Welcome to the Heel Report, a weekly breakdown of the best heels in professional wrestling right now. Each week the heels will be ranked out of ten and then those numbers will go on to form the rolling chart that continues each week. This is a place to evaluate and praise the ‘baddies’ of wrestling in their efforts to make us boo them mercilessly so let’s show them some love and get on with the report!
Weekly Top Ten:
10: Charlotte
Finally Raw seems to be putting some weight behind their women’s division, still not sure why they weren’t doing this from the get-go or why they didn’t draft more female competitors, but whatever.
9: Rusev & Lana
It was interesting to see Roman Reigns in a match where he actually didn’t get completely booed out of the building when his team won. I mean your supposed top guy shouldn’t have to be protected to this degree but at least they are doing something about it.
8: Maria & Co.
The trend continues where The Miracle is mostly in the background while his wife is playing centre stage in the Knockouts division. I’m still surprised the Allie storyline hasn’t been rushed, but with so little time it is hard to give everyone their fair share of attention I suppose.
7: Baron Corbin
I still have no real interest in Baron Corbin but it is hard to deny that the WWE has managed not to completely bury him since his debut on the main roster and he is in the position to easily be pushed up the card. Again it’s not something I would really want but at least he isn’t like the Ascension or anything.
6: Carmella
While it hasn’t been as long you could say the same thing as Corbin about Carmella, she isn’t exactly the main focus right now but she is in a good position to be pushed if needed. Her NXT work was never stellar, but it certainly wasn’t as bad as someone like Cameron or Eva Marie, so why not give her a shot at some point?
5: Alexa Bliss
While it was a little bit messy, I think overall No Mercy went well for Bliss in establishing more of a character for her than she ever had in NXT. Bliss already has the in-ring ability and just needs to connect with fans more to bring her more into the spotlight, and this Harley Quinn-esque look and feel could be the thing to just do that.
4: The Miz & Maryse
It was a hell of a run but Miz’s IC title reign is finally over. Ziggler needed a big win but I’m not sure if it is enough at this point. Again had it been the world title vs. his career then maybe, but to put his career on the line for a title he has had no trouble winning before just makes him look like he is in a terrible place in his career and for someone who has had so many accomplishments that is pretty sad. Miz on the other hand seems to be set despite only having a relative amount of success and memorable moments. I think what separates the two is expectation; Ziggler never meets what we all expected and Miz has far succeeded his. Who is the true underdog?!
3: Bray Wyatt
Sunday was full of surprises, none more so than Wyatt vs. Orton going on last and on top of all that Wyatt managing to win the damn thing! Oh yeah, and Luke Harper also returned, so the Wyatt family might be back as a collective unit. I’m really hoping Wyatt can actually become a force to be reckoned with on Smackdown moving forward since everyone has seen his potential on NXT and since coming up to the main roster with this character, but it has never truly worked out as of yet.
2: Jericho & Owens
The combined heel might of Owens & Jericho was enough this week to outshine almost every other heel, despite the Smackdown PPV. It amazes me how Jericho is able to make catchphrases out of nowhere and they are all so good. It is like making catchphrases is his current gimmick. It is almost like he is doing some meta-commentary in his current persona as an aged rockstar who wears fancy scarves and jackets, of the fakeness of entertainment by proving how easy it is to make a catchphrase. He is assuming the persona of a sell-out who is just trying to churn out content for the corporate machine…or maybe I am thinking too much into this.
1: AJ Styles
Did AJ Styles just pin John Cena to retain the WWE championship?! I say it every week but seriously, who would have thought that would have ever happened a couple of years ago?! Heads would explode! It makes some sense and Cena/the WWE clearly see something in Styles to the point where he can replace Cena as a full time performer. There was no reason for Styles to pin Cena over Ambrose so that had to be something to that where Cena wanted it, at least in my opinion. This and the success Kevin Owens, while considering the Reigns factor, had must have proved that trying to make stars rather than push guys who have been successful elsewhere is a fools errant, and why not benefit off of your competitors’ mistakes by letting them go? I mean that is the whole story of Steve Austin that the WWE like to spin so why not do the same with a guy like Styles: “TNA didn’t know what they had and now he is our top draw”.
Rolling Chart – Week Thirty-Nine
1st Place: Kevin Owens (276) (-)
2nd Place: Chris Jericho (180) (-)
3rd Place: The Miz & Maryse (136) (-)
4th Place: Charlotte (127) (-)
5th Place: Maria & Mike Bennett (126) (-)
6th Place: AJ Styles (102) (+1)
7th Place: Matt Hardy (101) (-1)
8th Place: Bobby Lashley (84) (-)
9th Place: Seth Rollins (81) (-)
10th Place: The Club (74) (-)
That’s all for this week, these near constant weeks of PPVs have been relentless but hopefully now with Bound For Glory out the way it will cool down a bit. Former TNA and ROH main stars are still the top guys in WWE and that is just weird.
Agree with the rankings? Disagree? Who was your favourite heel of the week? Whatever the case, leave comment down below and come back next week for another dose of heel-ly goodness and for now this is James Wright signing off.
