The Heel Report: 12.28.13: The People’s Champion?

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: Magnus

I’m always torn when it comes to these ‘last minute’ turns. Do I give Magnus points for the whole match and trying to stir things up with Hardy earlier in the night? Or do I just count his actual taking of the belt, or even just his celebrations afterwards after having ‘turned to the darkside’? In the end I’ve decided to give him the whole night since for months now TNA has been teasing Magnus as a heel, only to have him tow the line for just a little bit longer.

It is tempting to think that Magnus had been in cahoots with Carter for at least a little while, however if this were the case then why did EC3 attack him and hinder him from getting to the title in the Dixie Land match? To be honest I am slightly surprised that it wasn’t Ethan Carter himself who took home the World title case in Feast or Fired, or else was pushed through the tornament to come out on top. I’m not saying that would be the best idea, and Magnus is certainly more honed than the former Derrick Bateman, but it does look like EC3 is positioned to be massive in TNA and as a character it makes a whole load of sense, why wouldn’t Dixie want HER champion to be her nephew?

Sometimes I like to fill in the lines that are thrown out and here you could argue that EC3 went out there and attacked Magnus because he is jealous that it isn’t him who is going to be Dixie’s champion, but then surely that would have been too bold a move?

I think Magnus could be a pretty decent heel champion, what’s more, unbelivably he is ther first British world champion ever crowned, which is flipping mental to me but never mind! If you have read the spoilers for TNA then you know what happens after this point, if not then you are perhaps a better person than I, but hopefully things have all worked out for the best.

2nd Place: The Wyatt Family

I’m still a little confused as to exactly what the Wyatts want with Daniel Bryan since before the PPV they were speaking like he had rejected them and that they were done with trying to recruit him, whereas now they seem to be trying to turn him to their side again. Despite this seemingly confused booking it is definitely an enjoyable feud, now with the tag team champs involved as well.

I highly doubt that Bryan will end up joining the Wyatts but it is nice to see him have something to do while Cena and Orton fight over the beltage for the time being. The Wyatts have continued their momentum since debuting, but it does feel like they have wasted a bit of potential by having no real focus in their targetting since everyone they target seems to still be fine, or have come back in a suit and tie for no reason (although I am really hoping that Kane is actually a double agent for the Wyatts, in their attempt to ‘bring down the machine’, you could also argue that this is why they attacked Punk and Bryan claiming ‘the devil made me do it’, it is all some elaborate plan to motivate these two into refocusing their attention on the Authority, although in many ways that makes little sense and probably won;t be the case anyway but who knows!).

Anyway conspiracies aside you have to wonder where the Wyatts will go after their feud with Bryan, hopefully into a program with the Shield that runs up until Wrestlemania, but then a lot of that will rest on whether the Shield can stay together that long, but in the end I reckon they can, and at this point the Shield vs. the Wyatts is booking gold for the event.

3rd Place: Ryback

While his assoiations with Curtis Axel haven’t exactly put the Ryback in good stead, this week he didn’t do so bad. His portion of the promo against the Mick Foley-Santa on Main Event was pretty good, especially his calling the fans ‘Feed Me Morons’, and his tragic backstory about being given a Thigh Master for Christmas one year instead of weights.

My feelings on Ryback switch on near a weekly basis as he is either rubbish or brilliant depending on what he is given to do, unlike someone like Daniel Bryan who seems to shine no matter what. What I have noticed is that Ryback is a great character to use in segments since the angry big guy role works so well with him, whether it be bullying a guy into putting his gym bag in the shower, or asking Jerry from Subway for a sandwich in a shameless pander.

The problem with this is that it might lead to Ryback winding his way down to becoming a comedy character like that of Santino or Heath Slater, not that there is anything wrong with that. Although the Big Show has alternated between comedy and the main event for years so there is always hope for a guy with some mass behind him.

4th Place: The Shield

It’s nice to see that even at this stage the WWE are protecting the group from taking direct losses, at least in the main event, even in a Christmas edition of Raw. I’m glad they are actually taking the break up of the group slow since far too many times recently angles have been rushed in fear of audience wavering and it has ruined any momentum that could have been gained from a more stretched out payoff.

This also might apply to Daniel Bryan considering the potential of him winning the Royal Rumble, as much as everyone has bemoaned his lack of any real title run (despite him getting super over anyway) but a win at Wrestlemania would definitely fix that. On the flipside of this, giving an angle time to breathe can lead to nothing coming of it, such as if say Batista comes back and wins the Royal Rumble, but nothing of the such has happened yet so who knows.

Still with the Shield, at least for now, seem to be getting a lot of attention, keeping them relevant and in the main event without jobbing them out at all and making sure that their breakup is mostly teased on PPV. There is even a slight possiblity that the WWE are playing us all for mugs and it is actually Reigns who is slated to win the Rumble, have a major face turn and go on to face Randy Orton at Wrestlemania, which is both good and bad but would definitely qualify as a push ‘bigger than anyone could expect’, or whatever the latest rumour is.

