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: The Wyatt Family
You have to feel bad for the Wyatts this week; they went into a match that no one thought they could lose and they lost, then they only got a win on Raw because Ryback walked out on his team, so that became the focus of the segment. The Family went from seemingly ruling the Rumble, to missing that but getting a potential match with Brock at Mania, to now nothing. Honestly how far can they fall?
9: Team BAD
Unlike the Wyatts, Team BAD had less far to fall with their loss at Fastlane so they still don’t look too bad. Admittedly they don’t seem to be anywhere near the Divas title picture, but at this point they are the only real divas heel game in town besides the champ herself so they are at least guaranteed to be used on the show. What’s more as a team the two definitely look stronger than they did going into the Divas Revolution so at least they have managed to develop over the past year.
8: The Dudley Boys
The Dudleys quite possibly benefitted from not being used at Fastlane as they continue on with their momentum completely intact, and are arguably the top heel team next to the New Day right now, and those guys are soft-heels at best anyway. They seem set to go against the Usos now, which calls into question the possibility of an Usos & Rock vs. The New Day match at Wrestlemania. Frankly I am lost as to the WWE’s booking plans for Mania as things seem to shift daily so who knows, maybe we will get a multi-team tables match or something.
7: Alberto Del Rio
I was debating whether to enter Del Rio in with the League of Nations on the chart or not and instead opted to put him in on his own since he is the only real stand out member of the group in any capacity this week. While he was unsuccessful in his match with Kalisto on the Fastlane pre-show he did show some great heel tactics by losing the first fall to win the second, he was just tripped up by a quick pin from a resilient opponent. It was overall a good story and I think it served both men going forward, it’s just a shame that neither man really has anywhere to go now.
6: The Authority
This would have probably been a higher placement if it wasn’t for the sheer stupidity of how everything has been booked so that HHH is basically the face going into all of this. Apart from receiving a hero’s welcome on Raw when he destroyed Roman’s face, the Game spent his week standing around with the WWE title, seemingly avoiding appearing to actually be a heel. If the WWE seriously wants the fans to get behind Reigns why don’t they have HHH acting like a complete coward, or else getting deeply personal and attacking Reigns’ family and friends. At this point instead he simply did to Roman what Roman did to him a few months ago, which came across as righteous payback, not a completely unwarranted and vicious attack.
5: The Social Outcasts
Another entrant on the chart with a shady status as either heel or face are the Social Outcasts, who seem to be switched to either alignment depending on what the writers require at that time. There is some good in this in that it proves the versatility of the group and that they can be paired with anyone at any time, but a little consistency would be nice.
Either way they managed to get a nice win in the ‘piss break’ segment of Fastlane, which could possibly be the biggest victory of Curtis Axel’s career to date. Who knows, if they keep this up they might actually get a match at Wrestlemania, although more likely they will be part of the Andre Battle Royal, which will probably be won by Braun Strowman after eliminating all four of them at the same time.
4: Paul Heyman & Brock Lesnar
The chart this week has been in some disarray since who is a face and who is a heel seems to shift on an hourly basis right now. However I am drawing a line in the sand when it comes to the attacks on Dean Ambrose by Brock Lesnar and saying that they placed him in the heel category, at least until after their match at Wrestlemania.
Frankly I’m surprised by this turn since I think Lesnar was on fire as a face, he just couldn’t capitalise on it fully because he wasn’t around enough. However a heel Lesnar is always good and Ambrose is the best guy to pair with him to take a beating and keep on coming back for more. The best part has to be when Lesnar stepped on Ambrose’s head as he went by, such disrespect has to be repaid and it is something people will pay to see at Wrestlemania, although I somehow just can’t buy Ambrose actually winning the match. But if a pairing can sell me on the possibility of this win, or at least on the importance of tuning into this match to find out, it is Paul Heyman and Dean Ambrose.
3: The New Day
At this point the New Day don’t even need to defend their tag team titles on PPV to be the best heel team in the division. On the other hand this is also why I said they should have dropped the belts to the Usos since they really don’t need them and the Usos could actually put the belts to some good use. For example they could be carrying them into their apparent feud with the Dudley Boyz and that would leave the New Day free to go against the League of Nations without the question of the titles hanging overhead.
