The Heel Report 10.03.13: There’s Always a ‘But’

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: HHH

After last week of playing ‘the nice guy’, HHH stepped up his game, first by coming out on NXT and replacing Dusty Rhodes with JBL, who will be appearing later on in this chart based off of the promo he delivered once announced. Then on Smackdown HHH decided to get all up in Big Show’s grill and try his best to provoke the big man and throw his weight around.
This could lead to a potential match between the two and as long as that doesn’t take away the main event from anyone else then I am down with that since the Big Show losing to the Game is better than pretty much anyone else on the roster right now. Then on Raw he went back to the whole ‘What? I am doing everything by the book and being a pretty nice guy about it’ while he is throwing sand in your eyes and insulting your mother. The more HHH involves himself with members of the roster outside of the WWE title scene the better it is and the less likely we are to see the Game as Corporate champion any time soon.

2nd Place: Randy Orton

So once again the Viper took out the Miz, which I think everyone is pretty happy about. The only thing I would have liked to have seen perhaps was either one of the commentators or Orton himself referring to how his brutal punishment might have perhaps in part come from the Miz having taken the WWE title off of him several years ago by cashing in Money in the Bank. That would make Orton’s motivation more founded in history; make him look even bitterer and a hypocrite for holding a grudge against someone who did the exact thing that he has just done against Daniel Bryan.
Speaking of Bryan, Orton pretty much destroyed him this week with an RKO through the announce table, right in front of his fiancé; Brie Bella. Orton’s backstage segments with the Bellas have been pretty effective considering that the relationship between Brie and Bryan is real and Orton’s posturing plays into the idea that he is a ‘better’ man than Bryan, at least in his and the company’s eyes. I just can’t wait to see how this plays out on Total Divas!

3rd Place: Paul Heyman

The man who wanted to make an honest man out of Ryback really had me going for a minute there. I had no idea where the WWE was actually going with this one, were they trying to make a political statement? Were they subtly mocking Darren Young’s coming out? Were they just arsing about? But it turns out that this was the new way for Paul Heyman to find another one of his ‘guys’, which kind of brings a whole new meaning to the term.
It is interesting how Heyman possesses a different relationship with each one of his clients, something that separates him from most other managers in just how versatile he is. The only problem with the whole ‘Paul Heyman Guy’ thing is that unless that guy is already a commanding presence, like Lesnar or Punk, Heyman threatens to overshadow them somewhat, as has happened with Axel and now perhaps Ryback since while they are getting more airtime and having matches because of their association with him, the guy picking up the points is still the Voice of the voice of the voiceless.

4th Place: Dixie Carter

Could Dixie Carter be a good enough replacement for Hulk Hogan? Well it would certainly save the company a ton of money at a time when they really need it considering they have let a whole load of their roster go due to budgetary problems. While Dixie’s acting is still pretty much cringe-worthy, I could see her working as the ‘evil boss’ character, and while yes the character has been done far too many times to count in professional wrestling, that is because it works, or at least can work with the right people and situation. Wrestling has always blurred the lines between reality and fiction and so if you are in charge of a wrestling company at some point you are going to become a character, and at some point that character is going to go heel.
By taking care of Hogan, heel Dixie will be making a pretty big statement so hopefully that is how things will go, and as for her relationship with AJ Styles, that contract being torn up to me signifies the exact opposite. Giving him a big angle and possibly the title in the company worked to keep Hardy around at the same time last year, so hopefully it will work now, and at least this time AJ was the one who we all expected to win at Bound For Glory anyway, I just wish Dixie could try to be a little less sexual in her delivery as I have an attraction to evil women and I really don’t want to view her in that way.

5th Place: The Shield

After a week of being thrown into strange handicap matches that saw them being given the short end of the stick the enforcers for the Corporation 2.0 were back on form, making sure that Ziggler couldn’t wrestle the title away from Ambrose and taking out the Rhodes family when they dared to show up on Raw.
I’m still a little confused as to whether the match at Battleground is a two-on-three match or a straight up tag team match, with Ambrose involved on the outside. Either way the storytelling in the match should be good and this will be yet another significant feud that the relative rookies will be involved in as they continue to add to a legacy that might be perhaps seen as the overall best three man faction of the modern era once everything is said and done.

6th Place: Bully Ray

As Aces & 8s winds down, the President of the group seems to want to show his allegiance to Dixie Carter, despite her surely being the epitome of what he wants to get rid of in TNA, or did he just want the title? Or Hogan gone from the company? Or to retire Sting? You know what I just don’t care anymore.
As much as the Bully has been keeping up his end of the bargain as the cheating heel champion, the TNA bookers have really let him down in how they have represented the group since he was revealed as their leader. Then again the group has always been a bit of a joke so perhaps it is a good thing that they are finally ending, although I still wish it had been with a bang rather than with a fizzle.

7th Place: Bo Dallas

The NXT champion is playing a great role right now; that of the smiling babyface that everyone loves to hate. From his cheesy grin to his emulation of John Cena when he touts about his own worth as champion while thinking all the while that he is completely justified in doing so.
I have to wonder whether Bo will be called up soon and where he will fit in to the scheme of things on the main roster, because while he is the champ on NXT, I just can’t see it happening for him for a damn long time in terms of either the world or the WWE championship.

8th Place: JBL

It might have been a few years but JBL really hasn’t missed a beat when it comes to delivering a great heel promo designed to completely piss the crowd off. Straight away after being named the new GM of NXT he broke out the ‘wrestling God’ line and then proceeded to run down the entire Rhodes family.
Despite this great promo though I am still hoping that JBL will be like Dusty in that he isn’t seen all that often, after all NXT only gets an hour every week and it needs all the time it can get for actual matches to promote the wrestlers on the roster, not ten minutes of some established star talking. Once was nice to establish the character, but that should be about all there is to it.

9th Place: Stephanie McMahon

While the daughter of the owner of the company, who now seems to be posing as the owner herself, didn’t get anywhere near as personal and vindictive this week, she did help stir things up with the Rhodes family and cool things down with the whole Big Show situation.
At this point I am not sure what Stephanie wants from the Big Show, maybe she just enjoys toying with him for her own personal amusement like the evil bitch she is.

10th Place: Bray Wyatt

The Wyatt Family have taken a special interest in Kofi Kingston for some reason and it looks like we will get another Bray Wyatt match at Battleground. Hopefully this one will show off more of his actual wrestling skills and not just his showmanship.
Either way though I am sceptical as to whether Kingston will be carried off in the same way that Kane was, although that could certainly be interesting if that somehow was the case.

(Week 012)

1. Randy Orton (63)

2. HHH (58)

3. Bully Ray (55)

4. Paul Heyman (46)

5. AJ Lee (42)

6. Ryback (38)

7. Alberto Del Rio (38)

8. Dean Ambrose (38)

9. Bray Wyatt (26)

10. Damien Sandow (25)

Heel Centurions: