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. The report is slightly streamlined due to time constraints, so no features this week, still as always there is the chart of heels, so let’s show them some love and get on with the report!
Weekly Top Ten:
10: Matt Hardy
The former champ was unable to capitalise on TNA’s current instability and could not overcome Drew Galloway despite the odds being in his favour and the slight distraction of Tyrus possibly being in the match. It can’t be too long before Hardy falls out of the title picture and instead goes after his brother. This rivalry has been going on for years and could be a good thing for TNA as they desperately scramble for coherent rivalries and storylines in the wake of injuries and top stars leaving.
9: Eric Young & Bram
Speaking of their top stars, Eric Young is still present on Impact due to its pre-recording, but pretty soon those tapes have to run out and he will have to be written off the show. This week he and his mental partner Bram took it to Jeff Hardy in the six-sides of steel, but were unable to overcome his sheer “charisma”. Hardy even kicked out of a piledriver on to a bunch of steel chairs, I couldn’t say why.
8: Bobby Lashley
The Destroyer was a little more successful than his other TNA counterparts on the chart, actually managing to beat his opponent in their street fight. Of course this was the Pope and he has not been active for quite a while in TNA, but still, a win is a win. Lashley could be set to do big things in TNA, especially with guys like Roode and Young leaving, but he really needs to go against a credible opponent to get him truly over, preferably one who isn’t too charismatic so they don’t shame him on the microphone.
7: The Dudley Boyz
The most decorated tag team in all of professional wrestling made strides in the new tag team tournament this week by beating the Lucha Dragons, as well as setting up for a match with Enzo and Cass down the road. The Dudleys are a great team to pair against the duo since they can make them look good whether they win or lose and they know how to get new teams over without hogging the glory for themselves, something that is questionable with guys like Jericho. Each week the two will stand in the ring and let the former NXT upstarts insult them and act like it is the most infuriating thing in the world and not really do anything, and at this point that is perhaps the best thing for them to sell them to the crowd before they are fully established.
6: Mike Bennett & Maria
One attacked EC3 mercilessly with a steel chair and the other hit Gail Kim with her own belt to cost her the title, all in all it was a pretty good week for the TNA power couple. I’m not sure what exactly is going on with Maria and Kim at this point since she already had a shot at her title and she gave that away, so it is hard to see what TNA has planned, still it’s kind of interesting. As for EC3 vs. Mike Bennett, part of me sees this as a great opportunity for TNA to build two new stars and part of me sees this as a waste as Bennett still needs to be built up more in my opinion. Otherwise he will probably just be taken out by EC3, who is arguably TNA’s biggest star right now, with ease, a bit like the first time Angle and Cena faced off in a rivalry, still we all know how that turned out.
5: Matanza
I never thought I would see Mil Muertes as a face, at least this soon in Lucha Underground. But when you pit him against the monster of a man who has taken the temple by storm it is understandable that anyone who looks like they could put a stop to his burgeoning reign of terror would be hailed as a hero.
Matanza destroyed another fan favourite this week in the form of Fenix, who got a rematch for his lost title and came up short. While in general I am a big fan of the unstoppable monster gimmick, which has been delivered on big time so far by Lucha Underground, there is still a slight worry that if you feed the guy his challengers one by one each week that there will be no one left before the series is over. Or at least there won’t be enough time to showcase the person who can actually beat him before their epic match, whenever or whoever that might be.
4: Charlotte
The Women’s champion managed to retain her belt this week against a game Natalya. I was surprised that this match took place on Raw rather than at Payback but I am not disappointed as Lynch and Banks definitely deserve to still be in the title picture. What’s more there is little else going on in the division now that the teams are all but dissolved and it is devolving further into the same state that every other title division is in right now.
As for the interactions between Ric Flair, his daughter and Dr. Phil, I am still on the fence. In some ways it advanced a new element of the storyline, but in another it was a pretty big waste of time as without the celebrity guest’s presence the issues may never be brought up again. What should happen is that Charlotte’s DQ loss should be brought up by Becky or Sasha, or both, and that should lead to antagonism where Charlotte faces one or both of them at Payback. Instead though what probably will happen is that Natalya will get a rematch at the event due to the screwy finish and at this point I am done seeing that matchup, although many might not agree with me.
