The Heel Report – Week 32 (2011-2012 Season)
AppId is over the quota
In the weeks leading up to Survivor Series the WWE seems to be keeping a holding pattern where just enough is done so that the storylines going into the PPV are advanced. Whereas TNA are running around like a headless chicken, changing champions and number one contenders like nobodies business. Is it their fault or are the fates just against them? Maybe this is karma’s revenge for re-hiring Jeff Hardy? Whatever the case, let’s get on with the report…
Weekly Top Ten:
1st Place: Mark Henry (10/10)
Coming in at the top of the chart is the World’s Strongest Champion. Henry took out Bryan last week and this week he pushed things even further by dominating him completely. I’m hoping that this is all a subtle build for when Bryan cashes in his case at Wrestlemania. If Henry can keep the title then Bryan could spend the next few months working against big men to get better so that he can finally beat Henry. Sure this angle would massively sell Bryan’s skills short, but so does being completely dominated by Henry and being made to look like he doesn’t belong in the same ring with him in favour of the Big Show, so a title win at the end of it all would at least be a silver lining.
2nd Place: Wade Barrett (9/10)
As proclaimed by the man himself; the Barrett Barrage continues. It’s nice to see the WWE taking an interest in Barrett, who clearly has the talent to go far, again. The best part about the Barrett Barrage so far is that it proves that with just a couple of weeks with sustained wins a guy that is floundering can become an upper-mid card player who gets a clean win over one of the company’s top guys. The question now is whether another talented guy in Drew McIntyre will get a shot seeing as how Christian can’t compete at Survivor Series and will need a replacement.
3rd Place: Alberto Del Rio (8/10)
In the build up to their match at Survivor Series, Punk may have got one over on him on the mic, but Del Rio settled the score by dropping Punk through a catering table on Raw. Del Rio as champion still hasn’t been all that riveting, despite him having the classic gimmicks of a heel valet and being ‘non-American’, at least in WWE terms. If Punk doesn’t take the title off him then hopefully he will improve over time.
4th Place: The Miz (7/10)
This week was a good week for the WWE, at least on Raw, since as well as Del Rio continuing his feud with Punk they also realised that the Awesome Truth need to be seen as being better than Cena when he doesn’t have a partner. The Miz getting a pinfall victory over Cena with the help of Truth shows why he needs a partner and doesn’t detract from his momentum at all because they technically cheated to beat him. It is telling that this week was so good when the company’s two biggest stars were beaten in the middle of the ring with basic heel tactics. That is all you need, no run-ins, no stupid stipulations, just simple moves like a thumb to the eye. It puts the heel over for getting such a victory and the face loses no momentum because everyone knows that the heel cheated to win, if anything it just adds momentum to a feud, it’s win-win and that strangely enough is always good.
5th Place: R-Truth (6/10)
The Miz’s partner comes next after he cunningly grabbed Cena’s leg and made him look like a fool and made Ryder look like he was almost the stronger link in the team of him and Cena. The only worrying thing is that with the goodness that came with this week’s results it is likely that the WWE are just getting us prepared for a face-dominated Survivor Series with Team Orton and Rock & Cena going over. However that might at least mean that Punk will win the WWE title again, which can’t really be a bad thing, and I might even say that the other results would be worth it in this case.
6th Place: Jack Swagger (5/10)
The All-American American got his revenge this week on Santino on a Muppet-free Raw. Swagger is part of Team Wade and hopefully he won’t just act as fodder in the match. To be fair when you look at the line up for the match, despite the lack of build, it could actually be a pretty decent match, with most of the WWE’s top mid-card talent facing off. As long as the match is given enough time it could go down as a Survivor Series classic.
7th Place: Hunico (4/10)
Another man on Team Barrett, and perhaps the only guy who I’m uncertain about, is Hunico. Although now that he has Epico and Primo in tow I’m slightly interested in if these accomplices will play a role in the match when it comes to spots involving him and Sin Cara. Since losing his mask Hunico has done little but ground and pound so I’m waiting to see how his high-flying style is effected now that his persona has changed. I’m hoping he breaks out the aerial assault again soon, but I suppose it is good that he can wrestle a more western ‘WWE-friendly’ style if need be.
8th Place: Johnny Curtis (3/10)
The winner of NXT season four returned to the show this week with a new personality and a new haircut. I quite liked that he was able to show off a bit more charisma in his new persona, but I was a little thrown by how…festive he was acting. At least he has taken on a completely new way to present himself, right down to his mannerisms. Of course if the WWE would have been smart they could have worked him into the whole ‘shoot’ outsiders angle, given him a future endeavours around the time that Masters got his and then brought him back in tow with Truth and Miz since he had been promised a tag team title shot and never gotten it. Even if the Awesome Truth just used him to get a tag title shot and then betrayed him by having the Miz fill in for him would have been good since then he could have come back as a face later. These are all potential opportunities Curtis could have been given, but instead he got stupid video promos, squashed in his one match on Smackdown, and now is back pissing about on NXT, still there is always hope for him, maybe he should get his own Youtube show.
9th Place: Epico (2/10)
Primo’s cousin and Hunico’s other partner in crime managed to take out the Usos this week with him on Smackdown. I like the way that the WWE have played this so far, keeping this potential faction low profile so that they could gradually gain notoriety or fade into the background if they don’t work out. It makes sense to set them up now as well since they can feud with Sin Cara for a couple of months and then if that works out they could go onto a returning Rey Mysterio, which would give him, and possibly Sin Cara, something to do for Wrestlemania.
10th Place: Kevin Nash (1/10)
Big Sexy makes himself sound a bit dodgy this week as he came out to deliver a promo against Triple H. Nash being back in shape could be a good thing, as long as he goes down the Booker T route, if rumours are to be believed, of being able to have short feuds with current guys and putting them over. However when it comes to Nash he might be more inclined to go the Hogan route and actually bury most of the young talent that goes against him. I certainly hope the former is the case, and if it were to be the latter then I hope that his feud with Triple H is his last one and he will leave before he drags any of the guys who are actually still relevant down in favour of pointlessly putting himself over.
2011-2012 Season Top Ten: Overall Top Ten:
1st Place: R-Truth (190/320) – 1st Place: The Miz (713/1320)
2nd Place: The Miz (169/320) – 2nd Place: C.M. Punk (666/1320)
3rd Place: Alberto Del Rio (157/320) – 3rd Place: Chris Jericho (564/1320)
4th Place: Mark Henry (153/320) – 4th Place: Cody Rhodes (389/1320)
5th Place: Cody Rhodes (152/320) – 5th Place: Jack Swagger (379/1320)
6th Place: Christian (136/320) – 6th Place: Alberto Del Rio (352/1320)
7th Place: Wade Barrett (101/320) – 7th Place: Dolph Ziggler (335/1320)
8th Place: C.M. Punk (88/320) – 8th Place: Wade Barrett (303/1320)
9th Place: Jack Swagger (71/320) – 9th Place: Sheamus (294/1320)
10th Place: Dolph Ziggler (54/320) – 10th Place: Randy Orton (224/1320)
Weekly Filler:
The Face Off: NXT Fail – Now there is no prize and its been going on for ages.
This is a simple point about the announcement that next year NXT and Superstars will be cancelled. Cast your mind all the way back to the start of this series when it was announced that the winner would earn a place on NXT season six, a shit prize to begin with and now one that the contestants can’t even get because there won’t be a season six. Of course it’s not like the other prizes were anything to sing about, after all Wade Barrett got a title shot but wasn’t allowed to win at the last second, then Kaval got a shot and failed before getting fired. Kaitlyn has barely done anything since winning, and Johnny Curtis, well the less we say about him the better. You could argue that the NXT competitors only have themselves to blame since most of the actually talented guys have gone on to have at least some role in the company proper, but still with pointless and annoying challenges and no real structure can you really blame them for failing? NXT really is the embodiment of the WWE at the moment, something that started out so promising and then faltered because the people upstairs lost interest in it and began treating it like a joke. Bottom line is that while the top people are untouchable they will always pass on the responsibility and not be held accountable for their actions so that they don’t care whether their ideas truly succeed or fail, they just want to collect their pay slip.
Face the Facts: TNA’s MMA Partnering
As of late it’s not often that I sing the praises of TNA, however I have to say that they are actually being smart by partnering with Belladonna so as to get both companies some exposure to mutual fanbases. A lot of times a partnership like this would be ineffective or even counter-productive, but TNA bringing out spokespersons to sit in on commentary and have each other put both companies over is a nice way to combine the world’s of wrestling and MMA. As long as they tow the line of MMA is more skill based and TNA is more out-there entertaining and avoid the whole ’wrestling is fake’ bollocks then things should work out just fine…but then again this is TNA.
On the Rise: The Return of William Regal
This was just a great treat on Superstars and it’s a shame for anyone who missed it. Of course Regal ended up putting Bryan over but his reaction from the Liverpool crowd was immense and it showed that Regal still holds a real presence in the minds of the fans. The student versus teacher angle of the match was nice and the short interval in Regal’s music where they played his original ‘Real Man’s Man’ theme was great and brought in a real connection between the two since Bryan is always going on about being manly. In the end this was just a classic match between two mat technicians, with a bit of sentimental value thrown in and it was enjoyable. It’s just a shame that other veterans like Kevin Nash can’t take this classy route and instead try to steal the spotlight to squeeze in another lacklustre fifteen minutes of fame in their already decorated career, what else do you have to prove?
