Ziggler (308)

2. Robert Roode (307)

3. Alberto Del Rio (290)

4. C.M. Punk (288)

5. Daniel Bryan (274)

6. Cody Rhodes (272)

7. The Big Show (271)

8. Mark Henry (271)

9. Bully Ray (253)

10. Austin Aries (206)

The Wright View:

Stephanie McMahon

I flipped between categories here as I honestly believe that the presence of Stephanie McMahon in the AJ segment on Raw made it feel more legitimate, and I’m sure she is responsible for the added attention that the division has been getting over the last couple of weeks. However much like her husband HHH, Stephanie McMahon Helmsley does not seem to know how to get someone over without getting herself involved and pretty much burying everyone as not being on her level despite no longer being an active competitor and at best a person who appears part time and has no need to put herself over. When she got up in AJ’s face there was something compelling their so you can argue that it was acceptable, especially since Stephanie hasn’t felt the need to address anyone in years so it sells the importance of AJ as champion. However when she told Kaitlyn to never interrupt her again it completely stole her thunder and all the life went out of the segment, the worst thing is that it was completely unnecessary, unless there was an ill-timed music cue from the production team and even if that were the case then why take it out on Kaitlyn? This whole ‘good decisions but need to placate insecurities’ thing that these McMahons have got going on really needs to get shut down. They have done lots of good things on-screen for the business but now it is time to step back, hopefully this current storyline is eventually leading to that.

Vince Endorses The Shield

On the other side of the McMahon family we see how their presence can be used constructively. Vince McMahon appeared backstage and put over the Shield still further, and characterised them with the old ‘Ruthless Aggression’. Usually when Vince endorses someone they actually end up in pretty bad shape, apart from the case of Cena and his ‘Ruthless Aggression’ so hopefully the same bodes well for the Shield. I just hope that they don’t get abused in yet another McMahon power struggle, although since before they came down to the ring and just let them leave it is possible that something could go down with them as this whole rivalry between Vince and HHH moves forward.

Bo Dallas

While everyone else was making waves on PPV, Bo Dallas was beating Big E. for the NXT title, which would have been a surprise had someone not have spoilt it; myself, ages ago when I read the online report. Still so far the title has been given to the best and brightest that NXT has to offer and a main roster spot hasn’t been far behind, will the same be true of Bo? Only time will tell. More than anything else I’m curious to see how he will handle the title scene once Big E. departs like Rollins did after his title loss. Big E. worked because he could just squash miscellaneous guys for the title or just in general, Bo on the other hand will have to have actual rivalries with people, I’m guessing that Adrian Neville and Kassius Ohno will be his first customers.

Crimson

This place would have gone to Dolph Ziggler had it not been for his confirmed face turn at Payback and on Raw since after his debut he got a cheap shot from Del Rio on Raw, a possible foreshadowing, and then got beat by the guy on Smackdown and lost the title to him at the PPV, no wonder he was complaining about being booked to lose. Still Ziggler’s face turn saved him and so instead I will devote it to this man, who made his big return to Impact and talked a whole load of smack before promptly losing his first match back to Joseph Park to fail to qualify for the BFG Series. Now sure Matt Morgan basically did the same thing and you have to question TNA’s booking in this, but at least he lost to Magnus in a multi-man match and at least it wasn’t his re-debut. Crimson on the other hand now looks like a joke and I highly doubt he will have much to do for the next few months now. I really don’t know why they put Park in the BFG series, maybe as a backup in case Styles gets injured, whatever the case Crimson ended up getting screwed over it.

Cheap Pops:

Stephen Randle breaks the headlines in The Wrestling News Experience

Nick Marsico keeps you up to date in The Tuesday Communique

Jeremy Thomas lists his top Zombie films in The 8-Ball

Michael Benjamin hosts the top tag team breakups in The 411 Top 5

The 411 Staff rate the best in The Wrestler of the Week

That’s all for this week, Payback brought a lot of interesting changes to the WWE, not least of which were a face Dolph Ziggler and C.M. Punk, despite my stance on heels I love to see guys like Ziggler get a face turn when it could breathe new life into them. I just hope Ziggler can take the title back from Del Rio and finally start a dominant title run. For now this is James Wright signing off.