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Right so another week of heels and faces, promos and matches, tarts and vicars…oh wait. Never mind, Capitol Punishment was this week and it was mostly face dominant, apart from Punk’s fluke win and Ziggler’s stagnant title win. Still the heels of the WWE fight on and a bunch of them had decent and interesting promos this week and so there is still certainly enough to talk about. Anyway enough of this grandstanding, let’s get on with the report…

Weekly Top Ten:

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

Finally, finally the best heel in the WWE is back on the top spot of the report, just in time for him to announce his departure from the WWE. At least the WWE seem to be letting Punk go out on a high, I suppose they have to keep him sweet as they don’t want another Jeff Hardy on their hands. If

Hardy wasn’t such a burn out that might have been a problem for the WWE that their fastest rising star switched sides at the height of his popularity. I can’t see Punk actually winning the title from Cena though, as that would just be cheapening the company’s top guy for someone on the way out and despite my hatred for Cena as champion even I would say that wouldn’t make much sense. Still beating Cena, Mysterio and Del Rio in the space of one week is pretty good for the Straight Edge Saviour.

2nd Place: Mark Henry (9/10)

After getting destroyed last week by an enraged Big Show, the World’s Strongest Man came back with a vengeance this week. He managed to take out both Kane and the Big Show on separate occasions and has launched himself into a rivalry that could tide him over for a few PPVs if played right. I’ve never been a massive fan of Henry, but if creative can actually give him a good program to work with, while at the same time distracting the Big Show and Kane from burying any more upcoming heels, then I’m all for it.

3rd Place: Dolph Ziggler (8/10)

The Platinum Playboy is moving up in the world, well not really, but at least he hasn’t been reduced to jobber status. Instead he’s simply where he was a year ago; high enough with the company so that they’ve attached a strap to him, but it is a meaningless title that won’t really get him anywhere. I would say it could lead him onto the WWE championship but last time, while it did actually lead to a title win technically, it was also the most dubious title win of all time that I’m still not sure actually counts. Still well done to Dolph for winning the US title and putting a couple of decent matches this week.

4th Place: R-Truth (7/10)

Well it appears as if the man with the conspiracy theories has finally been Jimmied. It was a nice touch to have Truth lose to Cena because of a fan, despite the sick feeling I get in the pit of my stomach whenever Cena wins, it was still a cool moment for younger fans, especially the one fan in particular who got to douse Truth in water of course. While I’m not a PG supporter and am always firmly behind the heels of the sport, as is evident with this report, I still can’t help but appreciate that Cena’s win over Truth at Capitol Punishment wasn’t exactly bad television, sappy, but not bad. I’m pretty sure that Truth’s days at the top of the chart may be done now and he will gradually slip in the coming weeks.

5th Place: Christian (6/10)

The former Captain Charisma on the other hand appears to be getting another shot at the main event, despite losing constantly to Randy Orton over the past couple of months. Christian seems to have profited from Mark Henry’s push this week, much like Del Rio did with his fluke win at Capitol Punishment, which I like since everyone gets over with a move like that. The heels look good for winning and the faces gain sympathy for being outnumbered and attacked. It’s a formula the WWE use often, but this time they actually employed it right, even if I do think that this whole Christian-Orton thing has run its course a little. The only way it could be saved is if Christian actually does win the title back and keeps it for a good long time, but judging by the end of Raw that’s not the picture the company want to present of themselves. I don’t mind telling you that seeing Orton and Cena on opposite ring posts with the titles in all their PG face glory made me die a little inside.

6th Place: Cody Rhodes (5/10)

The Dashing One was absent from Capitol Punishment, but he had enough presence on both Raw and Smackdown to make his way into sixth place on the chart. The Rhodes vs. Bryan series is a good idea, although I would like to see a little bit more story involved. I actually agree with Gunner from Impact Wrestling’s statements that wrestling is more than just what takes place in the ring. Surely the in-ring competition should be the main focus of a show, but in a rivalry I like there to be a little bit more thought put into why the two men keep butting heads. I just think that more could be made of both Rhodes’ and Bryan’s characters to make the program more engrossing.

7th Place: Wade Barrett (4/10)

It’s a double loss this week for the English Rose; Wade Barrett. The only question is whether this loss of his group, the Corre, and his title spells the end of Barrett’s push within the WWE, or if it is just the start of a new push that will take him onto the world title. I for one would definitely be happier with seeing Barrett face Orton for the title if Christian cannot take it from him at MitB instead of say someone like Mark Henry.

8th Place: The Miz (3/10)

It’s been a terrible week for the Miz, it seems like his days in the sun of being the WWE’s most preferred heel are officially over, at least for now. I’m not really sure where the former Chick Magnet will go from here. Will he keep on butting heads with Alex Riley? Or will he become another Jack Swagger and be reduced to near jobber status, only to compete in Wrestlemania 28 as a side note?

