The Heel Report: 08.01.13: Taking a Dive

This is the Heel Report. A weekly chart spanning from Tuesday’s NXT to next Monday’s Raw, 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, after 100 weeks naming the reigning wrestler a ‘Heel Centurion’.

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 (or in other words the smarkiest chart of smarkdom ever to smark), so without further ado let’s get on with the report…

1st Place: Damien Sandow

Despite the questions in the blurb to this article to me there really can be no question over who should be number one this week. Sandow showed on Smackdown how he can easily be a compelling character that we all want to watch in scenarios and situations that put his nose out of joint. Just compare his actions to those of Alberto Del Rio, the current champion, when he had his fancy car stolen by Sheamus on Raw, who really cared how Del Rio felt and commented on how entertaining he was trying to get it back? No one did because Del Rio simply cannot engage with the audience the way that Sandow can, and that is because his character lends itself to entertaining circumstances, whereas Del Rio’s simply comes across as one-dimensional throughout. I know that it probably won’t happen but I would honestly love to see Sandow cash in against Del Rio, but I would want Sandow to stay a heel throughout so it would have to be done delicately. Then again it is hard to argue against Cody winning the briefcase at Summerslam, if that is indeed the stipulation we are heading for, he works very well as a face and certainly deserves a title run in the near future. In the end whoever ends up with the case after the PPV, we are in for a fine champion once they cash in, that is of course unless they actually fail to cash in, which would suck for either Cody or Sandow, who certainly don’t have the standing of Cena to fare so well in doing such a thing.

2nd Place: Mickie James

The Knockouts champ successfully defended her title and is now on quite a roll. I’m not sure who TNA plan to put her against next since Velvet Sky has already had her shot in my opinion and the division itself is really suffering from a lack of roster depth. I suppose there is Taryn Terrell and then perhaps ODB, but after that there really won’t be anyone left for Mickie James to work with. Honestly though this is not a new problem, I have recently been going over old Diva and Knockouts matches from the last few years and the rate of reoccurring matchups is kind of sad. I remember when the Knockouts were TNA’s best division, with a pretty diverse roster. I mean both TNA and WWE have never really had a huge number of women compared to men on their roster, but right now TNA seems to be running lower than ever, so much so that the WWE actually have more going for them in their women’s division (certainly if you count the divas in NXT), so what does TNA really have to stand out right now? Perhaps the X Division, but that isn’t exactly going from strength to strength right now. Don’t get me wrong, I love the antics and presence of the Knockouts champ right now, but one person can only do so much when the division they are in is severely lacking in numbers. Now I could watch Mickie vs. Gail for a couple of months, but after that there needs to be something different, and just where that is going to come from I don’t know.

3rd Place: AJ Lee

On the WWE side of things the Divas champ is going from strength to strength, although it is slightly strange that E!’s Total Divas seems to have nothing to do with Either AJ or Kaitlyn when they have been the last two champions, as if the title doesn’t really mean anything, hmm…Also where were the NXT divas? Sure we had two ‘trainees’ or whatever but what about the actual developmental divas that are amazingly hot and actually talented? Speaking of these divas, Paige was crowned the first women’s champion in NXT this week in a great match against Emma, and the noise of the crowd showed that there certainly is a market for divas matches in the WWE when the talent is good enough. It is I imagine how things would be if AJ right now was squaring off against a more talented opponent than the aforementioned Kaitlyn, who has improved since coming into the business, but still needs a lot of work before she will be able to put on a match anywhere near the ****1/2 that their match was awarded by Acero on the last Raw Report. AJ bias aside the history between the two should make for some great matches, but I really do believe that Kaitlyn’s ability in the ring is dragging things down. Then again you could say the same about John Cena and yet his matches with Punk and Edge have on occasion been stellar, so it is debateable how much skill matters when the rivalry is good enough. AJ looks to be heading for a solo career as a rift between her and Big E is already starting to form, my only question is how long will AJ be allowed to go it alone before some other man comes into her life and takes the spotlight away from her talents once again.

4th Place: Alberto Del Rio

The Mexican Aristocrat pulled out a lucky win against RVD this week to hand him his first loss. Dolph Ziggler gets injured and he gets screwed out of the world title that he waited ages to win, Del Rio gets injured and he gets to beat the hottest new return to the WWE, seems fair to me. I still don’t get why Del Rio was given and kept the title at this point after it has been clear that as champion he just isn’t very good, he is almost becoming the heel John Cena, could be fine if he just wasn’t being handed title belts all the time (yes you can earn a belt even in a scripted sport so don’t even start with that shit). After we all accepted Del Rio’s win at Money in the Bank because ‘Ziggler will get a bigger win at Summerslam’ it is now clear that Ziggler will be going against Big E and to me the *spoilers* fact that Christian will be challenging Del Rio at the event does not make up for this fact. Could the WWE be any more bias or screw over Ziggler any more?

