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The Heel Report: 11.22.12: Top 10 Heels

November 22, 2012 | Posted by James Wright

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.

Having a busy week so this will be a streamlined edition of the report, enjoy all the pretty pictures and I will see you next week for more extended rants and meaningless waffle.

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: Dolph Ziggler

No one was able to talk more smack this week than Dolph Ziggler, and he managed to back it up as he scored a clean pin on the Viper to become the Sole Survivor for his team on Sunday, and then caused a bunch of trouble for Cena on Raw, ending his night by smashing Super-Cena through a toilet stall and then beating the hell out of him. He also got deeply personal when AJ tried to call him out by bursting into the locker room, cutting up her personality and then sitting back down with his iPhone, or DS or whatever he grabbed before she started slapping him wildly. Ziggler now actually looks primed to be a main focus on Raw, it would be ironic after all these months of moaning that Ziggler losing doesn’t exactly make him World Champion material, if he then turns around and makes himself appear too big on Raw so that taking the World title will actually look like a step down for the Show Off, or else his taking the title will actually elevate it once again.

2nd Place: C.M. Punk

For over a year now C.M. Punk has been the WWE champion, and while yes that time has given us little else apart from a few good matches and a new main eventer the alternative was probably worse; i.e. Cena as champion, less quality matches and the same guy who has been champion for nearly a decade. The good thing about Punk’s reign is there is still room for development as well since his pairing with Paul Heyman is drawing some legitimate heat, especially after last week, and with the NXT angle now who knows how things will develop leading up to the showdown with the Rock at the Royal Rumble.

3rd Place: Big Show

The Big Show deviated from his former strategy of being just a monster and now is trying the heel angle, pulling a referee in the way of Sheamus’ Brogue Kick and then decking him with a WMD. While the extra ref coming in, counting the three, and then having another ref then DQ Big Show to have Sheamus win is a bit convoluted it kind of makes sense in this situation. Sheamus needs a reason to be able to legitimately challenge Show one more time and Show continued to look strong, in terms of being a heel, as he clearly can take the Celtic Warrior down for three when he connects with a knockout shot. Of course being chair-shotted to oblivion didn’t make him look like all that much of a monster, but perhaps we could claim that the fact that Ziggler didn’t come out due to a fear that Show was still too strong is a testament to the power of the champion. Bottom line is that at this point Show is still champion, and who knows if Sheamus really has what it takes to get the job done.

4th Place: Damien Sandow

Sandow is perhaps lucky that his partner Cody Rhodes will have to sit out for a little bit as he really was looking to be in shape to thrive on his own before the Rhodes Scholars took off and now he looks to be set to do the same again if his match with Sheamus on Raw is anything to go by. I was a fan of the Rhodes Scholars getting together but I don’t think either guy should be with the other for too long, at least if they aren’t going to win the tag titles anyway since while they gel quite well they are still better as singles competitors than they will ever be as a tag team. At least teaming with Rhodes has given Sandow to do for the past few months so that he hasn’t been stuck in lower mid-card hell, beating up jobbers but losing to anyone who is worth a damn and repeating the same character promo over and over again, even the most talented performer could suffer when placed in that type of position.

5th Place: Antonio Cesaro

Antonio Cesaro does two things; insults America and wins matches, and he does those things very well. While Cesaro has yet to move up the card all that much, and arguably a place on a Survivor Series team would have helped him with that, he certainly hasn’t slowed in his momentum since winning the US title. He beat Sin Cara, R-Truth and even Brodus Clay this week and doesn’t show any signs of stopping any time soon, I just wonder why it seems like he will be going against Truth once again despite beating the guy clean in their last title match, clearly the division is too shallow when it comes to faces right now.

6th Place: Wade Barrett

While Cesaro struggles in the search for fitting opponents for his title, Kofi Kingston can’t move for mid-card heels who all deserve a shot at his belt, and Wade Barrett is no exception. Of course Kingston might not have to deal with this problem much longer as Barrett looks to take away his title in the near future. Barrett pinned Kofi twice in the past week and his Barrage doesn’t look to be slowing down any time soon.

7th Place: Alberto Del Rio

Del Rio got a lot of air time this week and at points had us see him making Miz, Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton tapping out to his Cross Arm-Breaker. This all sounds pretty good but he couldn’t get too far this week as he also ended up losing his matches in the end. Now that his feud with Orton appears to be over, I’d assume that is what the 2 out of 3 falls match was all about, I have no idea what Del Rio will go onto do, and frankly I don’t really care.

8th Place: Robert Roode

Bobby Roode proves that the best way to get onto the chart in a WWE-heavy week is to imply that you want to have sex with your bitter rival’s underage daughter, oh and stealing his spot as the number one contender also helps, even if it doesn’t make too much sense.

9th Place: The Paul Heyman Guys

In lieu of an official name for these three I am going with this name. Honestly when Punk showed himself wearing that shirt on Raw and then the three of them showed up again at the end of the night all in black I was sure they were going to reveal the same T-shirts to show where there allegiance lay. If they are associated with Punk then Rollins, Ambrose and the other one couldn’t have asked for a better way to debut onto the main roster, I just hope their presence and momentum is kept up over the coming weeks.

10th Place: Eve

Once again Eve retained her title, once again she earns herself a place on the chart, once again I don’t care…

(Week 68):

1. Daniel Bryan (274)

2. Alberto Del Rio (272)

3. Cody Rhodes (245)

4. Robert Roode (245)

5. Dolph Ziggler (199)

6. The Miz (188)

7. Mark Henry (181)

8. The Big Show (178)

9. Bully Ray (170)

10. C.M. Punk (146)

10. Chris Jericho (125)

C.M. Punk at Survivor Series – While some people might be saying that Austin Aries is copying Punk, it seems that he wanted to give a little nod to Aries at Survivor Series by employing the Last Chancery in his triple threat match for the WWE title. Seeing this move locked into Jeff Hardy and John Cena in the same month fills my heart with joy, I could only be more ecstatic if either the Deluded Egomaniac or the Untouchable Toolbox would have actually tapped out to the move.

That’s all for this week, no real major changes to the chart, although we do have three new additions, all grouped together for now, but who knows how long that will last. I have to say I am interested to see what develops in both TNA and WWE right now with a number of invading forces, hopefully neither company will drop the ball and WWE will have three new stars, and TNA will have a long running angle that actually makes sense and gives them some much needed credibility in the storytelling and entertainment department. Only time will tell, for now though this is James Wright signing off.

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