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Another week of the chart and with Summerslam approaching, or just gone as it will be, there isn’t the same air of change as there was at MitB, instead it is the chance for the WWE to continue in the right direction or get scared and put the WWE back to where it was a couple of months ago. I’m really hoping the WWE didn’t wimp out like they did with the whole Nexus-Cena angle. That whole thing promised to be the death of Super-Cena and make the WWE much more interesting, pushing the Nexus onto new heights with Cena and Barrett at its helm. Instead we had to deal with another year of the same old rubbish and the Nexus dwindled down to near nothingness, even with Punk in charge. Hopefully the WWE is done with playing it safe and is ready to take some damn risks to win back the fans it has lost over the past few years. Still we can worry about that next week, for now let’s get on with the report…

Weekly Top Ten:

1st Place: Christian (10/10)

The World Heavyweight Champion beats out the true WWE champion to become the top heel in the WWE this week. The difference being that along with a few good promos he also backed up his heel persona in the ring, not only in the match but by running out on Sheamus. Disappointing the fans by denying them the rightful end to a match is the ultimate heel move and deserves to be rewarded. Hopefully Christian’s reward will come in the form of him retaining his title.

2nd Place: C.M. Punk (9/10)

Some people have criticised me about including Punk in the chart on the other version of this report, claiming that he is now a face or some sort of Tweener. I still maintain that the company are pushing him as a heel. Sure half the fans cheer him, but that same half boos Cena and always has, does that make him a heel? No. So as long as the little kids continue to boo Punk he will be a heel. Simple.

3rd Place: Cody Rhodes (8/10)

The Masked Menace is back on the chart, and this time he’s bringing the Intercontinental Championship with him. It was a sudden win on Smackdown and you could argue that it doesn’t really do much for the prestige of the title to be passed around so casually. Still Rhodes as champion makes sense, he is in the right place in his career after all. Then again I’m not really sure who there is for Rhodes to defend the belt against as almost all the mid-card faces on Smackdown have been fired in the last twelve months.

4th Place: Beth Phoenix (7/10)

The most dominant woman in the Diva’s Division makes it into fourth place after getting two good wins this week on both Raw and Smackdown. To say it is pretty likely that she will defeat Kelly Kelly for the title is an understatement, but this is the WWE and anything can happen, even if it is a crappy injustice.

5th Place: The Miz (6/10)

The former Must-See WWE champion is in dire straights for a man who is on quite a roll in terms of wins and losses. Not being booked for Summerslam is a big deal, hopefully something came up. I personally want to see Miz back in the US title hunt against Ziggler as a face, but then again if that happened at Summerslam with no build would just be bad, nearly as sudden as Sheamus’ face turn.

6th Place: R-Truth (5/10)

Another man who hasn’t really got anything going on is R-Truth. The face problem in the WWE is getting serious now, with decent heels having little to do and certainly no real rivalries or storylines to speak of. What’s the point in delivering good promos and maintaining a good win-loss record if you can’t look back at your career and think of all the good rivalries you had. It all means nothing in the big picture without the memorable rivalries to back it up. The WWE needs to start thinking about this.

7th Place: Mark Henry (4/10)

The World’s Strongest Man is handed another squash match this week. Along with memorable rivalries a wrestler has to have memorable matches, and that’s the difference between Sheamus and Henry right now. Sheamus is being given worthwhile opponents that make him look better in the ring, building to a bigger career. Whereas Henry is still just treading water despite his big push, because no matter how big it is, the whole thing just seems short term to me.

8th Place: Brotus Clay (3/10)

Speaking of short term pushes, that is just what Brotus Clay is getting right now. Clay is being handed squash matches on Superstars, a trademark of the super-heavyweight. It can only last so long and I for one doubt that he can truly back it up in the ring past crushing an opponent in the corner and then making that annoying noise he makes, which is a shame.

9th Place: Alberto Del Rio (2/10)

A win and a loss for Del Rio. I was surprised to see the Mexican Aristocrat come over and get a win against Smackdown’s own Daniel Bryan. I suppose it just shows where the company’s head is at still when it comes to who they want to push. Bryan may be a crowd favourite but he will never be a company favourite. I’m still not sure why the WWE is bent on making anyone who comes to them from the Indys jump through hoops just for the sake of it. Possibly some sick fetish, I don’t know.

10th Place: Ted DiBiase (1/10)

The son of the Million Dollar Man gets into the chart this week for acting as backup for the son of the American Dream Dusty Rhodes. That’s a hell of a turnaround in stature between a generation. Of course this might not last, but DiBiase seems to have missed the boat on his big push and it’s unlikely that he will get another one any time soon. Maybe Rhodes’ shadow is the best place for him.