Flat-Footed: Liver-pool and Scousers
This was just embarrassing. When Cole said that stuff in that typical ignorant American ‘I have no idea how things are really pronounced and I can’t be bothered to find out even though it’s my job’ attitude it just made me depressed. Now you could claim that Cole was just playing up to his heel character, but I don’t think so, I think he was honestly trying to sound like he knew what he was talking about and that is just sad. The WWE is doomed in terms of announcing, doomed I tell you!
That’s all for this week. Turning Point was this Sunday and maybe with it there will come some interesting developments in TNA, but as of now the company seems hard pressed to even be bothered to come up with a sustainable storyline for the main event, let alone actually pull itself together as a company. The WWE continues to trundle along, making mistakes and more importantly missing opportunities that they set up for themselves. Hopefully Survivor Series will be something to watch as it is one of the big four PPVs, but for now we will just have to wait and see. This is James Wright signing off.
The Heel Report – Week 30 (2011-2012 Season)
AppId is over the quota
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.
The Heel Report – Week 29 (2011-2012 Season)
AppId is over the quota
Right so here we are; James Strom is the TNA champion over Robert Roode and Johnny Ace is GM of Raw over Triple H, things are certainly different now at least. Then again saying that there are quite a few different and better ways that things could have gone down in both companies and at the moment I am hoping that ROH gets crazy-popular really quickly so both promotions have to buck their ideas up and stop swerving and playing it sage in equal measure and fucking up no matter what they do. Anyway enough of this negativity for now, let’s get on with the report…
Weekly Top Ten:
1st Place: Mark Henry (10/10)
Despite finishing the week by being knocked out by the Big Show, Henry got two squash victories against the WWE’s resident mid-card jobber; John Morrison. These wins, while not epic battles, allow Henry to keep the majority of his momentum going into Vengeance. I think most people are hoping that Henry retains in his match with the Big Show, just so someone has a sustained title run at some point this year outside of the Miz. Who knows, Henry might turn out to be the next JBL, coming out of nowhere and keeping the title for the better part of a year, or he could be like all the other champions of recent memory and drop the belt on a whim from creative, killing all the carefully crafted pushing that went into making him be seen as fit to be a monster heel champion in the first place.
2nd Place: Wade Barrett (9/10)
I would say this was unusual for the distinguished English gent but the truth is that his solid promo and convincing win over Daniel Bryan out of nowhere completely fits with the way the WWE have been booking him since his crossover to the blue brand. Barrett is a solid wrestler and really could be the next big thing if he was given a sustained push. Instead he is wheeled out every couple of months for a brief glimmer of greatness before being squashed again by Cena or Orton. One major problem with the WWE is that they are too short sighted, they spend all their energy on maintaining their two biggest stars and don’t give anyone else the chance to shine. Barrett would make a great upper-card face if given the chance as he has all the charisma in the world, but instead he is one of the company’s many mid-card heels that are periodically pushed, only to fall to Cena or Orton at some point, possibly getting a short title run in the meantime if they are lucky, Barrett would be lucky if he even got that.
3rd Place: R-Truth (8/10)
I have to admit it wasn’t a great week for the heels of the WWE. R-Truth got to this position by appearing on Raw without having a match and then beating down Punk when he got the chance. Like most other people I don’t think the Awesome Truth have a hope in hell of beating Punk and Triple H in a straight match at Vengeance. However with help from Johnny Ace and a returning Kevin Nash there might be some hope for the WWE’s most promising heel tag team. This might not happen, but with Survivor Series coming up I could see those events as adding fuel to the fire for a four man match with Del Rio, Nash, R-Truth and Miz vs. Triple H, Punk, Rock and Cena, possibly with the stipulation of the Raw GM position being on the line.
4th Place: Jinder Mahal (7/10)
Following on from his placement in the Smackdown Battle Royal last week, Mahal proves that he is perhaps seen as more than just a glorified jobber by the WWE by beating the newly face-turned DiBiase clean in their match on Superstars. The match itself was pretty decent and once again added to the backwards thinking that an hour show is the place to showcase solid wrestling matches that last for a good fifteen minutes at least. It makes me think that a show like Reaction could work, as in the short-lived show that TNA did for an hour after Impact where guys just talked about the previous show. However unlike that show, which was disjointed and was just more talk after a near two hours of talking and backstage promos, if say Smackdown was booked as almost all wrestling then you could have promos and confrontations relating to those matches and storylines for an hour afterwards. So you could have a two hour wrestling show and anything that didn’t get worked out or explained in the ring could be covered in the hour-long post show. Hell it would be better than what we get now which is a two hour show that is two-thirds talking and one-third wrestling.
5th Place: Alberto Del Rio (6/10)
The WWE champion continues to be undersold. Losing to Cena due to Michael Cole on Raw and barely making it out alive against the No. 1 contender for the World Heavyweight title; The Big Show. The icing on the cake was Cena’s arrogant count out of Del Rio at the end of Raw. I’m just hoping that this is all a precursor to Del Rio winning at Vengeance because otherwise both his title runs will have just been a joke and the guy will probably never recover from being seen as John Cena’s bitch. It will also mean that it will have been twice that Del Rio has pinned Punk for the title only to have Cena take him out a month later like he was nothing, thus indicating that the WWE’s possible new face star is little more than a glorified jobber, at least where the WWE title is concerned.
6th Place: Cody Rhodes (5/10)
On the run from the Viper, Rhodes will have to work hard to have a hope of winning in his match at Vengeance. The only way I think it could be possible is if the title is on the line and the WWE are dead serious about bringing back some prestige to the belt. Having said that, how amazing would it be if the title was on the line and Rhodes could win against Orton clean, that would be a HUGE momentum boost for both Rhodes and the title. Alternatively you could have Rhodes drop the belt to Orton and then have the two feud over it for the better part of the remaining year until Wrestlemania, which would also raise the status of Rhodes and the belt. Instead though I’m betting that the WWE will be sticking to the same old ‘safe’ booking strategy of not putting the title on the line and having Orton go over Rhodes, making Rhodes look possibly good in the match, but not good enough to beat the Apex Predator.
7th Place: The Miz (4/10)
The second half of the Awesome Truth got the short end of the stick this week, having to eat a pin from Punk before getting his own back with a post-match beat down. As I said before, nothing short of major interference will result in them getting one over on Punk and Triple H. No matter what though, the Miz being back on TV screens is definitely a good thing, even if he won’t be seeing the WWE title shot again any time soon.
8th Place: Christian (3/10)
The world’s biggest coward; Captain Charisma. Christian ran out on two tag matches this week, leaving one partner to win and the other to lose. One thing is for sure and that’s that there will be no running from the Celtic Warrior at Vengeance. I say that but now I think about it a dubious count-out victory where Christian tricks Sheamus would be great and could lead to a cage match between the two at Survivor Series to settle the feud once and for all.
9th Place: Dolph Ziggler (2/10)
A nice little promo does little to counteract being pummelled near half to death by an angry Welshman on Raw. Then on Smackdown, the US champ got run out on by his partner in their tag match and received a boot to the face for his trouble. All in all things don’t look good for Ziggler, who has to pull double duty at Vengeance. On the one hand he could walk out of the PPV with two titles, on the other he could walk out with nothing, we’ll just have to wait and see which is the case.
10th Place: John Laurinitis (1/10)
The man we all love to hate. If this guy had any sense of timing he might have appeared higher on the chart since his promo mocking JR and Rey Mysterio could have been really great, certainly the writing was there, but the delivery was shit. Johnny Ace stuttered and mumbled his way through some brilliantly crafted lines that were designed to get the crowd all riled up, but instead they were occupied with figuring out what the hell he was trying to say. Get this guy off the air now!
2011-2012 Season Top Ten: Overall Top Ten:
1st Place: R-Truth (174/290) – 1st Place: The Miz (697/1290)
2nd Place: The Miz (153/290) – 2nd Place: C.M. Punk (666/1290)
3rd Place: Cody Rhodes (145/290) – 3rd Place: Chris Jericho (564/1290)
4th Place: Alberto Del Rio (141/290) – 4th Place: Cody Rhodes (382/1290)
5th Place: Mark Henry (130/290) – 5th Place: Jack Swagger (371/1290)
6th Place: Christian (127/290) – 6th Place: Alberto Del Rio (336/1290)
7th Place: C.M. Punk (88/290) – 7th Place: Dolph Ziggler (333/1290)
8th Place: Wade Barrett (79/290) – 8th Place: Sheamus (294/1290)
9th Place: Jack Swagger (63/290) – 9th Place: Wade Barrett (282/1290)
10th Place: Dolph Ziggler (52/290) – 10th Place: Randy Orton (224/1290)
Weekly Filler:
The Face Off: TNA Egos
This goes back to Hogan’s face turn at Bound For Glory. Him and Sting acting like they can take out guys younger and tougher than them just because they beat their chest and through sloppy punches. The company is being run by a bunch of guys who just want to put themselves over and care more about proving critical fans wrong than pleasing their audience. The worse thing about TNA at the moment is their knee-jerk slogan of ‘Wrestling Matters’ since Impact has the least wrestling of any televised show, so the whole thing just makes no sense. Of course there is also the problem with Robert Roode failing to win the TNA title after a huge build, and then his partner taking out Angle in the space of three minutes a few short days later, negating everything that has happened in the past few months. Added onto this was the annoying comments by Bischoff and Hogan about the ratings for that episode of Impact. The clear reason for these ratings is that everyone read what was going to happen due to the spoilers posted on sites like this and tuned in to see if TNA had really fucked up that bad. TNA should be thanking the ‘internet marks’ not making fun of them. The WWE is a mainstream product, you don’t really have to be too into wrestling to tune in, I.e. you don’t need to look at these sites or feel the need to look into the business too much, but TNA is surely more tailored to those who are interested in wrestling and so would probably be part of the IWC, at least to some extent. What I am trying to say is that when Hogan and Bischoff take shots at the IWC they are taking shots at their biggest potential fan base, and it is pure ego that prevents them from seeing that.