9th Place: Jinder Mahal (2/10)

Mahal did good this week, managing to get into the chart despite not having a PPV match, or an officially sanctioned match at all as the newly employed ref Nunzio made painfully clear. But instead he delivered a good beating and then a half decent promo, which was enough to get him into ninth place on the chart. I’m still hopeful that the pairing of Mahal and Khali will actually do some good in the WWE and have some good rivalries, if the WWE could cobble together some good face teams to set against them.

10th Place: Zack Ryder (1/10)

The Woo Woo Woo Kid may be a hit on the internet, but he didn’t even manage to get onto TV this week, instead he just put on a great match on NXT. Still while his physical presence wasn’t felt, the fans certainly know about him. Hearing the arena chant ‘We Want Ryder’ during a PPV match is surely a clear sign that the WWE should be doing more to push Zack Ryder. It boggles my mind how the WWE aren’t acting on this clear cross over between programming and social networking, however when I said this to a friend of mine who works in TV but takes no interest in wrestling they made an interesting point. They said that perhaps the WWE was purposely keeping Ryder back so that when they do finally give him a push the audience will feel like they are the ones that won over the company even though it was the company’s plan all along. That got me to thinking on how Ryder’s Youtube show works and it makes sense that it is more appealing while Ryder continues to be unsuccessful. I mean obviously at some point Ryder needs to be rewarded for his efforts, but why not drag it out until every goddamn fan in the arena is carrying Ryder signs and screaming for the WWE to put him on television. That happens and just like Alex Riley you have an instant main event face star to go along with Cena and Orton to compliment all the new heel stars that are just waiting for a decent opponent.

2011-2012 Season Top Ten: Overall Top Ten:

1st Place: R-Truth (88/120) – 1st Place: C.M. Punk (617/1120)

2nd Place: The Miz (68/120) – 2nd Place: The Miz (612/1120)

3rd Place: Alberto Del Rio (51/120) – 3rd Place: Chris Jericho (564/1120)

4th Place: Cody Rhodes (51/120) – 4th Place: Jack Swagger (338/1120)

5th Place: Michael Cole (43/120) – 5th Place: Dolph Ziggler (305/1120)

6th Place: C.M. Punk (39/120) – 6th Place: Cody Rhodes (289/1120)

7th Place: Wade Barrett (35/120) – 7th Place: Sheamus (276/1120)

8th Place: Sheamus (31/120) – 8th Place: Alberto Del Rio (246/1120)

9th Place: Jack Swagger (30/120) – 9th Place: Wade Barrett (238/1120)

10th Place: Dolph Ziggler (24/120) – 10th Place: Randy Orton (224/1120)

Weekly Filler:

The Face-Off: Fake Obama

This was just depressing. Sure it’s not uncharacteristic of the WWE but the whole thing has just been one long suck fest that made the WWE look as low brow and small fry as it can be at its very worst. The whole dream promos, then talking about how they invited all the White House, and finally the worst bit of all, knowing they wouldn’t get anyone and so hiring out a shoddy Barack Obama impersonator to talk to the crowd in a highly pointless address after a bunch of lame promos earlier in the night. This segment cheapened what was all round a pretty decent PPV.

Face the Facts: The Meteoric Rise of Alex Riley

This really is showing of how in the WWE anything can happen and how a guy can go from a no esteem rookie to a fully established superstar overnight. Riley gets almost the same reaction as Orton already and it can only go on from here. I’m still slightly taken aback that the WWE let Riley get the win over the Miz on PPV, perhaps they were receptive to the reaction of the crowd for Riley and decided to add to his momentum at the cost of the Awesome one.

On the Rise: Christian, Truth and The Miz’s Promo on Raw

This was just plain silly, but not in a crappy fake Obama way, in an actually kind of funny sort of way. First of all I always love a good heel showdown and second their use of “Really?” to “Riley” to “Randy” to “Jimmy” was quite good word play comedy and something you don’t often see right now in the WWE. Fact is heels are just better on the mic than faces, bar the Rock and Austin of course, so any time you can get a few of them together you know it’s at last going to be entertaining.

Flat-Footed: Jack Swagger

This guy must have seriously pissed someone off in the back. First he gets no face turn over Cole, which he was begging for and would have worked the same as Riley’s current push. Then he is put in a upper card PPV match after being embarrassed for weeks, only to lose once again. It’s just harsh how the WWE are treating this former World Champion and I can’t for the life of me figure out why they’ve decided to handle him this way outside of some weird cruel to be kind mentality. It just makes no sense to me, the kid has all the necessary mat skills and his lisp is actually good as a character trait for other wrestlers to work with, as seen by Christian in the past, over and over again. Maybe Swagger needs to start is own Youtube series.

That’s all for now, I’ve just heard the news of C.M. Punk’s ground breaking promo on Raw and I’m eagerly awaiting watching it myself, so expect a full report next time. Thanks to all my readers, feel free to comment on anything I’ve said as I haven’t had anything juicy to argue about for awhile. Maybe I should start a kayfabe ‘Face Report’ charting which heroes beat up the bad guys this week and how they are so awesome because their wrist bands come in orange and purple! That would be fun, we’ll have to see though, for now this is James Wright signing off.

Source: wrestlingtruth.com