Speaking of which, what the hell are the WWE playing at?! Why are the New Day entering into a feud with the League, especially when they are being just as heel-ly as ever? Surely they can’t expect the League to turn face, and the two teams are nowhere near on equal footing for this to be an entertaining heel team vs. heel team feud. Frankly I think the WWE is panicking and have no idea what they are doing leading into their big show, which was supposed to break attendance records but has one of the worst main events seemingly since HHH vs. Orton.
2: Charlotte
In the background of all this chaos and bad booking, the Divas champion has secretly been becoming one of the most stable heel presences in the WWE. Charlotte beat Natalya on Smackdown and then went on to successfully defend her Divas title against Brie Bella at Fastlane. While you could argue this was a guaranteed win for the Dirtiest Daughter, I believe there was still a good chance that the WWE could have seen the wave of sympathy that Brie was riding as a perfect excuse to put the belt on her for a momentary pop. Now sure this sounds stupid, but when have the WWE been above doing something cheap to get a temporary reaction.
Going forward it looks like Charlotte will have her biggest test to date, going against either the Boss or both her and Becky Lynch at Wrestlemania. Personally I am hoping for the triple threat so we get the Good vs. the Bad vs. the Bossy, but certainly Charlotte vs. Banks wouldn’t be anything to turn your nose up at. Whatever the case, the divas division actually looks like the most solidly booked division at this point, which is still a bit of a surprise really.
1: Kevin Owens
It is a hard stretch to ever find anyone better than Kevin Owens when it comes to being a real dick, while simultaneously being ridiculously entertaining. Somehow the man even makes Michael Cole’s commentary more entertaining, and what’s more he makes him a viable part of the show when he yells at him and throws his freshly defended belt in his face.
Owens fended off the advances of a willing Dolph Ziggler at Fastlane and again took the initiative by taking to social media and targeting AJ Styles, which would be a feud I could get behind if they are going that way. This is the one problem with Owens holding the IC title going into Mania; I can’t help feeling like the belt will get lost in the booking shuffle and we will get another thrown together multi-man match like last year. In general these matches are fine, but I really think that this type of situation suits Kalisto and the US title more and Kevin Owens himself deserves to be in a one-on-one feud where he can really flex his creative chops on the road to the big event.
The bottom line is that as a fan you are in safe hands with Owens and even if the WWE do completely forget about him, like they seemed to this Monday night on Raw, you can be sure that he will be entertaining no matter how little opportunity he is given in the coming couple of months. Frankly no matter what I wouldn’t put it past him to put on the best match of the night, even if it happens to be against Heath Slater…actually Owens vs. the Social Outcasts could be awesome if done right.
Rolling Chart – Week Six
1st Place: Kevin Owens (46) (-)
2nd Place: The New Day (38) (+1)
3rd Place: The Wyatt Family (35) (-1)
4th Place: Charlotte (28) (+1)
5th Place: Matt Hardy (27) (-1)
6th Place: The Dudley Boyz (21) (-)
7th Place: The Social Outcasts (21) (-)
8th Place: The Authority (15) (+2)
9th Place: Alberto Del Rio (15) (-)
10th Place: Sheamus (11) (-2)
That’s all for this week. While I am excited for the return of Shane McMahon, I am slightly thrown by this whole match with the Undertaker since who is the heel in this match? What’s more why would the Undertaker fight for Vince? How are these two guys going to put on a Wrestlemania worthy match? Who does this serve put over? The mind boggles. My mind further boggles as to why HHH wasn’t spectating the triple threat match at Fastlane from a throne on the stage like Mil Muertes, it would have fit his King of Kings persona. In general I am a little disappointed with the efforts of HHH at this point, it is as if he is just trying to stay off the radar so that no one gets too mad that he managed to get his hands on the title again at a time when the WWE really needs to be building new talent (organically). As far as the chart goes, Owens is still on top, but the New Day could catch him if his momentum is clipped like the Wyatts’ has been. Honestly if the Authority was running on all cylinders you would think they would be on top right now, but they seem to be running out of steam and hopefully this match with Shane at Wrestlemania will bring an end to the angle, or at least an interesting shift.
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.