Face the Facts: Sin Cara vs. Sin Cara
Despite the terrible build this was a decent match. The end meant a lot and I am glad that they actually went through with it and had the black Sin Cara actually have to unmask. The thing I really liked about this match though was that the commentators, such as they are, were able to talk about wrestlers as characters. Sure they were only acknowledging character because they could frame it as a Lucha Libre thing but it is still good to hear. Now I know you couldn’t really refer to wrestlers as playing characters rather than as ‘real’ people since it would ruin the illusion, but it’s certainly an interesting idea, and it could be a new avenue for professional wrestling to look into, bringing the audience in on the game rather than trying to play them with it.
On the Rise: The United Kingdom
Those of you who are regular readers of this column might remember that I often bang on about the WWE creating a stable of Barrett, McIntyre, Ryan, and Sheamus, with William Regal as their manager. Now it seems as if someone at THQ was taking notice as in the new WWE 12 game there appears to be a story mode where a stable between the superstars comes together under the name ‘The United Kingdom’. While I wish that the stable had been realised in real life it will be nice to see it shown somewhere. It’s also nice to know that my booking decisions are shared by at least some people linked to the WWE, even if it is the design team for a games company rather than anyone actually from WWE’s creative team. Then again if I think about it, if they had shared my idea then I would be quite disturbed since it would mean I thought like them, and at this point I don’t think that would be a good thing.
Flat-Footed: USA Booking
This goes back to my old annoyance with the WWE about them being an international company and yet giving little thought to their international audience. The fact that the brilliant United Kingdom stable is only being seen in their games rather than onscreen is a testament to that. More importantly though they managed to really screw up their Mexican tour, having made Del Rio their champion in preparation for the tour they then waste him by putting him in a joke match with JR and Cole, only to be dominated by the All American boy; John Cena. Then he has a close match with the Big Show where he is knocked on his arse at then end of things. So basically the guy that was so over in Mexico and that you made champion for the express purpose of pleasing a crowd of people over the age of eight that actually think the WWE is still cool is left lying on his back at the end of both your main shows, is that any way to showcase your talent? Then there is the Mask vs. Mask match on Smackdown, while it was a good match the fact is that it had two days build and wasn’t even the main event! During the match all the announce team could do, besides highlight the wrestlers as playing characters, was go on about how important the match and the masks were in Mexico, if that was the case why wasn’t it plugged way in advance and made the main event. Bottom line is that despite whatever efforts they might have made, the WWE’s mindset will always be far too American biased, even though for now the ship has sailed on wrestling being the ‘in thing’ in the good ol’ US-of-A. Basically both major promotions are headed by small-minded dinosaurs that have no idea what is relevant or how to move the business onto a place where it can become truly successful again.
That’s all for this week, hopefully Vengeance has seen some good results and the WWE is at least in some form of good shape heading towards Survivor Series. Hell maybe by next week TNA will have capitalised on James Storm becoming champion and the company will start to respect and push its original stars. However at this point it all seems pretty unlikely, for now this is James Wright signing off.
The Heel Report – Week 27 (2011-2012 Season)
AppId is over the quota
Impact rolls along and the WWE are trying their hardest to destroy the buy rate for Bound For Glory with PPVs like Hell in a Cell, and for the most part I would think they are succeeding. Us here in merry old England will be getting Bound For Glory for free but I would guess that any fan who watches both promotions and actually pays for their PPVs will have ordered Hell in a Cell and be watching Vengeance as well over seeing Bound For Glory and what will be an embarrassment of a match between Sting and Hogan. Basically the only thing worth paying for is seeing Robert Roode win the TNA title and most of us aren’t even sure if that will happen. Still enough of my current bias, let’s get on with the report…
Weekly Top Ten:
1st Place: Alberto Del Rio (10/10)
The new WWE champion and head of the heel report is the Mexican sensation; Alberto Del Rio. Del Rio pulled a fast one at Hell in a Cell, locking the then current champion Cena out of the cell before taking down Punk to secure his second title reign in the space of a month. Many people are questioning why Del Rio dropped the belt to Cena for two weeks and there are several explanations that could be the case, from knocking off Ric Flair to emphasis on the Mexican tour, whatever the case Del Rio is champion again and I for one hope his new title reign can last longer than his last one did.
2nd Place: Mark Henry (9/10)
The World’s Strongest Champion managed to retain his title against Randy Orton at Helll in a Cell and although he didn’t manage to cripple him after the match he was able to get the Viper off his back for the foreseeable future. Now instead he has the returning Big Show to worry about, and I’d take an angry giant over a Viper any day of the week. Fact is that Henry looks in good shape to keep his title at least until Survivor Series, unless the WWE decide to arbitrarily have the title change hands again, but when have they ever…oh wait, maybe Henry’s title reign isn’t so secure after all.
3rd Place: Cody Rhodes (8/10)
Sure he ate two losses this week, but he also defended his fancy new belt in trousers and expensive shoes. Rhodes is clearly on the rise in the company, being paired off with Orton from week to week and actually coming out of some of their confrontations on top, even if it is b dishonest means. You’d have to imagine that along with Sheamus, Rhodes is in line for a title shot by the end of the year.
4th Place: Beth Phoenix (7/10)
Another new champion in the WWE and one who surely deserved her win the most. After months of being embarrassed by Kelly Kelly, Beth finally managed to topple her as Divas champion. Sure Kelly Kelly might have gotten the best of her on Raw by going mental, but the torture that the Divas of Doom have begun dishing out on women like Alicia Fox mean that Phoenix might be a main stay in the chart from now on.
5th Place: Dolph Ziggler (6/10)
The US champion comes next as two losses are made up for by a bunch of promo time and a decent win over Air-Boom on Smackdown where he and his partner laid an almighty beat down on the tag team champions before the match had even begun. Ziggler is unlikely to be getting a Miz-like push where he will be allowed to hold the US and the tag team titles at the same time, but who knows, it might happen/
6th Place: Jack Swagger (5/10)
Jack Swagger certainly has gone up in the world, it’s not the same as competing for the World title but getting a shot at the tag team titles is better than acting as Michael Cole’s valet that’s for sure. His pairing with Ziggler could take him far if it doesn’t simply degenerate into a lacklustre feud between the two with neither man actually being turned face, which just plain wouldn’t work at this point.
7th Place: Christian (4/10)
Captain Charisma comes from a short feud with Sheamus to being a major player in the predominant storyline running across both brands, not too bad for a man that looked to be on his way out of the main event scene. No doubt Christian will still be on the losing end of battles with Sheamus for months to come, but at least now he can do so with the knowledge that he has something else to back him up and keep him in the limelight for a little bit longer. Still with Henry as champion I wouldn’t be so sure if we will see that whole ‘one more match’ gimmick being used anytime soon, not by Christian at least.
8th Place: R-Truth (3/10)
The first of the invaders to make it onto the list. I’m glad that the WWE aren’t over-egging this gimmick like they did with C.M. Punk, bringing him back way too early. Instead saving the Miz and R-Truth for the Hell in a Cell PPV. Of course I might be speaking too soon and with Survivor Series just round the corner I’m guessing that they will be reinstated for the traditional Survivor Series match at least.
9th Place: The Miz (2/10)
Potential booking problems aside this angle shows us one thing and that’s that the WWE is finally taking notice of how social networking and online marketing can be used not only to promote the show but in storylines as well. Having a superstar broadcast something on Youtube is the modern equivalent to having them ‘live via satellite’, only more convincing.
10th Place: David Otunga (1/10)
David Otunga: Attorney at Law! Otunga has gotten a new lease of life with this angle, allowing him to get airtime without having to step into the ring. Now it’s not like we will see Otunga going for the WWE title anytime soon, and a good job too, but at least he is being a little bit more interesting now.
