Another week on the chart, the wrestling world is all a bit of a mess at the moment and the one thing that seems certain is that the Rock will face Cena at Wrestlemania. There are so many other unanswered factors to be addressed in the WWE at the moment but whether the company or the writers care is another thing. Enough of this speculation though, let’s get on with the report…

Weekly Top Ten

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

If this was the type of report where I grouped teams together then Miz and R-Truth would certainly be in joint first place, seeing as it isn’t though I’m placing Truth above Miz simply because he was the one who saved Miz with a water shot and thus making him look like the stronger of the team this week. So far the heel team looks strong and there is little standing against them, as well as no signs of dissention from within, the same cannot be said however of Cena and his supposed partner.

2nd Place: The Miz (9/10)

The Awesome Truth are continuing to get the push they deserve, if not separately then at least as a team. Of course this will all end in tears and they will probably be taken out by Cena and Triple H when the mega-powers finally align. Still for now they can make hay while the sun shines and dominate the chart in the top two places after laying out Punk, Cena, Ryder, Bourne, and Kofi in a convincing style.

3rd Place: Alberto Del Rio (8/10)

Despite everyone presuming that Del Rio would retain I am still surprised that it actually happened. After all last time we presumed that Del Rio would retain against Cena, he didn’t. Typical booking by the WWE this time in that they put the two in a Last Man Standing match, a match where a run-in or a spilt second double count can mean victory. This way Cena can save face even in losing. I find it almost embarrassing that Cena hasn’t lost a straight singles match by pinfall or submission for almost two years. I understand that he is the face of the company but I’d like to think that most of the audience would still be behind Cena whether he won or lost clean, certainly those fans that hate his guts would be happy to see him eat a pin in a clean finish. I’m pretty sure that is the number one reason why Cena has trouble in getting over with half the fan base, because he always comes out on top or at least looking like the ‘better’ man when facing opponents who clearly have more talent than him. It’s even worse than the Rock because while the Rock wasn’t the best in-ring worker, he really was the most charismatic man on the mic, so his wins can be seen as a reward for his promo prowess. Whereas Cena isn’t even that great on the mic, sure he can convince horny teenage girls, prepubescent boys and hillbilly hicks, but everyone else in the audience is barely moved to anything besides psychotic rage or apathetic indifference by his promo style of jovial prankster one minute and then super-cereal Hulkster the next. Bottom line is Cena sucks.

4th Place: Beth Phoenix (7/10)

The Divas champion beat Eve in a match that actually wasn’t too bad. Part of me wishes that somehow TNA and WWE could work together when it comes to the divas since both divisions are lacking something that might be filled by some teamwork between the Knockouts and the Divas. Of course that will never happen but something certainly needs to be done since WWE has the angles; see Kharma and the Divas of Doom, but not the roster to see them through to their completion, and TNA has enough women with talent under their employ but don’t really do anything with them, or at least nothing that could be called long-lasting or monumental. Still Beth Phoenix as champion is a step in the right direction, but just imagine if she worked her way through the Divas division, that’s right all five of them, and then got on the mic and said she couldn’t stand bleached blonde princesses holding the gold in any promotion, a message clearly aimed at Velvet Sky. Even a promo acknowledging that there was more than just the Divas division out there would be groundbreaking, delusional, but groundbreaking.

5th Place: John Laurinitus (6/10)

Johnny Ace is back in the chart again and still causing trouble. The problem here is the same problem as everything else in the WWE; the announcing, the booking, the title changes, everything just has this sense that the company is not willing to commit to any one person or viewpoint (besides that of Cena being awesome of course). Such is the case with Johnny Ace, who seems to act like a dick heel one minute, and then a clueless bystander the next, undermining his whole character. Perhaps it’s all a feign on Ace’s part, but if that’s the case then it’s simply a case of the WWE overestimating how complex they can make a wrestling storyline at the moment. The twists and turns that come with a complicated plotline don’t really suit the quick, short-term, booking that has taken place in the WWE over the past few years. That’s not to say it couldn’t happen with enough planning and if all the key players stayed over and healthy, but that is not likely. The point is that having a seemingly complex storyline doesn’t really work out and just ends up looking hashed together anyway, so they might as well stick to simplistic booking and building for the foreseeable future.

6th Place: Wade Barrett (5/10)

Despite being left off the Vengeance card, Barrett has had a good amount of success this week, beating both John Morrison and Trent Barretta on Raw and Smackdown. You could speculate that Barrett is being given another push but until he actually finds himself in some sort of storyline I wouldn’t start rolling out the red carpet and proclaiming him ‘next world champ’. After all how many times has Morrison, or Bryan or Kofi started a winning streak that went nowhere because the people that they beat had nothing to do with anything important going on in the company. A victory is great but unless it’s against an established legend or a current big time player then it probably won’t lead anywhere.

7th Place: Kevin Nash (4/10)

Nash is back and this time he’s actually in shape! I’m glad that the WWE is at least following up on the storyline they started by showing Nash’s retaliation to being fired a couple of months ago. However I don’t appreciate having to watch it about fifty times on Raw, NXT, Superstars and Smackdown to make sure that we all know exactly what is going on. A Nash and Triple H program doesn’t exactly fill me with excitement but I am hoping that this is all a lead-up to the swerve of combining matches into a traditional Survivor Series match, although that would negate Punk’s title shot so maybe not. I think at this point whatever the WWE does will be seen as wrong since they messed up the whole ‘Summer of Punk’ angle so badly and now even the sturdiest of fans remains a little jaded, at least for the time being.

