So this is the first report of the new season, which will run from just after the last Wrestlemania to the next one coming up. Hopefully this will give an accurate portrayal of just who the top heel in the WWE was in the coming year. After experimenting with the inclusion of TNA and for a week RoH I’ve decided that the chart is just simpler without their inclusion, although I will admit that this is mainly due to TNA’s constant swerves and heel-face turns and the difficulty in actually finding RoH programming to watch on a weekly basis. Basically until either company truly reaches the level to compete properly with the WWE it’s going to be hard to have their heels compete with the heels of the WWE. Apart from anything else TNA certainly have too big a roster to actually have each of its heels feature for any real length of time each week, so my personal feelings on the company at the moment aside, this skewers the results in the favour of WWE superstars anyway and will cause the rabid followers of TNA to complain just as much as me not actually including the company in the chart. Now that’s all out of the way we can begin a new year of cheap shots vs. cheap pops as the heels and faces of the WWE compete to be on top of a company that can have you wrestling in a championship match one minute and then wishing you luck in your future endeavours the next. It’s going to be even harder now with the abundance of mid-card heels compared to jobber faces, so we’ll see who rises to the top and who sinks to the bottom. So without further grandstanding, let’s get on with the report…

Weekly Top Ten:

1st Place: Alberto Del Rio (10/10)

Despite destiny being diverted Del Rio came back with a vengeance this week. First by taking out Evan Bourne on Raw and then by securing himself the no. 1 contenders position for the World Heavyweight title. And now with the Rated-R Superstar being forced to retire a championship reign would look to be in the Excellence of Execution’s immediate future.

2nd Place: Michael Cole (9/10)

Okay, even I am starting to get annoyed with how much Michael Cole is being shoved down our throats, I honestly considered bringing TNA back to the chart to see if I could bump him off the second top spot, then I realised that doing that would be like covering up the smell of a fart by taking a dump, so I thought again. The whole thing was cool when we thought that after Wrestlemania both Cole and King might disappear off into the sunset together, but now it looks like they are here to stay. Am I the only one who would prefer them both to be active wrestlers rather than commentators any more?

3rd Place: Ted DiBiase (8/10)

This was an interesting move for the WWE, at first it looked like they were giving DiBiase a push and making him a more dominant superstar, before then pointlessly jobbing him to Santino. He still managed to rack up a good few points with his promos and actions but still, he could have at least beaten out Michael Cole to the second top spot if they hadn’t killed his momentum just for fun.

4th Place: Jack Swagger (7/10)

The “trainer” of Michael Cole comes in two places behind his “prodigy” this week. The whole thing is just wrong! I’m glad creative have found something for Swagger to do rather than just flounder on the mid-card scene for months on end before being wished well in his future endeavours but still the guy has a lot of talent and it’s being wasted in this role. I don’t say this often but I’d actually be glad if creative managed to turn Swagger face and expand on his character that way rather than keep him going down this dark and pointless road.

5th Place: Drew McIntyre (6/10)

The Chosen One isn’t looking so chosen any more. With no appearance at Wrestlemania and only getting a win on Superstars this week, McIntyre is equal to someone the status of Zack Ryder right now. The only question is whether this will be the year of the Sinister Scotsman or if he will fade back into obscurity, this time not getting another call to come back to the main roster like last time.

6th Place: Sheamus (5/10)

Another apparent company favourite who ended up missing Wrestlemania. Still at least Sheamus holds some gold, and with his new colours embodying the US title you’ve got to believe that the Celtic Warrior will be the US title for some time to come. Whether he goes up against the American Dragon or the newest high flyer; Sin Cara, I can see Sheamus coming out on top for some time to come.

7th Place: Cody Rhodes (4/10)

It’s hard to say if the WWE has screwed up Rhodes’ momentum after Wrestlemania or not. Certainly having him lose to Mysterio and Orton along with Punk on Raw wasn’t exactly the best way to keep his momentum going, but then they handed him another squash match on Smackdown to make up for it. Still he isn’t exactly high up on the chart thanks to these actions so I can’t exactly call what happened a good way of exploiting Rhodes’ momentum to push him further towards the main event.

8th Place: Wade Barrett (3/10)

A man certainly suffering from a loss of momentum is Wade Barrett, once seemingly set to be a big time main event player, the English Rose has now become a footnote in the mid-card scene. Despite his title win and clear skill both in the ring and on the mic, the WWE seem to be letting his possible time in the spotlight pass him by in favour of other projects. It just seems like the WWE have given up on having multiple main event storylines and are now just having two or three people in the main event spot on each show and everyone else has to struggle in the mid-card division. Now perhaps this is always how its been, but with so much potential talent waiting in the wings it just seems more poignant now that something needs to be done once again to shake up the main event scene. The WWE has made leaps and bounds to bring up certain people through the ranks but with the return of some big names there is still a limited number of superstars who can get any significant airtime to showcase their skills.