2011-2012 Season Top Ten: Overall Top Ten:
1st Place: R-Truth (164/270) – 1st Place: The Miz (692/1270)
2nd Place: The Miz (148/270) – 2nd Place: C.M. Punk (666/1270)
3rd Place: Cody Rhodes (130/270) – 3rd Place: Chris Jericho (564/1270)
4th Place: Alberto Del Rio (127/270) – 4th Place: Jack Swagger (367/1270)
5th Place: Christian (117/270) – 5th Place: Cody Rhodes (367/1270)
6th Place: Mark Henry (115/270) – 6th Place: Dolph Ziggler (331/1270)
7th Place: C.M. Punk (88/270) – 7th Place: Alberto Del Rio (322/1270)
8th Place: Wade Barrett (70/270) – 8th Place: Sheamus (294/1270)
9th Place: Jack Swagger (59/270) – 9th Place: Wade Barrett (273/1270)
10th Place: Sheamus (51/270) – 10th Place: Randy Orton (224/1270)
Weekly Filler:
The Face-Off: Longing Looks
This is a small gripe but it’s just something I noticed at Hell in a Cell, all the guys like Orton and Del Rio seemed to just stare off into the distance during their promos, this just looks terrible. Looking off camera like that makes everything seem so cheesy and rehearsed, it is the mark of a man who has read his script and doesn’t know what to do now. The WWE needs to be more organic in these times of fakery, where TV shows like Made in Chelsea and The Hills are taking the idea of a scripted reality soap opera and turning it into something even more trashy than the WWE. Wrestling needs to make a stand about being scripted but seeming real and being effected by real world issues and politics, as well as utilising real life personalities to bring characters to life, so less scripting, more improv please.
Face the Facts: Company Walk Out
While there are several holes to the superstars only boycotting Raw in protest of Triple H as COO, and walking out now when things are nowhere near as bad as they have been, I’m still for this angle. First of all Triple H is nowhere near Smackdown, just like Vince McMahon wasn’t for the last few years, so I can understand the focus on Raw, although why the superstars haven’t protested against Teddie Long is beyond me, the man is a terrible GM. Also I would say that while things have been much worse I can understand why the walk out has happened now when you factor in Punk’s recent outbursts and the fact that Triple H is new and hesitant to running the company this time, basically Triple H just looks weak and the superstars are capitalising on this, the reason it never happened before is because no one in charge has really been undermined like this before, except by Triple H himself perhaps. Still there are questions but I am willing to look past them since so far the angle has led to Ryder being in contact with Triple H, even being dropped by the Cerebral Assassin is a good sign for the guy. Also Hawkins and Rex got some time on NXT, McGillicutty is finally free to be a singles wrestler, not to mention that the top upcoming heels in the WWE have all banded together to make a perfect Survivor Series team. The point is that no matter what the faults are with this angle it still represents change in the WWE, it’s not the same old same old, and at this point that is a very good thing.
On the Rise: Curt Hawkins
An interesting product of this whole angle of the WWE being out of control is that Curt Hawkins got some time on the mic on NXT. I was pleasantly surprised by this as he seemed to be natural and entertaining. It seemed like he and Rex were allowed to go out there nearly unscripted. Hawkins was great not only in his delivery but in his reactions to others as well, doing impressions of Triple H while Rex talked and subtly making fun of the Uso’s DWI while they were talking. Basically this guy stole the show and hopefully he will be around for some time to show if his skills can improve still further.
Flat-Footed: Hulk Hogan Retiring
This was just ridiculous, they tried so hard to make everyone believe that this angle was real and the sad thing is that I wanted to believe it was true. That’s not a good thing, when the possibility of your retirement makes fans hopefully with anticipation, it’s not exactly the best end to your storied career. Unfortunately it was all a work and the inevitable let down came this week on Impact where Hogan took about two seconds to be found out via security camera, a gimmick that is as old as TNA’s plotlines. While the WWE makes some mistakes at least they are trying to look to the future, all TNA seems to be able to do is look to the past and keep rehashing old WCW storylines and wrestlers. I don’t think any sensible person is really looking forward to Sting vs. Hogan since it will most likely be as bad as the Sting-Flair match and this time it will be on TNA’s grandest stage. The whole thing just stinks.
That’s all for this week, Hell in a Cell was a pleasant surprise, both in terms of matches and results. Perhaps this is a good omen for Vengeance and Survivor Series to follow suit as decent PPVs as well, although I would be hard pressed to say that any PPV was worth the money these days since they are so damned expensive. Still October might be a month to remember with Bound For Glory airing, that is if Robert Roode wins the TNA title. We will just have to see if it actually pans out, for now this is James Wright signing off.
The Heel Report – Week 25 (2011-2012 Season)
AppId is over the quota
Night of Champions was an interesting PPV to say the least. We have two new champions, one fresh and new, and the other is a bastard. The most promising tag team in the WWE has been fired from the roster and conspiracies seem abound in the WWE. TNA continues to stumble along on the road to Bound for Glory, does anyone else think that this is going to be the worst Bound for Glory in history? Please God let Hogan and Bischoff not resign when their contracts expire! But enough of this wishful thinking, let’s get on with the report…
Weekly Top Ten:
1st Place: Mark Henry (10/10)
This past week there has only been one truly dominant heel in the WWE and boy was he. Mark Henry not only won the World Heavyweight Championship from Randy Orton in a clean victory, but he has also already defended it against the man who wanted ‘one more match’; Christian. Henry has been waiting fifteen years for his first major title win, not counting the ECW title, and I’m hoping that he and the WWE will make the most of his run. There is nothing to say that Henry couldn’t keep the title until Wrestlemania. Now maybe I’m giving the WWE too much credit but wouldn’t it be amazing if Henry was built up as a monster champion all the way up to Wrestlemania, while at the same time they built up Daniel Bryan from now as a true underdog and then had him cash in his briefcase at Wrestlemania and win in a proper match rather than a five second title change. That truly would revitalise the main event scene and be a great story at the same time, it’s unlikely, but it’s possible.
2nd Place: The Miz (9/10)
The first of the heels this week who ‘would have been successful only if…’ The Miz had some great moments this week, manhandling referees frequently and kissing arse afterwards. Still there was no tag team victory to speak of, in fact The Awesome Truth lost twice before being fired. You could call this a downwards spiral for the Awesome One, but if it is then it is certainly in a kayfabe style. Look for Miz to make his triumphant return soon and probably to be involved in the main event scene for awhile to come. Certainly in some ways that’s better than toiling in the tag team division until Wrestlemania.
3rd Place: Cody Rhodes (8/10)
The formerly Dashing One looks to be restored to his former glory after consistently removing his mask over the past week and after a successful Intercontinental title defence he might have been second on the chart, if only he hadn’t been beaten down by Randy Orton after their match on Smackdown. Sure getting a DQ win over the No. 1 Contender gives you some momentum, but most of that momentum was taken away once Rhodes was pummelled by his own mask. This could all be leading to a Rhodes-Orton feud, which would be a good place for the Viper to go after Hell in a Cell if he ends up losing to the World’s Strongest Champion. The only downside is that Rhodes will most likely come up on the losing end of that feud and be nowhere nearer the title, he might even end up dropping the IC title to Orton, although you could argue that Orton is above the title, so Rhodes might be safe strangely enough.
4th Place: Dolph Ziggler (7/10)
A successful retention of his US title in his Fatal-4-Way match at Night of Champions is sullied by a loss to the Internet Champion on Raw, thanks mostly to the interference of one Wolverine. Ziggler may have a jaw broken by kayfabe adamantium, but at least his social status on the TMZ has gone up. Throw in this and the incident with Snookie at Wrestlemania and Ziggler might just be one of the most recognisable wrestlers currently in the WWE by non-wrestling fans. Sure he is probably at the status of ’that blonde wrestler’ but it’s better than being ‘some guy’ or ‘that “recovering” drug addict *insert either Hardy here*.
5th Place: R-Truth (6/10)
The other half of the Awesome Truth and strangely the softer spoken one since being fired. While the Miz has begun playing the system on the internet, Truth has remained relatively silent apart from a couple of tweets. I’m sure Truth will find himself back with the Miz at some point soon. If this whole ‘outsider’ angle is going to go ahead then I really do think they will need someone else to back them up. I’ve said before on one of my reports that the man I think should have been the leader of the group would have been C.M. Punk, but now that it really can’t be him, or at least shouldn’t be in terms of storyline, I am left puzzled as to who, if anyone, will join the Miz and Truth along no doubt with Kevin Nash. Perhaps a good choice would be Drew McIntyre, it would give him the break he’s been looking for and it would make perfect sense in that he has been doing little enough to get future endeavoured and since he was McMahon’s ‘Chosen One’ if McMahon is behind it he would be the perfect fit for the outspoken leader of the group.
6th Place: Christian (5/10)
Captain Charisma has had what some might call a bad week. He didn’t have a match at Night of Champions and got rag dolled in his Lumberjack Match on Smackdown. On the other hand he delivered a decent promo at the PPV and got off light with only receiving a kick in the face rather than an all out defeat like some others. Also his match on Smackdown was a main event for the World Title, which beforehand he received copious amounts of promo time, setting himself up as the weasel-like heel and furthering his building feud with the Celtic Warrior Sheamus.
7th Place: Jack Swagger (4/10)
The All-American American came so close to winning US gold last Sunday that he must have been able to taste it between his lisping lips. In the end Ziggler managed to steal a victory from Swagger’s efforts and perpetuate their feud a little longer. I’m hoping that this program with Ziggler will eventually lead to a big face turn for Swagger since he has been begging for one since he lost the World Title, whether the WWE will see it this way and book the thing right though is another question entirely.
8th Place: Vicky Guerrero (3/10)
Approaching Swagger from behind like the Cougar she is, is Vicky Guerrero. I’m glad that the WWE is taking more interest in the idea of a manager with a stable of Superstars, Guerrero might not be my first choice for the manager in question, but at this time there isn’t really anyone else to choose from so better her than nothing. Personally I could see Matt Striker as a good manager and many regular readers will know my feelings about a British Isles stable with William Regal as its manager so there is always that.