8th Place: Mark Henry (3/10)

The World’s Strongest Champion had an earth-shaking defence at Vengeance and managed to retain his title despite not actually beating the Big Show in any shape or form. I’m wondering if they will have a Survivior Series match between Team Henry and Team Big Show, that could be interesting. There are lots of possibilities leading up to Survivor Series and in some ways I am excited to see what happens, still in other ways this short term booking annoys me since while Team Henry vs. Team Big Show would be interesting, it would be more interesting if there had actually been some real build to such a match taking place. I certainly wouldn’t see this rivalry as warranting such a match at this point. Now a Team Christian vs. Team Orton match would make sense due to their massive rivalry this year, however I couldn’t tell you how the WWE would justify this in the storyline, unless it was for the No. 1 contender spot, but again that seems like overkill, if they were fighting over the spot then why not just have another singles match? The whole plot structure of the WWE, especially on Smackdown, just seems to be in a shambles at the moment, a terrible waste when compared to how things were a few short months ago, for the briefest time of a few weeks anyway.

9th Place: Dolph Ziggler (2/10)

Usually pulling double duty on a PPV would get you higher up on the chart but for some reason this week Ziggler didn’t actually get that many points. Maybe it’s because he was in a throwaway match on Raw, a close title match with Ryder, and ate the pin against Air-Boom in their tag team title match. Still Ziggler is definitely on the WWE’s radar, even if that doesn’t mean he is winning every match left, right and centre.

10th Place: Cody Rhodes (1/10)

Rhodes has been putting in a lot of time at the moment and along with Ziggler seems to be on the company’s radar for a push into the main event at some point. However this week he was taken out by Orton at Vengeance and the in a tag match he managed to eat the pin as well. He managed to salvage a point though by taking out his part-time arch-nemesis Ted DiBiase on Superstars.

2011-2012 Season Top Ten: Overall Top Ten:

1st Place: R-Truth (184/300) – 1st Place: The Miz (706/1300)

2nd Place: The Miz (162/300) – 2nd Place: C.M. Punk (666/1300)

3rd Place: Alberto Del Rio (149/300) – 3rd Place: Chris Jericho (564/1300)

4th Place: Cody Rhodes (146/300) – 4th Place: Cody Rhodes (383/1300)

5th Place: Mark Henry (133/300) – 5th Place: Jack Swagger (371/1300)

6th Place: Christian (127/300) – 6th Place: Alberto Del Rio (344/1300)

7th Place: C.M. Punk (88/300) – 7th Place: Dolph Ziggler (335/1300)

8th Place: Wade Barrett (84/300) – 8th Place: Sheamus (294/1300)

9th Place: Jack Swagger (63/300) – 9th Place: Wade Barrett (287/1300)

10th Place: Dolph Ziggler (54/300) – 10th Place: Randy Orton (224/1300)

Weekly Filler:

The Face-Off: Triple H Embarrassing the Company

This is about the same as the big walk out a month ago. Johnny Ace being afraid of Triple H embarrassing the company makes little sense when you look at all the stuff that Mr. McMahon did while in charge. This included faking his own death, wrestling God (with Shawn Michaels), endorsing the crucifixion of his own daughter, as well as choking her with a pipe, snogging a girl half his age in front of his comatose wife and many other atrocities that would embarrass the company a thousand times over and way worse than anything Triple H could do or has already done. There is another point, simply look at what the current COO has already done while in a position of power in the company. Basically the whole thing is dependant on none of the fans remembering anything to do with the WWE of the 90s and early 00s, or realistically knowing anything about the WWE altogether since almost every person in a position of power has done something that would be classed as embarrassing. All in all it makes little difference now since Triple H has been hospitalised by Kevin Nash but the whole thing just stinks of the WWE’s lack of planning, story development and continuity at the moment.

Face the Facts: PPV Title Retentions

This might not have gone down the way that people wanted but I quite liked that none of the titles on the line changed hands at Vengeance. A consistent champion can only serve to strengthen the reputation of a belt and plays into the WWE’s current focus on building the divisions. Of course every other week the company gets distracted and seems to forget about trying to raise the prestige of the belts, but Del Rio and Henry remaining champions, even by dubious means, helps to show them as more than paper champions, at least for now. I also liked that Ziggler managed to keep his US title against Ryder since unless he is getting a main event push he should probably keep the belt and taking the tag team titles instead would seem like a step down really. The only thing that would have been better is if Rhodes had defended his title, but then Orton wouldn’t have won and the WWE can’t have that can they?

On the Rise: Christian vs. Sheamus

Quite simply this was a great back-and-fourth match with a good ending. Nothing special perhaps but it certainly gave the title matches of the night a run for their money. Both athletes are at the top of their game and gel well together, as well as giving Christian something to do besides get lost in the midcard shuffle.

Flat-Footed: Cena’s Partner

This being the Rock was just so obvious, sure it needed to happen but the way they did it, without even a nod to people’s knowledge of the Rock’s return, which was more than common knowledge. Also the whole thing seems a bit throw-away, after all people were getting bent out of shape over the Rock appearing in a Survivor Series match, let alone in a cobbled together tag team match that he doesn’t even seem to be needed for.

That’s all for this week, sorry for the lateness, internet troubles, I’m looking forward to seeing a Muppets Raw though and hopefully things will work out for the best in the lead up to Survivior Series. The less we say about TNA right now the better. This is James Wright signing off.

Source: wrestlingtruth.com