2011-2012 Season Top Ten: Overall Top Ten:

1st Place: R-Truth (126/190) – 1st Place: C.M. Punk (666/1190)

2nd Place: The Miz (109/190) – 2nd Place: The Miz (653/1190)

3rd Place: C.M. Punk (88/190) – 3rd Place: Chris Jericho (564/1190)

4th Place: Cody Rhodes (82/190) – 4th Place: Jack Swagger (349/1190)

5th Place: Alberto Del Rio (79/190) – 5th Place: Cody Rhodes (319/1190)

6th Place: Christian (76/190) – 6th Place: Dolph Ziggler (311/1190)

7th Place: Wade Barrett (54/190) – 7th Place: Sheamus (294/1190)

8th Place: Sheamus (51/190) – 8th Place: Alberto Del Rio (274/1190)

9th Place: Mark Henry (45/190) – 9th Place: Wade Barrett (257/1190)

10th Place: Michael Cole (43/190) – 10th Place: Randy Orton (224/1190)

Weekly Filler:

The Face-Off: John Cena’s Contract Signing Promo

Apart from being cheesy and over vamped like normal, the pains Cena goes through to try to seem ‘real’ are excruciating. Every time he drops his voice in order to sound more serious, a part of me dies a little inside. The worst thing though is that he has clearly given up on ever actually being liked, which is silly and short sighted as I think a lot of us will admit that when he first came onto the scene he was actually likeable. That was because we didn’t have to see him act like a superhero every week, and sure that is what the younger fans want, but give someone else a go. That way all the other fans can just hate the top company guy in rotation, rather than it all being focused on one guy. Do you really think that the kids would care if Cena stopped being Super-Cena and became a bad guy? The next day they would be cheering for the next guy, and we could all possibly start appreciating Cena for what he is, a strong guy who goes out and gives his all. I just don’t want to see the same match over and over again like I did when I was a kid while watching Tom & Jerry or Power Rangers, why doesn’t the guy get that?

Face the Facts: The Rock’s Recorded Promo

Now this was the opposite, finally we have a guy saying how most of us feel. The best thing about this message was that it came from the lips of an established star who isn’t supposed to be a heel. C.M. Punk and the WWE knew what they were doing with this one. The whole point of this new worked-shoot approach is clearly to get the internet fans buzzing while simultaneously keeping the younger fans happy, and it seems to be working. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Money in the Bank and Summerslam PPV buyrates are the highest the WWE has seen in years after the amount of interest they have sparked.

On the Rise: Punk’s Contract Signing Promo

It amazes me how Punk has managed to keep up this whole shoot-kayfabe angle going and believable for weeks on end. Every time he picks up the mic he delivers some type of statement that makes it hard to see how the WWE could approve it, and yet they must have. That just shows that at least in some ways the company is getting over itself and letting their dirty laundry be aired on national television like it should be. I don’t think anyone can say they haven’t enjoyed hearing Punk busting the company’s balls over letting go guys like David Hart Smith and Chris Masters, something that they have to be brought up on. The whole segment felt like it was Cena, Triple H and the other tool against Punk, and Punk held his own. When Punk brought up the firings it was either terribly well written or otherwise he seemed legitimately provoked into talking about them by being called a hypocrite. Either way it’s all pretty cool, at worst Punk just has a massive set of balls and knows what a position of power he is in and is using it to the best of his ability. The best case scenario though is that the WWE is giving Punk the all clear to say these things because somehow they’ve finally realised that it is what the fans want to hear. That is why the heel-face announce team used to work, because anything is alright as long as you can hear both sides. We as fans are a lot more accepting of these harsh firings as long as they are talked about and called out as harsh by someone in the company. This is what Cole doesn’t get about being a heel announcer, it’s not about annoying people, it’s about being the voice of the cheater, justifying the behaviour when the face announcer condemns it. I know he does this a little but he is too inconsistent and tries to be too clever and original and it just doesn’t work, he just ends up alienating everyone. Whereas a guy like Punk ends up endearing himself to everyone despite being completely selfish really.

Flat-Footed: Hardcore Justice

In hindsight it wasn’t that bad a PPV, it wasn’t great either though. What I have a problem with is the build, because there basically wasn’t any. We as fans couldn’t feel all that attached to any match or rivalry because we weren’t given the time or motivation to get into them. There is just too much mess in TNA with wrestlers changing alignments and elegances on a weekly basis, feuding and then tagging with each other with almost zero prompting or explanation, this seriously hurts your PPV appeal. To put it simply; the PPV is a pay off of everything that has been building in the company for that month. It should provide satisfying resolutions to smaller feuds and add momentum to the longer lasting feuds that will continue afterwards. They are not just about title changes and last minute swerves! It works in the movies because they are a one-shot two hour story, possibly with a sequel with near limitless possibilities. Wrestling on the other hand is an unrelenting continuous story that has to maintain interest and coherence from week to week. This means small changes and very occasional big shake ups, wrestling has a soap opera structure as a program and the writers and bookers of TNA need to treat it as such.

That’s all for this week, I can’t wait to see what happened at Summerslam, but for now I am stuck in Devon with no way to watch the PPV. But I will be back in time for next week’s report so expect full coverage then of however the WWE might have succeeded in or messed up this chance to make themselves truly exciting again. For now this is James Wright signing off.

Source: wrestlingtruth.com