9th Place: Alberto Del Rio (2/10)
Ah here he is, the former WWE Champion, who lost his title before he was able to really even get started. It is a shame that Del Rio’s title reign was not only cut short but hampered along the way by Visa issues that made him miss a key Raw and Smackdown in the build for his match with John Cena. Still I’m sure that Del Rio will most likely get another shot at the gold at some point, then again I couldn’t tell you when exactly when this would happen in the near future. (Of course here I’m presuming that he won’t win the title back at Hell in a Cell, wouldn’t it be a shock if he did!)
10th Place: Beth Phoenix (1/10)
In last place is the Glamazon, the only heel with a title match at Night of Champions who has had barely any consolation or upside to their loss, unless you count beating AJ and Katalyn on Smackdown. Her storyline with Kelly Kelly and the whole ‘Divas of Doom’ angle looked to be so promising at first, but now everything has gone awry. I think this situation is the perfect illustration for what’s wrong with professional wrestling today. The guys behind the shows know what sells, they know what storylines will get the crowd going, but an unnecessary need not to repeat themselves and to ‘surprise’ the audience gets in the way of delivering it properly. I think the Attitude Era made everyone think that the key to success was to keep the audience guessing, whereas I think that is rubbish, wrestling storylines are built on predictability and an audience doesn’t respond well to change, or at least not change without a good reason. Sure unexpected events, wins and loses can make for great moments and make an audience sit up and take notice, but the shock alone isn’t enough, you have to have an understandable reason to maintain the suspension of disbelief, and I don’t think anyone right now BELIEVES that Kelly Kelly really could have defeated Beth twice in a row in big match situations. Wrestling isn’t sport, upsets do happen but they need to make sense because at the end of the day most of us fans know that someone wrote that upset, it didn’t happen naturally, and if we can’t buy into it then it ruins the product for us. So not only has this result made Beth look weak and belittled the whole movement to resurrect the women’s division, but it’s also ruined the expectations and enjoyment of all the fans who have the sense or experience to know that what they are watching is conceived and written.
2011-2012 Season Top Ten: Overall Top Ten:
1st Place: R-Truth (161/250) – 1st Place: The Miz (690/1250)
2nd Place: The Miz (146/250) – 2nd Place: C.M. Punk (666/1250)
3rd Place: Cody Rhodes (112/250) – 3rd Place: Chris Jericho (564/1250)
4th Place: Alberto Del Rio (109/250) – 4th Place: Jack Swagger (360/1250)
5th Place: Christian (107/250) – 5th Place: Cody Rhodes (349/1250)
6th Place: Mark Henry (97/250) – 6th Place: Dolph Ziggler (318/1250)
7th Place: C.M. Punk (88/250) – 7th Place: Alberto Del Rio (304/1250)
8th Place: Wade Barrett (70/250) – 8th Place: Sheamus (294/1250)
9th Place: Jack Swagger (52/250) – 9th Place: Wade Barrett (273/1250)
10th Place: Sheamus (51/250) – 10th Place: Randy Orton (224/1250)
Weekly Filler:
The Face-Off: Acting on NXT
Now I know most people probably don’t watch NXT anymore, if you ever did, but I do and this week I was annoyed by what I saw, more so than usual. Aside from the recent matches with Regal and Striker the booking on NXT is usually arbitrary and smacks distinctly of a lack of caring, but this week there actually seemed to be some pretty decent matches and promos planned. Looking at it all from a story point of view everything worked and was set up nicely, there was only one problem; no one on the whole show could deliver anywhere near up to the standard of what they should have been able to do. Since the start of NXT it has been easy to blame the lack of effort from creative or terrible contests for why the show is so bad and why the rookies look like guys who just stumbled in looking for the toilet, but this week there was no excuse and it really showed up the talent gap that these rookies need to try to breach if they are ever going to have a hope of making it on the main roster.
Face the Facts: Triple Threat Hell in a Cell
I’m putting this here for two reasons; one, my most looked forward to match as a fan was the six-man Armageddon Hell in a Cell years ago and this is half way to that, and two, because C.M. Punk is finally getting his deserved rematch for his title. Now I’m assuming that Cena will come out of this one smelling of roses so I’m not holding out too much hope that the result of the contest itself will be one to be praised, but I am optimistic in terms of the match quality itself. Not only do you have another Cena and Punk match, which for some reason is when Cena decides to bring his A game, but also the combination of Punk and Del Rio when there is no call for both men to maintain a push will probably be very interesting. On top of this when you throw in the match environment itself there is a lot that could happen. Personally though I would surprisingly like to have seen Triple H involved as well as the more the merrier and the Game has always been one to watch in Hell in a Cell matches. Still there’s always ti…oh wait there is only a week‘s worth of build left, never mind.
On the Rise: Night of Champions (First Half)
I just liked it, the match quality was higher than we have seen in some time, the results weren’t too bad and the general flow of storylines and promos, to me anyway, felt like they were PPV standard. Basically the WWE got most of the booking right, I only don’t include the second half of the card because of the winners of all the matches bar the World Title bout and the fact that a non-title match was on last, although I did like that in the Del Rio-Cena match a big deal was made out of the title history. If they had played up to that more in the weeks leading up to the match rather than just chucking it in at the end then I think it would have gone a lot better. I think Cena might have been trying to say something like that during his promos, but I wouldn’t know for sure as I generally tune out whenever he starts talking and all I hear is a string of clichés.
Flat-Footed: Fourtune vs. Fourtune Over Already
Oh FFS TNA. I know I shouldn’t be surprised by now but believe it or not I am quite an optimistic individual (some might call it gullibility) and I honestly thought that this was a good angle that TNA would stick to so they could build up Robert Roode as the top guy to challenge Kurt Angle for the TNA title. In fact earlier in the night when Roode faced off with Angle I found myself actually caring about the TNA title picture for the first time in a damn long time. Even when TNA was actually putting on some decent shows their title picture was pretty shoddy in my opinion, bar the brief stint that AJ Styles had just before Hogan and Bischoff came in. Robert Roode actually seemed to care about winning and it would finally be someone fresh with the gold if he managed to take it from Angle. No sooner does this happen though than James Storm comes down and threatens the whole gimmick before switching around and challenging Angle, which still works, but makes the whole angle a little shaky. Have no fear though, just when you think TNA has avoided crushing one of its best angles in months here comes Christopher Daniels down to the ring to quash the whole thing completely by saying that wrestling Roode is basically beneath him. This would have been fine if Roode had come down and taken him out, leading to a cheap shot by Daniels and AJ having to come to the rescue, thus igniting their feud for Bound for Glory. Instead though Roode doesn’t make an appearance for the rest of the night and they just launch straight into the AJ-Daniels feud, making Roode look like a complete afterthought and ruining the whole angle. That is just shitty booking if ever I saw it, worse than Sting vs. Flair or Hogan for that matter…okay possibly not that bad, but pretty damn bad.
That’s all for this week, come back again next time and check out my other report on the 411. I’m hoping that Henry can keep his title for more than a month, but if not then at least he has done better than Christian first did. Hey I Henry wins at Hell in a Cell he would have been doing better than Christian, Del Rio, or even Punk as they all seemed to only be able to keep hold of their titles until the very next PPV, what ever happened to the long reigning heel champion? Bring back JBL…I never thought I’d say that. For now this is James Wright signing off.
The Heel Report – Week 24 (2011-2012 Season)
AppId is over the quota
Another week in professional wrestling that saw a TNA PPV actually be a little better than usual and then the company ruin it all by having the main event of Impact be two coffin dodgers wrestling in what seemed to be slow motion. In the WWE you had most of the heels emerge triumphant in build up to their matches at Night of Champions, hopefully that bodes well for the heels of the WWE and doesn’t just mean that they are setting us up for a fall and a face-friendly PPV, because no one wants that now do they. All we can do is look ahead and get on with the report…
Weekly Top Ten:
1st Place: Mark Henry (10/10)
Once again the World’s Strongest Man dominates the heel chart with more momentum for a challenger going into a title match than, any heel challenger certainly, in recent memory. Even now though I am sceptical about Henry’s chances, the only thing going for him besides his ability to run in and beat the crap out of people is that they are making such a big deal out of Henry never winning a world title that if he loses it will just be really harsh on the part of the WWE and they will have killed all of the momentum that he has been building over the past few months. Will the Viper bow to the Silverback?
2nd Place: The Miz (9/10)
The Miz has finally risen in the chart again after weeks of near stagnation. It looks like his partnership with R-Truth is paying off, although whether it will result in the tag team championships remains to be seen. Again it is unlikely that The Awesome Truth will beat Air-Boom so soon after the teams were formed. Still if they do win, it doesn’t mean the end of everything as they can just continue the rivalry with the titles going back and forth. The tag team division is great because multiple title changes don’t always hurt it , as long as it is between the same teams. You just need a whole bunch of specialty matches thrown in every other PPV and you could extend the whole thing for ages, possibly throwing other teams into the mix every now and then.
