The Heel Report: 07.11.13: Centurion

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.

It’s the 100th edition of the chart so I’ve decided to begin a tradition, I’m going to wipe the Rolling Chart clean and start afresh next week. Whoever is at the top of the Rolling Chart will become the first ‘Heel Centurion’, earning a permanent spot of recognition on the chart, kind of like a Heel Hall of Fame, but rather than yearly it will be awarded every 100 articles, so having a ‘good year’ won’t be enough, only the consistently talented will join the ranks. So without further ado, let’s see who is the first Heel Centurion…

Weekly Top Ten

1st Place: Mark Henry

The World’s Strongest Man managed to do more to Cena this week than many a man has done before, facing him down in the middle of the ring and then dominating him, calling into question Cena’s ability to even win the match on Sunday. Of course I’m still 90% sure that Cena is walking out with the belt, and even if somehow Cena can’t use the AA in the match he can always resort to the STF, so their segment on Monday actually proved very little. However that does not mean that it did not get me more excited for the match as it did indeed; I hope that Henry gets to represent himself well and that we get to see a better title match than the last few have been with the Cryback.

2nd Place: The Wyatt Family

Admittedly the debut for these three was not as impactful as it could have been, but it was also a rather slow week what with the BFG Series and ‘Shades of Grey’ period in the WWE making things less about heels and faces and more about competitive matches (and who wants that right?). So the attack on Kane by the group and preceding hype of their debut is enough to get them the second top spot. Now the group can go anywhere from here and their entrance was pretty cool, so it’s not like their debut was a complete failure, I just think many were expecting more, and for the group to attack a larger figure in the WWE, maybe John Cena or C.M. Punk, or hell what about the McMahon family during Vickie Guerrero’s ‘job evaluation’, now that would have made a real impact!

3rd Place: Antonio Cesaro

Third place goes to the All-American, non-American; Antonio Cesaro. Cesaro looks to be a main stay in the stable with Coulter and Swagger and while they probably won’t amount to more than the tag team titles at some point, if that, at least it is better than simply losing every week. Although losing is not always so bad, for instance Cesaro lost this week to the NXT champion Bo Dallas in a great title match, but it is that match which earned Cesaro most of the points to get him his place on the chart.

4th Place: Alberto Del Rio

One of the few men in the WWE actually acting like a heel and being represented as one, Del Rio couldn’t win either of his matches this week, but at least he didn’t straight up lose like last week. We here at the IWC have a tendency to play hypocrite when it comes to wins and losses in the WWE; when Ziggler loses we decry the waste of recognition for his talent, yet when Del Rio as the world champ can’t seem to win a match no one bats an eyelid, that is because we have personal preferences and it is only an injustice and ‘devaluing the belt’ when the champion is someone we care about. Still is that not reason enough for Del Rio not to have the belt? Because no one seems to give a crap whether he wins or loses.

5th Place: Austin Aries

The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived saw his master plan go up in smoke this week as Chris Sabin was able to win back the X Division title for a shot at Bully Ray at Destination X (the Impact edition). The questions over whether or not Aries had turned face were pretty much answered, as well as showing how most people don’t consider Sabin a legitimate challenger and were actually more comfortable with Aries as the challenger, even if it was a swerve out of nowhere.

6th Place: Bo Dallas

While the WWE themselves don’t seem to have made their mind up about Bo Dallas, I myself am declaring him a heel, to me his smiley attitude is akin to Mickie James’ current persona, where it is all a veneer and the audience has seen through this. Honestly I hope he is not supposed to be a face, otherwise both NXT and the WWE have champions who are supposed to be fan favourites that half the crowd constantly boo, it’s just not right, but who knows what’s exactly going on in these crazy times.

7th Place: Mickie James

Speaking of the Knockouts champion, she delivered a pretty decent promo atop a ladder this week, a much better one than a certain other lady atop a ladder who is no longer employed by her respective company. While it is slowly but surely the overall presence of female characters in the WWE and TNA does appear to be coming back from the brink after a good long while of female wrestling being nothing but filler for the shows.

8th Place: AJ

The steady rise of women coming into focus is displayed by the further presence of AJ Lee on the chart. Her obsession with Kaitlyn is going to cost her the relationship with Dolph Ziggler, which is a good thing for Ziggler’s face turn, but destroys all hope of a world and divas champ power couple that they were so hoping for, hell Big E. has already lost the NXT title, it could have all been so perfect!

9th Place: The Bad Influence

The general mic and in-ring work of these two makes me wish that TNA had a better tag team division since they seem wasted in the BFG Series, almost certainly not going to make it into the top four when all is said and done. Still they certainly provided some Vegas style entertainment this week, even if they are acting as just glorified cannon fodder.

10th Place: Wade Barrett

The bare-knuckled fighter dealt out some damage this week as he took out Zack Ryder on Superstars and then smashed Fandango with a cheap shot on Smackdown, not even letting him get to finish saying his own name, the vicious git.

(Week 100):

1. Dolph Ziggler (308)

2. Robert Roode (307)

3. Alberto Del Rio (304)

4. Mark Henry (292)

5. C.M. Punk (288)

6. Daniel Bryan (274)

7. Cody Rhodes (272)

8. The Big Show (271)

9. Bully Ray (265)

10. Austin Aries (221)

So after 100 weeks…

Dolph Ziggler is the first Heel Centurion!

(Just in time for the first face turn in the #Heel’s career, beating out his rival Del Rio, Bobby Roode after his great runs as world champion and part of the Greatest IT Factors, and clipping Henry at the post before he can re-reach the heights of the top of the chart. I think it is interesting how in 100 articles no heel has ever been at the top of the Rolling Chart, fallen from the top spot, and then risen back to reclaim it, maybe it is just coincidence, or maybe not. We’ll just have to see what happens in the next 100!)

Cheap Pops:

Get a look at the worst gimmicks in professional wrestling in The Wrestling Top 5

Joseph Lee invades your home in A Bloody Good Time

Shawn S. Lealos runs down the top heels of comic book movies in Alternate Takes

And then lists the top movie heels in general in The Movies Top 5

Find out who is top this time in The Wrestler of the Week

That’s all for this week, the all-face and all-heel MitB matches at the PPV should be interesting, we possibly saw a Daniel Bryan heel turn on Raw, or at least what could be leading to one, who knows what other developments could spring out of them. I am a little disappointed with the Shield’s placing on the card, they seem to be losing some momentum after being on fire for so long and I hope it is only a temporary thing. As for the World title matches, I see both champions retaining leading to a possible extension of their feuds leading into Summerslam, but who knows, this time next week everything could be different, for now though this is James Wright signing off.