5th Place: Robert Roode

Is it me or is putting Kurt Angle in an angle where he simply can’t beat Bobby Roode one-on-one, while also never having Roode actually get a clean victory over the guy, a pretty strange way to use the Olympic Gold Medalist in 2014. In some ways you have to wonder if it is time for Angle to jump ship once again and finish up his career in the WWE? If so it’s probably better if he returns like Brock Lesnar did, by coming out on the Raw after Wrestlemania, rather than have his return overshadowed by all the other names that are likely to crop up at the event itself.

As for Roode himself, while it is not completely clean, it is still a great boon for him to get a win over Angle in a two-out-of-three falls match, that is at least in the short term. The problem is that there is seemingly nothing else for the ‘IT factor’ to do at the moment, so there is a great chance that he will just continue on with Angle until he gets his win back, but what will that actually mean in the end?

There might be something in turning Roode face at this point, or at least ‘face’ heel, and team him up with Austin Aries again to actually give the tag team division an actual team apart from the champions competing for the titles. In a way that would be a step down for Roode but it is almost worth it to see the team of Aries and Roode together again.

6th Place: Dixie Carter

The owner of TNA finally has her champion, and now she seems to be running the ship all on her own now that Jeff Jarrett has departed from the company. It makes me pretty worried that the guy who started the company is done with it, especially after holding on so long while the Hogan regieme was in charge, and now that he actually could have been in a position to take charge again.

Then again all the departures in TNA seem to then be rumoured to be temporary so who knows what is really going on. What we do know is that ‘the boss’ Dixie Carter isn’t going away any time soon, and while that could be good or bad I’m not really sure what her actual purpose will be once this whole AJ Styles thing is done with.

Her presence in TNA seems to be as a lesser version of the authority figures in WWE and all the while the divisions that made TNA stand out a few years ago; i.e. Knockouts, tag team and the X Division, are dwindling down to nothing. The only way that a WWE-lite promotion could work is if they moved to England on a perminant basis since over here the WWE’s main shows only play on the most premium TV packages, whereas TNA is on even the most basic on a channel called Challenge, so it can be found in pretty much any household and could really secure an even bigger following here if they devoted allt their attention to it, and pack out arenas in a country all-but starved for professional wrestling with some actual names involved in the shows. Think about it TNA, think about it.

7th Place: Fandango

The dancing one seems to be moving up in the world, lucky for him when his concussion cost him an almost guarenteed IC title run it actually went to Curtis Axel, and that didn’t work out so well. However just because he won a shot this week doesn’t mean he will be winning the belt, especially against Big E. Langston.

I highly doubt that the WWE will spark off a title pass around feud between the two while they are trying to make Big E. look super strong but in a way I think that is just what the IC title needs; two guys who feud on and off for several months with the title involved, the belt changing hands on at least a couple of occasions and then have a big blow off match. In my opinion the reason the belts are so devalued these days and that a lot of guys who get big pushes don’t actually go anywhere is because the WWE doesn’t care about making real storied rivalries anymore, especially outside of the main event.

8th Place: AJ Lee

The divas champion not only made her former best friend Kaitlyn tap out this week, she also managed to stay out of the giant divas tag match, which wouldn’t have done anything good for her. Instead she once again appeared on commentary and did a good job of things there, I think if there is any truth to these rumours of ‘heat’ backstage then it has been greatly exaggerated.

Even if AJ happen to lose the title in the near future it will still mean that she has held the title long enough to have made her run (and her tattoo) substantial enough to mean something, and this is only her first reign! Somehow she has managed to survive the entire run of Total Divas without losing the belt, remarkable!

9th Place: Summer Rae

The lady known as Mrs Fandango has branched off on her own and started winning matches, as perhaps she should. Summer is a pretty decent wrestler and slightly reminiscent of Stacy Keibler, albeit a little more horse faced.

Her dancing is fun and her heel antics aren’t that bad either so she gets my vote as one of the better heel divas to come along in a while.

10th Place: Randy Orton

The WWE world heavyweight champion creeps into the last place this week, which is pretty bad considering he is supposed to be the face of the company. But then again he didn’t seem to wrestle at any point this week, or even cut that good of a promo, some champion!

(Week 024)

1. Randy Orton (132)

2. Bully Ray (101)

3. HHH (85)

4. AJ Lee (79)

5. Alberto Del Rio (76)

6. Dixie Carter (71)

7. Damien Sandow (61)

8. Dean Ambrose (59)

9. Bray Wyatt (55)

10. Robert Roode (55)

Heel Centurions:

That’s all for this week, the Royal Rumble is still a few weeks away and there is plenty of time for the WWE to actually build that event rather than doing barely anything towards the card like they did with the Survivor Series. Then again they can pretty much sell the Rumble on the match itself so we might not see any other real booking apart from in terms of the next installment of Cena vs. Orton, although we can’t even assume that this early on! Hopefully things will become clearer in the next couple of weeks, for now this is James Wright signing off.