3rd Place: Alberto Del Rio (8/10)
The WWE champion might have lost this week but he did so in true heel champion style by using his lacky as a human shield and then abandoning him to get creamed, by a geriatric who performed one move…so it was basically an evenly pitted match. Del Rio has done little to get people excited for the match at Night of Champions, from an impartial standpoint no one wants to see him retain but no one really want’s Cena to win, so whatever happens will probably be fine. I really was expecting more out of Del Rio as champion but hopefully after this shaky first month things will pick up, that is if he can retain of course.
4th Place: R-Truth (7/10)
Miz’s partner in crime comes just a bit below him after having a match with one half of Air-Boom that wasn’t exactly as competitive. The highlight of the match between him and Bourne for me was the Miz’s commentary. But saying that his new rap before the match was pretty decent and saw the return of the gimmick they tried at the start of their partnership of saying “You suck!” to the crowd in time with the music, a kind of reverse Angle if you will. The team together has a lot of potential and I hope they go far together while they don’t have anything to do as singles competitors.
5th Place: Beth Phoenix (6/10)
The future divas champion comes in quite high on the chart this week on the road to Night of Champions. She destroyed AJ on Smackdown, not a hard task but she looked good doing it, so did AJ but that’s beside the point. To me her win over Kelly Kelly for the title is assumed.
6th Place: Cody Rhodes (5/10)
The Clear-Masked Man took a step in the right direction this week with his win over the World Heavyweight Champion on Raw. He was brought down though by being attacked by DiBiase on Smackdown to set up their match at Night of Champions. As quick as this match has been booked I can’t see DiBiase even having a chance of winning against Rhodes, it just wouldn’t make sense.
7th Place: Maxine (4/10)
The hottest new diva on the roster gets another win on NXT against poor little AJ and looks to be in good stead to eventually make it onto the main roster soon enough. For now I’m glad Maxine is being kept on NXT as there really is no space for her while the Bellas and the Divas of Doom are dominating the heel side of the divas division, but maybe in a few months she might be able to pull something off.
8th Place: Christian (3/10)
The two time world champion is still trying to find his footing after his long feud with Orton. Christian looks to be settling into an upper mid-card feud with the Celtic Warrior Sheamus, one that just like with Orton he probably won’t come out of on top. Still it’s better than dropping out into obscurity or perhaps even being made into a tag team like Truth and the Miz have had to do. I suppose the question is whether you would prefer to be on to in the lower card or be on the bottom in the upper mid-card?
9th Place: JTG (2/10)
A surprise entry is a guy who has been doing solid work on NXT despite the fact that his rookie got eliminated weeks ago. Seriously that show has lost almost all point and yet it is still watchable for the wrestling put on by Barretta and Kidd, and the occasional goodness that comes from JTG on the mic.
10th Place: Brotus Clay (1/10)
A man who came from NXT and needs to go back there immediately. It’s widely covered that Clay has been having nothing but squash matches on Superstars for over a month and this week is no different. Then again a win is a win and it gets him onto the chart over some much more deserving heels who didn’t manage to win their matches this week. It’s not fair but it is what it is, at this rate Clay will have a better win-loss record than anyone else on either roster.
2011-2012 Season Top Ten: Overall Top Ten:
1st Place: R-Truth (155/240) – 1st Place: The Miz (681/1240)
2nd Place: The Miz (137/240) – 2nd Place: C.M. Punk (666/1240)
3rd Place: Alberto Del Rio (107/240) – 3rd Place: Chris Jericho (564/1240)
4th Place: Cody Rhodes (104/240) – 4th Place: Jack Swagger (356/1240)
5th Place: Christian (102/240) – 5th Place: Cody Rhodes (341/1240)
6th Place: C.M. Punk (88/240) – 6th Place: Dolph Ziggler (311/1240)
7th Place: Mark Henry (87/240) – 7th Place: Alberto Del Rio (302/1240)
8th Place: Wade Barrett (70/240) – 8th Place: Sheamus (294/1240)
9th Place: Sheamus (51/240) – 9th Place: Wade Barrett (273/1240)
10th Place: Jack Swagger (48/240) – 10th Place: Randy Orton (224/1240)
Weekly Filler:
The Face-Off: The Great Khali
Speak about the botches with Punk and Triple H all you want but this was the real botch of recent memory. The WWE brings in this new talent and has him turn the Great Khali heel, something that then is used so inconsistently that it never gets off the ground, then you arbitrarily turn him back to being a face to run a program with the same guy that nobody cares about. Surely the perfect outcome to this angle would have been to put over Jinder Mahal and make Khali look like a dominant monster again, both of those things haven’t happened and the whole thing is just sad. I’ve been arguing for ages that the WWE needs storylines at all levels of its promotion, but if this sloppy booking and story is the result then they shouldn’t bother because they clearly did the whole thing half-arsed and don’t really care how things progress or how they end. Saying that I’m pretty sure it’s also Khali’s fault for not being able to convey anything to the crowd at all so it all falls on the shoulders of Mahal, who must be new to the WWE’s style. The whole thing is just poor, dull and isn’t worth the little airtime it has got.
Face the Facts: Robert Roode
A slow burning story that has worked is Robert Roode as the winner of the Bound for Glory Series. Now don’t get me wrong, the series in general was a shambles, with far too many storylines and dead ends, but this is TNA we are talking about, who can’t really do anything right. Yet here is a guy, who hasn’t really seen much main event action in his career and he has come out of this thing looking like a legitimate contender. Now I’ve always been a fan of Roode, he just has something about him. I liked him in Beer Money but I liked him more as the boss of Roode Inc. and think he has enough skills to carry himself over as a singles competitor and champion. It remains to be seen if he can actually beat Angle for the title, but I think he has a pretty good shot all things considered.
On the Rise: Bully Ray
On the flip side of Robert Roode there is the man he beat to become the Bound for Glory Series winner. Bully Ray, like Roode, has consistently been delivering good promos and solid matches throughout the year and really saw his peek at No Surrender as he managed to work the crowd up into a frenzy and really gave Roode someone to work with that made him look like the conquering face and someone that you wanted to see triumph. I’ve never really placed much stock in Bully Ray as a competitor, even as one half of the most decorated tag team in history, I never saw why he could get such a reaction, bar the obvious catchphrase. I’m starting to come round now as the guy almost stole the show and if the champion going into Bound for Glory was going to be a face then I would put my money on it that Bully Ray would have won and gone into TNA’s biggest PPV of the year as the challenger.
Flat-Footed: Bound For Glory Points System
Despite all this praise for the two finalists in the Bound for Glory Series, the structure of the series in general was a shambles. Multiple things went wrong and angles were changed and added constantly. One of the worst things was Morgan’s injury, which TNA were begging for by setting up a fixed angle that far from its end. Morgan was clearly the guy that TNA would get behind, judging from his promos, performance and what Hogan was saying anyway. Then the guy gets legitimately injured and your whole angle is blown. So they then backed Crimson but seemed to get cold feet and had him taken out with the rest of the guys that Samoa Joe got to. In the end when you look at the talent that was in the Series it is seriously surprising who the top four guys turned out to be and I doubt that they were exactly the four that TNA had in mind from the beginning, they are just lucky that these guys took the ball and ran with it and made the whole thing look like an overall success.
Then there is the shambles that was No Surrender in terms of points system, I’m pretty sure that most people went in thinking that it was going to be a fatal-4-way and the victor would be the overall winner of the series, then it got changed to two singles matches and I presumed that they would have the final match there as well, which they did. But the weird thing is that they set it up like that wasn’t the plan all along and that this was something the fans were getting for free. Also it was confusing because they were acting like Bully Ray would have won just on the points alone if Roode hadn’t won his first mach by submission, something that makes little sense when you look at how things were set up going in and at the beginning since nothing of the sort was mentioned until the night itself. Now I run a points system myself, with multiple guys in it, and I’ll admit it can get a little confusing, but TNA somehow seemed to go into this thing with a clear structure for how it was going to work and then at the last minute seemed to forget that and everything looked like the shambles it always does. Basically TNA managed to mess up something that should have given them the stability to get back to where they were before Hogan and Bischoff came in, in short those two are just a cancer that infect everything they touch.
That’s all for this week, be sure to check out my other report on 411mania.com on Wednesday where I will be covering everything that went on from Night of Champions as well as all the other shows running up until then. And come back next week to see how those results effected the chart sans TNA wrestlers. Hopefully Night of Champions will live up to more than being just another throw away PPV and we will end up with a result that doesn’t make the past couple of months of improvement look like it was all for nothing. For now this is James Wright signing off.
The Heel Report – Week 23 (2011-2012 Season)
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A week with nothing really to report, apart from Kevin Nash’s supposed firing. Raw has become established as a brand cross-over show and the Super Smackdown was a one off, the WWE probably could have made that whole thing a lot less confusing, or at least look like it wasn’t a completely spare of the moment decision. To be fair they might have been planning it for a long while, but it sure didn’t look like it. But speculation aside, let’s get on with the report…
Weekly Top Ten:
1st Place: Mark Henry (10/10)
The World’s Strongest Man takes the top spot again this week after dominating Ezekiel Jackson and slamming Zack Ryder after teasing him perfectly. Mark Henry may only have a single string to his bow, but at the moment he is playing it to perfection. With the company fully behind him as a monster heel I’m starting to believe that he might actually have a chance of becoming champion. The only thing that makes me doubt it is the number of excellent matches Orton is having at the moment, these make him look like he is a legend in the making and that the company has a lot of faith in him as the Ric Flair to Cena’s Hogan. So him keeping the belt would seem quite likely as well.