3: Chris Jericho
So whatever happened, happened and instead of the event we were going to get for Wrestlemania, i.e. Jericho vs. Ambrose, we are getting it now, which is kind of fine, but it did mean that the wrong men went over at Mania in regards to both Brock and Jericho. If it had been Dean vs. Jericho then hopefully Ambrose would have won, and seeing Brock dismantle the Wyatts would have been about the same as what the Rock did to them so that wouldn’t have been too bad. Heck if we are going to continue the fantasy booking then maybe Styles could have won the AtGMBR instead of Baron Corbin.
Either way we are where we are and the feud that was brewing between the two since Jericho snubbed Dean against the Wyatts is finally getting into full swing. I liked the takeover of the Highlight Reel by the Ambrose Asylum and with Jericho on his ‘I bury all the younger guys’ kick it could lead to a bitter fight at Payback. Hopefully this time Jericho will actually lose since he is supposed to be gone in May and lord knows Dean Ambrose needs a win on PPV one of these days.
2: The Miz & Maryse
One week in and I am already really into this pairing. Maryse adds something to the A/Z-list gimmick that the Miz already had at a time when he desperately needed it. His stuff with personal assistants and then the stunt double ended up getting someone else over (and for some reason that person has not been allowed on TV for ages despite this), but his gimmick demands underlings, or at least someone to speak for him, the man is a star for flip sake!
Maryse has that added element of looking and sounding snobby, especially when she goes all French up on our asses. Having his wife talk for him does two things; one it makes him look like a guy who can’t necessarily fight his own battles, which is good since he is already a conniving heel, and two it gives him time to compose himself and deliver his lines better, which worked really well for their promo on Raw. I am definitely looking forward to more of this and also to him feuding with Cesaro, since it actually feels like there is a little importance in the IC title picture right now.
1: Kevin Owens
In regards to the IC title picture, another man who should be in contention is Kevin Owens. The route the WWE went down on Monday with the former champ is an interesting one, since in some ways he did indeed get screwed. After all, where was his automatic rematch?
The angle of a charismatic heel going against a face authority figure is at least a little fresh, although it worries me as while Shane McMahon is over and Owens does his best to be hated by everyone, he is just charismatic enough to get things all switched round and become a face by default. The only way that it would work out in this case is if Shane was secretly working with the Authority all along (mhwahaha!), which would be kind of stupid, but also kind of completely fit in with all WWE storytelling to date.
Regardless of this it is a big deal for the Headlock Master to be tangling verbally with Shane McMahon and would seem to indicate that the company takes him seriously as someone who they can give ‘big time’ storylines to, which of course he is, but the WWE higher-up types realising this is another thing entirely. Kevin Owens bucks all the trends and breaks all the rules, and if they want Roman Reigns to get over the way that they seem to, they should have him take a lesson or two from the guy since everything he does is pure entertainment gold!
Rolling Chart – Week Thirteen
1st Place: Kevin Owens (92) (-)
2nd Place: Charlotte (65) (-)
3rd Place: Matt Hardy (54) (-)
4th Place: Chris Jericho (49) (+2)
5th Place: The New Day (49) (-1)
6th Place: The Wyatt Family (43) (-1)
8th Place: The Dudley Boyz (42) (+1)
7th Place: HHH (39) (-1)
9th Place: Team BAD (23) (-)
10th Place: The Social Outcasts (21) (-)
That’s all for this week, while Reigns teaming with Bray was sort of interesting there is a real sense of directionless-ness in the WWE right now. Sure we are getting some great matches, in fact you could say that Raw has at least one dream match a week now that Zayn, Styles, Owens and Cesaro are on the card. But what are they actually heading towards besides desperately trying to get Roman not booed out of every arena he saunters into? This seems like a lost cause to me and they are offering little else long term, something big needs to happen, and more importantly something that lasts.
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.