9th Place: The Miz (2/10)

Still being in the main event isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. The reigning and retaining WWE champion starts off this new season in ninth place, giving him a big mountain to climb to regain his dominance on the overall chart. Still the Chick Magnet got off lightly after challenging one of the WWE’s biggest, and most untouchable, stars. Next he will be picking a fight with Triple H.

10th Place: Ezekiel Jackson (1/10)

In last place is the dominating force that is Ezekiel Jackson, so dominating in fact that it took the combined force of Kane, Big Show and Santino Marella to choke slam him on Smackdown, personally I think that Santino did most of the work there. Like Wade Barrett, hopefully Jackson will once again get the chance to progress to a main event level, although I’m not so sure how well Jackson would do if he truly ran with the big dogs.

2011-2012 Season Top Ten: Overall Top Ten:

1st Place: Alberto Del Rio (10/10) – 1st Place: C.M. Punk (578/1010)

2nd Place: Michael Cole (9/10) – 2nd Place: Chris Jericho (564/1010)

3rd Place: Ted DiBiase (8/10) – 3rd Place: The Miz (546/1010)

4th Place: Jack Swagger (7/10) – 4th Place: Jack Swagger (315/1010)

5th Place: Drew McIntyre (6/10) – 5th Place: Dolph Ziggler (281/1010)

6th Place: Sheamus (5/10) – 6th Place: Sheamus (250/1010)

7th Place: Cody Rhodes (4/10) – 7th Place: Cody Rhodes (242/1010)

8th Place: Wade Barrett (3/10) – 8th Place: Randy Orton (224/1010)

9th Place: The Miz (2/10) – 9th Place: Wade Barrett (206/1010)

10th Place: Ezekiel Jackson (1/10) – 10th Place: Alberto Del Rio (205/1010)

Weekly Filler:

The Face-Off: Triple H taking ages to get to the Ring

Just a simple point here. It’s your first Raw after Wrestlemania and how do you start it off? With a guy who wasn’t even in the main event hamming up a five minute entrance. Now this wouldn’t be so bad but the fact is that this guy is the future owner/runner of the company. Hopefully by then The Game will have retired from the ring as while a lot of the stuff he has done has been good, he seems to have a blind spot when it comes to himself, thinking it’s okay to take valuable time away from rising stars and partake in over-hyped rivalries with geriatric women that have already happened ten years ago.

Face the Facts: Stun Them All!

Give the people what they want I say! It shows just how little the audience regard this reality stuff pouring into the world of wrestling. Now I personally like the show Tough Enough, but I don’t want the contestants to constantly be seen on Raw like most of the others. I think the first show was best and if I remember correctly the contestants barely ever showed up on Raw and it was better that way. Now having them on Raw the first night to generate some hype for the show is fair game, but if they end up parading them around the ring every week it’s going to get really old, really fast.

On the Rise: The Corre vs. The Randoms 2 Out of 3 Falls Tag Match

Now this was an interesting concept, not an Elimination Tag per say, but an extended tag match. I wish this had been the match stipulation at ‘Mania though as it would have made for a much better match, rather than the epic squash that we got on the Grandest Stage of Them All. And yet they ended the whole thing on a disqualification, which made little to no sense, are you trying to say that the Random assembly of Kingston, Kane, Big Show and Santino are that over that we couldn’t possibly have them take a straight loss to what is supposed to be one of the most powerful groups in the WWE?

Flat-Footed: The Strange Burying of Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase

This is a phenomena that has gone on since the disbanding of The Legacy is that both Rhodes and DiBiase as singles competitors will get slight pushes for a couple of weeks where they dominate a few jobbers and then when they come up against any major mid-card player they are taken down a peg, killing all their momentum. Admittedly Rhodes has done a little better than DiBiase in some ways but basically the two have been in the same floundering position for awhile now. What I really don’t get is that these two are second and third generation stars and yet they are given less favouritism than some superstars from overseas, not that they should be shown any favouritism, but if anyone is going to be shown it then why not guys who are tried and tested and have lived the business since a young age?

Well that’s all for the first week of the new season, the first overall chart is looking quite askew with Cole and DiBiase so high and Miz so low, with Punk nowhere to be seen even. Still the actual overall chart isn’t looking too bad, what with only one turned face in the form of Randy Orton and only one non-active superstar in Chris Jericho, who rightfully deserves to be on the chart for all his efforts over the past two years. It’s interesting that Del Rio has started out this year at the top of the Overall chart, perhaps this is an omen of things to come? Still he is in bottom place overall so we’ll just have to see if this year will have him ascend by leaps and bounds despite his late entry, or if he will stay at the bottom of the chart while more established superstars get the pushes they so rightly deserve. For now though this is James Wright signing off.

Source: wrestlingtruth.com