2nd Place: Christian (9/10)
Thank god for Raw, that’s all I can say, at least in terms of keeping Christian in the main event scene at least. If Raw hadn’t become a place for Smackdown superstars to shine as well then Captain Charisma would have been demoted to upper mid-card already. It’s not that his upcoming feud with Sheamus is a bad thing; it’s just that it’s no world heavyweight title feud. Being in the main event of Raw helps Christian secure second place, underneath his replacement in the Smackdown main event scene.
3rd Pace: Sin Cara (8/10)
The ‘Evil’ Sin Care makes his way into third place after finally breaking his silence and showing himself as an actual personality. Getting one over on a game Daniel Bryan was a surprise, and a great way to properly start their feud. I’ve gone from having little interest in the botching Cara gimmick to now being eager to see the new Sin Cara in the ring against Daniel Bryan, in-ring competition is one thing, but without a proper story behind it, it just doesn’t have as much impact. The WWE are definitely moving in the right direction with this character now in my opinion.
4th Place: Beth Phoenix (7/10)
Slamming Eve and backing up Natalya gives Beth enough momentum to grab herself the fourth spot on the chart. Although the founding half of the Divas of Doom wasn’t successful in her first attempt at taking Kelly Kelly’s title I’m hoping that is just a blip and that at Night of Champions she will emerge victorious. Still saying you are going to make a change is one thing, backing it up is quite another and I’m wondering if Beth Phoenix will really be able to resurrect the divas division if she becomes champion, after all she can’t do it single-handedly, and without adequate match time there is little opportunity for her and a decent opponent to put on a good show anyway.
5th Place: Wade Barrett (6/10)
Barrett is billed to be working the house shows with Sheamus so it was interesting to see how the two worked together on this week’s Smackdown. I think Barrett was held back a little by Sheamus being built up as a major face at the moment so he wasn’t allowed to get too much offence in but I reckon the two good put on a good show if they ever meet on more even footing. Then again it’s not like he lost the match by getting pinned so there is some saving grace, although he did still get a boot in the face at the end of it all. Barrett looks to be being passed up to some extent at the moment but that doesn’t mean that the company doesn’t have plans for him in the near future, once again like with Christian it is a good thing that there are spots on Raw now open for him to get a look in on some kind of main event level.
6th Place: Natalya (5/10)
Close but no cigar for the second half of the Divas of Doom, setting in stone that Beth is the one who will be taking on Kelly Kelly for her title for the time being. Natalya did show a lot of goodness throughout the match though and being a bad girl clearly suits her, so hopefully this angle will go on for awhile so that she can let her personality and talent shine through. Then again unless creative is serious about this angle I am worried for the longevity of anything to do with the divas.
7th Place: Cody Rhodes (4/10)
The man with the pointless clear plastic mask got a decent showing on this week’s Smackdown, becoming the latest opponent who has faced and been put over, while still losing, by the champ Randy Orton. This new tactic has been a great success for both Orton and his opponents and I hope they keep it up. Although since Orton has been working a punishing schedule as of late it is hard to see him keeping to matches of this length or quality for an extended period of time, unless he has made a personal vow to become one of the most highly regarded performers of all time, an admirable goal, unlike John Cena who works all the time and yet still looks like he phones it in with non-main event matches, like he did with Wade Barrett the other week, all squash and no substance.
8th Place: Jack Swagger (3/10)
The All-American American was actually allowed to look strong this week on the main event of Raw, but he still eventually lost to Super Cena. However at least he is getting some exposure with this whole Ziggler-Vicky angle and he was able to make Morrison and Riley tap out to the Ankle Lock in their eight-man elimination tag match.
9th Place: R-Truth (2/10)
Truth faced Punk in a losing effort, but made up for it with his usual amusing promo prowess. Truth is a natural catchphrase maker and everything he says seems to be taken on by the crowd. It is an underappreciated art to make the things you say on the mic stand out, sure they might be stupid or not even make any sense, but I’d take R-Truth on the mic over any bland and predictable face promo any day.
10th Place: Tyler Rex (1/10)
One half of WWE’s newest tag team continues to make his mark on Superstars by beating the team of Percy Watson and Titus O’Neill. Rex might not have the biggest personality in the WWE but I think he works as a tag team competitor, especially with a mouthy guy like Curt Hawkins backing him up.
2011-2012 Season Top Ten: Overall Top Ten:
1st Place: R-Truth (148/230) – 1st Place: The Miz (672/1230)
2nd Place: The Miz (128/230) – 2nd Place: C.M. Punk (666/1230)
3rd Place: Alberto Del Rio (99/230) – 3rd Place: Chris Jericho (564/1230)
4th Place: Cody Rhodes (99/230) – 4th Place: Jack Swagger (356/1230)
5th Place: Christian (99/230) – 5th Place: Cody Rhodes (336/1230)
6th Place: C.M. Punk (88/230) – 6th Place: Dolph Ziggler (311/1230)
7th Place: Mark Henry (77/230) – 7th Place: Alberto Del Rio (294/1230)
8th Place: Wade Barrett (70/230) – 8th Place: Sheamus (294/1230)
9th Place: Sheamus (51/230) – 9th Place: Wade Barrett (273/1230)
10th Place: Jack Swagger (48/230) – 10th Place: Randy Orton (224/1230)
Weekly Filler:
The Face-Off: Jeff Hardy
Just simply that, why TNA is letting Hardy back in after less than a year is beyond me. Sure you shouldn’t hold grudges and exclude good talent, that would just be bad for business, but Hardy isn’t that good and it hasn’t been long enough for him to really get his shit together to where we know that he won’t mess up again, that right there is bad for business. Hopefully TNA will have some sense and not put him back in the title picture straight away. They could play a whole redemption angle where he has to wrestle a load of really hard or demeaning matches before he gets anywhere near the main event scene, perhaps then hiring him back wouldn’t look like such a terrible idea.
Face the Facts: Mason Ryan as a Face
Like Batista only better, because he has hair and comes from the UK. Mason Ryan looked good as a monster heel but he clearly has a lot of work to do on his mic presence and getting over with the fans, so being a face is the perfect place for him. He can go over with the crowd by picking up some easy victories and not having to go on the mic, just like Ezekiel Jackson and most other big men. If he wants to truly make a mark in the business though he is going to have to learn how to talk eventually, but being over with the crowd first won’t hurt.
On the Rise: New Tag Teams
The WWE are as good as their word so far, clearly trying to develop new teams, not only on Raw with the champions Airboom and The Awesome Truth, as well as lesser teams like Khali & Mahal and Otunga & McGilicutty, but also with their lower card teams on Superstars of Rex & Hawkins and now Watson & O’Niell. The only problem now is that they all have crap names, apart from perhaps The Awesome Truth. I know Airboom is cheesy but it’s better to have some sort of name than just being the sir names put together, to be a real tag team you need something more permanent.
The most important thing is for the WWE to realise that the tag team is the natural place to put developing talent before they are ready to break out on their own. Having a strong tag team division means that you have a strong lower card and guys who really take off as a tag team have a place even if their singles career doesn’t go so well. It’s just another area for them to draw in. A few years ago you would look to each division to see what they were offering up on the next PPV, now it just all seems like filler towards the main event, and sometimes even that feels like filler. The filler PPV is a contradiction in terms and shouldn’t be allowed to exist, not just in relation to its main event, but to al its matches. Hopefully some of these newly developing teams will take off and we can finally start watching the at division with some interest again, especially since its been several months since TNA had any real good tag action.
Flat-Footed: NXT
It’s just a joke. The show went from being an interesting new concept where the WWE’s newest talent got a chance to showcase themselves and develop their craft, to now being an internet show with no real audience and no format to speak of, there isn’t even really a rookie-pro relationship to play off of anymore. Sure the challenges were dumb, but without them there isn’t really much of a difference between NXT and Superstars, especially since half the matches aren’t even wrestled by the rookies anymore. NXT is just like Superstars but with a much smaller roster, and in this case that is not a good thing. While the WWE is somewhat to blame for the relative failure of NXT a big part of it is also to do with the rookies themselves, many of them just didn’t shine through like they were supposed to.
Maybe that’s a little bit harsh, after all it’s hard to look good while running a keg carrying contest, but all you have to do is look at a guy like Wade Barrett and the great promo he delivered with just the prompt of ’wind’ to go on. A guy with real talent will shine through, even on a show with a poorly thought out format and a tiny audience.
That’s all for this week, NXT appears to be coming to a close after what was a shambles of a last season, TNA are having their No Surrender PPV, but I’ve almost given up hope that they will be able to put on anywhere near as good a show as they even could last year. I’m looking forward to the new Raw format, even though the name is a bit stupid, it’s a good chance for the Smackdown superstars to be seen by a larger audience, balancing out the idea of Smackdown being the ‘B’ show. You’ll notice the conspicuous absence of Del Rio from the chart this week, unlike last week where he wasn’t able to compete due to visa issues, this week he just didn’t impress enough to make it on the chart. This is bad news for the supposed face of the company and Del Rio will have to do a lot better if he wants to be known as more than just a transitional champion. For now this is James Wright signing off.
