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Another week and the heel squashing in the WWE is still continuing unabated, all I ask for as a fan is balance and outcomes that are not completely predictable. Still as a fan I will always live in hope that the WWE know what they are doing and are heading towards some massive payoff, but judging by the past few years I am highly sceptical of my own ‘mark’ optimism. Anyway, let’s get on with the report…

Weekly Top Ten:

1st Place: R-Truth (10/10)

That’s right, back again, it’s the mental R-Truth. I’ll admit that his whole shtick has gotten a little bit ridiculous, especially since he came out this week dressed up as a confederate soldier, but at least it’s memorable. I’m sorry but I still can’t help but be behind someone who is rubbishing Super-Cena and the company for his bias promotion due to merchandise. That I suppose is the one use of Cena, when heels like Truth, Miz or Edge call him up on the unfair situation that surrounds him, all those fans that are sick of that situation agree and cheer. So at least in one small way Cena is serving to put guys over, that is of course until he dominates them at a major PPV and makes them look like minor league compared to him to serve the company, his image, and what must be his massive ego. Why can’t you just win with a small package or something John? Why does it always have to be the same miraculous recovery and then overkill series of moves that make your opponent look like he had been lucky before now not to get destroyed in five seconds, a lot of fans weren’t asking for another Hogan so stop it.

2nd Place: Christian (9/10)

Now this is an interesting one, while Christian seems to have grown a lot in terms of heel promos and now seems to be becoming a great heel, I’m still hesitant as I don’t really think this heel turn is going to win him back the title. It seems more like a consolation prize to keep him in the main event since now that Orton is on Smackdown there is no room for another top face to be in the main event picture. The whole thing just stinks and it is a shame that the system is so ridged that only one guy can be on top on each show. Another concern is that while this turn has created another great heel, I’m now seriously concerned about the number of decent faces the company has for them to work with. With Christian turned now there really aren’t any main event faces that aren’t burying machines, something tells me this system isn’t going to work too long and without a couple of injuries and some major scrambling we could be in for some predictable television for the next year.

3rd Place: Sheamus (8/10)

The first Irish-born WWE champion is probably the only person to profit from Christian’s heel turn this week on Smackdown after getting a win over the World Heavyweight Champion; Randy Orton. Rather than getting buried like usual Sheamus was able to get the three count in their no disqualification main event, although exactly how Sheamus will fit into this Orton-Christian program I don’t know.

4th Place: Alberto Del Rio (7/10)

Another heel this week who had more success on the microphone than he would have had he actually stepped inside the squared-circle. Del Rio seems to be taking some time off on-camera from being in the ring, which makes me question if there is an actual reason for this or if it is just because the company wants to keep him over while this period of face domination in the ring passes. Seriously it does seem like heels really aren’t being allowed to have any sort of real in-ring momentum right now.

5th Place: JTG (6/10)

Another new heel coming up in the world is JTG, although admittedly on a smaller scale. Still he is another illustration of the benefit of letting heels take up all the promo time as being in the ring they jst seem to lose. JTG’s NXT interview segment ‘Straight Out of Brooklyn’ was great and what got him the points this week, aside from that he lost both of the matches he wrestled, some push he got there.

6th Place: Wade Barrett (5/10)

One man who has seen through the current situation is the English Rose; Wade Barrett. While he has been wrestling for the last few weeks he has also been walking away from the matches before the inevitable end, a smart move on his part. Sure it might have cost him his place in the Corre, but I think we can all agree that this is actually a good thing for Barrett and now he might be able to get a decent singles push off the back of it. Unfortunately he will have to bury the newly emerging face of Ezekiel Jackson to get his own push, but will he be able to do this?

7th Place: Jinder Mahal (4/10)

A second straight week of squashing for Mahal as he takes out Barretta on Smackdown. Again I’m just not sure the WWE has enough room for another emerging heel. Sometime soon there is going to be a big fall out where the WWE loses a bunch of its heels just to make room for more. I think the offset might have come from NXT, where you took a bunch of upcoming wrestlers and made them all heels with the whole Nexus angle. It probably would have been better if the Corre had been a face group that went against Punk and the New Nexus on Raw and then taken that momentum and become singles face superstars, that might have balanced things out a bit. But instead they all became heels once again, like most emerging stars, the problem is that as a face it’s just hard to come across well to the WWE fans, especially on a show like NXT, where the company seems bent on putting these guys in situations where they can look foolish or inexperienced, or just plainly humiliating them for fun.

8th Place: Melina (3/10)

I have to say I love the heel Melina’s look, it is just plain hot, she also got a win this week over Gail Kim and so earns her place on the chart. I never thought that her face persona worked as she just isn’t that identifiable as a person and therefore couldn’t really connect with the fans. Not that she’s connecting with the fans now, but at least she has the excuse of being a heel.