5th Place: The Wyatt Family

Once again they left Kane laying on Raw, although we got to see the thought process of the Big Red Machine when he went straight for Bray himself despite the presence of Harper and Rowan in the ring. I really hope that it is Bray vs. Kane at Summerslam as I want Bray to put on a show and start to be regarded as a great wrestler in his own right, not just a great talker. I really liked how Bray is playing up the idea that Kane shouldn’t call himself the Devil’s Favourite Demon, as “you never know who might be listening’. There are subtle implications to this that make the character of Bray much stronger already and show that within a couple of months he could be a major player in the company, his other two heavies? Probably not, but who knows, Ziggler started out as a caddy for Chavo Guerrero after all.

6th Place: Ryback

Despite losing to Cena once again this week in their tables match I really liked the way the WWE portrayed Ryback’s character as being that of a complete bully, intimidating a guy backstage for no reason at all and then putting him through a table. He reminded me slightly of Heidenrich with Michael Cole, except less of a joke due to the lack of poetry and stupid marching…oh wait, scratch that last point. Still this could lead to at least a solid mid-card run for the bully Ryback, not as high a profile as the multiple title shots he has been given in the last year but honestly should he really have been at that level so quickly? Probably not.

7th Place: Mr McMahon

Surprisingly, or perhaps not considering his age and what year we are in, this is the first time Mr McMahon, arguably the arch villain of the WWE, has appeared on the chart. If this were TNA then he would probably have made an appearance almost every week. Still he certainly deserves his place after airing his views on the latest challenger for the WWE title; Daniel Bryan. I do appreciate when ‘real life’ issues come into play in WWE storylines; it makes the whole thing much more believable and can in most cases help to get certain people over with the fans. What was interesting was that McMahon also said that he didn’t want Cena keeping the title at Summerslam either, now that was unexpected, but also seems to set up for a Randy Orton cash in at the end of the match, but will he be successful?

8th Place: Bully Ray

The former TNA world heavyweight champion did his best to force the hand of GM Hogan and get back his title from Chris Sabin this week, lawyering up and trying to bring the entire company to its knees. However for whatever reason that didn’t work and now he will have to wait until the Hardcore Justice edition of Impact to compete for the title, with a somewhat diminished group of hooligans, whose only job was to keep the title around his waist, and failed miserably. Then again compare the Main Event Mafia to the Aces & 8s now that they are down to six members (not including Taz), they are pretty screwed.

9th Place: Fandango

Doing the very heel thing of deciding that discretion was the better part of valour in his match with RVD this week he managed to actually escape being taken out by the man with the educated feet and perhaps might be indicating a match with him at Summerslam, which could be half decent, although I feel like something should actually be on the line unless it appears in the Kick-off, which I really wouldn’t object to.

10th Place: Gail Kim

The other half of the Knockouts title match this week and the only other woman that gives the Knockouts division any real meaning at the moment besides Mickie James herself. TNA really need to do something to improve their female division but with budget cuts seemingly eliminating talent left and right it is unlikely anything will be done any time soon, which is a damn shame.

(Week 003)

1. Damien Sandow (23)

2. AJ Lee (18)

3. Ryback (13)

4. Bully Ray (13)

5. Bray Wyatt (12)

6. Curtis Axel (12)

7. Alberto Del Rio (11)

8. Mickie James (10)

9. Paul Heyman (9)

10. Fandango (8)

Heel Centurions:

Nick Marsico has the news in The Tuesday Communique

Jonas Wakefield presents the best mid-card champs in The Magnificent Seven

Jeremy Thomas gives his best DC animated films in The Movie 8-Ball

David McGregor lists his top entrances in The Wrestling 8-Ball

The 411 staff rank all the peeps in The Wrestler of the Week

That’s all for this week, the WWE is doing a decent job building up to Summerslam and the matches between Cena & Bryan and Punk & Lesnar seem to sell the event itself. There is intrigue in how Punk will handle Lesnar, and it seems completely open as to who will win that one, and as for Cena vs. Bryan, while it looks obvious that Cena will retain, you never know what the WWE might be planning. Plus no matter what you say about Cena he always brings his A-game to big money events like this, and Bryan will excel I have no doubt. Will it be as big as Punk vs. Cena at MitB? Doubtful, but if they are able to create even 50% of the magic that night it will be a main event worth watching, hell Daniel Bryan getting to be in a Summerslam main event full stop is something to write home about, now if only Punk or Bryan could be the main event of a PPV without Cena being involved we will finally be getting somewhere. I’m not sure it will ever happen but for now, this is James Wright signing off.