The heel report - week 22 (2011-2012 season)
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A new week and an absent WWE champion on Raw. The brands are coming together and TNA seems to be on the brink of collapse, at least if you judge it by the quality of the programming, so the wrestling world looks to be getting a lot smaller. Guys may soon be scrabbling for televised spots and only a few will get them. Still let’s make hay while the sun shines and count our chickens before they hatch, and err…let’s get on with the report!
Weekly Top Ten:
1st Place: Mark Henry (10/10)
Del Rio misses both Raw and Super Smackdown and instead the number one contender to the World title Mark Henry makes a grab for the top spot. The World’s Strongest Man made an impact in both shows main events and displayed exactly how dominant he can be when he had the Viper trapped inside a steel cage. I still think there is about zero chance of him actually defeating Orton and becoming the World Champion, but at least he is getting a good showing in the main event scene in what perhaps could be the last big push of his long running career.
2nd Place: Kevin Nash (9/10)
The Click is back but it’s a bit arse-backwards as due to a failed medical Nash is no longer able to wrestle with Punk at Night of Champions, so instead Triple H is stepping into the ring with the Voice of the Voiceless. I’m hoping Punk vs. Triple H will be replaced by Austin vs. Punk at Wrestlemania and that will make this botch in the flow of story worth it. Punk has been doing some great work as of late and deserves to go over Triple H clean if anyone does, and if The Game is really trying to do what is best for business then he damn well better let him get over.
3rd Place: R-Truth (8/10)
The Truth takes the sneaky route into the chart this week by earning almost all his points on Superstars in a great match against John Morrison. This was a well fought match with a good enough runtime, after the McIntyre-Bryan main event last week it’s established that Superstars is the place to see good wrestling, or at least it will be when the Super Smackdown format turns Smackdown into Raw and replaces all the decent matches with over-long promos, then again there was the Christian-Orton cage match, but how many weeks can we expect that quality from a main event, on any of the shows.
4th Place: Christian (7/10)
Speaking of the Super Smackdown main event, even if the Christian-Orton feud has seen Christian coming up short a few too many times the quality of the matches has been good enough to perhaps raise Christian’s status to being a legitimate main eventer. Then again we’ll have to see next week if he hasn’t been demoted to wrestling mid-card matches. Captain Charisma has certainly done enough to justify keeping him waiting in the wings of the title picture at least, but with the WWE’s tendency to punish those who found their first real success elsewhere I wouldn’t be surprised if he was pushed down to mid-card status for the foreseeable future.
5th Place: The Miz (6/10)
The Miz gets into the middle of the chart after wrestling a decent match with the newly face-turned C.M. Punk, much to the confusion of the fans. Some people have argued that Raw’s crowd was just dead but they didn’t seem that dead for the Ziggler-Orton match so my theory is that most fans were just confused who to root for, kids and women for the most part not liking either and men for the most part liking both.
6th Place: Sin Cara (5/10)
I’m not too sure if Sin Cara actually is a heel yet, especially since he was supposed to go up against Del Rio instead of Bryan so this outcome must have been thrown together at the last minute, but there are slim pickings this week so Cara gets into the chart, for perhaps one time only…or not.
7th Place: Brotus Clay (4/10)
More slim pickings in the form of the one-man squash machine; Brotus Clay. With the new brand remerging people have been talking about wrestlers getting lost in the shuffle, Clay is surely going to be one of these wrestlers and I’m not so sure that is a bad thing. There is just no need for another monster heel at the moment, the WWE seems to be heading more towards a faster paced product with smaller guys, if you look at some of the more recent hires, or at least if they are big then they are big in muscle as well as size. I’m just not sure that there is room for Clay in an already bloated roster.
8th Place: Beth Phoenix (3/10)
One of the two Divas of Doom takes a step towards redemption after losing to Kelly Kelly at Summerslam by beating her and Alicia Fox in a tag match on Smackdown. The dominant diva managed to get the best of a newly face-turned Fox quite easily, as would be expected, and I’m sure somehow that will lead towards another title shot in the near future, but the WWE will probably mess things up by having Beth feud with Natalya over who gets the shot, which has been done a thousand times, rather than having the two work as a cohesive unit towards their collective goal.
9th Place: Brie Bella (2/10)
Not a good week for Kelly Kelly as the Bella Twins pulled twin magic and took her down for the one-two-three on Raw’s Super Show. The points go to Brie because it was her match but this is equally Nikki’s victory, then again who gives a crap really.
10th Place: Wade Barrett (1/10)
Another case of slim pickings this week but in some ways through no fault of his own. Barrett has had a great month in many ways, only to then turn around and be made to look like a chump by John Cena on Smackdown. This is honestly what fans hate Cena for, when you forget and start defending him for anything then just remember this moment. Cena could easily have sold Barrett to be a legitimate threat like Orton did for Ziggler, but instead he just elected to bury him. Sure this is the booker’s fault as well but don’t tell me Cena doesn’t have enough stroke to get his match the adequate time needed to put Barrett over, especially since it was supposed to be one of two main events. The whole thing is a mystery to me outside of bad booking and a massive ego.
2011-2012 Season Top Ten: Overall Top Ten:
1st Place: R-Truth (146/220) – 1st Place: The Miz (672/1220)
2nd Place: The Miz (128/220) – 2nd Place: C.M. Punk (666/1220)
3rd Place: Alberto Del Rio (99/220) – 3rd Place: Chris Jericho (564/1220)
4th Place: Cody Rhodes (95/220) – 4th Place: Jack Swagger (353/1220)
5th Place: Christian (90/220) – 5th Place: Cody Rhodes (332/1220)
6th Place: C.M. Punk (88/220) – 6th Place: Dolph Ziggler (311/1220)
7th Place: Mark Henry (67/220) – 7th Place: Alberto Del Rio (294/1220)
8th Place: Wade Barrett (64/220) – 8th Place: Sheamus (294/1220)
9th Place: Sheamus (51/220) – 9th Place: Wade Barrett (267/1220)
10th Place: Jack Swagger (45/220) – 10th Place: Randy Orton (224/1220)
Weekly Filler:
The Face-Off: Mickey James Winning The Knockouts Title
This was just an arbitrary win by an over-hyped footnote. I’m not saying that Mickie James isn’t a good wrestler or that she doesn’t deserve to be champion, but just not in the way that the belt and title shots always seem to gravitate towards her like they do to Cena. This was also terrible just because it seemed like such a pointless change with not enough build or consequence. TNA are making the Knockouts division as big of a joke as the Divas division in the WWE and they had so much going for them for so long. Limiting the X-Division to a glorified cruiserweight division and trivialising the division that used to be one of their biggest draws, TNA seem to be doing everything they can to run themselves into the ground.
Face the Facts: Booker T
Now I don’t really like Booker T’s commentary style but he is here just for saying that he tried to put Cena over by saying that he has gone far for someone with limited ability. If others said that more about him then he would be a hell of a lot easier to stomach, because it’s true. Cena is a guy with limited skills who has dominated the business and I can give him credit for that, I just don’t want to have to hear how he’s the ‘best in the business’ over and over again when it’s just not the case. He’s a guy who has worked the system and taken full advantage of the many, many opportunities given to him. Now I’m sure most everyone would do the same thing but I’m not sure if they would have stood on completely as many people in such a big way…well apart from the other top guys in the company of course.
On the Rise: Dolph Ziggler
Despite the inevitable loss and thus lack of points, Ziggler impressed this week on Raw with a great showing against the World Heavyweight Champ. Orton seems to have had a wakeup call somehow and has been putting on some decent matches in the past couple of weeks. This is how a face champion should wrestle, not just bury an opponent, or be dominated for the whole match and then pull off a comeback victory with one move. Instead you need to have matches where the commentators can say that the challenger took the champion to the limit, where they get in a decent amount of offence, but the champion has a counter for almost everything. Apart from anything else there match on Raw showed that Ziggler has the ability to make the transition into the main event, and not just in a fake ‘hold the title for all of five seconds’ filler kind of way like he did almost a year ago.
Flat-Footed: Kurt Angle
This was absolutely pathetic. TNA have sunk to a new level of crappiness in how they hold no stock in consistency and storylines that actually make sense. Kurt Angle comes out a few weeks ago as a freshly turned heel and basically says that the reason he turned on Sting was because he was betrayed by Dixie Carter and now wants to take revenge by taking out the new talent in TNA, which makes little sense to begin with. Now he has come out and said that taking out a Legend like Sting will help him in his quest, even though he’s already done it and it goes completely against what he has been saying. Then they switch it to Angle wanting to take out everyone on the roster and the whole of the network. Not to mention the end of the match which was just a shambles and cheapened the title even further by having Hogan come in, hit Sting with a chair, who no-sold it and stood there like a Superman until Angle slammed him on the chair in front of the ref and then got the three count. Jesus Christ, bring back Jeff Hardy, let’s make this shit sandwich a double decker shall we.
That’s all for this week, maybe a bit too much TNA hate but they really are plumbing the depths right now for the most part. With the announcement that the Raw and Smackdown rosters will be joining together for the foreseeable future we will just have to see whether the quality of the WWE in general improves or diminishes. I for one think it might improve, only because it was before the brand extension that the WWE was better, partially because the writers have more airtime to play with and the same characters to work with over two shows it might lead to more sensible and interesting storylines. Here’s hoping anyway, for now this is James Wright signing off.