9th Place: The Miz (2/10)

As a testament to the struggle that heels face while being in the ring at the moment, here is the former most must-see WWE champion of all time and leader of the heel report, who won his match this week technically, and yet he’s behind all but the best heel in the WWE; C.M. Punk. Basically if you want to be a top heel in the company right now you have to get used to getting your arse handed to you on a daily basis by the stagnant face main event group, and apparently returning legends who have something to prove. I’m hoping that this is all some actual Main Event Mafia-like storyline waiting to happen, just in that the younger up-and-comers rebel against the established main event superstars, but hopefully in the WWE it will be more organised and the younger superstars will actually win, rather than the company resorting to “in-fighting” within the main event group to have bigger rated matches.

10th Place: C.M. Punk (1/10)

Here he is ladies and gentlemen, the best heel in the WWE right now and he’s last place on the chart. Punk just can’t get a break recently, despite his solid heel work for the past few years in the company. You could claim that this is because he might be leaving and the WWE don’t want to take momentum from other superstars. But the fact is that Punk has only gone against the top burying machines in the company over the past year, so letting him win wouldn’t have done anything to slow their momentum. Again I go back to the point that perhaps Punk’s best move would be to leave, at least for now.

2011-2012 Season Top Ten: Overall Top Ten:

1st Place: R-Truth (71/100) – 1st Place: The Miz (602/1090)

2nd Place: The Miz (58/100) – 2nd Place: C.M. Punk (598/1090)

3rd Place: Alberto Del Rio (47/100) – 3rd Place: Chris Jericho (564/1090)

4th Place: Cody Rhodes (46/100) – 4th Place: Jack Swagger (338/1090)

5th Place: Michael Cole (43/100) – 5th Place: Dolph Ziggler (297/1090)

6th Place: Wade Barrett (31/90) – 6th Place: Cody Rhodes (284/1090)

7th Place: Jack Swagger (30/90) – 7th Place: Sheamus (270/1090)

8th Place: Sheamus (25/90) – 8th Place: Alberto Del Rio (242/1090)

9th Place: C.M. Punk (20/90) – 9th Place: Wade Barrett (234/1090)

10th Place: Ted DiBiase (17/90) – 10th Place: Randy Orton (224/1090)

Weekly Filler:

The Face-Off: Punk vs. Mysterio

This is here firstly for the obvious reason that I have already discussed about Punk being constantly buried. But secondly it’s the simple fact that like Ziggler and Kingston, this is just the same rivalry from Smack down a year ago being done on Raw. Now I kind of appreciate the concept of redoing these rivalries the Raw way, although apparently that means doing them the boring and predictable way, but it just seems to go against the whole nature of the yearly draft. The draft after Wrestlemania is supposed to shake things up and create new and interesting rivalries, not just transfer the same rivalries to a different show, what is the point in that? Maybe it caters to the few viewers that only watch one brand and so missed out on these superstars facing off for the first time and now are glad to see for themselves what all the fuss was about. But moreover the whole thing just screams of the creative drought that is present on Raw and has been for some time. The WWE is so lucky that TNA/Impact is in no shape to compete with them because honestly their flagship show is dead in the water when it comes to interesting and innovative programming and if anyone with some actual creative vision were to challenge them to a ratings war I’m pretty sure that they would lose.

Face the Facts: Straight Out of Brooklyn

I’m just putting this here because Yoshi Tatsu’s retort of “Straight out of your Mamma” and then JTG running off saying “My mamma’s a nice lady” after he had attacked him made me laugh massively. I don’t care how lame it was, I actually found myself being entertained on NXT, a rare thing nowadays.

On the Rise: Ziggler on Commentary

Something else that amused me this week was Dolph Ziggler on commentary, he was articulate, funny, and slightly dirty, what else could you ask for in a commentator. At least we know that there are enough guys in the WWE that could take over on commentary, if only Cole and the King would leave or die, whichever is quicker. Things like this make me wonder why Ziggler is still with Vicky Guerrero though as he clearly doesn’t need a mouthpiece and all she could say was that he is ‘Perfection’ and ‘Excuse Me’, pretty poor for a mouthpiece when you think about it.

Flat-Footed: Tyson Kidd’s Many Managers

At first this was cool, now it is just ridiculous, just give Kidd a manager or don’t, also these managers don’t seem to effect whether he wins or loses, so what is the point of them? It’s like the WWE are holding a showcase of managers, but it also seems like they are making a mockery of them as well. I just don’t get it and I really hope there is actually some payoff coming at some point soon.

That’s all for now, ranting and raving aside there are some serious issues in both companies that need to be addressed, although I still think that TNA is worse off than the WWE, simply for the fact that there was little to nothing to write about for them this week. However with Slammiversary just gone there might be more to report upon next week, we’ll just have to see. For now this is James Wright signing off.

Source: wrestlingtruth.com